The History Column: An Indian Muslim revolutionary in America

Defeated in poll, Hindutva forces rearing their ugly head in Delhi | TwoCircles.net

Defeated in poll, Hindutva forces rearing their ugly head in Delhi
Submitted by admin4 on 1 July 2009 – 4:09pm.

* Articles
* Indian Muslim

By Subhash Gatade,

Wahidbhai, who is nearing sixties, is feeling low since last few days.

A doctor by profession, he is suddenly contemplating shifting to his paternal home in Jama Masjid area from his own flat in Rohini. In fact it was only a few years ago that he had purchased this flat despite opposition from his other relatives.

To be very frank the recent developments in his own neighbourhood have left him completely devastated. He had not imagined in his wildest dreams that many of his own neighbours – who were regular visitors to his house as well as clinic – would have no qualms in raising slogans which stigmatised the whole minority community.

It was true that in this part of Delhi, people owning allegiance to his faith – who were not in significant numbers – had to travel a few kilometres just to offer Namaz on special occasions. And during the time of Ramzan when people fasted for the whole day, it became further difficult to do so. Sometime back the government had agreed to the proposal put forward by a local organisation for a mosque and had granted a piece of land in the area. Many community members in the area had contributed wholeheartedly and a token amount was deposited with the government in lieu of the piece of land.

Wahidbhai shivers to think if the police had not shown enough alertness what could have happened on the day when people had gathered there to offer Namaz (Friday, 26 th June 2009). It was a mere coincidence that he was away on that day and had gone to meet his relatives in the other part of the city. Although he had noticed the manner in which Hindutva forces had become hyperactive supposedly to stop the construction of the mosque, it was beyond his comprehension that they would resort to violence. He was also told that fanatic elements also attacked a man in his cutting saloon. And the most tragic part of the whole episode was that many youth from a poor neighbourhood which housed many victims of the tragic 1984 riots were also to be seen in the melee. The only silver lining to the otherwise disturbing situation was the manner in which few ordinary people who stood the ground and resisted the lumpens who were attacking innocents and talked of unity of all religions.

As of now there is calm in the area but it seems deceptive. Police is vigilant and is taking extra precaution but mischievous forces may again become active to keep the tensions high. Nobody can deny that they are more keen to keep the pot boiling. It was no coincidence that a temple ‘came up’ suddenly one night on a piece of government land, near the mosque itself. And a ‘bhandara’ was also organised at this temple supposedly to mobilise people. This temple was in addition to many other illegally constructed temples which have come up in recent times in the area (Rohini Sector 15, 16, 17 and others) by encroaching public land. Few such temples have even proved to be moneyspinners for their promoters

For outsiders the manner in which communal forces have become active in a middle class dominated area of Delhi may sound incomprehensible. But close watchers of the situation know the desperation in the ranks of the pro Hindutva forces when the results to the elections to the parliament were out. To the surprise of all, this area which use to be a stronghold of the saffrons, registered more votes to the Congress candidate vis-a-vis the saffrons. And thus apart from the national context where the saffrons faced humiliating defeat, the sense of vengeance among them had an added local context.

However, can it be said that this is for the first time that Delhi has witnessed such majoritarian attempts to deny even the constitutionally granted right to freedom of religion. It was only last year that a church in Delhi was attacked by the Hindu Right (Delhi church attacked 2 weeks ago, cops mum, Times of India, 4th Oct 2008).

New Delhi: The fanatical Hindu mobs have struck in the Capital. And the police has kept it under wraps. A good fortnight ago, a mob attacked a handful of Christian families at the Peeragarhi Relief Camp and demolished the frontal portion of the Christian prayer hall in the camp.

This camp in west Delhi is barely 15 km from Parliament House. To this day, this group of Christians is holding weekly mass with police protection. The families say they are living in constant fear of local miscreants allegedly owing allegiance to ”some religious organisations” who accuse them of carrying out ”forced conversions” and threaten to ”take away” their daughters unless they ”mended their ways.”

The mob had struck on September 16. Despite repeated attempts, the community has not managed to get a FIR registered for what they call ”vandalism” and police describe as ”regular land dispute”.

Ezik Malik, the priest-in-charge of the prayer hall says that a day before the actual demolition, he had got a call from an unidentified caller saying that the roof of the hall had collapsed.

”We promptly went to rebuild it when suddenly this mob of 500 reached the place carrying saffron flags and sticks. They started pelting stones that left six people injured. There were anti-Christian slogans and then they demolished part of the hall. Policemen just looked on. On hindsight I realised that they had damaged the roof to create a situation that could later be used as an excuse for unrest.” He added that despite repeated attempts the local police station refused to lodge a FIR but gave the community protection.

…DCP (west) Sharad Aggarwal denies any religious angle in the unrest. ”It was entirely a land dispute,” he claimed. ”The Christians were trying to extend the prayer hall beyond the boundary wall which is when locals objected. There was an agitation but everything was under control because we were right there when it happened. There was no demolition and we have given them police protection.”

The MCD, which is the sole body that can carry out demolitions, is not aware of any unauthorised construction here. MCD commissioner K S Mehra said he was unaware of the incident. A MCD spokesman, however, said that the police or anyone else is not authorised to carry out demolitions. ”We carry them out and ask for police protection,” he said.

A similar piece of news was reported from Dilshad Garden, Delhi when thirty Hindutva extremists had disrupted the prayer service of St. Sebastian Church on February 23, 2008 in Dilshad Garden, Delhi. Fr. Antony William, the priest of the church had told Christian Legal Association that they had prior information that local goons might attack the church, and had requested police protection for the Sunday worship service. However, the attack came after the worship service concluded and the constable had left the premises. The Hindutva extremists, who had been hiding in a nearby temple, came to the church and started shouting anti Christian slogans and disrupted the prayer service. The miscreants resorted to stone pelting at the vehicles belonging to the congregation members. Nobody was injured in this incident. The concerned police station was duly informed and a case was registered under Section 427 of the Indian Penal Code.

It need be noted that the day after the incident in Rohini, many citizens and political groups in the area organised a meeting to take stock of the situation and decide an appropriate response to the machinations of these anti-human forces. They have already sent a memorandum to the higher authorities – signed by many residents of the area as well as few resident welfare associations – c
ommunicating to them that they do not approve of such actions by the fanatic forces to vitiate the atmosphere. They have also demanded that administration maintains extra vigilance so that these mischievous forces are not allowed to raise their head again.

The said memorandum can also be said to be an open appeal to all people/formations yearning for secularism and democracy.

Isn’t it high time to understand that political defeat of an idea like Hindutva in an election does not necessarily mean its social defeat? And the recent developments in Rohini suggest that such forces can utilise every other opportunity to further polarise the situation and try to capitalise it politically.

One still remembers the famous poem by the legendary poet Gorakh Pandey: ‘Is saal Danga bahut hua, bahut hui hai khoon kee baarish, agle saal acchi hogi fasal matdaan ki’ ( This year there were many riots, much blood got spilled, next year it would reflect in voting).

(The author can be contacted at subhash.gatade@gmail.com)

Hindutva forces blocking construction of a mosque in Delhi | TwoCircles.net

Hindutva forces blocking construction of a mosque in Delhi
Submitted by admin4 on 1 July 2009 – 4:07pm.

* Indian Muslim

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,

New Delhi: Last Friday hundreds of activists of Hindutva organizations forcibly tried to prevent prayer at a newly allotted site for a mosque in Rohini area of North-West Delhi. Sensing trouble security contingents were deployed in large number which foiled the attempts of the Hindutva forces to flare up the situation.

The Delhi Development Authority has allotted a piece of land in Rohini to Management Committee of the madrasa Darsgah Islamia in the area to build a mosque in Sector 16 of Rohini. Soon after the decision some locals and Hindutva elements tried to polarize the issue. They launched agitation and held meetings. However, the madrasa officials were able to build a boundary around the plot and gave a call for Juma prayer on June 26.

While prayers were on on that day hundreds of antisocial elements gathered in the park in front of the mosque and started sloganeering targeting the minority community. The district administration took the matter seriously and deployed security forces and clamped IPC section 144 prohibiting movement of people in group. The agitators clashed with police and consequently about two dozen people were arrested.

Meanwhile, some groups of peaceful citizens gathered and tried to calm the situation. They protested the move of Hindutva elements to block the legally authorized construction of the mosque and prayer therein.

“As can be expected the Hindutva forces are playing a very mischievous and criminal role to aggravate the situation. The building of a new mosque in this area, on a piece of land allotted by the Delhi Development Authority, has given them a pretext to polarise the population,” says Subhash Gatade, human rights activist who lives in the area.

“Last Friday (26th June 2009) these communal elements had mobilised hundreds of people to stop people from offering Namaz at the mosque. If police would not have been there, things could have taken a turn for the worst,” he said.

Some citizens groups, social-political organisations held a meeting to decide strategy on 27th June. They decided to organise a signature campaign and also submit a memorandum to the higher authorities. An eight-member delegation of these organisations met concerned officials and conveyed to them their concern.

They also submitted a memorandum emphasizing three things:
– A significant section of the local population does not support such attempts to create new divisions in the society
– It is expected that the administration would play a proactive role to ensure constitutionally guaranteed right to faith and would also take steps to remove the feeling of terror in the minority community.
– The administration would make extra efforts to nab the real ‘ringleaders’ of this agitation.

Sarkozy wrong over the burka – Halifax Today

Published Date: 01 July 2009
Prescott Street
Halifax
I write further to the recent comments made by the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, regarding the wearing of a veil and burka by Muslim women.
It is ironic that on the one hand the West raises allegations against Islam that it compels and is harsh, whereas on the other hand we have here a so-called democratic state meddling and interfering in personal matters of others.
Rather than promoting unity and understanding, President Sarkozy used his address on June 22, 2009, to perpetuate pre-existing false stereotypes.
His comments are extremely unhelpful and indeed regrettable, particularly coming from the head of state of acountry in which there are around five million Muslims. President Sarkozy’s comments also directly contradict comments made by President Barack Obama recently in a speech in Cairo on June 4 where he said:
“It is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practising religion as they see fit – for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We can’t disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism.”
It appears that this is exactly what President Sarkozy is doing – he is hiding behind the veil of liberalism to disguise the hostility towards Islam.
Moreover, his views on the burka are both factually wrong and ill-informed. The burka is an item of religious dress which many Muslim women choose to wear. However no Muslim woman should be forced to wear it because a fundamental teaching of Islam is that “there shall be no compulsion in religion.” France should adopt the policy of Britain which is not to interfere in an individual’s personal matter which is exactly what a secular and democratic state should do.
Muslims in Britain are extremely fortunate that they can practice their religion freely – a right which is not even enjoyed in some so-called Muslim states.
There is no punishment in Islam for not wearing the veil yet here a so-called enlightened State is attempting to punish its citizens for the clothing they wear. What a tragedy.
Is the French Government now going to follow and show Taliban-like tendencies by dictating what people can and can’t do? I certainly hope not.
I do hope that France does not pursue this legislation which would contravene both Article 18 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and France’s Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen on which the French Constitution is based. These ensure freedom to practise religion and hold religious beliefs.
For freedom to reign, freedom must be preserved.
Farooq Aftab

IndyStar.com | Thou Shalt | The Indianapolis Star

June 29, 2009
A remedy for fear of the American Muslim takeover

That noise you may now hear is the collective wailing from the small crowd of folks who are convinced America is on the verge of becoming an Islamic theocracy.

The sound erupting from the host of web sites that purport to keep us safe from the coming takeover is a result of two happenings: One of the nation’s most prominent Muslim groups announced Friday it will give copies of the Quran, Islam’s revealed text, to 100,000 state and national leaders. The other is the fact a second major Muslim organization is preparing to hold a convention that will bring 40,000 Muslims to Washington, D.C.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization is giving away the Qurans to leaders. In the past, it has attempted to raise money to put Qurans in every American library — all in the name of trying to educate them about Islam.

“Through this ground-breaking outreach initiative, we hope not only to educate policy-makers and opinion leaders about Islam, but also to provide an opportunity for American Muslims to reach out to their fellow citizens of other faiths,” CAIR Board Chairman Larry Shaw, a state senator from North Carolina, said in a press release.

The announcement of this “Share the Quran” campaign comes just ahead of this week’s 4-day convention in Washington of the Indiana-based Islamic Society of North America, which could draw as many as 40,000 Muslims to the nation’s capital over the Fourth of July weekend.

Both CAIR and ISNA are two groups that are frequent targets of criticism of the blog watchers. I know CAIR a little bit. They have a reputation of being bullies — toward reporters, toward businesses, toward politicians. But they are prized, among many Muslims, as a group willing to take a stand for their civil rights when few others will.

ISNA, however, is into such radical things as building friendships with Jews, Christians and people of other faiths. They have urged for the greater inclusion of women in mosques. They are working with government agencies to build better relationships between the U.S. and Muslim countries. Really subversive stuff.

For those who will go into a full-blown conniption over these moves over the apparent Muslim takeover, there is a remedy.

Call a local mosque. Ask if there is a Muslim there with you who will sit down and talk. Be polite. They might be afraid of such a rare entreaty. Sit down and talk to them about what they value about America. Report back here what you find. You might be surprised that what they treasure isn’t so different from you.

Most people who hate Muslims, I find, have never met and talked with a Muslim. But don’t rely on what you read on the Internet, even folks like me. See for yourself.

Islamic society grows in central Jersey

SOUTH BRUNSWICK — Dalya Youssef wants her son, Yousuf Abdelfatah, to feel more confident about practicing the Islamic faith than she did when she attended public schools.

The Franklin Township mother, who is also a lawyer, remembered feeling timid about doing her midday prayer ritual in school when she was growing up in Monroe Township.

She said she didn’t begin the Muslim practice of covering her hair with a headscarf known as a hajib until her freshman year in college. The practice of covering oneself usually begins at puberty.

“I delayed it because I didn’t have enough confidence,” she said.

Therefore, she and her husband sent their son to Noor-Ul-Iman School on the South Brunswick campus of the Islamic Society of Central New Jersey, which has a full-time parochial school covering pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. Enrollment at the Route 1 school was 480 last year and is expected to top 500 in September.

Now Youssef’s son prays alongside his classmates, not in isolation, as she did.

“Plus, I think he gets an excellent education,” she said.

Earlier this month, the society broke ground on $5 million of infrastructure improvements to be followed by the building of a new, two-story 70,000-square-foot school, which will have the library, auditorium and gymnasium the school now lacks.

More critical, though, is that the license from South Brunswick to use modular buildings for the school expires in December, said Islamic Society president Aly Aziz.

“We have to show the township we are working on permanent facilities,” he said.

The infrastructure, consisting of water lines, electrical cables, a detention basin, new street entrances, a 600-car parking lot, and a concrete platform for the school building, is literally laying the groundwork for a much broader expansion plan that will take years to construct, he said.

South Brunswick has approved a master plan for a new mosque and an income-generating office building on the 16-acre campus. Four Rutgers University graduates seeking a sense of belonging founded the society 40 years ago.

“I’m pretty excited about it,” Youssef said. “I would love to see my son have a real high school with all the facilities.”

Another mother, Heba Macksoud, said she sent her twin daughters, Jenna and Jada, age 7, to the society’s preschool, but has since put them in public school. They come to the Islamic society for weekend religious education classes, she said.

Macksoud, a former vice president of marketing at MTV, said she loved the school’s attentive atmosphere, but hated paying tuition for substandard facilities.

“It’s a huge investment,” she said. “I’d rather save the money for college.”

Macksoud, a native New Yorker who first came to the Islamic Center at age 8, said the new school shows the Islamic community can sustain a parochial school system like other religions.

“We will soon have something that my kids can be proud of that is beautiful and institutional, rather than something slapped together from trailers,” she said.

School principal Janet Nazif said the new school will be more spacious and comfortable for students and staff. The essence of the program won’t change because it is the dedication of the teachers and the parents who support their efforts.

She started as a teacher with the school founded 16 years ago. There were only 27 students in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade. The school expanded by a couple of grades per year, until six years ago when the first class of high school seniors graduated.

“When it started, there were a lot of naysayers, who said we wouldn’t be able to help these children succeed, but they have been proven wrong,” she said.

All of the high school graduates have been accepted to college, including some Ivy League institutions, she said.

There are 220 Islamic schools in the U.S., including 17 in New Jersey, according to the Islamic Schools League of America based in Falls Church, Va.

The schools are growing the fastest in areas with large Muslim populations, including New York State, Michigan and Washington, D.C., according to the organization, which formed 11 years ago to help new schools benefit from the experience of established institutions.

Yet, as the Muslim community gains prominence in American society, members say they are unfairly associated with Middle Eastern terrorism.

Macksoud said terrorism comes from uneducated, unemployed youth who can be convinced the U.S. is the source of their misery.

By contrast, the Islamic Society of Central New Jersey comprises well-educated professionals with successful careers, she said, noting her pride that the society donated statutes to adorn the entrance to the South Brunswick Public Library.

“It shows that we love our community and want to get involved every which way,” she said.

The society includes immigrants from 20 nations around the globe and first-generation Americans like herself.

Aziz said the diverse 2,000-member society counters prejudice by issuing statements condemning terrorist acts.

He said Islam is at its essence a peaceful religion. Muslims greet each other with the words, “Assalamo Alikom” meaning “Peace be upon you.”

The response is to say it in reverse, “Alikom Assalamo.”

“We do not consider (terrorists) Muslims because Islam is a religion of peace,” Aziz said.

Israel Honors Jewish Terrorists Who Attacked America

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• General

— @ 2:12 am

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.Far left: Golda Meir meeting with the man who planned the Lavon Affair: Pinhas Lavon. Next, the photo that appeared in Haaretz with the caption “President Katzav presented three surviving members of the ‘Lavon affair’ with certificates of appreciation at a Jerusalem ceremony Wednesday.”

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Listen to Broadcast or Download

Israel honors Jewish terrorists who attacked America
– Israeli President calls them “heroes”

By David Duke

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How does America deal with a country that commits terrorism against us and then honors the terrorists?

Answer: We give it billions of dollars every year as well as our most advanced military technology.

The Israeli President, Moshe Katzav, in recent formal ceremonies honored the Israeli agents who made terrorist attacks against American sites in Egypt hoping to provoke an American war with Egypt.

In ceremonies reported by the major Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz, Israeli President Moshe Katsav stated the following at a ceremony honoring the Jewish terrorists who attacked American facilities:

“Although it is still a sensitive situation, we decided now to express our respect for these heroes,” President Moshe Katzav said after presenting the three surviving members of the bomber ring with certificates of appreciation at a Jerusalem ceremony.

In the Lavon Affair, named for the Israeli Defense Minister at the time, Pinhas Lavon, the Israeli government launched a false flag, terrorist operation against American sites in Egypt hoping to provoke American bombing, retaliation and war against that nation. The Israeli terrorists targeted American sites such as American Cinemas and American libraries around Cairo. Only the premature detonation of one of the Jewish terrorist’s bombs led to the exposure and halt of the plot before the extensive loss of life and property.

If this terrorist operation would have been successful, not only would it have cost many American lives, it would have launched an American war against an innocent nation which in turn would have caused the death of many thousands of innocent American and Egyptian lives as well as untold billions of dollars.

Israel’s terrorist plot against the United States in the Lavon Affair was one greatest acts of treachery that any nation has ever committed against an ongoing ally. There have certainly been many times in history where a nation attacked a supposed ally, but I know of no cases where an “ally” attacked another and then the attacked nation remained an ally and continued to support the attacking nation financially and militarily! For that to occur there has to be an incredible level of subversion in the attacked nation. And shockingly, this was only the first Israeli act of treachery against the nation that stood by Israel more than any other: America. There have repeated acts of Israeli terrorism and treachery against the United States of America.

In 1967, Israel attacked the USS Liberty with both fighter jets and torpedo boats in a surprise terrorist attack that killed 34 Americans and wounded 173. Both the U.S. Secretary of State at the time, Dean Rusk, and the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Thomas Moorer, both have stated that it was a pre-meditated attack against the United States. (see “Attack on the Liberty” at www.davidduke.com)

In the Jonathan Pollard case, an Israeli spy devastated America’s Eastern European Intelligence Network, and Israel honors Pollard today as a hero and lobbies for his release from American prison. (see “The Pollard Case” at www.davidduke.com)

And very recently, important figures in the Israeli lobby AIPAC, arguably the most powerful lobby in Washington, D.C., are under investigation by the FBI for spying against the United States. The fact that the President of the United States and most of the members of Congress have close ties to this lobby for a foreign nation, a lobby which is now in the middle of spy scandal should obviously be a huge story in America’s press, but it is suppressed in the Jewish dominated American media.

Israel knew that the U.S. Government would certainly respond to terrorist attacks against it (supposedly by Egypt) — with bombing and war against that nation. Terrorist acts of war were committed against America and traditionally nations respond to such in kind.

But, once America discovered that it was Israel who committed such terrorist acts of war, why was there no military retaliation against the offending nation?

In fact, American money and even military equipment continued to Israel unabated. Such shows the high level of Israeli subversion and dare I say it, treason, in the United States Government. It also clearly reveals the Jewish supremacy in the press that has whitewashed and kept this treachery from the knowledge of 99 percent of American people. In fact, 99 percent of Americans will never hear of the Lavon Affair nor will they know anything about the recent Israeli government official ceremony that honored the Israelis who committed these terrorist acts against America.

For years Israel denied knowledge of the event, just as Israel denied the murderous attack on the USS Liberty, denied their involvement with the damaging spying of Jonathan Pollard, and denied the overwhelming evidence that indicates Israeli prior-knowledge of the 911 attack. (See my article, “How Israel Caused the 911 Attacks” at www.davidduke.com) The Israeli defense minister, Pinhas Lavon had to resign after the bungled terrorist attacks in Egypt, and the excuse was given that it was a “rogue operation.” Yet, obviously, launching terrorist attacks against United States installations in Egypt that included American cinemas and libraries, would have certainly had to have been approved by the Israeli Prime Minister at the time, Golda Meir.

But now, the Israel government is having formal, public ceremonies honoring the Jewish terrorists that attacked American facilities! Now that’s enormous Chutzpah when one considers Israel
is receiving billions of American tax dollars every year, the lion’s share of America’s entire foreign aid budget, and the fact that America is the only major nation that defends Israeli crimes against the Palestinians in the U.N. Yet, it shows just how firmly Israel has the government and media of America in its grip that they can get away with honoring terrorists who have attacked America!

How can America still support a nation that formally honors those Jews who clearly committed terrorism against the United States?

Any President, Congressman or Senator that who supports sending Israel American tax dollars after the clear record of unrepentant Israeli terrorism and treachery against the United States, is equivalent to any American who sent money to the Japan after the attack at Pearl Harbor!

It is important to note that no Arab or Muslim government, including that of Saddam Hussein, has ever launched a terrorist attack against America. No Arab or Muslim government has ever had even a single, highly placed spy do damage to the United States. No Arab or Muslim nation has corrupted our political process with massive bribery, threats and coercion of thousands of U.S. politicians.

In truth, the Iraq War is just another form of a false flag operation like the Lavon Affair.

It was spawned by Israeli loyalists in the United States, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and coterie of Jewish supremacists (including the man in charge of the evidence of Iraqi misdeeds in the CIA , Stuart Cohen, who was behind much of the false intelligence) that led America into a war against Iraq, a nation that had never harmed and posed absolutely no threat at all to America.

This treasonous war was never a war for America, but only a war for Israel. It has so far led to the death of almost 1600 Americans, grievous injuries of up to 20,000 of our men and women, expenditures of a national treasure of over 300 billion dollars, damage to American business around the world, trillions of dollars in higher costs for oil and gas, and has only increased hatred against America and increased support for Al Qaeda and other anti-American terrorists.

And again, for what is all this the blood and treasure lost?

For Israel, that’s what, a nation that honors terrorists who bombed American facilities!

My God in Heaven, when will real Americans wake up to this treachery and treason!

Here are some excerpts from the article in Haaretz and the article on the terrrorist attack in Wikpedia

Israel honors Egyptian spies 50 years after fiasco Wed., March 30, 2005 Adar 2 19, 5765

By Reuters

After half a century of reticence and recrimination, Israel on Wednesday honored nine Egyptian Jews recruited as agents-provocateur in what became one of the worst intelligence bungles in the country’s history. Israel was at war with Egypt when it hatched a plan in 1954 to ruin its rapprochement with the United States and Britain by firebombing sites frequented by foreigners in Cairo and Alexandria.

But Israeli hoped the attacks, which caused no casualties, would be blamed on local insurgents collapsed when the young Zionist bombers were caught and confessed at public trials. Two were hanged. The rest served jail terms and emigrated to Israel.

Embarrassed before the West, the fledgling Jewish state long denied involvement. It kept mum even after its 1979 peace deal with Egypt, fearing memories of the debacle could sour ties.

“Although it is still a sensitive situation, we decided now to express our respect for these heroes,” President Moshe Katzav said after presenting the three surviving members of the bomber ring with certificates of appreciation at a Jerusalem ceremony.

What went wrong in the “Lavon Affair” — after Pinhas Lavon, Israel’s defense minister when the plot came to light — remains a matter of debate in a country more used to tales of espionage coups…

The situation recurred in 1985, when U.S. Navy analyst Jonathan Pollard was sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States for passing military secrets to Israel’s scientific liaison office…

“As with Pollard, this (Lavon Affair) was a rogue operation,” said David Kimche, a former Mossad deputy chief. “We knew never to go down that road again…

Meanwhile, the agents locked up in Egypt were ignored, excluded from several prisoner exchanges with Israel after the wars of 1956 and 1967. Now that they have been officially recognised in Israel, the former agents are campaigning for a full account of their operation to be included in the high-school syllabus.

“This is a great day for all of us, those who were hanged and those who died,” said Marcelle Ninio, the only female member of the cell. “We are happy we’ve got our honour back.

And here is the Wikipedia article on this terroristic attack:

Lavon Affair
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from Lavon affair)

The aim of the 1954 Israeli Mossad project, codenamed Operation Suzannah was to bomb United States installations in Egypt, such as the United States Information Service offices, and blame Arabs, hoping it would harm Egyptian-American ties. It became known as the Lavon Affair or the Unfortunate Affair (Hebrew: העסק הביש pronounce: haesek habish), after the Israeli defense minister Pinchas Lavon who was forced to resign because of the incident.

Israeli Mossad agents from “Unit 131″ 1 planted bombs in several buildings, including a United States diplomatic facility, and intentionally left behind evidence implicating Arabs as the culprits. The conspiracy was intended to disrupt U.S. relations with Egypt but one of the bombs detonated prematurely and the Egyptian police swiftly found one of the terrorists. This arrest quickly led to the capture of eleven of the thirteen members of the spy ring. Some of the spies were Israeli, while others were Egyptian Jews recruited by Mossad. Two of the conspirators were sentenced to death and executed. Six others were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

Lavon claimed that he had no knowledge of the conspiracy and he attempted to scapegoat and fire his deputy, Shimon Peres. The Prime Minister of Israel, Moshe Sharett, appointed a board of inquiry consisting of Israeli Supreme Court Justice Isaac Olshan and the first chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Ya’akov Dori. The board failed to uncover who had ordered the conspiracy yet Lavon resigned in disgrace from his position as minister of defense and David Ben-Gurion resumed the post under Sharett. Lavon became head of the Histadrut.

Six years later, a district court found the intelligence operations chief guilty of perjury and forgery during testimony presented to the Olshan-Dori board of inquiry. Lavon demanded that Ben-Gurion clear his name but Ben-Gurion refused. The controversy broke out into open Knesset debates, fatally wounding the ruling Mapai Party. Eventually the Mapai Central Committee voted to expel Lavon from his position in the Histadrut.

The legacy of the Lavon Affair was especially unpleasant for Egyptian Jews and for Jews living in other Arab countries. They faced suspicion as a potential Fifth column and even persecution (including having their banks accounts frozen). While the Lavon affair may have acted as one catalyst for emigration to Israel, it could add little to the overall persecution of Jews which started roughly at 1948, and which reached a peak in the wake of the 1956 Suez War, when the Egyptian government expelled almost 25,000 Egyptian Jews and confiscated their property, and sent approximately 1,000 more Jews to prisons and detention camps. The Lavon Affair also generated deep suspicion of Israeli intelligence practices and encouraged speculation and conspiracy theories that terrorist attacks against Arab and American targets could be the result of Israeli false flag intelligence operations or agent provocateurs working on behalf of Israeli
intelligence, a belief that is still popular (especially in Arab countries).

How Women Were Lured Out of the Home in the USA

Areeba bint Khalid
Friday, June 26, 2009
http://www.ummid.com/news/June/26.06.2009/and_they_called_it_women%27s_liberation.htm

From the 1800s to the present day, family life in the West has
remarkably changed. While the West calls this change part of the
women freedom movement, a look at history may show otherwise.

America before the 1800s was a farming country and ninety percent of
the population lived and worked on private farms. Households were
mainly self-sufficient–nearly everything needed was produced in the
house. The few things that could not be produced at home were bought
from local craftsmen. Some other things, especially imports from
Europe, were bought from stores. Males would take care of the fields
and females would take care of the home. In addition, they would
engage in spinning, knitting, weaving, and taking care of the farm
animals.

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution, which began around the early 1800s,
brought a major change to this way of life. In 1807, in the wake of
the war between Great Britain and France, President Jefferson signed
the Embargo Act, which stopped all trade between Europe and America.
The Act meant that European goods would no longer be available in
the US and Americans would have to produce them. One major European
import to America was cloth, and so merchants used this opportunity
to create a cloth industry in America.

In 1814, Francis Cabot Lowell, a man from Boston opened the first
modern factory. Work here was to be done way faster than before.
Instead of manually making things in houses, things were to be made
at higher speeds in a factory and all stages of the work were to be
completed under the same roof. Now what Lowell needed were workers.
He found out that women, especially unmarried daughters of the
farmers, were more economical to use in labor than men. They were
also more willing to work as hired people in factories.

But Lowell had to make the working outside of home acceptable in a
society which was not used to it. He assured parents that their
daughters would be taken care of and kept under discipline. And he
built a boarding community where the women workers lived and worked
together.

Soon after, more and more factories emerged across America. Factory
owners followed Lowell’s example of hiring unmarried women. By 1850
most of the country’s goods were made in factories. As production of
goods moved from the country to the city, people too moved from the
country to the city.

For money to be earned, people had to leave their homes. When women
worked on the farm, it was always possible to combine work and
family. When work for women moved outside the home, however, the
only women who could follow it were those without family
responsibilities or those who had no husband or no income. Likewise,
the only women who could take care of their families were the ones
that didn’t have work.

This working out of home became a part of life for unmarried women.
They would work until their marriage. But as time passed, women
found family life interfering with their work life and instead of
viewing working out of home as optional, they viewed family life as
such. Many women started delaying marriage even more and some
decided to stay single.

Married women however stayed home and dedicated their time to their
children. Now that there wasn’t any farm work to do, women had even
more time to spend with the children. In 1900 less than about 5.6%
of married women worked outside. If a married woman were to work, it
would be considered that her husband was invalid or that she was
poor.

World War I

The first major entry of married women to the workforce came during
World War I in 1914. Men went to fight the war and the country
needed workers to take over the jobs they left behind. Unmarried
women were not sufficient for the labor needs, so employers started
to invite married women too, to work. By 1919, 25% of the women in
the workforce were married. But this was only the beginning.

Another change World War I brought was the entry of women to the
army. About 13,000 women enlisted in the US Navy, mostly doing
clerical work–the first women in US history to be admitted to full
military rank.

Great Depression

The Great Depression came in the 1930s. The unemployment rate
climbed from 3.2% in 1929 to 23.6% in 1932. Jobs became scarce for
skilled people and men. Fathers went to search for jobs. Some, under
despair, deserted their families. The responsibility of earning fell
on mothers in many families.

Most women and children, however, found jobs more easily than men
because of the segregation of work categories for men and women.
Although 80% of men during the Great Depression opposed their wives
entering the workforce under any circumstances, economic factors
made it necessary for the women to work. Hours were long and pay was
low. Twenty percent of white women were in the workforce.

World War II

World War II came in the early 1940s. Men were drafted to fight, and
America needed workers and supplies. Again, the employers looked
towards the women for labor. Unmarried and married women were
invited to work, as had been done during World War I.

But still, public opinion was generally against the working of
married women. The media and the government started a fierce
propaganda campaign to change this opinion. The federal government
told the women that victory could not be achieved without their
entry into the workforce. Working was considered part of being a
good citizen, a working wife was a patriotic person.

The government founded the Magazine Bureau in 1942. The Bureau
published Magazine War Guide, a guide which told magazines which
themes stories they should cover each month to aid war propaganda.
For September 1943, the theme was “Women at Work”. The slogan for
this was “The More Women at Work the Sooner We Win.” Magazines
developed stories that glorified and promoted the placement of women
into untraditional jobs where workers were needed. The idea was that
if smaller, unexciting jobs were portrayed as attractive and noble
more women would join the work force.

The media created Rosie the Riveter, a mythical character to
encourage women into the workforce. Rosie was portrayed as a
patriotic woman, a hero for all American women. “All the day long,
Whether rain or shine, She’s a part of the assembly line. She’s
making history, Working for victory, Rosie the Riveter… There’s
something true about, Red, white, and blue about, Rosie the
Riveter.”

The propaganda efforts worked. More than six million women joined
the workforce during the war, the majority of them married women. In
1940, before the war, only 36% of women workers were married. By
1945, after the war, 50% of women workers were married. The middle
class taboo against a working wife had been repealed.

Post World War II

The 1950s marked an era of prosperity in the lives of American
families. Men returned from war and needed jobs. Once again, the
government and media got together to steer the opinion of the
public. This time, however, they encouraged women to return home,
which shows that the women were brought out not for their free
dom
but because workers were needed.

But this effort was not as successful and was abandoned quickly.
First, women from lower economic ranks had to remain in the
workforce because of economic necessity. And second, there came the
rise of consumer culture.

The baby boom took place during the 1950s as well. Women who
returned home dedicated their lives once again to their children.
But around the same time an important change had come in the
American life. This was the spread of the television. By 1960, 90%
of the population owned at least one set. Families would gather
around the screen for entertainment. In the early days, everything
including commercials was watched with great interest.

Most middle-class families could not afford the goods the television
declared necessary to maintain or enhance quality of life with one
paycheck alone. Many women returned to work in order to live
according to “the American standard of living,” whatever that meant
to them.

The number of American women in the workforce from 1940 to 1950
increased by nine percent. From 1930 to 1940 there had only been a
three percent increase.

Effects

As mothers returned to work, the television became the most
important caretaker of a child. Children in the 1950s spent most of
their non-sleeping hours in front of the television screen.

In 1940, less than 8.6% of mothers with children under eighteen
worked. By 1987, 60.2% of women with children under eighteen were
working.

As wives assumed larger roles in their family’s financial support,
they felt justified in demanding that husbands perform more
childcare and housework. Across the years, divorce rates doubled
reaching a level where at least 1 out of 2 marriages was expected to
end in divorce. Marriage rates and birthrates declined. The number
of single parent families rapidly increased. People grew unhappy
with their lives, when compared to the lives of people on
television.

Women working affected the society in many different ways. The first
and most important of these was that children with working mothers
were left alone without the care of a mother. As the number of
working women increased, the number of children growing up
unsupervised increased, and with this increased crime among teens.

Since most women placed their career ahead of family life, family
life was greatly affected since unmarried women were generally able
to make more money than married ones. For example, according to a
study by a Harvard economist, women physicians who were unmarried
and had no children earned thirteen percent more per year than those
who were married and fifteen percent more than those with children.

Today

The majority of women still work at the lower levels of the economic
pyramid. Most are employed in clerical positions, factory work,
retail sales, or service jobs. Around 50% of the workforce is
female. While about 78% of all cashiers and 99% of all secretaries
today are female, only 31% of managers and administrators are
female. Equality in the workplace has been a mirage but it has
conned millions of women into leaving their homes and destroying the
family structure.

It was only when economic or political factors made it necessary to
get more workers that women were called to work. The Industrial
Revolution, the Great Depression, and the World Wars, all the major
events which increased the proportion of women workers, were times
when the capitalists required more workers in order to be successful
in their plans and so they used women.

The move of women from home to the public workforce has been
gradual. First poor women went. Then unmarried women. Then married
women without children. Then married women without young children.
And then, all women. The same thing can be seen to be happening in
developing countries around the world, as the West spreads its
propaganda of freedom for women to work. The results of this move
will probably be the same too.

Bibliography

-Hawes, Joseph M., ed. American Families: A Research Guide and
Historical Handbook. New York: Greenwood Press,- 1990.

-Mintz, Steven. Domestic Revolutions. New York: the Free Press,
1988.

-Gary B. Nash, American Odyssey. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill,
2002.

-Wilson, Margaret Gibbons. The American Woman in Transition.
Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1979.

-Goldstein, Joshua S. War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War
System and Vice Versa. Cambridge University Press, 2001.

-U.S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau. Women in the Force,
1900-2002. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/0/1/0/4/6/7/A0104673.html

-The Library of Congress Rosie the Riveter: Real Women Workers in
World War II. http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/journey/rosie-transcript.html

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