“Muslims protect Jews” was too good to be true

A lot of media outlets have fallen for the story of Muslims organizing to protect a synagogue. It’s a great media op scene, but it ignores the fact that synagogues need protection because of Muslim anti-Semitism.

There are a number of myths already  circulating about it. Here’show a local described the event.

Well, I was there, and it wasn’t 1000 muslims. It was 1300 people in total of which almost everyone looked like ethnic Norwegians. The people holding hands are media staged – they had barriers in front with an entry checkpoint with 10 guards or so, and allowed a small number of muslims inside together with the Jewish congregation.

So innermost the synagogue with 50 or so Jews, then this semicircle of 20 or so muslims, then the barriers and guards and police, then a mostly Norwegian crowd.

He posted this clarifying photo.

The peace ring makes Muslims look good and was co-organized by a Muslim who trafficked in anti-Semitism.

Let’s begin with the media hype.

More than 1,000 people have formed a “ring of peace” outside Oslo’s main synagogue at the initiative of a group of young Muslims.

The event in the Norwegian capital follows a series of attacks against Jews in Europe, including the killing of a Jewish security guard and a Danish film maker by a Muslim gunman in neighboring Denmark last week.

So heartwarming. Muslim anti-Semitism must be some sort of myth. Or the peace ring is.

Several hundred people gathered at a Norwegian synagogue to support Jews at an event which drew praise but also criticism because of an organizer’s anti-Israel and anti-Jewish statements.

But some members of his community said the event was tainted because of anti-Semitic statements that one of its eight organizers made in 2008, and because he said this week that he dislikes people who support Israel.

Ali Chishti confirmed on Saturday in an interview with Verdens Gang, a highbrow Norwegian newspaper, that he delivered on March 22, 2008, in Oslo a speech on the alleged involvement of Jews in planning the 9/11 Twin Towers bombings in New York. The speech’s title was: ”Therefore I Hate Jews and Gays,” the paper reported, though Chishti said he was not the one who came up with the title.

The Jews must have come up with it. Because Ali really, really hated Jews.

“Yes, it was right to let Mohammed Ali Chishti speak at the dialogue meeting on March 22nd, and to let him shout out his anti-Semitic rhetoric. Not only had I read the speach beforehand, I had also prepared the Jewish congregation about its contents. And it was I who asked Chisti to speak of how he and the others shouted “death to the Jews” in the demonstrations.

No, really.

“I hate Jews, and how they operate and I will furthermore elaborate on why I hold such beliefs… It is raised beyond doubt that Jews are in a minority in the world. A very small minority, yet it cannot be disguised that they are among the most powerful. It is NOT wrong to be powerful, but to abuse ones power, to use illegal means, to use unnecessary military power against civilians, and to behave in a arrogant and barbaric manner is in violation of international law and the human rights. It is a fact that during the attacks on the Twin Towers [World Trade Center] 1600 Jews were absent from work. OK, OK, what’s even more suspicious, is how unusually many Jews there were present in Mumbai on the day that Pakistani terrorists struck. How come?”

Notice the “I Hate Jews” part.

Chisti claims that today he no longer believes this stuff and no one wants to let it ruin the good feelings produced by the illusion of the peace ring.