Pamela Geller has posted a disturbing letter from an Atlas Shrugs reader in Milan:
Today January 9th 2011 in the Duomo Square, Milano, Italy, a rally was held by the Copts of Milano along with some supporting Italian organizations; among them there were the Northen Ligue, the “Amo l’Italia – I love Italy”, Magdi Allam’s party, and ADI (Amici di Israele – Friends of Israel).
Near the end of the gathering, the people from ADI put on their shoulders the Israeli flag. The Copts reacted violently refusing the presence of the Israeli flags. The police had to intervene to separate them and oblige the ADI people to leave the gathering.
You can see the pictures of the event here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=740485849&aid=322623
Being a friend of Maurizio Turchet, the photographer, I am in picture # 13, with a Citrali hat (the hat used by Osama bin Laden!) that I bought in Peshawar!
I think it’s really madness for a persecuted minority to behave like racists towards other minorities which support them, only because they can do it. What a pity!
Indeed. Historically, Islamic supremacist masters did their best to sow discord among different dhimmi communities, keeping them apart and at odds with one another, but those communities today only work against their own best interests by refusing to ally together. Bat Ye’or spoke the truth when she called upon the historical dhimmi groups — primarily Jews and Christians — to recognize that the jihad targets them for the same oppression and subjugation and to work together to resist that jihad.
In the same spirit, I have long called for an alliance of all those whose conversion, subjugation, or death is envisioned by the adherents of Sharia. We should stand together as Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, secularists, and resist those who would kill us or subject us to institutionalized discrimination. And while some Middle Eastern Christian leaders remain mired in antisemitism and dhimmi attitudes of intellectual and political subservience, others are breaking out of it.
Not all Copts are antisemitic: in mid-December several fiercely pro-Israel Zionists spoke at the Voice of the Copts’ International Human Rights Day conference in Washington — including Pamela Geller and me. Those who continue in antisemitic attitudes, like those at this rally in Milan, are not only working against the interests of their own community, but also against justice and truth.