Friday, January 30, 2009
It's something worse than that, though...more of a Jihadi's veto. I remember going to Speaker's Corner in London...could it have been almost 25 years ago now...that's this place in the park where it's traditional to grab a soap box and...speak. I was listening, or rather, trying to listen to some dude go on about Esperanto -- yeah, exciting -- when some little guy just came along, stood in front of him and every time the speaker opened his mouth, this guy would just start shouting, "Blah blah blah blah blah!" Every time...he wouldn't stop. Eventually the Esperanto dude just had to walk away. He certainly lost his audience quick enough. Who knows what we missed...Esperanto dude was speaking English, after all. (BTW, I also saw some Muslim guy get mad at the crowd of mostly Muslims gathered around him and start yelling, "You are all Jews! You are all Jewish!" I believe he meant it as an insult. It was the first time I'd seen someone use the word that way in public -- but that's another story...or maybe it's the same story.)
Anyway, that's what I thought of when reading about Lord Ahmed's 'veto by threat' of the invitation of Geert Wilders to come speak to members. Which is funny, since Lord Ahmed was the guy who invited noted antisemite Israel Shamir to address the same body.
Now see: Muslim Lord cows House of Lords into submission for daring to want to invite Geert Wilders
PJtv (free w/registration), a very engaging and informative Leon De Winter on the Geert Wilders situation in Holland, here.
Not exactly a response to your post, but it reminded me of when I first became aware of this hatred.
The moment for me was during the first Iraq war. Remember, the one in which Iraq invaded Kuwait and that somehow became an occasion for people to speak out against Israel?
I was in school then, and a fellow student (a Palestinian) spewed some diatribe for about an hour in front of a large crowd. After that I asked him if peace was ever going to be possible and he flatly said "NO, Never".
This was way before the heat got turned up to where it is today and I had little idea how deeply indoctrinated in this hatred the Palestinians were. Even when this happened, I had no place in mind to put it. I'd never heard anybody say "NO, Never".
Then 9/11, and I heard "Kill them where you find them", and then I understood. It has nothing to do with events.
Saluton!
Interesting story. I, too, wonder if the two details in it are related, after all, the creator of Esperanto was Jewish.
Much has happened in the Esperanto movement in the last 25 years, its greatest ally, the Internet! There are plenty of free resources so that people that hear about this language can learn it online. One of the most popular sites is www.lernu.net another is www.ikurso.net
Email courses are available from tutors around the world.
G'is la!
Mar@GrupoAmikema.org
"Lord Ahmed" is a modern day "Lord Haw Haw". Hopefully "Lord Ahmend" will end up like "Lord Haw Haw".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Haw-Haw