…I don’t subscribe to this point of view
It would be such an ignorant thing to do
If the Russians love their children too…
Music video by Sting performing . (C) 2005
This eerie tune based on a melody from Prokofiev (who did Peter & The Wolf, it’s said his hands had a span of 16 inches from pinky to thumb) has a stark bearing on an evening’s proceedings at the Sandiford Centre on Two Mile Hill, I was amazed at the level of security present! There were uniformed and plains-clothed Police plus Private Security, LESC already has a Metal Detector gate but I almost expected one of those to be there as well! Good thing I left my 12 in 1 pliers at home, eh? (I deliberately did not photograph the officers in order not to compromise their identities for future events)
What could warrant such a heavy turnout? Was Louis Farrakhan here to spread even more hatred and twist people’s perceptions further on being a Muslim? Nope! Part of it was because Walid Shoebat, a former Palestinian terrorist who recanted and became a Christian, and whose main concern is Anti-Semitism (hatred of Jews) {but may have to be taken with pinch of salt as many of the shows he appears on have a Republican or GOP leaning, such as FOX alumni, Glenn Beck}.
– Joel Richardson is a husband, father, artist, human rights activist, bestselling author and speaker. Joel has a long history of outreach to the Muslim community. He is the author of a comparative analysis of Biblical and Islamic eschatology entitled Islamic Antichrist, the co-editor of the pro-human rights collection, Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out and is the co-author with Walid Shoebat of God’s War On Terror: Islam, Prophecy and the Bible.
In arriving at the former Sherbourne Centre, I was surprised to see how plentiful are members of Barbados’ Jewish community. The moderator was Peter Wickham, who I feel was surprised at the passion & vitriol from both sides of the argument and also in the audience itself! Apart from Richardson & Shoebat with Wickham, there was Monsignor Harcourt Blackett; representing the Muslim community of Barbados was Sabir Nakhuda who was very aggressive and had an annoying habit of turning off his Mic, so when a question was suddenly directed at him, the first portion of his reply was gibberish.
In the audience there many noted Bajan elements of the Jewish Community such as Scott Oran, who is the brains behind the Sheraton Mall; Jacob Hassid, the CEO of Diamonds International and Paul Altman, who has dibs on Limegrove Mall on the West Coast.
The original intention of the discussion was to link it to the purported death of Osama Bin Laden, which was fresh in people’s minds at that moment… So let me say up front I feel the mastermind of 9/11 (if he was that either?) has been long since dead! I have carried on this website an interview from 2007 of the late leader of Pakistan, who said just that and did NOT call her out on it, and this was an Al Jazeera English video at that, where they do not usually shy away from controversies?
The video of the firefight was never seen, and then they bury the corpse at sea? How Islamic is that? The claim was tradition demands the body be interred in 48 hours or less… OkaaaAAAyyyYYy? Yeah. Sure! RiiIIiight!! It also had nothing to do with an American leader seeking to reinsure his second term, if you believe that? I can sell you the Independence Arch very cheaply, alright – buddy?
I set about in my brief question period to get a taste of what viewpoint did Richardson and/or Shoebat subscribe to and the Palestinian did not respond but Joel did {CLICK ON FOLLOWING LINK FOR FULL AUDIO};-
Let me state while I do accept that religiously and historically Israeli folk tend to have a better claim on that thin strip of land, NEVERTHELESS, while they may act in Self-Defense it does NOT give them the right to behave towards lesser armed Palestinians like the very they abhor!
The behaviour at times of Israeli soldiers towards Palestinian citizens can be reminiscent of the , it tends to put a lie to the , the pursuit of and also denigrates the memory of the late Raoul Wallenberg far less Schindler’s List. If a man is breaking into your home and has a catapult or a slingshot then using a Howitzer to despatch the enemy is hardly the fair thing, no matter the circumstances according to many laws around the world…
Conversely, not only Palestinians but any adherent of what they claim is Islam can truly justify some poor soul, male or female strapping on enough C4 to detonate five city blocks then walking into a nursery or a shopping mall and releasing the Dead-Man’s Switch is not only stupidity in ending your own life before its natural span, but is an act of cowardice against innocent women & children who are most often the likely targets in such deadly rampages! Does Barbados really need to discuss this? Do we want it to escalate and start copy-catting in the CARIBBEAN, for Allah’s sake?
This where Richardson’s comments come into play again and I could not help but be reminded of Sting when he stated his perspective on the ages-old conflict {CLICK ON FOLLOWING LINK FOR FULL AUDIO};-
Many times and myself disagree over their treatment of Muslims here and abroad, yet I did have a concern when Anna Adamira (former owner of Jeff Mex then Carib Beach Bar and mother of “Coverley” Bjerkhamn‘s son who was involved in the patricidal tragedy) posed an intriguing query to Sabir Nakhuda who tried to dodge and eventually was forced to handle the interrogation {CLICK ON FOLLOWING LINK FOR FULL AUDIO};-
See how this compares with Bajan Imam Suleiman Bulbulia‘s version of what happened on Two Mile Hill that evening;-
...Shoebat and Richardson {misrepresented Islamic teachings} on several issues. Verses of the Quran were read out of context and the Shariah attacked.
While solutions to the future of Israel and Palestine were to be discussed in detail, it was overshadowed by the Muslims v Christians/Jews debate.
No common ground was found by the panelists but what was clear was that the drive by the two speakers from America was to present a case for Barbados to unreservedly support of Israel.
Several members of the audience in a post discussion made a request for other speakers to be invited to Barbados to discuss the issue in a more objective manner and to discuss all issues from both sides.
Sadly, the event offered little education and debate on the situation in Israel and Palestine. There also was no real Israeli or Palestinian representation on the panel and the issue of religion overshadowed the debate. The audience got very little out of their $10.
Ten Dollars? What Charles Duncan O’Neal, my friend? The event was FREE! If you paid anyone money, then someone got a Mini and a Coke for free that night! Was Sharia under attack? Yes, but so was Jewish methods of military response, both sides accused the other of Terrorism – in fact, one of the highlights downplayed that night was Walid Shoebat‘s history;-
I used to be a radicalised Muslim willing to die for the cause of Jihad until I converted to Christianity in 1994. As a member of the PLO, I was involved in terror activity, and was imprisoned in Jerusalem for three weeks. In prison, I was recruited to plant a bomb in Bethlehem as a result of which, thank God, no one was injured. My mother was an American and my father a Palestinian Arab. My parents sent me in 1978 to the United States to study at Loop College in Chicago Illinois. There I was recruited at a hotel “Terror Conference” by Jamal Said, a founder of the IAP (Islamic Association of Palestine) and Imam at one of the largest mosques in Chicago. The IAP was a forerunner to today’s Hamas terror organization and also to the terror front group CAIR (Council for American Islamic relations). This was in the early 1980s when I was being trained for Jihad activities in the USA along with many other young foreigners as well as US citizens. The Imams were the prime recruiters for terrorism then as they are still today and terror conferences are held all over the USA to this day.
He acknowledges by Islamic law he is an apostate and was supposed to have been executed 48 hours after converting to Christianity, a point he continuously reminded the panel of and was trying (mostly to no avail) to rag Mr Nakhuda. The confrontation between Abraham’s descendants got very ugly, very fast!
Peter Wickham called the session to a close and expressed disappointment how no one looked at US President Obama’s suggestion that Middle East talks resume where the lines revert to how Palestine & Israel were in 1967, pre the Six Day War. He was also disappointed how no one sought to offer a solution when Mr Shoebat who realised that ” — truth is offensive…” a point that is readily the case in Barbados, while extremely vocal the whole night delivered one of the most astute comments in my view {CLICK ON FOLLOWING LINK FOR FULL AUDIO};-
The contention from Mr Shoebat is not as far fetched as one may consider, author Tom Robbins tried to put this view forward in “Skinny Legs & All” where he had a restaurant with a West Indian name – “The I & I Restaurant” owned and operated by Isaac and Ishmael, yes, a Jew and Palestinian who felt the conflict was ridiculous when put against the backdrop of Life! Here’s more on the phenomenal yet side-splitting comedy;-
“A painter’s struggle with her art, a restaurant opened as an experiment in brotherhood, the journey of several inanimate objects to Jerusalem, a preacher’s scheme to hasten Armageddon, and a performance of a legendary dance: these are the diverse elements around which Robbins has built this wild, controversial novel. Ellen Cherry Charles, one of the “Daughters of the Daily Special” in Jitterbug Perfume, takes center stage. She has married Boomer Petway and moved to New York, hoping to make it as a painter. Instead, she winds up a waitress at the Isaac and Ishmael, a restaurant co-owned by an Arab and a Jew. Robbins’s primary concern is Middle Eastern politics, supplemented along the way with observations on art, religion, sex, and money. Few contemporary novelists mix tomfoolery and philosophy so well. This is Robbins at his best.”
What this brought to mind was War‘s “” a great way to conclude this sensitive topic…
…The color of your skin don’t matter to me
As long as we can live in harmony?
Why can’t we be friends…
Leave a Reply