ENGLISH CITY BOWS TO MUSLIMS AND CANCELS HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY

Bolton bans Holocaust Day (UK Jewish Telegraph)
IN A move widely seen to be bowing to Muslim pressure, Bolton Council has scrapped its Holocaust Memorial Day event.

The council is to replace it with a Genocide Memorial Day in June. This is in line with the policy of the Muslim Council of Britain, which continues to boycott HMD and is asking for a Genocide Day, which will also mark “the ongoing genocide and human rights abuses of Palestinians” by Israelis.

The council decision was made in consultation with the town’s Interfaith Council.

But Rabbi Joseph Lever of United Synagogue who has participated in the Bolton event for around three years was not consulted on the decision. He said: “I mourn the fact that the Holocaust Memorial Day event will not take place in Bolton this year.”

Louis Rapaport, president of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, was equally disappointed that the Jewish community was not consulted.

He said: “Bolton, alone of all the local authorities in our area, is not having an HMD event which is a government recommendation.” He added: “There may not be many Jews in Bolton but the day is supposed to have an educational message to the whole community.

”I can’t help feeling the decision was influenced by Bolton’s large Muslim community."

ANTI-SEMITISM NOT JUST A CHRISTIAN DISEASE

Anti-Semitism a Christian disease? Not so fast By DAVID A. HARRIS (JPost)
The recent Holocaust denial conference in Iran was beyond the pale, or so any thoughtful person might conclude. After all, the Holocaust is among the most documented events in human history.
Yet, to conclude that this macabre event was an isolated event would be a mistake. For example, in an editorial (December 14), the respected Financial Times declared that the Iranian president, who sponsored what the paper aptly called this "grotesque carnival," is out of step with the larger Muslim world. His blatantly anti-Semitic remarks, the editorial stated, "give the impression that anti-Jewish bigotry is widespread across the Muslim world," when "in historical reality, anti-Semitism is a Christian disease." Not so fast.

The truth is far more complicated. While anti-Semitism historically has been more virulent in European Christendom, leading up to the Holocaust, it has not been absent in the Muslim world. Some Muslim spokesmen would like the world to believe that any hostility is recent and linked to Israel, not Jews. But that is disingenuous in the extreme.

As Hebrew University professor Robert Wistrich noted in a study entitled Muslim Anti-Semitism: A Clear and Present Danger, "The most basic anti-Jewish stereotype fostered by the Koran remains the charge that the Jews have stubbornly and willfully rejected Allah's truth…. There are some notably harsh passages in which Muhammad brands the Jews as enemies of Islam." These deeply entrenched images of the Jews have caused much grief over the centuries.

MUSLIM PERSECUTION OF BETHLEHEM CHRISTIANS

Bethlehem Christians Describe Muslim Persecution - Khaled Abu Toameh
A number of Christian families have described Muslim persecution of the Christian minority in Bethlehem after increased attacks over the past few months. Samir Qumsiyeh, owner of the Beit Sahur-based Shepherd TV station, said he has documented more than 160 attacks on Christians in recent years. He said thieves have targeted the homes of many Christian families and a "land mafia" has seized vast areas of land belonging to Christians. One Christian businessman said the conditions of Christians in Bethlehem had deteriorated ever since the area was handed over to the PA in 1995. "People are running away because the Palestinian government isn't doing anything to protect them and their property against Muslim thugs. Of course not all the Muslims are responsible, but there is a general feeling that Christians have become easy prey." (Jerusalem Post)

See also Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society - Justus Reid Weiner (JCPA) (1.4M pdf file)