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.