News - October 2001

The recent terrorist attacks against the United States of America have confronted all of us across the nation with the corrosive consequences of hatred. For all the victims of this violence, for all who mourn the loss of family, friends, and co-workers, for all who have been injured or are in deep distress over the implications of September 11, we join in the outpouring of sympathy, condolences, and prayers.

In the midst of this unparalleled evil, we have all witnessed extraordinary deeds of compassion, concern, and cooperation. We applaud this impulse to stand in solidarity with our neighbors of different religions and cultural backgrounds. We also, however, have seen another impulse - the inclination of some to engage in verbal abuse and physical attacks on Muslims, Sikhs, Arab-Americans, and those who "look different". We reject unequivocally such expressions of hate or violence, and we are reassured by the condemnation of such acts by our government officials. We must keep in
mind that, throughout this nation, Muslims and Arab-Americans are united with other citizens in condemning terrorism and mourning the victims of these attacks.

We call for, and pledge to assist in, renewed efforts to promote religious and cultural understanding and mutual respect through dialogue and education. We urge the news media to exercise attention to language that distorts religious or cultural realities. We appeal to talk show hosts to refuse to engage in expressions of bigotry that could incite prejudicial acts against innocent people. Each of us needs to take responsibility to be vigilant in the protection of the rights of every human being.

At this painful moment in our history, we recognize more clearly that all of us are responsible to do our part in fashioning a world of justice and peace in accord with the will of God. We pledge to foster a culture of understanding, respect, and cooperation among people of all faith traditions. In this way, we will do our part in helping to make such a world. We call on all people of good will to join us in this holy work.

Yousef Abou-Allaban, MD, MBA
Islamic Society of Boston

Abdul Cader Asmal, MD, PhD
Chairman of Communications, Islamic Council of New England

Mohammad Salim Bajwa, MD
Executive Director, Islamic Council of New England

Grant C. Bennett
Cambridge Stake Presidency, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Rt. Rev. Bud Cederholm
Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts

Rabbi Samuel Chiel
Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Emanuel, Newton

Tahir Choudry
President, Islamic Center of Boston

Sheila R. Decter
Executive Director, New England Region American Jewish Congress

Venerable Sao Khon Dhammathero
President of Community of Khmer Buddhist Monks, USA

Most Rev. Thomas Dupre
Bishop of Springfield

Robert Dvorak
Superintendent, East Coast Conference, Evangelical Covenant Church

Mazin Duwaji, MD
President, Islamic Council of New England

Rev. Herbert L. Eddy
Presiding Elder, New England Conference, African Methodist Episcopal Church

Imam Talal Eid
Imam and Religious Director of the Islamic Center of New England
in Quincy and Sharon

The Most Reverend John Elya, B.S.O., D.D.
Melkite Eparch of Newton

Imam Abdullah T. Faarouq
Mosque Praise Allah, Roxbury

Rev. Dr. Ray Hammond
Chairman, Boston Ten Point Coalition

The Rt. Reverend Barbara C. Harris
Bishop Suffragan, The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts

Bishop Susan W. Hassinger
Boston Area of The United Methodist Church

Ms. Nancy Kaufman
Executive Director, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston

Anwar Kazmi
President, American Muslim Alliance of Massachusetts

The Rev. Dr. Diane C. Kessler
Executive Director, Massachusetts Council of Churches

M.S.S. Gurucharan Singh Khalsa
Sikh Dharma, Khalsa Council

Dr. M. Riaz Khan
Co-chair Interfaith Committee, Islamic Council of New England

A. Karim Khudairi, PhD
Chairman, Interfaith Committee, Islamic Council of New England

Chorbishop Joseph Lahoud
Our Lady of the Cedars of Lebanon Parish (Maronite)

Bernard Cardinal Law
Archbishop of Boston

Robert Leikind
Executive Director, New England Region Anti-Defamation League

Very Rev. Arthur E. Liolin
Chancellor, Albanian Orthodox Archdiocese in America

Lawrence Lowenthal
Executive Director, American Jewish Committee, Greater Boston Chapter

Rev. Dr. Stephen A. Macchia
President, Vision New England, Acton, MA

Imam Taalib Mahdee
Masjid Al-Qur'an

Karyn Mandan
Manager, Community Communications, The First Church of Christ, Scientist

His Eminence Metropolitan Methodios
Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Boston

Minister Don Muhammad
Nation of Islam

P. E. Narasimhan
Devotee/Member, Sri Lakshmi Temple, 117 Waverly St., Ashland, MA 01721.
Home phone: 781 270 9436

Most Reverend Sean P. O' Malley, OFM, Cap.
Bishop of Fall River

Venerable Natha Pandito Rithipol
General Secretary, International Khmer Buddhist Community

S. Asif Razvi, MD
Past President, Islamic Center of Boston/Wayland

Mohammad Ghiath Reda, MD
Past President, Islamic Center of Boston/Wayland

Most Reverend Daniel P. Reilly
Bishop of Worcester

Rev. Dr. Wesley Roberts
President, Black Ministerial Alliance

Rev. Carl Scovel
for the Council of Christian Churches in the UUA

The Rt. Rev. Gordon P. Scruton
Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts

The Rt. Rev. M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE
Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts

Rev. Dr. Linda C. Spoolstra
Executive Minister, The American Baptist Churches of MA
20 Milton Street, Dedham, MA 02026

Ji Hyang Sunim
Abbot, Cambridge Zen Center

The Rev. Dr. Nancy S. Taylor
Minister and President, Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ

Fr. John K. Teebagy
Pastor, St. John of Damascus Antiochian Orthodox Church, Dedham, MA

Walid A. Fitaihi, M.D., MPH
Instructor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Michael J. Goldberg
President, Greater Boston Chapter American Jewish Committee

Geoffrey H. Lewis, P.C.
President, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston

Fr. Saba Shofany
Associate Rector, Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Boston

Barry Shrage
President, Combined Jewish Philanthropies

Rabbi Barry Starr
President, Massachusetts Board of Rabbis

Webmaster's Note: The following excerpts come from an essay on a website self-described as "Islamic."* We post it here not to propagate its polemic or to caricature Islam, but to illustrate how antisemitic rhetoric first generated in past centuries in Christian Europe still has the power to generate religious hatred in the different contexts of today. Since such antisemitic libels were first devised in Christian lands and have subsequently been condemned by Christian leaders as "sins against God and humanity" [John Paul II, Nov. 16, 1990], Christians have a duty to be aware of and denounce their reappearance today.

The excerpts below rework ideas found in a nineteenth-century text entitled, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Originally, it was composed by a German, Hermann G?dsche, as part of a novel containing a chapter, "The Jewish Cemetery in Prague and the Council of Representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel." This chapter was actually a reworking of an earlier French political satire that was not concerned with Jews but which G?dsche now turned to antisemitic purposes. Although entirely a fictitious fabrication, G?dsche later republished his chapter as a historical transcript of a "Rabbi's Speech" at a clandestine meeting of Jewish leaders. Members of the Russian secret police in Paris translated the "Rabbi's Speech" into the Russian "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and published it in 1905 as part of a larger book, The Enemy of the Human Race. The Protocols as a separate booklet spread throughout Europe and into North America in the early decades of the twentieth century.

The Protocols recounts an alleged meeting in a cemetery of Jewish leaders from around the world who agree on a global plot to demolish Christianity and to use various financial, media, educational, and political plots to cause such worldwide chaos that all nations will come under their sway in a planetary government. Its wide distribution early in the 20th century permitted it to be used by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in their propaganda, and later by post-World War II "white supremacist" movements.

The text below is accompanied by the sources of its derivations from the Protocols.

* Click here for resources on Islamic-Catholic relations from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

For further information on the Protocols see:

Stephen Eric Bronnor, A Rumor About the Jews: Reflections on Anti-Semitism and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (New York: St.Martin's Press, 2000)
Pierre Charles, "The Learned Elders of Zion" in John M. Oesterreicher, ed., The Bridge: A Yearbook of Judaeo-Christian Studies - I (New York: Pantheon Books, 1955), 159-188.
Binjamin W. Segel, A Lie and a Libel, A History of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1995)
Robert Singerman, "The American Career of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion", American Jewish History 71 (1981), 48-78.

Zionists Could Be Behind Attack on WTC, Pentagon.	---
The September 11 terrorist attacks on World Trade Centre (WTC) in New York and Pentagon in Washington were masterminded by an international Zionist organization, " The Elders of Zion" as a reaction to the strong condemnation of the religio-ethnic cleansing policy being carried out by the Israelis in the Palestinian territories at the 3rd UN Conference against Racism recently held in the South African town of Durban.		The name of the purported organization "Elders of Zion" comes directly from the Protocols. Here it is changed from the imagined leaders of the Twelve Tribes of Israel into a super secret "Zionist" society, supposedly dedicated to the rule of the State of Israel over the world. ------------------------
According to an article published in a Lahore-based Urdu weekly, "The Jihad Times", the 300-member apex Zionist body consisting of peers of the Judaism in the world, decided to avenge the anti-Israel bashing at the Durban moot. It tasked the Zionist-controlled FBI and the Israeli secret agency Shabak, just second to Mossad, to carry out the devastating attacks, writes the weekly on the basis of strong evidence. The anti-Israel sentiments expressed at the 3rd UN conference against racism at Durban, sent a wave of concern among the Zionists at large and also among the various organisations guarding the Zionists interests, including the top body "ELDERS OF ZION". An overwhelming majority of the NGOs at the Durban moot wanted to adopt a strong anti-Israel resolution but the US and Western countries blackmailed the conference, forcing the organisers to delete strong anti-Israel words from the resolution.		For more on issues of antisemitism at the Durban conference in late Aug-early Sept. 2001, click here. --------------------
In the wake of Durban moot, the weekly continues, the Elders of Zion having their agents and proxies in different parts of the world gathered to ponder over the situation. The EoZ is the top most Zionist body having no formal head. The EoZ has neither a headquarters, nor the non-member sympathisers know its members. Even the Israeli Primer Minister Ariel Sharon is not amongst the EoZ members and does not know about the structure of the organization. The EoZ, it is learnt, avoids the use of modern technology and means of communication such as Internet and cellular phone to remain inaccessible to non-members and to ensure uninterrupted and continuous intra-organization contacts.		Note the derived motif of a secret gathering of Jewish leaders from around the world to consider the next step in a global plot. On the theme of secrecy note these comments of the fictional rabbi in the Protocols: "Our power ... will be more invincible than any other, because it will remain invisible until the moment when it has gained such strength that no cunning can any longer undermine it" [Protocol 1].
According to reliable sources, the EoZ met at a secret spot in Europe after the Durban conference to analyse the factors behind the anti-Israel and anti-Zionism sentiments of the world. The meeting decided to adopt strategic measures to change the world scene and divert the anti-Israel sentiments to some other direction like that of Muslims. The EoZ, which has controlled the world politics for long, planned devastating attacks against American cities besides launching a massive propaganda to make Muslims and Islam a scapegoat. September 11 was selected for carrying out the plan because the UN General Assembly was scheduled to meet in New York on September 15 at which the Arabs and the Muslim countries were expected to raise their voice against the continuing Israeli atrocities on the Palestinians and there was strong likelihood that anti-Israel sentiments might spread all over the world.		From the fictional rabbi's speech in the Protocols: "we shall show our strength ... by terrorist attempts and to all, if we allow the possibility of a general rising against us, we shall respond with the guns of America ..." [Protocol 7] -----
[...] The EoZ is learnt to have instructed the Zionist controlled media to unleash a vilification campaign against the Muslims portraying them as the perpetrators of the attacks on the US cities. In no time, Muslims were portrayed as the real culprits behind the attacks. With this, the wave of anti-Israel sentiments died down and was successfully diverted against the Muslims. Resultantly, a deep hatred was created against the Muslims every where in the United States and the Western world. The Zionist controlled media including the CNN, the Washington post, The Time and The Newsweek, magazines, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and ABC News, etc, were vying with each other in mud-slinging against the Muslims. And none of these was trying to probe the facts. [...]		From the fictional rabbi's speech in the Protocols: "In the hands of the States of to-day there is a great force that creates the movement of thought in the people, and that is the Press... But the goyim States have not known how to make use of this force; and it has fallen into our hands. Through the Press we have gained the power to influence while remaining ourselves in the shade" [Protocol 2]. ----------------- From the fictional rabbi's speech in the Protocols: "We must compel the governments of the goyim to take action in the direction favoured by our widely-conceived plan, already approaching the desired consummation, by what we shall represent as public opinion, secretly prompted by us through the means of that so-called 'Great Power' -- the Press, which, with a few exceptions that may be disregarded, is already entirely in our hands' [Protocol 7]. --------------------
[T]here is strong possibility of an all-out confrontation between the Muslims and the Christians-followers of world's two major religions, bringing back the memories of Crusades. If so, a big chunk of the world population were doomed to perish, giving way to the Jews, a tiny minority in the world, to emerge as a major power on the world scene.		From the fictional rabbi's speech in the Protocols: "When we come into our kingdom it will be undesirable for us that there should exist any other religion than ours of the One God with whom our destiny is bound up by our position as the Chosen People and through whom our same destiny is united with the destinies of the world. We must therefore sweep away all other forms of belief" [Protocol 14].