December 19, 2005

The Attitude toward Israelis

Apologies for the lack of blogging on my part this week. I was actually in Dearborn, Michigan, a small working-class city just outside Detroit. The city is thought to have the nation's largest Arab/Muslim community, and is home to America's largest mosque. In fact, there are an estimated 450,000 Arabs now living in southeastern Michigan, with 95,000 in Dearborn alone. Dearborn itself is mostly made up of Lebanese and Iraqi Shia Muslims. And from what I witnessed, radicalism--particularly of the anti-Israel, anti-Jewish variety-- is a serious problem among some segments of the community there. I'll have much more on my stay in Dearborn on The 700 Club in January. For now, this piece from yesterday's edition of AFP presents a pretty accurate picture of the attitudes I encountered there towards the Israelis:

Hamas vows revenge if Iran attacked

THE radical Palestinian group Hamas will step up attacks against Israel if the Jewish state takes military action against Iran, its political chief has said in Tehran.

Khaled Meshaal also praised Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his "courage" in having dismissed the Holocaust as a myth and calling for Israel to be moved out of the Middle East to Europe or North America.

"Just as Islamic Iran defends the rights of the Palestinians, we defend the rights of Islamic Iran. We are part of a united front against the enemies of Islam," Mr Meshaal told reporters.

"Each member of this front defends itself with its own means in its region. We carry the battle in Palestine. If Israel launches an attack against Iran, we will expand the battlefield," he told a news conference.

"We are part of a united front, and if one member of this front is attacked it is our duty to support them."

Israel and the United States accuse Iran of using an atomic energy drive as a cover for weapons development, a charge the Islamic republic denies.

Mr Ahmadinejad has increased alarm in the West after calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map". On Wednesday he drew fresh condemnation after denying the massacre of Jews during World War II took place.

"We congratulate Iran for its position in the Islamic world and in particular the statements of the supreme leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) and President Ahmadinejad," said Mr Meshaal, who is based in Damascus and has been in Iran since Tuesday.

"What Iranian officials say may not please some people, but these are just courageous declarations," he asserted.

"The Muslim people will defend Iran because it voices what they have in their hearts, in particular the Palestinian people."

On Iran's nuclear programme, he said: "Even if Iran's programme is military, what is the problem? Why do other countries like Israel have the right to have a nuclear weapon?"

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