Hebrew University Professor Raphael Israeli, author of the superb Islamikaze, has had his six-week Australian lecture tour canceled by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) -- because of his remarks about Muslim immigration. Dr. Israeli has kindly sent in from Australia some observations on the incident:
I became a celebrity two days after I arrived, and that subsumed all the rest of my activities. When the storm erupted, the dhimmi-like Jewish leadership cancelled all activities, in a shameful submisssion to the Muslim thugs and under the false claims of a "multi-cultural society" in Australia, which they know is not true.The story is two-sided: I gave an interview and said many harsh words about Islam in Europe, which the reporter extrapolated as applying to Australia too. The other issue is the political correctness which does not allow those things to be said, though privately everyone supports what I said.
In any case, my teaching on Islam stands and it even increased interest in my lectures, but the public lecture tour was cancelled and the Jewish leadership shamefully disowned me instead of standing up for me. I blamed the violence of Muslims in the world (and by implication here) for the troubles they are having, but they chose to accuse the messenger. They apologized to the thugs and brought upon themselves the disgrace of unconditional submission.
They do not want to rock the boat. They are scared to stir things up. The easiest way for them was to sacrifice the guest they invited, thus punishing not me, but the Jewish audiences who need the education for which I was brought here.
I was also struck by the provinciality of the place, where a minor item of gossip about one individual who said something becomes a national issue. I am not the Minister of Immigration. Before me the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Costello have said harsher things after Muslim riots, but someone elected to seize upon this opportunity now and sweep Australia into a storm in a tea-cup.
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Yes we are a provincial backwater here in Australia, if we deny it we are fooling ourselves.
But you know that's not so bad, it gives us time to see the rest of the world taken over by Jihad before its our turn.
We also don't have great freedom of speech here, its not constitutional, and its reducing fast.
I supported this man's comments of course, I agreed with his concerns.
But Australians really hate it when a foreigner points out what we know to be true, like its OK to know your wife is a hideous hag but its inappropriate for anyone else to point it out.
That is why we accept what our leadership says but don't like it from someone else.
The Jewish lobby is gutless and should be ashamed of themselves for abandoning their man though.