Once upon a time, the King invited the infidels to Madrid–but he only invited a handful of Jews who are all, rightly or wrongly, perceived as more critical of Israel and of Judaism than of Islam. The King did not invite any influential, religious women. This did not stop any man of faith from attending.
I am talking about Saudi King Abdullah’s interfaith conference in Madrid which was attended by nearly 300 delegates representing Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and other faiths from over 50 countries. King Abdullah opened the conference on July 16, 2008 in the presence of Spain’s King Juan Carlos.
I am in favor of dining with one’s enemies and with potential allies. I myself dine quite frequently with Muslim and ex-Muslim dissidents and am in favor of such alliances and dining experiences. But, if a King is the host, he usually invites other Kings and heads of state. That did not happen in Madrid. The invitees did not have the same worldly power that their host has. Did the King view the invitees as his potential press corps?
If the conference is meant to serve as a positive symbol–I wonder why the King chose Spain, al-Andalus, and not, for example, Mecca? Is he saying that the Muslims miss their previously conquered European lands and plan to re-conquer them, one way or the other? Or, did the King choose a European location because what he had to say was meant for infidel-only consumption? Is even the King afraid to hold such a conference in his own Kingdom?
I have not read what the various conference participants have written but I have received what three rabbi-participants have written. Thus, here is what Rabbis Arthur Waskow, here Michael Lerner (Rabbi Lerner’s piece has yet to be posted online at Tikkun), and Brad Hirschfeld here have to say. All three are rather optimistic and positive. Each rabbi makes good points. Each seems to prize “his” special moment alone with the King or with members of the King’s elite staff or Cabinet. Perhaps, each rabbi feels that if he was invited, that the King may be trusted, or that he’s a counterpart “progressive.”
But this may not be true. What if the conference is meant to lull the western world into a false sense of complacency? What if the conference resolutions are meant to be used to promote a more positive (and false) image of Islam internationally–without Islam changing at all?
For example, despite their promises, the Saudis continue to indoctrinate their children with hate-filled textbooks against Jews, Israelis, Christians, and Americans. The Saudis continue to fund worldwide propaganda for jihadic terrorism and the terrorism itself; their motto is anywhere but on Saudi soil. The Saudi treatment of women is beneath contempt. (I am including their trafficking in and sexual enslavement of women from other countries and their abominable treatment of Saudi women, including Saudi royal women and Saudi feminists). The Saudis refuse to sell the West more oil or to lower its price. They still do not allow Christians, Jews, or other infidels to worship in The Kingdom.
What if the conference resolutions (which have already been rushed to the United Nations) are precisely meant to launch further charges of “Islamophobia,” this time with penalties, for anyone who criticizes Islamic gender and religious apartheid–especially if the criticisms are true? According to a Saudi official here
“I hope the United Nations Security Council and other UN agencies will adopt the principles agreed upon at the conference as guidelines for promoting world peace and preventing attacks and discrimination on a sectarian basis.”
Do you think he is referring to the defamation of infidel religions that has historically characterized the Muslim world and which is still true today? Or is he thinking about Islam’s image in the West and how to further bolster it–with penalties in mind? At the same time, other Islamic groups are fostering Islamist values and attacking Western values in the West.
For example, the radical Islamic group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, has just launched a campaign to stop young Muslims from being corrupted by Western “liberal values.” The organization, which Tony Blair wanted to ban in Britain, has planned a summer PR campaign against Western “attacks” on the religion.
My three Jewish rabbinical brothers cited above believe that the fact that Abdullah called the conference at all can work as a powerful symbol. If the Saudi King can publicly break bread with infidels, including Jews and Christians–then perhaps he is beginning to question the Quranic view of them as “pigs, monkeys, and dogs.”
This is an important point but: Has this historic conference been covered in the Saudi and Arabic, Persian, and Kurdish language media? It has been covered widely in English. Google lists nearly 40,000 references in English. Arab and Muslim readers: Tell us if the good news has appeared in your local Middle Eastern or central Asian media.
My thought: The Sunni King is worried about the Shi’ite menace in Iran (and in its proxy states in Lebanon, Gaza, and possibly Syria), and bin Laden’s al-Qaeda menace which, although exiled from the Kingdom, remains a danger to us all. This conference could be another example of taqquiya or da’wa, meant to confuse and lull infidels; it could also represent the beginning of a new and strategic military alliance in which Saudi Arabia may choose to work with America and Israel against Iran–but only on behalf of Saudi interests and on Saudi terms.
The Saudi official who spun the news for the English language Arab News is also quoting as saying: “Islam has a universal message and calls for peaceful coexistence with followers of other religions and it does not want to impose its principles and teachings on other communities.”
This is a bold-faced lie. But, if you rely upon the work of someone like Karen Armstrong, the early Bernard Lewis, or Tariq Ramadan, and if you only read the left-liberal media you will (and will want to) believe these words. If you rely upon the work of Bat Ye’or, Andrew Bostom, Nonie Darwish, Ibn Warraq, and Robert Spencer, (for starters) you will recognize it for the lie it is.
The conference participants–my infidel brethren–may need a serious dose of even-handed “bibliotherapy” in order to analyze what Madrid was really about.
And next time, no matter how lavish the accommodations or how magical the gifts–please (and here I am paraphrasing Abigail Adams’ advice to her husband when he was President) remember the women. Rabbi Lerner does mention this. But go further: Suggest influential women as invitees before the next such conference. Consider this as part of your effort to educate the Saudis.
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7 Comments
1. Louis Santacroce:Any Christian who travels to China will be taken to a state-sanctioned church, which will be presented as “proof” that Chinese citizens enjoy freedom of religion. In reality, we know that Christians (and, while we’re at it, members of any other religion) who are not members of a state-sanctioned (read, heavily monitored) church are routinely harrassed, jailed, tortured and killed. Still, I have personally spoken to more than one Christian visitor who ecstatically informed me that “there is no more religious persecution in China.”
I believe that King Abdullah took a lief from the Chinese with his so-called inter-faith conference. The difference is that his subterfuge is necessary in order to keep western minds in a state of denial (no one seems to care whether China persecutes its own people or destroys Tibet, so long as the cheap goods keep flowing and not too many American pets are poisoned by tainted dog food). He needs to keep shoving the lie down our throats because his people are allowed to do what dissadents would be killed for in Islamic countries: riot against America and other democracies in our own streets. where we can see them, if we dare look. Like any good magician, he has to distract the audience with the equivilent of a pretty girl so they don’t see that the trick is…well, a trick! OF COURSE the good news that peaceful co-existence with non-moslem nations is possible has not been reported in the state-controlled Islamic media; some Taliban members might not realize it’s all a big joke (those follows aren’t exactly noted for their sense of humor, y’know), and King Abdullah wants his head to remain attached to his body!
Remember how the American media dealt with Arafat when he appeared to be making overtures to Israel? They asked him over and over — in about 100 different ways — whether he now believed in Israel’s right to exist. He smiled and grinned and hemmed and hawed for a while, but was finally tripped up, even though he tried to equvicate and back away when he was finally caught. If Abdullah wants to presnet himself to the west as the man with the olive branch, let the world media converge on him with the same question, and don’t take smiles and grins for an answer.
Jul 21, 2008 - 6:45 pm 2. George Jochnowitz:Leftists like Rabbi Lerner are under the mistaken impression that they support women’s rights. However, they are utterly silent whn in comes to the plight of women in the Islamic world.
Jul 21, 2008 - 7:14 pm 3. BL:Dear Dr. Chesler,
Life is short, so I will only comment on one of the “Optimistic Reports” from the recent Madrid conference that of Rabbi Arthur Waskow, he writes that “indeed something real and important is happening.”
“First of all, this effort began with a conference in Mecca six weeks ago, in which Muslims of all backgrounds and ethnicities and nationalities came together to affirm that Islam is committed in its basic principles to dialogue, and abhors violence. That conference then called for this one.” I guess the dialogue part was fulfilled: I always love to go to a meeting and agree that nothing was accomplished, so why not have another meeting (this is p.c. doublespeak for ‘dialogue.’). Agenda item number one surely was to explain why if the principles of Islam “adhors violence”, it continues as intensely and barbarically as ever.
Rabbi Waskow then claimed this second meeting was being sabotaged by the radical Jewish media (the A.P.) “…to smooth over that aspect of Islam which has carried out terrorist violence against civilians.”
I’ve read enough, Jesus Christ, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. did not just condemn “terrorist violence against civilians,” but violence in general: domestic beatings and abuse, soldiers killing soldiers, bullies picking on the weak, etc. The thought that violence, much less terrorist violence against anyone: military personnel merely trying to keep the peace, infidels dressed in a way that they don’t approve of, or war should be condemned and until Islamic leaders can embrace and stop funding the senseless acts of terrorists, how can they be believed!
Until, the olde boys allow women to equally participate and expose the “terrorist violence” that these Muslims supposedly abhor in their own households, these conferences will be a charade, expensive exercises in “moral vanity” and hood winking propaganda.
Wake up! Winston Churchill did after Neville Chamberlain returned to London with “peace in our time.” Lip service conference after conference, is nothing more than appeasement. Where are the actions! Chesler sees through the words and we best heed her warnings. She is the Winston (not the one in 1984) of our time.
Keep on exposing the lies, Dr. Chesler.
Jul 21, 2008 - 8:38 pm 4. Mama Palama:Islamic appeasement and keeping infidels/kafirs in thrall while more important cards are being played is a trick as old as the world and nations gave themselves names. When entitlement to everything rules a nation, when borders and boundaries are made meaningless in quest for conquest – perceptional accuity better remain the top item on any get-together menu and especially so when peace is the advertized special.
Hospitality has always been very highly valued and practiced on the proverbial peace-making missions among Arab tribes. However, when morning comes or by next night-fall the battles continue and what has passed for hospitality and peace but one face in which trust is the first casuality.
It is necessary, it is essential to understand the world and its workings no matter the ordinaryiness of our day to day existence or how we in the West choose to live in denial of truth. Now as much as ever when peace touted conferences serve not for peace but in bringing down the veil over our eyes and sensibilities.
Jul 21, 2008 - 9:06 pm 5. 4infidels:Seven years after Sept 11. 2001, and the Saudis still haven’t eliminated the anti-Jewish and anti-Christian teachings in their text books and mosques, despite promising changes and conducting a PR campaign in the US claiming they were doing so in 2002.
Shame on all those infidels who took part in this charade. As a Jew I find the arrogance of these Rabbis is matched only by their naivety. The purpose of this meeting was not for King Abdullah to lay the groundwork for understanding or friendship between people of different religions; it was a PR move aimed at convincing those in the West that Saudi Arabia is not a place from which we have anything to worry about.
The Saudis fear that Americans have learned a bit too much about their “Kingdom.” What better way to appear moderate, reasonable and peaceful than to have a bunch of Jewish “leaders”–so thrilled to be indulged by Saudi bigots–report back as their PR agents telling their fellow citizens all the positive things the Saudis are doing to improve relations with non-Muslims.
Now send us more weapons, protect us from Iran and quiet down about the high gas prices. And stop looking so closely at our TV programs and newspapers. We can’t control the words of every extremist (though they are on our payroll and we punish speech that is unflattering toward us). Oh yeah, it is also your job to support all the poor Muslim countries with your money (so you can win the hearts and minds that we’ll be sure to poison) while we take lavish European vacations with our alcohol, gambling, slaves, whores and little boys.
These non-Muslim fools, by portraying this event as progress, will only cause other infidels to let their guard down rather than hold firm against jihadists paid for and promoted by the Saudis themselves. Why read the Koran. study 1400 years of Muslim history or examine the life of Muhammad for yourself when the al-Saud can tell you that Islam is a religion of peace.
Even if the Saudis were serious about showing more respect for Judaism, Christianity and other religions, why should we endorse people who violate every human right that we hold dear? I’m not for sacrificing the West’s most treasured values just to have interfaith dialogue with a bunch of primitive, women-beating, slave-taking, rape victim-lashing, honor-killing, homosexual-hanging, child-marrying, jihad-funding, hatred-indoctrinating, suicide murder-endorsing, civilization-destroying, music-banning, dagger-parading, morality-deprived, show-up-after-the-battle-and-claim-credit-for-victory and unearned-wealth-collecting death cultists.
Jul 22, 2008 - 12:17 am 6. James Farlen:Let’s be clear about the Islamic agenda’s, to a mainstaream Muslim like the King there is only Dar Al Harb (Wartime) with the World and Dar Al Salaam (Peace) with the World when all of the World becomes Muslim. There is nothing else!! Interfaith conferences that are hosted by Muslims are meant to smile their opponents into a weakened position so that they be more easily conquered or in the case of Spain re-conquered. To mainstream Muslims, once a land has been conquered it becomes Muslim land forever. The liberal, leftwing Rabbis who attend these dog and pony shows, could have been recruited right out of the Judenrat mentality of World War Two. Interfaith conferences hosted by Jews, Christians, Hindus et al are really there for exactly that purpose, to promote peace and understanding! Let’s not be lulled into a false sense of security and hope by the fools who are invited to attend these farces, let them continue to put their heads in the ground so they do not have to face the danger, we cannot afford to do that.
Jul 22, 2008 - 6:14 am 7. Jin:Interesting article that can be found here:
http://joshxiong.com/?p=43
Basically, the idea that 99 percent of indonesia is fundamentalist muslim but they can still suppress radical factions should fascinate us. What it boils down to is a biological not religious cause of the suicide bombings.
Jul 29, 2008 - 2:40 pm