09-26-09 Choice between bikini and berqa in Arab world is about absent freedoms

Choice between bikini and berqa is about absence of freedom in Arab World
By Ray Hanania – As I always do around this time of year, I pushed aside the Arab-Israeli conflict for a moment to contemplate the more serious conflict between secular Muslims and Christian Arabs and the growing religious extremism in the Middle East. There are 22 Arab countries, yet only two had the courage (or pride in their women) to field entrants in this year’s Miss Universe Pageant, which was held in the Bahamas, where string bikinis replace car bombs and women are truly free.The only two Arab countries that entered contestants, again, were Egypt and Lebanon.

HANANIA: Nadia Hilou, a lone Arab-Israeli Christian voice for families and children, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 9-23-08

Nadia Hilou, a lone Arab-Israeli Christian voice for families and children
By Ray Hanania – In the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that dominates everyone’s attention and the news, another fight for the protection of children, families and Christian education is taking place in the Middle East. It is being waged by a Palestinian woman named Nadia Hilou who has bucked the systems in Israel and in the Palestinian community to do what some thought not possible.

HANANIA: Olmert offers tough words that focus on real Middle East problem, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Sept. 16, 2008

Olmert offers tough words that focus on real Middle East problem
By Ray Hanania  – Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had tough words to describe the militant actions of Israeli settlers living on occupied lands in the West Bank as he prepares to step down from office. Olmert, who is resigning his post in the face of a criminal probe into his administration, criticized the settlers, most extremist fanatics including many with dual citizenship from the United States, as perpetrating “pogroms” against Palestinian civilians.

ARCHIVED HANANIA: How Israel’s extremists midwifed the birth of Hamas, For Immediate Release, March 9, 2008

Sharon’s Terror Child: How the Likud Bloc Mid-wifed the Birth of Hamas
By RAY HANANIA – Hamas is considered one of Israel’s greatest threats, but the Islamic terrorist organization found its beginnings in the misguided Israeli effort to encourage the rise of a religious alternative that would undermine the popularity of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Yasir Arafat. The strategy resulted in the birth of Hamas which rose from these Islamic roots.

HANANIA: Israel hides immoral conduct behind Congressional hypocrisy, For Immediate Release, March 7, 2008

Israel hides immoral conduct behind Congressional hypocrisy
By Ray Hanania — This week, the U.S. Congress once again threw kerosene on Middle East violence and suffering, insuring the violence will continue, not end. Approved 404 to 1, House Resolution 951 is filled with dozens of paragraphs condemning Hamas and its rocket attacks against Israel, while defending Israel’s government response which has killed scores of innocent Palestinian men, women and children. The end result is that by playing one-sided politics, Congress is helping to destroy Israel and all hope moderate Palestinians have for their own secular, independent state.

HANANIA: Ashamed of American Christian abandonment of their faith, For Immediate Release, 12-24-07

Ashamed of American Christian abandonment of their faithBy Ray Hanania — Does your mother have to be from Bethlehem before you can even bother to care for the fate of that holy city? My mother and her family are from Bethlehem. She was born down the street from the Holy Manger where Jesus was cradled more than 2,000 years ago.  Down the street from the Church of the Nativity built many centuries ago to mark that site which is revered by hundreds of millions of true Christians around the world. And now, down the street from one of the most offensive, disturbing constructions, the 26 foot tall “barrier” that Israel’s government declares is a “fence.” This “fence” is 24 feet tall and is made of concrete. It is a Wall, as even former President Jimmy Carter has said in disgust, and it snakes up and down the streets of Jesus’ Birthplace. This Wall is not constructed to protect Israelis from Bethlehem terrorism, or from terrorism from any other place in a conflict that has raged unending since 1947, but rather it is being built by Israel so Israel can steal more land from Palestinians who are Christian and Muslim.

HANANIA: Gesture of tolerance in Oklahoma turns to hate, For Immediate Release, 10-26-07

Religious gesture of understanding turns into usual debate on hate
By Ray Hanania – An ethnic advisory commission set up by the Governor of Oklahoma printed copies of the Quran, the Islamic “bible,” had them embossed with the State Seal and offered to distribute them to the 149 members of that state’s legislature. After all, earlier in the year, Oklahoma lawmakers also were given free copies of the Bible by a non-government and religious organization called “The Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.”  The organizers paid for the Quran’s using private, not government money. So why is there a controversy?

HANANIA: Battle over Muslim schools really about pro-Israel activism, For Immediate Release, 10-19-07

Battle over Muslim schools really about pro-Israel activism

By Ray Hanania – A federal panel says that a Saudi Arabian school based in Northern Virginia should be closed because they don’t like some of the things they assert the school is teaching its students. Not surprisingly, the actions of the so-called U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (CIRF) are no different from other U.S. commissions controlled by the Bush Administration that have shown a clear pattern of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias.

CARTOON: A Veil on the Mind? For Immediate Release 10-03-07

Extremist Muslims in America are trying to force Americans to drop traditions that conflict with Islamic traditions provoking extremist Christian groups, while moderate Muslims and Christians remain silent on the sidelines. Visit http://www.hanania.com/cartoons/cartoons.htm for the War on Terrorism Cartoon archives.