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Jerry Gordon tells a story of contrasts between dhimmitude and moral courage in FrontPage. Since I have received a complaint about my not putting this up yesterday, I will take this opportunity to note that rarely does a day go by in which I am able to put up all that I would like to. Although this has not always been the case, I am the only one posting here at this point (volunteers welcome; contact me at director@jihadwatch.org and we'll talk it over), and there is simply too much news to catch it all. But I will continue to do my level best to do so; I only ask your patience, and that you not jump to any conclusions from the fact that something is not on the site.
Mazin Qumsiyeh and Samir Qumsiyeh are Palestinian Christian cousins from Beit Sahour in the Palestinian territories. Mazin is an American academic and the virulent leader of several anti-American and anti-Israeli groups and a self-proclaimed Palestinian nationalist who routinely calls Israelis "Zionazis." In contrast, his cousin, Samir, is trying to save the remnant of the once vibrant Palestinian Christian community from what he has called "Islamic thugs" abusing his people and stealing their lands. The Qumsiyeh cousins are a world apart; one is an extremist who would deliver his own people into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists, while the other is a fierce opponent of them.On Wednesday evening, September 14th, the Universalist Unitarian Society in Manchester, Connecticut will sponsor a potluck dinner followed by a panel of anti-Iraq war and anti-Israel speakers. Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, sometime head of the genetics lab at Yale Medical School, but in actual fact the full-time executive director of an anti-Israel advocacy group named "Al Awda-The Palestine Right of Return Coalition," will be one of the speakers on this panel of self-styled "anti-imperialist" extremists.
In April, 2003, I photographed Dr. Qumsiyeh at a protest of an honor given to former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. Qumsiyeh was waving a banner saying "End 55 years of Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands." When I caught up with the indefatigable Dr. Qumsiyeh at a panel on Genocide and Terrorism being held at Yale's Whitney Humanities Center later that month, I asked him as an acknowledged Palestinian Christian whether he was a Dhimmi (a subjugated non-believer under Muslim sharia law). He scoffed and said no, although he was a Lutheran he said that he was first and foremost a Palestinian nationalist.
In May of 2003, Dr. Qumsiyeh was embroiled in an unauthorized abuse of the email system at Yale with overtones of anti-Semitism that roiled the campus for months.[1] In November, 2004, Qumsiyeh was a prominent speaker at a memorial held in New Haven in honor of the late Palestinian terrorist leader and renowned murderer, Yasser Arafat.[2]. Last October at Duke University during a controversial Palestinian Solidarity Movement conference held there, investigative journalist Lee Kaplan heard Dr. Qumsiyeh say that "Zionism is a disease."[3] Qumsiyeh, according to Kaplan's account, "denounced the Jewish state's existence and cited texts that he claimed proved "Nazi-Zionist collaboration existed during the Holocaust." He also stated that all Jews must leave the land of Israel while claiming to abhor nationalism of any kind.
Now, courtesy of the Sunday Telegraph in London, comes a story about another Qumsiyeh -- a cousin from the same clan, Samir Qumsiyeh.[4] Lebanese Maronite Christian Brigitte Gabriel, who fled PLO persecution in southern Lebanon to live in Israel, says she considers all Arabs regardless of religion as basically "tribes with flags." Ex-PLO Terrorist Walid Shoebat, who has spoken frequently in Connecticut over the past two years has identified all the Qumsiyehs as being from the same clan in the West Bank from the village of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem. In fact, Samir's cousin Mazin has spoken longingly of his families' olive groves in Beit Sahour and of Israeli allegedly "taking" from them for the building of the security fence to keep out terrorists from Israel. Shoebat also knows that Mazin as a youth was an active supporter of the PFLP, a known terrorist group, and may have participated in an attack on an Israeli soldier who was nearly lynched[5].Samir Qumsiyeh, Mazin's cousin, is also a Palestinian nationalist but with a different view and now living with a free pass in Orange, Connecticut as a naturalized American citizen under the protection of our constitution. He has a different picture to paint of the plight of Palestinian Christians. He says they are disappearing fast -- their continued presence in the West Bank is threatened by what Samir Qumsiyeh calls the "Islamic Fundamentalist mafia. Who are taking our lands." He isn't blaming the Jews. Samir has a dossier of 93 incidents of anti-Christian abuse and over 140 illegal land grabs by the "Islamic mafia gangs." Samir Qumsiyeh has tried to get the attention of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas about this but to no avail.
The latest incident reported by the Associated Press about such persecution is bizarre[6]: A star crossed love affair between a 30 year-old Muslim woman and a Christian man from the village of Taybeh near Ramallah ended in the unfortunate young woman's family murdering her by forced poisoning in an "honor killing," followed by Muslims rampaging through the Christian village and burning 14 homes, including that of the alleged Christian lover. Samir Qumsiyeh noted in the Sunday Telegraph article that the number of Christians in the Palestinian territories has plummeted from 20% of the population in 1948 to less than 2% today and is still shrinking fast. More Palestinian Christians live abroad in a Diaspora in countries like Chile where ex-PLO terrorist Walid Shoebat has told me he found more than 250,000 of them during a lecture tour he did there in 2004. They were living prosperously without threat to their life and property.
So the question for the assembled anti-American and anti-Israel rejectionists in Manchester, Connecticut this Wednesday, September 14th, is who is the real Palestinian Christian, Mazin Qumsiyeh, the rabid Palestinian Nationalist, or his cousin Samir Qumsieh, the concerned Palestinian Christian fighting Islamic fundamentalist "thugs" to save his people from annihilation?
Those of us who will attend to voice our opposition to Mazen Qumsiyeh's presentation to the Universalist Unitarian Society think we know the answer. And will those gathered in Manchester, Connecticut, be able to answer the same question?
No doubt "cousin" Mazen Qumsiyeh hopes they won't.
Mr. Gordon, a former Military Intelligence officer, is a writer and activist who resides in Connecticut.
Notes:
[1] "Qumsiyeh defends against charges of anti-Semitism, The Yale Herald,
November 17, 2003[2] " Groups Host Memorial for Arafat," Yale Daily News, November 17, 2004.
[3] Lee Kaplan, "Inside Duke's Hate Fest," FrontPageMagazine, October 29, 2004.
[4] See: 'Islamic mafia' accused of persecuting Holy Land Christians
By Harry de Quetteville in Bethlehem, Sunday Telegraph, September 11, 2005[5] Alyssa Lappen and Jerry Gordon: "Former Terrorist Speaks,"
FrontPageMagazine, April 2, 2004[6] 'Honor killing' feud shows Arab divide," Associated Press, September 5, 2005
Posted by Robert at September 15, 2005 1:12 PM
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And how is Mazin Qumsiyeh's work in genetics doing? Is he giving Trofim Lysenko a run for his money?
Posted by: Hugh![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 15, 2005 1:30 PM
is this the same samir qumsiyeh who was arrested by the palestinian authorities and had his tv station, al-mahed, closed down?
Posted by: freddiefreeloader at September 15, 2005 3:05 PM
freddie:
Really interesting question. Chances are good they are one in the same, but where did you hear about that? Not in the Mainstream Media I'm sure.
Posted by: waterdragon52 at September 15, 2005 5:17 PM
I am sorry folks - just a little off topic if you will bear with me.
Below is a post I made near the end of the ENORMOUS thread from the Fitzgerald's 5 most dangerous words, which no one will see because you have to read 100 posts to get there.
---------------------------------
wwwwWoW!!!
This has been the most amazing thread - I read about 3/4 of it before running out of desire (which is not too bad).
So my point will be brief - with regard to the historical mistakes of Christians and Muslims reported by ia786.
Ia786 - here is the essential difference.
Christians refer to historical Muslim atrocies as an explanation for CURRENT Muslim atrocities (looking for a continuing pattern).
Muslims refer to ancient Christian atrocities to either 1) explain their CURRENT atrocities (its all payback) or 2) to try to create moral equivalence (like - hey, you guys have been bad guys too, even if it was 500 years ago, so don't start preaching to us).
Neither of the Muslim historical references are valid arguments. Keep in mind this essential difference in how islamist apologists and Infidels reference the past to support their arguments. This is more to the point than the mile long ia786 posts, yes?
at September 15, 2005 6:52 PM
Well put, Skippy. As for this Dr. Qumsiyeh, I am disgusted that a 'fellow' geneticist could be such a virulent racist. Not a nationalist, he claims in one breath, then "Jews out!" in the other.
A sick, sick man.
Prophet Geoff
Posted by: Geoff at September 15, 2005 7:49 PM
Despite his protests to contrary, he's a classic dhimmi. Willing subservience to the arab muslims who rob and rape his extended family, out of fear. Obviously, the Jews aren't perceived as any kind of threat, so this pussbag can say what he wishes about them. I so wish we could deport him to palestine so he could practice dhimmitude in earnest. Does anyone at Yale even care?
Posted by: Infidel33 at September 15, 2005 11:10 PM
If the good doctor's goal is 'right of return' and other such rubbish, why doesn't he - return, that is? And stay. I'm sure there is much need for such a highly respected geneticist, lecturer, fund-raising hate-monger in Gaza since it is Juden free now. Perfect place for him and his ilk. He can do good works amongst "his people".
Posted by: bj at September 16, 2005 9:34 AM
It is amazing that Christianity in Palestine (Judea, Samaria, Edomia), its own homeland, is in such a pathetic state. The Christians there are suffering from a strange Stockholm syndrome. However, Dhimitude is really a survival mechanism at one hand and the same time is a very destructive state of being. However, you would find that most Christians in the territories have wised up to the biggest obstacle to their survival, the Muslims.
However, Israel by its own policies has contributed to the Christian exodus, which it sees as clearing up the field for a stronger Jewish presence. In fact, successive Israeli governments have sided up with the Muslims against the Christians on several contentious issues. The Christians are wedged between two groups that are much more powerful, aggressive and eager to see them gone, one way or another. The Israelis prefer immigration, the Muslims however use any means necessary, and take pleasure in it. Let us not kid ourselves, the Israelis have never been a friend to the local Christians and contributed immensely, either directly or indirectly, to their suffering. If the choice is between the lesser of two evils, the Israelis win hands down. But things are very complicated and much more precarious than simply making a choice between the two groups. Historically, siding against the Muslim, even when they are forced to do so by Islamic hostility has been extremely costly to local Christians as the Crusades and the Lebanese Civil War could attest to this grim historic fact. It is really a matter of choosing between a slow death and a quick one.
at September 16, 2005 10:42 AM
Mazin Qumsiyeh is no longer at Yale Medical School. His son is actually dating a Jewish girl!!
When questioned about the Muslim progrom against thre Christian village of Taybeh or Taibi he indicated that he knew about it and had relative there. I asked him if one of the 14 homes torched by the rampaging Muslims was his relative. No answer. On the matter of the honor killing of the hapless pregnant Muslim young woman that triggered the Taibi pogrom, Qumsiyeh inveighed moral equivalency. After all he knew Chrsitians who did it, too. He admitted that Samir qumsieh was indeed his cousin and that he had been "influenced" by "outsiders" presumably the Isrselis in making his reports about abuses of Christians and illegal land takings by Islamic "thugs." He said his cousin Samir is desperate to get money for his TV station and will do and say almost anything. After all, Qumsiyeh said; "there's 70 % unemployment in the territories." The man has no shame.
at September 16, 2005 12:54 PM
Water - i cant remember it was a few weeks ago. i think i read something in one of my mags and looked it up on the net
chinese (above) seems to confirm it is the same guy
Posted by: freddiefreeloader at September 16, 2005 1:50 PM
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