re libel threat to me

I have received this from Steve Gilmour, journalist with Talk Radio Europe

I received the following email from Steve Gilmour

Felix,

We are within touching distance of an agreement, if that is what you want.

If you place the apology, that was requested, on your blog within the next 24 hours, then that will be enough for me to stop any further action.

My lawyers are holding back a letter that was going out to you today as my “gesture of good faith”.

We have copies of your original blog, both at the station and at our lawyers offices, we are advised that your action of simply removing the comments will not be sufficient to protect you, if we proceed with legal action.

I look forward to your positive response.

Steve

To end this matter and to protect myself from the reactionary libel laws of Europe I am therefore issuing an apology for the comments made by me about Gilmour on January 8.

Felix Quigley

The issue still remains Iran and the Nuclear Bomb

by Felix Quigley

January 29, 2010

The issue still remains Iran and the Nuclear Bomb

It was very clear over 10 years ago when Robin Cook then Foreign Minister in Britain thought that talking, then perhaps sanctions, would stop the Islamofascist Mullahs of Iran

That was total bullshit by the British, the Europeans and by the US

Since then iran has got within reach of the Nuclear Bomb, and also has what the Europeans seem to overlook, the ability to reach by rocket every part of Europe.

Now as this report by DEBKAfile makes clear the EU has given up even on sanctions.

Sanctions never had a chance of getting off the ground anyway because the antisemitic Stalinists in China and Russia are in league with Iran and would block them

Israel is in the firing line and this report makes clear that its leaders are bankrupt

[Begin report from DEBKAfile here]

Israel’s president, prime minister and foreign minister are visiting Berlin, Warsaw and Budapest this week, apparently impervious to the European Union foreign ministers’ decision in Brussels Monday, Jan. 25, to back away from sanctions for Iran’s nuclear program outside the UN Security Council. 

German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle signed off on the motion, the day before Israeli president Shimon Peres’ Hebrew address to the German parliament in Berlin.
debkafile: The Netanyahu government clings to the anchor of supposed international sanctions for halting Iran’s advance on a nuclear weapon. Monday, before traveling to Poland, prime minister Netanyahu said at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum:  “Today there are new Jew haters with new reasons to destroy the Jewish people. This is a test for humanity, and we will see in the coming weeks how the international community will stop the evil before it spreads.”
Well, he had his answer than same afternoon, yet this eloquence vanished on the plane trips to Europe.
None of the Israeli travelers have commented on the decision by the European foreign ministers to dump the sanctions option in the laps of Russia and China, knowing their vetoes are committed in advance and that both stand out for more diplomatic engagement plus concessions to Tehran.  The EU foreign ministers stated: “With Iran, [sanctions] will work out only if all the UN Security Council permanent members agree.” Every one of those ministers was fully aware that this proposition was a fantasy.
 

If Israel counted on Washington staying the course, there too there are signs of cold feet. The Obama has reduced the target of possible unilateral measures to the Revolutionary Guards Corps which is responsible for Iran’s nuclear program, in order to avoid harming the Iranian people. 

As debkafile has stressed before, the Revolutionary Guards have umpteen mostly criminal ways of beating sanctions: They run a vast network of straw companies worldwide and move money around through international crime, smuggling, terror and drug conduits out of America’s reach rather than the banking system.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi are undoubtedly Israel’s best friends on the European continent, but they too conduct a dual policy on Iran. They sternly denounce Iran, while at the same time hundreds of German and Italian companies do business with the Islamic Republic, some even selling components for its missile and nuclear programs. Indeed, German and Italian firms are in tight competition over the Iranian market, with the latter reportedly gaining the edge this year.
No German transaction with Iran has been cancelled under Israeli pressure contrary to reports to this effect.
The most realistic European leader is French president Nicolas Sarkozy who Tuesday, Jan. 26, called for new and different steps to be pursued to halt Iran’s dash for a nuclear bomb. Still, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner did not hold out against his colleagues consensus in Brussels.

http://www.debka.com/article/8554/

So the issue is still Iran, the issue is still antisemitism in the present, the issue is still the continuum of antisemitism over 2000 years, of which the Holocaust was a part and an episode, and that the antisemites are preparing a new great killing of the Jews.

THE SMASHING OF THE LIBEL LAWS IS A MAJOR SOCIALIST ISSUE

by Felix Quigley

January 28, 2010

The British libel laws are a terrible minefield. I am changing the format of this blog considerably

I will spend more time on history, more on good analysis by other writers, and more on reporting on the actual practice of our cadre

What goes on in small radio stations, no matter how infuriating, will be left well alone

Possibly create an email list to notify of articles etc

WHY ARE THEY ALL SEPARATING THE HOLOCAUST FROM ANTISEMITISM TODAY?

by Felix Quigley

January 28. 2010

We tend to forget that from 1933, the Nazis taking power, until the Wansee Conference was 9 full years and these were full years.

Martin Gilbert (page 37 to 39, a History of the Twentieth Century, Volume 2) gives a full report of these years, in this case 1933

Taken fom the London Daily Express it involved Stormtroops entering the village of Arnswalde, in Pomerania, then followed beatings, burning of books etc

Following morning most of the Jews had left the village.

And this is instructive

“ That same morning German children on their way to school helped themselves to toothpast, soap and sponges lying in the wreckage of a Jewish chemist´s shop, “while” in the words of the report “parents and teachers looked on”.

There is much of this ilk in these pages by Gilbert, and this was 1933. Remember 9 more years until Wannsee.

What these people had to contend with. What suffering.

Main point, the Holocaust was not sudden but part of the continuum of anti-Semitism, into the present day, which is the main fact that all these memorials are hiding on this Holocaust Remembrance

On the Holocaust Remembrance, year 65 yesterday, all the reports I read are never once associating what happened then with what is happening now, and the fury and hostility directed towards the small Homeland of the Jews Israel.

That is the crisis of leadership that exists.

JANUARY 20, WANNSEE CONFERENCE, WE TROTSKYISTS WILL FIGHT THE ANTISEMITES TO THE END

by Felix Quigley

20 January, 2010

It is 68 years since the Wannsee Conference. This was the decisive event in the killing of 6 millions of Jewish people in the Holocaust. It happened on January 20, 1942. It was basically a meeting of Nazi bureaucrats who met to take decisions on the transport of Jews to the death camps in Poland and to their killing there.

It was held in strict secrecy. This aspect of the Nazis death programme must be emphasized. The killing of the Jews was carried out in great secrecy.

And yet do not let this secrecy give a wrong impression. The great film on the Holocaust simply called “Shoah” is very important in understanding the Holocaust. It lasts for 9 hours and in a patient way it explores the thinking of the Nazis. Many of these old Nazis were interviewed in great depth. What was outstanding was that nothing at all after all of 50 years had changed their Jew Hatred, another name for which is anti-Semitism, which we on this site talk about a lot, and fight continually as Trotskyists.

Now there is much talk about the destruction of the Jewish Homeland, the “smashing” of the state of Israel, why there should not be a “Jewish” state, and many such thoughts are voiced especially now within Islam, within the Fascist Left supporters of Islam. When we say “Fascist Left” let it be understood that we should always say “so called Left” because movements such as this are not left at all.

We on 4international are convinced that Obama, now President of the US, with his association with the Hamas loving Khalidi, is intent on the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.

With the destruction of the Jewish state must come another great killing of the Jews, another Shoah, or Holocaust.

But back to those German Nazis of the Thirties and Forties. The Holocaust was carried out in great secrecy but the ocean on which it sailed was an ocean of anti-Semitism, and we have the very same thing today

This was showed best of all in the Gaza war of just a year ago. Israel had been hit by missiles from Arabs in Gaza for 8 years. During these 8 years Israel simply more or less absorbed these missiles. This was really a callous act also on the part of the Israeli elite because the poor Jews of places like Sderot were suffering greatly, having to sleep underground,  and make great preparations to save their lives from these Arab antisemites.

The Israeli Government should have on the very first rocket that came from Gaza simply went in, take over Gaza, defeat and drive out Hamas, and never allow a situation where a Jew is fired at in Israel.

That is the essence of our Trotskyist position in relation to the defence of the Jews. We are opposed to all forms of pacifism when it is a matter of defence of the right to live of Jews. (That is what Wannsee on this day means to us)

Yet when after 8 years Israel did attack Hamas in order to defend Jews we see and remember what happened. There was a huge outcry against Israel and there was a major defence mounted to defend Hamas. Hence the Goldstone report etc. (We will return to these issues again)

Yes the Gaza war is the great lesson for all of us who are fighting against anti-Semitism. It is an issue we will return to again and again because in truth it links us to the Wannsee Conference of January 20, 1942.

We warn our enemies, we will on this site fight the antisemites to the end.

ILLUSIONS OF ISRAELI ELITES IN TURKEY ARE SMASHED ON ALTAR OF ISLAM

by Felix Quigley

January 18, 2010

Nothing shows better the crisis in Israeli leadership more than their whole relationship with Turkey. This analysis by Debkafile is most important as to the future of the very existence of Israel. We will discuss this in more detail later

[Begin analysis of Turkey here]

Israeli-Turkish relations dropped to another low Wednesday, Jan. 13, when Jerusalem was forced to send a letter of apology to Ankara Wednesday, Jan. 13, by Turkey’s president Abdullah Gul’s threat to recall the Turkish ambassador from Jerusalem. Turkish prime minister Tayyep Recip Erdogan, buoyed up by his power to force Jerusalem to bend, is reported by DEBKAfile‘s sources to be planning to intensify his campaign for grinding down the Jewish state, playing to the radical galleries in Tehran, Damascus, Gaza and Beirut. He is targeting Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak for a share in the ignominy.

The crisis in Turkish-Israeli relations was only temporarily defused late Wednesday when prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu forced deputy foreign minister to write a letter of apology to Ankara according to a script virtually dictated by the Turkish president on pain of the recall of the Turkish ambassador the next day.

Most of the day, foreign minister Lieberman and Ayalon refused to add to the half-hearted regrets they voiced earlier over the incident Tuesday, in which Lieberman and Ayalon, who saw red over the Turkish prime minister’s constant abuse, summoned the Turkish ambassador for a dressing-down.

Their foolish maneuver for putting Ankara in its place was to seat the ambassador on a sofa lower than his Israel hosts and calling TV cameras to witness his disgrace.

Ankara hit the ceiling, blowing the incident up into a major row. Netanyahu, rather than fire the foreign minister and/or his deputy for pointlessly fueling the crisis, exposed his weakness to outside pressure and succumbed to Gul’s ultimatum. Not only Turkey, but its new allies, Syria, Iran, Hizballah and Hamas, watched every move and drew their own conclusions.

The aftershocks rocked other parts of the Middle East: President Mubarak found himself wondering how to respond to Saudi King Abdullah’s effort to bring him over to Riyadh Thursday, Jan. 14 for a fence-mending encounter with Syria’s Bashar Assad. By folding under Turkish pressure, Israel strengthened the hand of Erdogan’s partner, the Syrian ruler, which meant that Mubarak would have to run an extra mile to settle his quarrel with Assad and oblige the king. This was more than he had intended.

In other words, by kowtowing to Ankara, the Israeli prime minister effectively pulled the rug from under the moderate Arab Middle East bloc and awarded points to the radical Turkish-Iran-Syrian coalition; the corollary is a stronger hand for the extremist Hamas against the Fatah-ruled Palestinian Authority.

A high-ranking Turkish official confided to DEBKAfile at the end of the day: “I didn’t know you Israelis were so stupid. You’ve made Erdogan’s sweetest dream come true.

Israel’s letter of apology may calm the crisis for a short period, during which Jerusalem will act as though the old friendly relations are back to normal, while the Turkish prime minister gets his next move ready to slap down when Israel has its next vulnerable moment.

DEBKAfile‘s sources disclose Erdogan is now working on a scheme to break the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. He recently approached Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and South African president Jacob Zuma with a plan for each to organize aid ships for the Gaza Strip. Because the expeditions would be led by the two presidents, he reckons that Israel and Egypt would hesitate to deny them access to Gaza for fear of a mighty international dust-up.

DEBKAfile reported Tuesday: Israel’s leaders, and some of its military and security chiefs, refuse to recognize that it is no good expecting Turkish prime minister Tayyep Recep Erdogan to stay friends with Israel while eagerly rushing into the arms of the radical anti-West Ahmadinejad, Assad and Chavez.

Jerusalem’s fond illusion is shared by the Obama administration which too refuses to accept that the Erdogan regime has divorced itself from the pro-Western bloc of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Israel and plunged headlong into the new “Northern Islamic Alliance” club, alongside Iran, the Lebanese Hizballah and the Palestinian extremist Hamas.

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6458

The linkage of Israel with Obama above needs to be challenged…FQ

ISRAEL SUPPORT FOR HAITI RAISES VITAL QUESTIONS

by Felix Quigley

18 January, 2010

This is a strange and an interesting phenomenon. Israel is foremost in the support of the people of Haiti. 4international believes this is both positive and negative and we will say more about this phenomenon later. We are familiar with Jews, or so called Jews, who do not support Israel yet are up to their necks in charity work. Anyway the details given us by Debkafile are interesting and important

[Begin Debka report on Haita here]

Within eight hours of its arrival Friday, Jan. 15, the Israeli team running the largest field hospital in Haiti had treated scores of patients. It was the only medical facility on the quake-stricken island with a functioning operating theater, which carried out three procedures on its first day. Another planeload of supplies and equipment will be sent out to restock the facility.

Sunday, Jan. 17, airplanes loaded with supplies were still circling with no place to land on the island’s only international airport, as the desperate population waited on the corpse-littered streets for the water, food, medicines and other basic needs reaching them far too slowly to save lives.

The Israeli hospital, located in the city’s Antoine Izmery soccer field, has a fully-equipped operating theaters, intensive care units, child and maternity wards, laboratories, an X-ray facility and pharmacy, carried in by El al jumbo jets. It is manned by the IDF Home Front Command’s 250 medical staff and search-and-rescue experts famed for saving lives in former world disasters.

A third of the medical team of 40 doctors, 20 paramedics and nurses plus technical staff are reservists who volunteered for the Haiti disaster relief team. Working flat out they are treating 500 patients a day. A small Zaka team, which flew in from Mexico Friday, pulled eight survivors out of the rubble of Haiti University.

Some 40,000 of the dead have been tossed into burial pits without identification. The estimate of 200,000 dead in the disastrous earthquake of last Tuesday may never be confirmed. Some 15 locations in and around Port-au-Prince are seen to have suffered an even worst catastrophe, 70 percent of all buildings destroyed, than the capital.

Following reports of looting and fights over food, the UN ordered thousands of peacekeepers to deploy in Port-au-Prince to help organize distribution in chaotic conditions.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrives in Haiti later Sunday. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton landed Saturday to deliver the massive aid supplies coming from America and evacuate US citizens

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6461

THE TYPE OF POLITICS THAT MAKES UP “PALESTINIANISM”:

THIS IS AN EXTRACTFROM DEBKAFILE

January 8, 2010, 12:32 PM (GMT+02:00)

Zakaria DoghmushZakaria Doghmush

DEBKAfile‘s military sources report that a bitter feud within the Popular Committees, climaxing in a failed attempt to murder the group’s leader Zakaria Doghmush, triggered the mortar volleys against the Kerem Shalom goods crossing and missile attack on Ashkelon Thursday, Jan. 8. It also marks weakened Hamas control.

Israel retaliated Thursday night with air strikes on three smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza, another snaking under the Israeli border and a missile foundry. The Palestinians report seven strikes and two dead. Their attacks have intensified in recent weeks, a year after Israel’s Operation Cast Lead against Hamas.

The attempt on the clan leader’s life, which the Popular Committees and Hamas kept dark, was staged last Monday, Jan. A taxi driver pulled in at Doghmush’s headquarters in the Sabra district of Gaza City insisting to his bodyguards that the large package he was carrying was for personal delivery to their boss. It went through without being examined and exploded thereupon. Doghmush was out of the room in those seconds and survived.

DEBKAfile‘s counter-terror sources report that two Popular Committees factions are warring over the distribution of power and funds and vying for Hamas support. Doghmush heads one camp, Abdul Khalim Fayoumi, known as “The Grandfather,” the second. He is suspected of the plot to murder his rival.

The next day, an Israeli bomber caught a Popular Committees group outside Khan Younes poised to fire a missile. The Committees’ missile chief, Jihad a-Samiri, was killed and five others injured. Doghmush resolved to turn the heat on the Israeli side of the border, both to avenge his death and to gain points in his feud with Fayoumi.

Doghmush is credited with opening the Gaza door to al Qaeda four years ago. Its influence in southern Gaza is expanding fast, posting a challenge to Hamas control, through a cluster of factions known, Jund al-Ansar Allah, Jaljalat, Jaish al-Islam and Shaish al-Umma. The powerful Doghmush clan, one of the largest in the Gaza Strip, made rich by smuggling and racketeering, dominates Jaish al-Islam, which together with Hamas carried out the cross-border kidnap of the Israeli soldier Sgt. Gilead Shalit in 2006.

It gained notoriety by snatching BBC journalist Alan Johnston in March 2007. Unlike Shalit, Johnston was later released.

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6453

ps

BY 4INTERNATIONAL

In the discussion on the RTE radio station in Spain at the time of the Gaza war one year ago the question was asked

How can Israel prevent terrorists from sending rockets into Israel. This had been going on for 8 years. Israel had been totally restrained for 8 years. many would say, very foolishly so.

There was no answer to this simple question coming fromt he other side on RTE

There really is no answer this side of war. That is the sad but real answer. No person every likes war or violence but as long as we live in this capitalist society no alternative has been invented.

BECOME A MEMBER OR ASSOCIATE MEMBER OF 4INTERNATIONAL

by Felix Quigley

January 8, 2009

What 4international need is 2 things mainly.

  1. We need to recruit members and or associates. At first we will settle for associates. That is people who will take some active interest in our website. This means a little more than just reading but maintaining contact with us through a secure email.
  2. We would like to see more comments on this blog. Readers of this blog are doing their own reading and they will come across aspects of these stories which are actually valuable, but if not placed down on paper then they are lost

 

The main requirement for membership or associate is that the email does not change, and if it does change for whatever reason you promise to send us your new one. Over the internet maintaining contact is the most vital thing because the internet is a very different kind of animal that must be tamed and used by the progressive workers movement, and the ordinary person must not be tricked by this internet thing.

We will include later an email address but the easiest way is to write in comment section below but mark it private for non publication. We moderate ALL comments here.

THE CONVOY OF HATRED LED BY GEORGE GALLOWAY

There is good coverage of this particular form of Israel hatred on Hary’s place. Url at the end.

[Begin extract from Harry’s Place here]

habibi, January 5th 2010, 9:00 am

Viva Palestina’s latest convoy to Gaza has found some wonderful partners between Turkey and Jordan.

Turkey
In Turkey, Viva Palestina has teamed up with a Turkish Islamist charity, IHH, as reported here. IHH is very close to Hamas and has been banned by Israel for that reason.

Never mind, the alliance gives Viva Palestina access to Turkish politicians, including Numan Kurtulmuş, the head of the hard line Islamist Felicity Party. At a reception for convoy leaders he hosted in Ankara, he must have warmed Holocaust mocker George Galloway’s heart with this barb:

“Israel is continuously keeping the Holocaust on the international agenda. Well, what about Israeli actions in Gaza?”

Here is a lovely picture from the Turkish meetings. Kurtulmuş is the third from the right of the men seated at the table. On the left is Kevin Ovenden of the “Respect” party, sporting a “resistance” look. Next to Ovenden is Mohammed Sawalha, a fugitive Hamas commander who has also been named on IslamOnline as “manager of the political committee of the International Organization of the Brothers [i.e. the Muslim Brotherhood] in Britain”.

ovenden_sawalha

Syria
On to Syria. Guess who was waiting to greet the convoy?

Earlier on Sunday morning, the vehicles of the lifeline convoy were warmly received at the Bab Al-Salama border crossing in Aleppo by a number of Syrian officials, people and Palestinian leaders.

In a welcoming speech, Osama Hamdan, the representative of Hamas in Lebanon, said that this aid convoy is the fruit of efforts made by some free men and women from Europe in solidarity with the Palestinian Arab rights aiming at breaking the siege on Gaza.

In Damascus, where the dictatorship put convoy participants up in a posh hotel, it was time for the honour of an audience with Hamas leader Abu Marzook. He’s in the middle of the picture below, between Galloway on the left and Bulent Yildirim, the head of Turkish charity IHH, on the right. Sawalha also graced the meeting with his presence.

hamas_damascus

Jordan
In Amman, ever helpful Sawalha was on the spot again, according to the “Palestine Solidarity Campaign”, a backer of the convoy of love for Hamas:

“An hour, or maybe more, later we were allowed to move, and drove on to a reception at a trade union centre in Amman, given by the Jordanian Engineer’s Association, in association with opposition parties. George Galloway and Mohammed Sawalha, of the British Muslim Initiative, both there.”

Here’s a picture of Galloway with Hamam Said, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan and a pro-Hamas man who is considered hard core even by Brotherhood standards. Oh dear, they look a bit glum.

said_galloway

Worse was to come. When the convoy reached the Jordanian port of Aqaba, Egypt refused permission for it to sail. In Amman, Said and around 100 others, yes, the stunning total of 100, according to this report, did what any normal person would do when Egypt makes a decision: hold an angry demonstration and burn the Israeli flag.

jordan

In Aqaba, Yildirim of IHH added to the belligerence with a call for the siege of Egyptian embassies, the filthy tools of the Israelis:

Up until now the world thought only Israel was a war criminal. But Egypt has proved it is also complicit in this crime. By preventing us Egypt has proved it is an Israeli-guided state. We will not remain silent against Egypt and besiege Egyptian embassies and consulates for days if needed.

Israel is encouraged by the Egyptian stance, Yıldırım noted, adding “They are proposing the aid convoy to enter Gaza through Israel. In other words, they have sold Gaza to Israel.”

yildirim_aqaba
Yildirim thundering in Aqaba, behind the flag of the Islamic Action Front, the Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood

For their part, stranded humanitarian peace ‘n love activists in Aqaba did their bit against Satan:

To protest Israel Gaza convoy activists resorted to an unusual method. They gathered at the Jordanian coast of the Aqaba Gulf and hurled stones at the Israeli coast of the Gulf, an act resembling devil stoning during hajj ritual. The activists carried pro-Palestinian banners and shouted anti-Israel slogans.

stoning

In the end Egypt agreed to allow the convoy to enter the country, but only through the Mediterranean port of Al Arish. So back on the road it was, to the Syrian port of Lattakia, where a Hamas camp kindly hosted the wayfarers.

The intrepid devil-stoning souls are now in Egypt, on their way to Gaza.

[here is good coverage on www.hurryupharry.org]

PS

It now appears that Egypt and states like Egypt will use the Arab “Palestinians” to make war on Israel and to kill Jews. That is the default position.

But when it comes to the crunch the Egyptians fear and hate Hamas, which is really the Palestine section of their own Muslim Brotherhood, their own sworn enemy. Hence the riots and an Egyptian death as a result of Galloway’s Convoy.

But this is not all. This Convoy really on behalf of Hamas, a banned organization, a known terror organization, has campaigned for months in Ireland and Britain.

They collected their money, held their Jew hating meetings, then set off.

And the Governments in Ireland and in Britain did not a thing. This is a clear example of the way that anti-Semitism is working in our era. The responsibility goes right back to the Fianna fail government led by Cohen, and to the Brown Labour Government in Britain. Cameron would be no better whatsoever, not worse, both equally bad towards these terrorist “Palestinians”.

We on 4international will keep a close eye on these things.

4international defends unconditionally the Chrsitians of Egypt

by Felix Quigley
January 7, 2009
This story is covered by Jihadwatch
It is a vital story and I rang in to the radio station Talk Radio Europe. This station is run and owned by a Dublin man who is Jewish called Maurice Boland. Boland attacked me in the most personal manner and said to his people that “I was not even a Jew”. He is right on that but I am a Trotskyist and I defend the Jewish people, also the Christian Copts of Egypt. Boland did not even refer to the persecution of the Copts
[start Jihadwatch story here]

An update on this story. “At Least 7 Killed After Coptic Christmas Mass In Egypt,” from the Associated Press, January 6 (thanks to Sashland):

Three men in a car sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd of churchgoers in southern Egyptian as they left a midnight Mass for Coptic Christmas, killing at least seven people in a drive-by shooting, the church bishop and security officials said.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry said the attack Wednesday just before midnight was suspected as retaliation for the November rape of a Muslim girl by a Christian man in the same town. The statement said witnesses have identified the lead attacker.

Prior reporting described the accusation of rape as a rumor. Nonetheless, riots ensued.

The attack took place in the town of Nag Hamadi in Qena province, about 40 miles from the famous ancient ruins of Luxor. A local security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed that seven were dead and three seriously wounded.

Bishop Kirollos of the Nag Hamadi Diocese told The Associated Press six male churchgoers and one security guard were killed. He said he had left St. John’s church just minutes before the attack.

“A driving car swerved near me, so I took the back door. By the time I shook hands with someone at the gate, I heard the mayhem, lots of machine gun shots,” he said in a telephone interview. He said he saw five bodies lying on the ground when he first looked at the site of the shooting, about 600 yards where he was.

The bishop said he was concerned about violence on the eve of Coptic Christmas, which falls on Thursday, because of previous threats following the rape of the 12-year-old girl in November.

He got a message on his mobile phone saying: “It is your turn.”

“I did nothing with it. My faithful were also receiving threats in the streets, some shouting at them: ‘We will not let you have festivities,”‘ he said.

Because of the threats, he said he ended his Christmas Mass one hour early.

He said Muslim residents of Nag Hamadi and neighboring villages rioted for five days in November and torched and damaged Christian properties in the area after the rape.

“For days, I had expected something to happen on Christmas day,” he said. The bishop said police have now asked him to stay at home for fear of further violence. […]

Clashes between Muslims and Christians are not uncommon in southern Egypt and in recent years have begun seeping into the capital. An Amnesty International report said sectarian attacks on the Coptic Christian community, comprising between 6 million and 8 million people in Egypt, increased in the year 2008. Sporadic clashes between Coptic Christians and Muslims left eight people dead.

Vendetta killing is also common among southern Egyptians, and is usually over land or family disputes.

The bishop said he had an idea of who the attackers were, calling them “Muslim radicals.”

“It is all religious now. This is a religious war about how they can finish off the Christians in Egypt,” he said.

I add this comment by a Jihadwatch reader called Hugh

[start comment from Hugh here]

The Copts are the unswerving, the descendants of the original Egyptians who did not, when the Arabs came, give up and accept Islam. Enduring the humiliation, degradation, and permanent physical insecurity of the dhimmi status, many Copts not unsurprisingly fell away, gave up, accepted Islam, took Arab names and thought of themselves no longer as Copts but as Arabs. They forgot their own past. But that was not enough for some Muslims, and there were episodes of mass forced conversions intermittently over the past thousand years.

How many of those Muslims now persecuting and even murdering Copts ever dare to realize that their own ancestors may have been Copts, and try to imagine the horrific circumstances which caused them to become Muslim? How many Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Indian Muslims do the same, to deploy whatever imaginative sympathy they have back in time, and to think of what were surely their Hindu (or possibly Buddhist or Jain) ancestors, and the circumstances under which they converted to Islam, and all that followed from that conversion, including the stunting, over the centuries, of moral and mental growth?
Who, among those who think of themselves as Arabs and make life difficult for the Berbers of the Kabyle, in Algeria, or elsewhere in North Africa, realize how few Arabs really came to North Africa, and how many of today’s Arabs are the descendants of Berbers, the very people now suffering from cultural and linguistic imperialism from the Arabs, because Islam is a natural vehicle for Arab supremacism, everywhere?

When will those whose ancestors were forced to become Muslim start to think back, start to wonder about it, as the film director Emir Kusturica did, and then decided, though formally born a Muslim, it was all nonsense, and he understood perfectly the conditions that caused his ancestors to become Muslim, and he was no longer going to continue the farce, and in a ceremony at a Serbian cathedral, this “Muslim” director had himself baptised?

There’s no need to worry about whether your children will someday listen to the siren-song of the violent Jihadists, or will be permanently looked at askance, with justified suspicion, all over the Western world — from here on out. There is no need to condemn your children to what I mention above, the moral and mental stunting of growth that the Total Belief-System of Islam guarantees. No, there is a way out. It’s the way chosen by Emir Kusturica, or by others who did not necessarily jettison Islam for some other faith, but at least, by way of that damned “identity” that everyone these days seems to think is so necessary to possess and give a name to, they choose another of their “multiple identities” (to borrow Bernard Lewis’s phrase) — Berber, Kurd, Turk, Perisan, Coptic Egyptian, Christian, Jew, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Buddhist — just with a little effective use of a mental time-machine.

It can be done. It makes sense.