Propaganda feeds holocaust denials

[southsider2k5]

Propaganda feeds Holocaust denials

 

By Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the author of "Infidel," an autobiography to be published in the U.S. in February: Tribune Media Services

Published December 26, 2006

 

 

WASHINGTON -- One day in 1994, while living in Ede, a small town in Holland, I got a visit from my half-sister. She and I had applied for asylum in Holland. I was granted it; she was denied. The fact that I got asylum gave me the opportunity to study. My half-sister couldn't.

 

In order for me to be admitted to the institute of higher education I wanted to attend, I needed to pass three courses: a language course, a civics course and a history course. It was in the preparatory history course that I, for the first time, heard of the Holocaust. I was 24 years old at that time, and my half-sister was 21.

 

In those days, the daily news was filled with the Rwandan genocide and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. On the day that my half-sister visited me, my head was reeling from what happened to 6 million Jews in Germany, Holland, France and Eastern Europe.

 

I learned that innocent men, women and children were separated from one another. Stars pinned to their shoulders, transported by train to camps, they were gassed for no other reason than for being Jewish. It was the most systematic and cruel attempt in the history of mankind to annihilate a people.

 

I saw pictures of masses of skeletons, even of kids. I heard horrifying accounts of some of the people who had survived the terror of Auschwitz and Sobibor. I told my half-sister all this and showed her the pictures in my history book. What she said shocked me more than the awful information in my book.

 

With great conviction, my half-sister cried: "It's a lie! Jews have a way of blinding people. They were not killed, gassed or massacred, but I pray to Allah that one day all the Jews in the world will be destroyed."

 

She was not saying anything new. My shock over what she said was partly in light of so much evidence I had been shown recently and partly because of the genocides of our own time.

 

Growing up as a child in Saudi Arabia, I remember my teachers, my mom and our neighbors telling us practically on a daily basis that Jews are evil, the sworn enemies of Muslims whose only goal was to destroy Islam. We were never informed about the Holocaust.

 

Later, in Kenya, as a teenager, when Saudi and other Gulf philanthropy reached us, I remember that the building of mosques and donations to hospitals and the poor went hand in hand with the cursing of Jews. Jews were said to be responsible for the death of babies, epidemics such as AIDS and the cause of wars. They were greedy and would do absolutely anything to kill us Muslims. If we ever wanted to know peace and stability, and if we didn't want to be wiped out, we would have to destroy the Jews. For those of us who were not in a position to take arms against them, it was enough for us to cup our hands, raise our eyes heavenward and pray to Allah to destroy them.

 

Western leaders today who say they are shocked by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's conference denying the Holocaust need to wake up to that reality. For the majority of Muslims in the world, the Holocaust is not a major historical event that they deny. We simply do not know it ever happened because we were never informed. Worse, most of us are groomed to wish for a Holocaust of Jews.

 

I remember in Africa the presence of Western philanthropists, non-governmental organizations and such institutions as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Their agents brought those they considered needy medicine, condoms, vaccines and building materials--but no information on the Holocaust.

 

Unlike philanthropy given in the name of Islam, secular and Christian donors and relief organizations did not come with an agenda of hate. But they didn't speak out against hate either. This was surely a missed opportunity in light of the hate-spreading charities from oil-rich Muslim countries.

 

The total number of Jews in the world today is estimated to be about 15 million, certainly no more than 20 million. In terms of fertility, their growth can be compared with that of the developed world and in terms of aging too.

 

On the other hand, the world's Muslim population is estimated to be between 1.2 billion and 1.5 billion; not only is this population rapidly growing, but it is also very young.

 

What's striking about Ahmadinejad's conference is the (silent) acquiescence of mainstream Muslims. I cannot help but wonder: Why is there no counter-conference in Riyadh, Cairo, Lahore, Khartoum or Jakarta condemning Ahmadinejad? Why are the 57 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference silent on this?

 

Could the answer be as simple as it is horrifying? For generations, the leaders of these so-called Muslim countries have been spoon-feeding their populations a constant diet of propaganda similar to the one that generations of Germans (and other Europeans) were fed: that Jews are vermin and should be dealt with as such. In Europe, the logical conclusion was the Holocaust. If Ahmadinejad has his way, he shall not want for compliant Muslims ready to act on his wish.

 

To be sure, the world needs conferences of love, a promotion of understanding of cultures and anti-racist campaigns. More urgently, however, the world needs to be informed again and again about the Holocaust. Not only in the interest of the Jews who survived the Holocaust and their offspring, but in the interest of humanity in general.

 

Perhaps the first place to start is to counter the Islamic philanthropy laced with hatred against the Jews. Western and Christian charities in the Third World should take it upon themselves to inform Muslims and non-Muslims alike about the Holocaust.

[SoxFan562004]

very informative read, thanks for posting