Double Standard Watch: Confronting evil at Durban II

Last week I came face to face with evil, as I stood just a few feet away from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. We were both staying in the same hotel in Geneva. He was there to be the opening speaker at Durban II, a review and reprise of Durban I, the United Nations sponsored conference on racism that had turned into a racist hate fest against the Jewish people and the Jewish state. I was there - along with Elie Wiesel, Irwin Cotler and others who have devoted their lives to combating bigotry - to try to prevent a recurrence of Durban I.

I first set eyes on Ahmadinejad when he walked into the hotel and waved in the general direction of where my wife and I were standing. We looked back contemptuously as my wife let out an audible hiss. He was about to be welcomed to Geneva by the Swiss President who made a special visit to the hotel in order to greet a man who denies the Holocaust while threatening another one, this time with nuclear weapons.

When the Swiss President was widely criticized for his warm and uncritical embrace of one of the world's most evil and dangerous tyrants, he offered two justifications. First, because Switzerland was the host nation for the conference, he was obliged, as the president of the host nation, to greet a fellow head of state. This is patent nonsense. American presidents do not greet heads of states invited by the United Nations, unless they have also been invited by the United States. No American president has greeted Ahmadinejad when he spoke at the UN. Nor would President Obama - certainly without publicly and privately expressing disdain for his bigoted and dangerous views.

This leads to the Swiss President's second purported justification, namely that Switzerland represents the United States' interests in dealing with Iran, with whom it has no formal diplomatic relations. In other words, when the president of Switzerland extended a hand to Ahmadinejad, it was not only the hand of Switzerland, but also the hand of the United States. This too is nonsense compounded by overreaching.

The United States had no interest in extending a hand of legitimacy to Ahmadinejad. Indeed the Obama government - along with many other democratic governments - refused to legitimate this conference by its attendance. Other democracies, which chose to attend, publicly walked out of Ahmadinejad 's bigoted tirade.

The Swiss president had no authority or right to act on behalf of the United States in the way that he did. The US should find another government - one that understands the difference between good and evil and knows how to confront the latter - to represent it in its dealings with Iran. By his craven actions, the Swiss president has disqualified himself from serving in this important role. Neutrality should not be confused with legitimating evil and being complicit with bigotry, as the Swiss have been accused of since they allegedly served as Hitler's banker during World War II.

Not only did the Swiss president legitimate, the Swiss security services protected him from the media. It was certainly appropriate for security to protect Ahmadinejad from physical threats, but they also sought to protect him from being embarrassed by difficult questions from the press, as evidenced by the following incident.

A bank of television cameras and reporters were waiting to interview Ahmadinejad after his meeting with the Swiss president. He was still in the meeting, and so I approached the reporters and suggested that they put several specific questions to him. The press was anxious to hear from me, but the security services physically removed me from the hotel, even though Ahmadinejad was nowhere to be seen.

Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, center, is led away after declaring he planned to challenge Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about his views on the Holocaust and Israel minutes before the meeting with Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz and Iranian President Ahmadinejad in Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, April 19, 2009 PHOTO: AP

My second encounter with evil occurred on the day of Ahmadinejad's speech. We, who were there to respond to Ahmadinejad's bigotry, were told that we could listen to his speech in a special room set aside for those who could not enter the actual room in which he was speaking. Several hundred people watched on a television screen as he walked up to the podium to rousing applause by many of the delegates. But the UN purposely decided not to translate his speech into English. All other speeches were translated but we were required to listen to Ahmadinejad in Farsi.

I complained that the right of free speech goes both ways: it not only includes Ahmadinejad's right to express his horrendous opinions, it also includes his critics' right to listen to his words so that we can rebut them in the marketplace of ideas. When the UN authorities refused to translate his speech, I led a walkout from the overflow room toward the room in which he was speaking. I entered the room and took a seat several rows away from where he expressed some of the most horrendous views I had ever heard. To their credit, many of the European delegates walked out in disgust. I joined them, urging other delegates to leave as well and telling them that "silence in the face of evil is complicity." But most of the delegates remained and applauded Ahmadinejad when he made his extreme statements calling not only for the end of Israel but the end of all liberal democracies around the world.

It was then that I understood better how Hitler had come to power. Hitler rose to a position where he could commit genocide not as the result of anti-Semites, but rather because otherwise decent people put their own self interests before the need to condemn his bigotry. As Edmund Burke observed many years ago, "all that is required for evil to succeed is for good men [and women] to remain silent." In that room, on that day, I came face to face with Ahmadinejad's evil. I expected that, but I also came face to face with a different kind of evil: the president of a great nation extending a hand of friendship to Ahmadinejad; and the delegates of many nations applauding some of the most bigoted statements ever uttered from a United Nations lectern.

In the end, the forces of hate and bigotry were confronted by students, professors and political figures who stood against Ahmadinejad and everything he represents. Ahmadinejad and the conference that reflected his world view lost this round, but the battle against bigotry never stays won.

The Joy That Conquers Sadness

The sadness of Memorial Day is washed away by the joy of Independence Day. Against all odds, Israel rose to the challenge placed before her as Arabs rejected the United Nations two state solution and war broke out. Five Arab nations attacked Israel and called for their people to flee Israel so they could wipe Jews out in total. Obviously, the plan failed.

Israel is still dancing as the nation remembers those miracle days. Enjoy as Israel is dancing in the streets.

We Won! Painting Not To Be Revealed.

Artist Keeps Obama Painting Under Wraps After Public Outrage
2009-04-27 04:28pm

An American artist has cancelled the public unveiling of his controversial painting of US President Barack Obama due to a massive public outcry.

Michael D'Antuono's artwork The Truth depicts President Obama appearing much like Jesus Christ on the cross, with a crown of thorns atop his head, while behind him a dark veil is being lifted, or lowered, onto the Presidential Seal.

Publicity surrounding the planned unveiling of the painting at NYC's Union Square Park on Friday to mark President Obama's 100th day in office was picked up by newspapers across the United States, and photos of the artwork became one of the most emailed pictures on the internet.

However, D'Antuono says the unveiling has been cancelled, "in part on thousands of emails and phone calls; online blogs and other public commentary received in the first 48 hours following its release" last Friday.

The artist insists that the work was intended purely as a political piece.

"The religious reference was used metaphorically and not to insult anyone's religious beliefs. If that is the effect that my art has had on anyone, I am truly sorry," says D'Antuono.

(c) NewsRoom 2009

Oh, Here We Go!!!

Rons Note: It seems the connection with Louis Farrakhan (leader of the Nation of Islam [Mosque Maryam in Chicago]), and his declaration that Obama is the Messiah will not die. This WorldNetDaily article is hair raising. Surely Obama will have something to say that will straighten these people out! If not, we are in trouble here.



WorldNetDaily
100 days in office, coronated Messiah

Arms outstretched, he wears crown of thorns on his brow


By Drew Zahn

"The Truth" by Michael D'Antuono

On his 100th day in office, President Obama will be "crowned" in messianic imagery at New York City's Union Square.

Artist Michael D'Antuono's painting "The Truth" – featuring Obama with his arms outstretched and wearing a crown of thorns upon his head – will be unveiled on April 29 at the Square's South Plaza.

According to a statement released about the portrait, "The 30" x 54" acrylic painting on canvas depicts President Obama appearing much like Jesus Christ on the Cross: atop his head, a crown of thorns; behind him, the dark veil being lifted (or lowered) on the Presidential Seal. But is he revealing or concealing, and is he being crucified or glorified?"
Even the title of the piece, "The Truth," suggests a play on biblical themes, as Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
"More than a presidential portrait," writes D'Antuono on a website touting the painting, "'The Truth' is a politically, religiously and socially-charged statement on our nation's current political climate and deep partisan divide that is sure to create a dialogue."

Like others in the news who have depicted Obama in Christ-like imagery, D'Antuono insists he isn't claiming the man is Messiah, but only inviting "individual interpretations."
"'The Truth,' like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder," claims the exhibit's press release.
D'Antuono even invites the public to email him with reactions to the piece, answering his posed question, "What's your truth?"

As WND has reported, D'Antuono follows others who have cast Obama in messianic imagery.

Clark's Obama sculpture,

Riding a donkey at the Iowa Capitol

In January, artist Matthew J. Clark paraded a sculpture of Obama riding a donkey and preceded by waving palm fronds, reminiscent of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem in the 21st chapter of Matthew as foretold by the prophet Zechariah: "Behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass."

Like D'Antuono, Clark was also unclear about whether his piece was proclaiming Obama to be the Christ or making some social commentary. Clark's website described the sculpture in vague terms:

"This project was inspired by my thoughts about 'icons' and religious symbols and whether they represent truth or merely represent," Clark's website reads. "The sculpture poses a question that relates to social conventions, metaphysics, and the collective response of society in reaction to fearful and uncertain times, but doesn't impose an answer. For me, it has much more to do with the general public as followers than any leader granted power."
Others, such as Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, have been far clearer in their nearly religious adoration of Obama. As WND reported, Farrakhan declared last year that when Obama talks, "the Messiah is absolutely speaking."

Addressing a large crowd behind a podium with a Nation of Islam Saviour's Day 2008 sign, Farrakhan proclaimed, "You are the instruments that God is going to use to bring about universal change, and that is why Barack has captured the youth. And he has involved young people in a political process that they didn't care anything about. That's a sign. When the Messiah speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking."
Farrakhan pointed out that the man Nation of Islam followers refer to as "the Savior," Fard Muhammad, had a black father and a white mother, just as Obama did.
"A black man with a white mother became a savior to us," he said. "A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall."

WND previously reported a website called "Is Barack Obama the Messiah?" capturing the wave of euphoria that followed the Democratic senator's remarkable rise.
The site is topped by an Obama quote strategically ripped from a Jan. 7 speech at Dartmouth College just before the New Hampshire Primary in which he told students, "… a light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote" for Obama.
WND also reported on near-religious experiences surrounding Obama on the campaign trail, as supporters who came to hear him speak on several occasions fainted in the middle of the candidate's speeches. As WND reported, some compared the fainting to fanatical swooning in the midst of a mesmerizing preacher; others, like radio host Michael Medved, thought the collapses were staged moments; and still others believed it was simply a matter of people standing in the crowds too long and growing dehydrated.
P.J. Gladnick of NewsBusters, in an article about D'Antuono's painting on the eve of the Obama administration's 100-day-mark, notes that the messianic parallels begun early in the presidential campaign don't seem to be stopping:
"The artist quite clearly portrays Obama as a latter day Christ-like figure, considering the outstretched arms and the crown of thorns. Obama worship, complete with halo images, has been noted before," writes Gladnick, "but it was nothing compared to current expressions in awe of 'The One' as we approach his hundredth day in office on Wednesday."

Dueling Messiahs: Jesus vs the Mahdi in Iran

(Ron's note: Dr. Timothy Furnish, Ph.D. in Islamic History ran across my web site some years ago [shalom-shalom-jerusalem.org]. We made contact then and I have followed his journey deep into the Mahdi territories of Iran and Turkey on fact finding missions since. I stand in awe and am proud to be considered a friend. His stand for Jesus [the real one from Nazareth] is commendable and without shame. His site www.mahdiwatch.org is worthy of your attention if you know what we are talking about. The following article was in a Lutheran publication. Important to say the least. The times we live in are prophetic.)

“I believe in Jesus—just as a prophet, not as the Son of God.”

I’ve had this discussion numerous times over the years—at Starbucks, in college faculty offices, online with old friends who had “fallen away.” So the subject wasn’t novel; what was new, however, was the location and the speaker: the dining room of Hotel Laleh in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, and a friendly Iranian studying to become a mullah (Islamic cleric).

I was in Iran for the fourth annual conference on Mahdism in August 2008. Mahdism is the Islamic belief in al-Mahdi, “the rightly guided one” who will come before the end of time to make the entire world Muslim. Both major branches of Islam, Sunni and Shi`i, hold this Mahdist belief, despite his absence from the Qur’an. The Mahdi appears, rather, in the Hadiths, or “sayings,” attributed to Islam’s founder, Muhammad (d. A.D. 632). Sunnis, the majority of Islam’s 1.3 billion adherents, believe that the Mahdi has not yet appeared; Shi`is, about 15 percent of the world’s Muslims, believe that the Mahdi has already been here, as one of Muhammad’s descendants through his son-in-law and cousin Ali. The largest branch of the Shi`a, the “Twelvers” of Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, believe that it was the 12th descendant—also named Muhammad—who did not die but “disappeared” in A.D. 874 and who will return as the Imam al-Mahdi, of whom President Ahmadinejad of Iran speaks constantly.

Ahmadinejad was the keynote speaker at the opening session, but rather than harping on purely political grievances against the West (Palestine and Iraq, for example), he emphasized the imminent coming of the Twelfth Imam and how the process of globalization was Allah’s way of preparing the world for it. The various sessions of the conference all echoed this theme of the Mahdi’s impending arrival, and how the Islamic Republic of Iran was in the vanguard of paving the way for his
coming.

This included some unsettling topics: For example, one Iranian presenter discussed the future status of Jews and Christians under the Mahdi’s rule—would we all be converted or killed? It was not overly reassuring to hear that “most likely, the Mahdi will simply convert Jews and Christians.” There was little or no differentiation between religious and political (or even military) topics: thus panels discussed issues such as the Islamic “anti-christ” (al-Dajjal, “the Deceiver”); the role of jihad, or “holy war,” in Mahdism; and the type of governors the Mahdi will appoint to rule over non-Islamic lands.


Two Goals

It was clear that the conference—and the sponsoring, government-funded Bright Future Institute—had a dual aim. On one level, it was an attempt to spread Mahdism among Sunni Muslims, to convince them it’s acceptable to believe in the Mahdi; for despite the existence of Mahdism in Sunni circles, a minority therein has always rejected the belief because of (1) the lack of Qur’anic support for the Mahdi; (2) the near-heretical divinizing of the 12 Imams practiced by many Shi`is; (3) the history of bloodshed between Sunnis and Shi`is, going back to Islam’s earliest days in the Seventh Century. Still, Shi`i Iran is hoping to rival Sunni Saudi Arabia as the leading Islamic nation, and is trying—with some success—to use belief in the Mahdi as leverage to do so. But the ayatollahs who rule Iran are also trying to gain influence in the non-Muslim world by pushing Mahdism among Jews and particularly Christians, claiming that the messianic hopes of both religions will be fulfilled in the Twelfth Imam, the Mahdi.

For example, several Americans (both lay and ordained) courted most aggressively by the Iranians were representatives of Christian denominations whom we might refer to as “ecumaniacs”—pursuing “interfaith dialogue” for its own sake. Mahdism is thus being used as both a political and religious “evangelism” tool by Iranian Shi`is.

But evangelism attempts can cut both ways. I befriended several of the conference organizers, in particular a mullah-in-training (mullahs are rather like priests, whereas an ayatollah is similar to a bishop or archbishop). He and I began by discussing ways of interpreting the Qur’an, good-naturedly arguing whether the strict literalist Sunnis or the more allegorical-minded Shi`is had the correct approach to issues such as jihad. As the week progressed, our periodic conversations turned to Jesus in Islam and Christianity, and what the Bible and Qur’an say about Him. What my colleague knew was what Islamic propagandists had taught him: for example, that the Counselor, or Advocate, Jesus promised to believers in John 14:16 refers to the eventual coming of Muhammad. Islamic apologists argue that the Greek parakletos (“advocate, helper”) should be read periklutos (“praised”)—because the Arabic root hamada, whence comes the name Muhammad, means “praised.” As former Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem, and Islam scholar, Kenneth Cragg says: “This charge and the Muslim alteration have no basis exegetically. Nor does the sense of the passage bear the Muslim rendering. . . . However painful the necessity, the Christian must cheerfully shoulder the task of distinguishing clearly between Muhammad and the Holy Spirit, and of appreciating how it comes that the Muslim can be so confidently confused at this point” (The Call of the Minaret, 1964, p. 285).


The Jesus We Believe In

I’m not sure how cheerful I was, but I did try to follow Archbishop Cragg’s advice. Mid-week of my stay in Iran I asked my Muslim friend if he’d ever read the Bible. “No,” he wistfully explained. “Wait here,” I told him. I went to my room and came back with my small volume of the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs—U.S. Army-issue, with a camouflage cover, ironically—which I gave him. He tucked it away, no doubt knowing full well that while the official government position is that Iranians have complete religious freedom, the reality is quite different. I don’t know if he’d had time to read any of it, but a few days later as the dinner dishes from my last meal in Iran were being cleared to make way for coffee and tea, the conversation again turned to Jesus, and my colleague repeated the line about Jesus being a great prophet and how Muslims and Christians could rally around that belief. “No, my friend,” I told him, “that is not the Jesus we believe in. We believe He was the Son of God, crucified and resurrected to atone for our sins.” I was seconded in this by a French Catholic scholar sitting at our table. My Iranian colleague then asked, “How could one man’s sins take care of another’s?”

“Because,” I replied, “He was not just a man—He was God’s Son.” We discussed this for a few minutes, until some ayatollahs sat down near us—at which point we decided discretion might be the better part of valor. But I encouraged my Muslim friend to read the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament and compare them to what the Qur’an says about Jesus. Who knows? Maybe someday at least one member of Iran’s clerical leadership will have a true view of Jesus as Messiah, or who at least, like Nicodemus, can come to Jesus by night.

Iran is funding and supporting a worldwide effort to spread Shi`i messianic beliefs among Christians, even in the United States, via organizations such as the Islamic Information Center in Washington, D.C. We need to be aware of this, and prepared to share with them “the faith once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3) in the true Messiah, Jesus Christ.

A writer, editor, and teacher, Timothy R. furnish (above) received his M.A.R. from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, in 1989 and a Ph.D. in Islamic history from Ohio State University in 2001. He is the author of Holiest Wars: Islamic Mahdis, their Jihads and Osama bin Ladin (Praeger, 2005) and an elder at Rivercliff Lutheran Church in Sandy Springs, Ga. He operates a Web site dedicated to studying Mahdism: www.mahdiwatch.org.

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Islam: A Time Line

Islam is the youngest of the monotheistic religions, developing some six centuries after jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Because both Christianity and Islam claim to be God’s true revelation to mankind, and because of the geographical proximity of the states where each was the dominant religion, the two faiths have often been in armed conflict.

for the first millennium of Islam’s existence, it was expansionist and often militarily successful (with notable exceptions such as the first Crusade and the Ottoman failures to conquer all of Europe). But starting in the 18th century, Western powers (Russia, Britain, france, and eventually the United States) became militarily and politically dominant over the Islamic world, a status that still exists today.

A.D. 622/1 AH (after hijra) “Flight” of Muhammad and first followers from Mecca to Medina.

632 Death of Muhammad.

661 Murder of Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law and first in line of Shi`ite imams.

632–1000 Islamic conquests across Middle East, Persia, North Africa, and Spain.

732 Invading Islamic army defeated at Tours, France.

874 Death (disappearance, in Shi`ite belief) of 12th Shi`ite Imam, who will return as al Mahdi to Islamize the world.

1099–1291 The Crusades.

1453 Conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

1492 Last Moorish (Islamic) kingdom in Spain falls. Muslims (and Jews) expelled from Spain. Columbus discovers the new world.

1501–1524 Iran/Persia forcibly converted to Shi`ism by Safavid Shah Isma’il.

1529 Ottomans besiege Vienna.

1571 Battle of Lepanto: combined European Christian fleets defeat Ottoman navy.

1798–1936 British and French imperialism in Middle East.

1918–22 Ottoman Empire collapses after World War I.

1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.


Timothy R. Furnish

Support for Israel . . . not just for blessing now

Now support for Israel is not just for the Genesis 12:3 blessing, it is for our very survival.

With Sharia Compliant Finance already in place with groups like AIG, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Harvard's 7th annual Sharia Compliant Finance symposium having happened, not to mention Wall Street's panel of Sharia Compliant advisors from the United Arab Emirates and Dubai, we are in trouble. Our own country can now offer Sharia mortgages, credit cards and health programs. Our lack of funds and their abundance puts us in a bad place when financial scruples are second to success at any cost.

Sharia Compliant Finance means that 'zakat' tax, the Islamic loophole around collecting interest on loans (forbidden in Islamic law), must be used for programs that make the funds 'halal' (pure acc. to Islamic law) and one of those categories is jihad. Holy war against unbelievers.

Our President bowing to the Saudi King, and buddy shaking Hugo Chavez's hand then receiving Hugo's book on "How I Hate the U.S.A." are things Israel would just not put up with. The present administration snubbed Israel's Army Chief of Staff, Gabi Ashkenazi when he came here in March to discuss the dire situation of Iran and what must be done.

Do we have to repeat Britain's faux pax when Chamberlain thought he had peace with Germany in the bag?

It is time to wake up America!