Category: News

BBC RADIO STATION WARNED
[May 25, 2004, 23:03:55]
Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
May 25 2004
In connection with the fact that correspondent of BBC radio station,
ignoring the laws of Azerbaijan, has gone to Nagorny Karabakh occupied
by the Armenians and has broadcast a program, chairman of the State
Broadcasting Company Nizami Khudiyev has sent to the management of
the said radio station a letter with warning.
According to the norms of international law, the broadcasting company
cannot suspend transmission of radio station directly, Nizami Khudiyev
told AzerTAj correspondent. Therefore, the management of BBC was
warned by means of the letter, also was brought to their notice
that actions of the employee of radio station contradict norms of
international law and the mentioned fact serves interests of one of
the conflicting sides – Armenia.
In the letter, also is underlined that if employees of the radio
station repeatedly will admit similar facts, then, broadcasting of
BBC in Azerbaijan would be suspended.
It has to be reminded that the BBC broadcasts in Azerbaijan within two
hours per day – 1 hour in the Azerbaijan language and for 30 minutes –
in Russian and English languages.

Azeri ruling party happy about BBC’s response to criticism
Sarq, Bak
25 May 04
Text of Lala’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Sarq on 25 May headlined
“The BBC has stopped the campaign against Azerbaijan” and subheaded
“The New Azerbaijan Party will monitor the programmes”
After the ruling New Azerbaijan Party’s secretariat sent a letter to
the headquarters of the BBC World Service, anti-Azerbaijani programmes
stopped. The ruling party will continue to monitor the BBC’s radio
programmes, the party’s deputy executive secretary, Mubariz Qurbanli,
has said.
The party’s secretariat sent a letter to the headquarters several
days ago to protest against the BBC Russian Service’s anti-Azerbaijani
propaganda. Responding to the party’s statement, the BBC has stopped
its anti-Azerbaijani propaganda, Qurbanli said.
“Although the BBC is a very powerful international media corporation,
its Russian language radio programmes, regrettably, contained some
aspects aimed against the Azerbaijani statehood. The reason for this is
that ethnic Armenians work for the Russian Service. They are directly
to blame for these programmes,” he said.
Qurbanli reckons that any body or organization operating in Azerbaijan
should voice its protest against the radio station, as the New
Azerbaijan Party did. “We believe that the party’s statement did
have an effect. The BBC looked into the issue. They told us that
appropriate measures were to be taken. However, in addition to this
we will continue our monitoring. We will issue a similar statement
again should the situation be repeated. At present, monitoring shows
that the radio station is operating within the legal limits.”

ADJUTANT GENERAL OF THE KANSAS NATIONAL GUARD, MAJOR GENERAL TOD M.
BUNTING, VISITS ARMENIA TO DISCUSS BEGINNING OF STATE PARTNERSHIP
PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
ArmenPress
May 25 2004
YEREVAN, MAY 25, ARMENPRESS: Major General Tod M. Bunting, Adjutant
General of the Kansas National Guard, is visiting Armenia from
the 25th to the 29th of May, 2004, to discuss the beginning of
the State Partnership Program (SPP) between Kansas and Armenia,
reported the US Embassy public affairs office. This is Major General
Bunting’s first visit to Armenia. He and his delegation will meet
with Armenian government officials from the ministry of defense,
emergency management administration and the ministry of health to
discuss areas of cooperation, including peacekeeping operations,
health/medical activities, and disaster preparedness and emergency
management as well. The State Partnership Program is initiated with
the National Guard of a given state, with coordination provided by
the Office of Defense Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy, and may include
military-to-military, military-to-civilian, and civilian-to-civilian
programs of cooperation.
The National Guard consists of men and women who, though working at
regular civilian jobs in their home state, dedicate a part of their
time to military service. Every state and territory has its own Guard
as provided by the Constitution of the United States. The Guard in
each state is made up of Army National Guard and Air National Guard
units. Guard units may serve to combat natural disasters, to support
regular Army or Air Force units, and, when called upon, to bear arms
against their nation’s enemies. The Guard of a given state is under
the control of the governor during peacetime, yet is available to
the President during national emergencies.
The State Partnership Program links National Guard states and
territories with partner countries for the purpose of fostering
mutual interests and establishing long-term relationships across
all levels of society. The SPP between Kansas and Armenia began
with initial discussions in March 2003. The Kansas-Armenia SPP
was officially inaugurated during the fall of 2003. The Armenian
military has asked Kansas for assistance in the two major areas of
Peacekeeping Operations and Health/Medical. Other areas of concern
and possible cooperation are Emergency Management and Planning, and
Disaster Response. Further programs in different areas are expected
to follow in time as the relationship develops and widens.

ARMENIAN PRODUCERS APPLY CODES ON GOODS
ArmenPress
May 25 2004
YEREVAN, MAY 25, ARMENPRESS: According to the chairman of Armenian
goods coding IEN Armenia Pap Aslanian, 9 percent increase is reported
in companies using goods codes as compared to 2003. If only 95
companies received “485” linear codes in 2001, today their number
totals 250 (mainly food, alcohol and non-alcohol drinks, medicine
production) with 5000 coded goods names.
To make coding more affordable for small scale companies, IEN Armenia
has applied new payment rates which is calculated according to number
of employees. This initiation has increased the number of small scale
companies asking for codes.
In Yerevan the number of shops using code reading machines has
increased. Twenty more shops use such machines now.

Learning from the Dead in Brazil
Brazzil.com
May 25 2004
People from around the world and from different backgrounds
lie together in Brazil and have become part of the land that
cared for them. The names on the gravestones tell a story of mass
immigration. Most are Portuguese and Italian, but there are also Arab,
Armenian, Japanese, Chinese, Polish and French names. John Fitzpatrick
A wander around a cemetery in São Paulo can not only give you some
respite from the constant noise of the city, but highlights the ethnic
background of the people who made this metropolis.
Take the sprawling Cemitério São Paulo in the Pinheiros district,
which is bounded by two of the city’s busiest roads—Henrique Schaumann
and Cardeal Arcoverde. It bears no similarity to the 18th century
English poet Thomas Gray’s country churchyard immortalized in his
“Elegy”, the opening stanza of which is one of the most memorable in
the English language:
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind
slowly o’er the lea, The ploughman homeward wends his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me
There are none of Gray’s “ivy-manteled towers” containing “moping
owls” or “rugged elms” or “secret bowers” here, only grim mausoleums
and granite tombs. Stone Virgins, angels, saints and risen Christs
abound in this spot which is as densely populated as the surrounding
urban mass.
It is the kind of cold, austere cemetery which is common in Italy.
Since at one point São Paulo contained more Italians than Brazilians,
many of those interred were Italian or of Italian origin. To someone
more used to Gray’s tussocky graveyards, with modest headstones and
crosses, this kind of cemetery can appear an extremely ugly final
resting place.
There is something almost industrial about the way coffins are not
buried in the earth but placed on a stone shelf inside a mausoleum.
The shelf is then plastered over. A mausoleum might contain about
10 or 12 family members stacked on top of each other like drawers in
a wardrobe. The names are inscribed on the headstones and sometimes
photographs of the dead are attached.
Although this particular graveyard is well looked after, there are some
graves which have been abandoned. During a recent visit, I peered into
one abandoned grave and saw a small box containing bones on a shelf.
The reason this cemetery is well cared for is because it is still
used for funerals and contains the mausoleums of the better off,
including some well-known São Paulo families. Some of these family
spots are very large, with life-sized statues and monuments.
Prominent families represented include those of the former mayor,
Paulo Maluf, the current mayor, Marta Suplicy (whose maiden name was
Vasconcellos Smith) and the owners of the Votorantim Group, Ermirio
de Moraes.
However, having such illustrious corpses can have disadvantages and
the graveyard has been the target of thieves. In 1992, thieves invaded
the place during the night and broke into 68 tombs. They stole bronze
door handles, smashed skulls and extracted gold fillings from teeth.
The cemetery was also subject to a different kind of desecration a
couple of years ago when some students projected home-made “art” movies
onto one of its walls. About 150 viewers gathered on the pavement of
Rua Horácio Lane, drank beer and watched the films which were shown
at midnight. This affair was apparently part of a cultural initiative
to show films in public places using walls and sides of buildings.
Monumental Folly
Besides the religious statues there are many other monuments, some of
which are rather unusual and remind one a little of the architectural
follies often found in Europe.
For example, one tomb is called the Mausoleum of the Actor and shows
a replica of a stage curtain about 10 feet high and 12 feet wide.
Another, belonging to a family called Forte, which was presumably in
the restaurant trade, is a life-sized table at which a man and child
are sitting. In the center is a loaf of bread.
There is also a small chapel with the kind of medieval-like effigy
of a knight’s body common in old French and English churches. This
chapel contains the remains of Commander Joaquim Gil Pinheiro, who
was born in 1855 and who must have been well-known and respected in
his day or extremely rich.
There are also some memorials to soldiers and members of the security
forces who died in the 1932 uprising against the federal government
of dictator Getúlio Vargas.
Foreign Field
A glance at the names reminds one of Cruce Chatwyn’s famous comment
in his book In Patagonia:
“The history of Buenos Aires is written in its telephone directory.
Pompey Romanov, Emilio Rommel, Crispina D. Z. de Rose, Ladislao
Radziwil and Elizabeta Marta Callman de Rothschild—five names taken
at random from the among the Rs—told a story of exile, disillusion
and anxiety behind lace curtains.”
I am not sure if the disillusion, anxiety and lace curtains are
relevant to São Paulo, but the names on the gravestones are equally
reflective of the mass emigration to the New World.
The majority of names are obviously Portuguese and Italian, but there
are large numbers of Arab names (Bechara, Haddad, Bussab, Cury). Most
of the Arabs who came here were Christians fleeing the rule of the
19th century Moslem Ottoman Turks in present-day Lebanon and Syria.
They have done remarkably well here in business and politics and
their influence is out of proportion to their numbers.
Another group of Christians which fled the Turks were the Armenians who
have also flourished in Brazil’s welcoming land. Names like Kolanian,
Darakjian and Mircalian reflect this corner of the Armenian Diaspora.
There are also many Japanese Christians (Tokutaro, Nakano and Nakayama)
and some Chinese (Tang, Chung). There are also some names from
traditional Catholic countries such as Poland (Zabloski, Sosnowska),
Ukraine (Underavicius) and France (Petit, Montmorency).
I was surprised not to come upon any overtly Irish names in a Catholic
cemetery like this. However there are members of the Keating and Fay
families here who may well have been Irish. There are many German
and Swiss names (Schneider, Zweifel, Dornfeld) and some English,
Scots and American names (Kenworthy, Whyte, Davidson, Franklin)
but no Welsh names that I saw.
Other Resting Places
The city has its own Protestant cemetery close to the British Club
where thousands of expatriate and immigrant Protestants lie. There
is also a Jewish graveyard in Butantã.
I am not sure if there are Orthodox and Moslem graveyards but I
imagine there must be since there are large communities of Orthodox
Christians and Moslems living here.
Not all the city’s cemeteries are as built-up and cramped as the
Cemitério São Paulo or the other two large cemeteries—Araçá and
Consolação. Others are more open with individual graves and gardens.
Probably the most-visited graveyard is Morumbi where one of São Paulo’s
favorite sons—racing driver Ayrton Senna—is buried. His grave has
become almost a shrine and people come from all over the world to
lay flowers there.
Another famous Brazilian also lies in Morumbi: the singer Elis
Regina. Although she was born in Porto Alegre, in the southern state
of Rio Grande do Sul, she died in São Paulo in 1982 when she was only
about 37.
Since Brazil is predominantly Catholic, cremation is not popular
although the authorities would like to encourage it as land for
graves is becoming scarce. There is one crematorium in the Vila Alpina
district, which is used by the city’s non-Christian Japanese, Chinese
and Korean communities, Protestants and a growing number of Catholics.
All these people from different backgrounds lie together in Brazil
and have become part of the land that cared for them. During my visit
to the Cemitério São Paulo the peace was suddenly shattered when a
samba school began practicing in nearby Vila Madalena. The noise may
have destroyed the Sunday afternoon calm but I was sure none of the
souls lying in the graveyard was complaining.
John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish journalist who first visited Brazil in
1987 and has lived in São Paulo since 1995. He writes on politics and
finance and runs his own company, Celtic Comunicações –
– which specializes in editorial and translation services for Brazilian
and foreign clients. You can reach him at [email protected].

PACE PUTS OFF PRESENTATION OF KARABAKH REPORT
RIA Novosti, Russia
May 25 2004
YEREVAN, May 25 (RIA Novosti) – The presentation of Terry Davis’
preliminary report on Nagorny Karabakh to the PACE Political Commission
has been out off.
According to spokespeople for the Armenian parliament, it will be
presented at the committee’s next session, scheduled for June. The
postponement arises from the need to revise some of the points in
view of the “considerable changes” that have occurred in the conflict
zone in recent months. Davis say most of the changes are positive,
and that they bring the long-standing dispute closer to a settlement.
Davis, prominent on Britain’s House of Commons, is chairman of the
socialist faction in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe. He was appointed Rapporteur on Nagorny Karabakh (a region
disputed by Armenia and Azerbaijan) at the PACE summer session in
2002. After presentation to the PACE Political Committee, his report
will be put up for discussion at a session of the PACE Bureau.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Young Iranian Greco-Roman Wrestlers Due in Armenia May 31
Tehran Times
May 25 2004
TEHRAN (IRNA) — An all-star youth Greco-Roman wrestling team of Iran
will leave for Armenia on May 31 to take part in Leon Jolfaian Cup.
Yerevan, capital of Armenia, will host the international tournament
on June 2-4. Hereunder comes the list of wrestlers and officials:
50kg: Mostafa Qassemirad, Reza Sheikhi 55kg: Majid Ya’qubi, Sajjad
Yektarad 60kg: Davud Abbassi, Massoud Bavafa, Mohammad Aalishzadeh
66kg: Akbar Mansurian, Babak Mohebbi 74kg: Massud Rashidian, Davud
Abedinzadeh 84kg: Iman Bahram-Seri, Davud Hodavand 96kg: Ali-Akbar
Sadeq 120kg: Esmaeil Nazari Coaches: Iraj Qalavand, Nasser Nurbakhsh,
Fazlollah Dehnavi Head: Hossein-Ali Shahraki-Nassab
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

HIGHWAY OF OPPORTUNITY
Business Line
May 24, 2004
LIKE THE US and Europe, Asia has decided to have its own version of
a transcontinental freeway going from Tokyo to Istanbul. Running
through the Koreas, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand,
Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Armenia and
several Central Asian countries, the 140,000-km Asia Highway Network,
including a trunk route through St. Petersburg to Russia’s border
with Finland, besides bringing people together, will open up economic
opportunities at their doorstep in the shape of truck stops, hotels,
motels and restaurants and gift shops could be built along the planned
routes. The potential is enormous.
The agreement on the Asia Highway, signed in Shanghai by the
participating nations, is significant for other reasons also. It is
UNESCAP’s first inter-government agreement since the organisation was
set up 57 years ago. Also, many landlocked countries, such as Laos,
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan, and Kyrghyzstan,
hope to get access to the sea by joining the highway network.
The proposed network, apparently modelled after the ancient Silk
Route that wended its way from Persia to China, will extend even
further, and opens up possibilities of a globalised transportation
system with coordinated ferry and rail connections. For example,
island nations like Sri Lanka and the Philippines will have ferry
connections. However, signing the agreement does not mean totally
‘free’ borders. A series of bilateral and multilateral negotiations
will be needed to sort out the border issues. It must be remembered
that the proposal for such a road network has been around since 1959
and only now have the governments of the region got together to sign
an agreement. ESCAP was unable to push through the project because
of various geo-political hurdles. The proposed highway network will
pass through some of the most difficult terrains – vast deserts,
high mountains, dense forests, and some virtually uncharted areas of
Central Asia.
The preliminary rounds of discussion reveal that the existing road
conditions vary substantially from country to country depending on
their level of development (or backwardness). The road construction
work would have to be standardised and road signs need to be in both
English and local languages and such issues as funding, quarantine,
auto safety standards, environment impact, road maintenance and
a proper road pricing mechanism (in view of the projection of
probable exhaustion of fossil fuel in next half a century or so)
would need to be addressed. All this calls for detailed planning and
meticulous execution with application of modern technology and with
participation of a large number of countries with varying levels of
progress. Also, the participating nations would need to look at the
road’s potential for negatives such as flesh trade, and arms and drug
smuggling. Certainly, a rough road ahead.

Federal Information and News Dispatch, Inc.
State Department
May 24, 2004
STATE DEPARTMENT PRESS RELEASES
United States, Armenia to Sign Cultural Sites Agreement
TEXT: Warren L. Miller, Chairman of the United States Commission
for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad and Ambassador
Arman Kirakossian of Armenia will sign a cultural sites agreement on
Tuesday, May 25th2004 at 11:00 a.m. in the Treaty Room of the U.S.
Department of State’s Truman Building. Under Secretary of State Marc
Grossman will witness the signing.
The agreement, negotiated by the U. S. Commission for the Preservation
of America’s Heritage Abroad in cooperation with the Department
of State, pledges both countries to take steps to help protect and
preserve properties that are important to the cultural heritage of
Armenians and Americans in the territory of the United States and
Armenia, such as memorials, cemeteries, and places of worship.
Pick-up time for cameras: 10:30 a.m. the 23rdStreet Entrance Final
access for all press: 10:45 a.m. from the 23rdStreet Entrance
Media representatives who plan to attend must present one of
the following press credentials: (1) a U.S. Government-issued
identification card (Department of State, White House, Congress,
Department of Defense, or Foreign Press Center), (2) a photo ID issued
by the employing media organization, or (3) a letter on official
letterhead from their news organization verifying their employment as
a journalist, accompanied by an official photo ID (drivers’ license
or passport). Media must use the 23rdStreet entrance for access to
this event.
Press Contact For more information on this event, contact: Kathryn
Schalow, European and Eurasian Bureau Press Office, (202) 647-8602
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Eastern Christians Torn Asunder
Challenges – New and Old
National Review Online
September 18, 2003
By Bat Yeor
The dhimmi mentality cannot be easily defined and described. An
endless variety of reactions has been provoked by the evolving
historical situations in the civilization of dhimmitude, which
spans three continents and close to fourteen centuries. Generally
speaking, /dhimmi/ populations can be described as oscillating between
alienation and submission and, at the other extreme, a self-perception
of spiritual freedom.
The basic aspects of the /dhimmi/ mentality are related to
characteristics of its status and environment, because /dhimmitude/
operates exclusively within the sphere of jihad. Contrary to common
belief, jihad is not limited to holy war conducted militarily;
it encompasses all strategies, including peaceful means, aimed at
the unification of all religions within Islamic dogma. Further,
as a juridical-theological construction, jihad determines all
aspects of relations between the /Umma/ — the Islamic community —
and non-Muslims. According to the classical interpretation, these
are classified in one of three categories: enemies, temporarily
reconciled, or subjected. Because neither jihad nor /dhimmitude/
have been critically analyzed, we can say today that the Islamist
mentality — currently predominant in many Muslim countries —
establishes relations with non-Muslims in the traditional jihad
categories of war, truce, and submission//dhimmitude/.
In our times /dhimmis/ are found among the residues of indigenous
populations of countries that were Islamized during a millenium of
Muslim conquests: Christians, Hindus, and a scattering of Jews and
Zoroastrians. Christians would seem to be the most familiar group,
closer to Westerners by proximity, culture, religion, and subject to
the same status under Islam as the Jews, the other /ahl al-Khitab/,
“people of the Book” — the Bible. But this impression is often
deceiving as the reassuring appearance of similarity is misleading.
The behavior of Christian /dhimmis/ varies according to the country,
the social category, and their association with the ruling classes
as, for example, their participation in the Iraqi or Syrian Baath
parties or the PLO, a militarist organization engaged in the Arab
jihad against Israel. Christian /dhimmis/ appointed to important
positions by Muslim rulers have often served as agents between the
Arab world and strategic centers in the West: churches, governments,
industries, universities, media, etc.
Because Christian /dhimmi/ populations are on the whole highly skilled
and better educated than the surrounding population, they often suffer
from malicious jealousy coupled with the traditional anti-Christian
prejudices of the /Umma/. The persistence of Christianity in Muslim
environments testifies to qualities of endurance and adaptability. Yet
survival in dhimmitude had its price: the /dhimmi/ pathology.
Briefly summarized, Christian attitudes can be classified in three
categories: active resistance, passive resistance, and collaboration.
These three attitudes are manifest within one and the same population,
but certain geographical or historical situations favor one or another.
ACTIVE RESISTANCE
Recent examples of active resistance are noteworthy. The repression
of the Christian rebellion against the establishment of sharia in the
Sudan in 1983 caused more than two million dead and over four million
displaced. Lebanese Christians fought against the Islamization of
their country during the civil war that began in 1975. At the dawn
of the 20th century, Armenian and Assyrian Christians were punished
by genocide for their attempts at independence. In the present day,
active Christian resistance against Islamization in Indonesia,
Nigeria, and other African countries is manifest in the massacre
of Christian civilians, the burning of villages, the flight of
populations. Westerners, and especially Europeans, turn a deaf ear
to the sufferings of Christians who actively resist Islamization,
frequently blaming them for their own misfortunes.
PASSIVE RESISTANCE
Examples of passive resistance can be found in Egypt, Pakistan,
and Iran. Egyptian Christians denounce the violence of which they
are victims and strive to protect their dignity, reduce legal
and professional discrimination, and secure basic rights such
as permission to build or renovate churches. Here again, the West
prefers to ignore their dire situation or underplay it with episodic
attention. Christians engaged in active or passive resistance exhaust
their meager resources in vain efforts to alert their fellow Christians
and enlist their help.
COLLABORATIONIST CHRISTIANS
Collaborators are recruited among Christians who identify themselves
as Arabs. This type of collaboration, which caused endless fratricidal
battles over the centuries, has been denounced by /dhimmis/ struggling
for centuries against an Islamic domination that progressed with the
help of Christians.
Christian collaborationism has taken different forms in the course of
history, according to circumstances and political opportunity. It is
expressed today in a two-pronged political and theological project. The
political project is implemented in a trans-Mediterranean fusion, with
the construction of an economic, cultural, political, geographical
entity composed of the European Union and Arab and African countries.
This policy of association and integration, active in all international
forums, works to counterbalance American policy, under cover of a
notion of “international legitimacy,” albeit a legitimacy of sanguinary
totalitarian Arab dictators.
Collaborationist Christian /dhimmis/ function as the intellectual and
economic mechanism of this project because they belong to both worlds.
Their role is to invent the idyllic Islamic-Christian past that upholds
the political construction of a future Eurabia and to dissimulate
the anti-Christian foundations of Islamic doctrine and history.
/Dhimmi/ collaboration on the theological level is oriented in
two directions: toward Christianity and toward Islam. It finds its
most radical expression in the “Palestinian Liberation Theology,”
meaning nothing less than the liberation of Christianity from its
Jewish matrix. The spiritual center of this theology is the al-Liqa
institute in Jerusalem, created in 1983 for the study of the Muslim
and Christian heritage in the Holy Land. This strongly politicized
institute, sponsored by international Christian organizations,
specializes in disseminating anti-Israeli propaganda through its
international religious and media channels.
Uniting Marcionist and Gnostic theological currents, this Palestinian
theology strips away Jesus’s Jewishness and turns him into a
/sui generis/ Arab-Palestinian Jesus, a twin of the Muslim Jesus
(Isa). Christianity, thus liberated from its Jewish roots, can be
transplanted in Arab-Islamism. This would place Palestine, and not
Israel, at the origin of Christianity, making Israelis usurpers of
the Islamic-Christian Palestinian homeland. This theory denies the
historical continuity between modern Israel and its biblical ancestor,
the locus of nascent Christianity.
The theology of Palestinism, integrating all the anti-Jewish themes
of replacement theology, is reworked to fit the new Palestinian
fashion and addressed to Christians all over the world, inviting
them to gather together around an Arab-Palestinian Jesus, symbol
of a Palestine crucified by Israel. The theme goes back to the 19th
century. However, in those days when the idea of an Arab-Palestinian
entity differentiated from the Arab world did not even exist, the
unifying role of Palestine was assigned to Arab nationalism.
Palestinist theology shores up the Euro-Arab policy of
Christian-Muslim and European-Arab fusion: the modern state of
Israel — considered a temporary accident of history — is bypassed
and Europe’s Christian origins are anchored in an Islamic-Christian
Palestine. Having fulfilled its historical role of uniting the two
enemies — Christianity and Islam — opposed to its very existence,
Israel can now disappear, sealing the fusion between Europe and the
Arabs. The unifying role devolves on Islamic-Christian Palestine; the
reconciliation of Islam and Christianity can finally be consummated
on the ashes of Israel and its negation. This is why the European
Union — and especially France — designates Israeli “injustice” and
“occupation” as the unique sources of conflict between Europe and
the Arab/Muslim world, and the cause of international, anti-Western
Islamist terrorism.
The contribution of /dhimmi/ Christian collaborationism to Islam is
even more important. It satisfies three objectives: 1) its propaganda
shores up the mythology of past and present peaceful Islamic-Christian
coexistence and confirms the perfection of Islam, jihad, and sharia;
2) it promotes the demographic expansion and proselytism of Islamic
propaganda in the West; 3) in the theological sphere it eliminates the
Jewish Jesus and implants Christianity in the Muslim Jesus, in other
words it facilitates the theological Islamization of all Christendom.
According to Islamic dogma, Islam encompasses Judaism and Christianity,
both of which are falsified posterior expressions of the first and
fundamental religion, which is Islam. All the characters of the
Bible, from Adam to Abraham, Moses to David, the Hebrew prophets,
Mary, Jesus, and the apostles, were Muslim prophets who preached
Islam, and it is only in their quality as Muslims that they are
recognized and respected. They belong to the Koran, not to the
Bible. From this viewpoint the bond between Judaism and Christianity
is a falsification, because the filiation of Christianity is Islamic,
not Judaic. Christianity descends from Islam, the first religion of
all humanity (/din al-fitra/). Christianity is a falsified expression
of Islam, and belongs to Islam. According to a /hadith/, when Isa,
the Muslim Jesus, returns, he will break the cross, kill the pig,
abolish the /jizya/ (poll tax for infidels), and money will flow
like water. Exegetes interpret the destruction of symbols attached
to Christianity — the cross and the pig — as the extinction of that
religion; the suppression of the /jizya/ means that Islam has become
the only religion; and the abundance of wealth refers to the booty
taken from infidels. In other words the return of the Muslim Jesus
could lead to the destruction of Christianity.
The global jihad has made the problems of dhimmitude a worldwide
reality. Europe’s creeping dhimmitude, expressed in a refusal even
to mention in its proposed constitution the “Judeo-Christian” values
of its civilization, is one of the major elements of the current
European-American divide.
Bat Yeor is the author of “The Decline of Eastern Christianity
under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude.” Her latest book, “Islam and
Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide,” has just been reprinted. A
version of this article was first published in French and is translated
by Nidra Poller in collaboration with the author.