Speaking at the dinner was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheik Akrama Sabri.
Wendy says that her feeling is that the translator for the sheik was emphasizing a lot of peace and co-operation, and less so on the juicy "Allah/Mohammad/Ummah/Kuffar stuff ". She sent out her recording of the event. In light of Richard Martineau's colum today, I look forward to the results.
He points out that the good Sheik, who is speaking in Montreal tonight, supports marital rape. He cites a statement the Sheik made on Egyptian television:
«Frères et soeurs, ce n'est pas un secret qu'en Occident, avoir une maîtresse est permis. Il y a même des lois qui permettent l'emprisonnement des hommes qui forcent leur femme à avoir des relations sexuelles quand elles n'en veulent pas ! Mais si l'homme couche avec sa maîtresse, il n'y a pas de problème.
«Ça, ce sont les lois de l'Occident. Un homme est considéré comme un violeur juste parce qu'il a couché avec sa femme contre son gré !»
Let me translate that for you:
Brothers and sisters, it is no secret than in the West, it is permitted to have a mistress. There are even laws that allow for the imprisonment of men who force their wives to have sexual relations with them when they don't want any! But if the man sleeps with his mistress, there is no problem.
Those are the laws of the West. A man is considered a rapist just because he slept with his wife against her will.
Martineau wonders: Will the feminists react?
To be fair, maybe the feminists and the leftists didn't know about this guy. Carolyn Parrish was in the audience at his speech in Toronto, and it's not impossible that this news hasn't reached their ears.
The problem is that this mufti is an influential voice in the fight for Palestinian independence. He and like-minded individuals are the ones leading the fight to a Free Palestine.
These and like-minded individuals from Hamas will lead Palestine. They will impose laws in line with the mufti's thinking.
And the left doesn't seem to be too perturbed by that. Otherwise, I think they are often willfully blind.
They denounce the so-called "apartheid" of Israel-- the only democratic country in that region-- while seemingly blinding themselves to the agenda of the people leading the Palestinian movement. Not to mention that large numbers of Muslims want Israel wiped off the map.
This is not to say that Israel is without blame or criticism. But if I had a choice between Israel which acknowledges basic human rights, and a Palestinian state that doesn't, I know whose side I'm on.
