Reports and Testimonials
Hate Mail and diatribes Read to see what critics say about us
Feedback on talks
Miscellaneous positive messages (Selected)
Palestinian activist Mazin Qumsiyeh explains.. Biographical article January 2004
Debate with Morton Klein, President of ZOA
Trinity attacks and responses
West Virginia Event
Sleeping on the Bus 5/8/04
Reactions to AlJazeera appearance
Backgrounder from a Zionist group http://www.adl.org/Israel/qumsiyeh/
My latest response 3/9/07 to a question about "where are the moderate Muslims condemning the extremist/radical Muslims":
Please forward to your friend and he is welcome to forward to his conservative colleagues. BTW, there are many more conservatives out there who are opposed to the hijacking of US foreign policy by the Zionist movement than the liberal (Zionist influenced) media would let us know. Hint of that came loud and clear with the viscious attacks on the paper of two conservative thinkers (Professors Mearsheimer and Walt). Anyway, my time is rather limited so I will try to point you to a couple of my articles where I addressed some of these issues and make some general brief statements.
First three caveats/disclaimers:
1) I am not a Muslim. I am a Christian who lived among Muslims as I grew up and went to school in a society that is majority Muslim. The Church and the mosque in my village are right next to each other (see picture at http://www.qumsiyeh.org/photographs/ ). The problems and conflics in Western Asia (what Europeans call "The Middle East") are like problems and conflicts everywhere: about power and greed and resources not about religions (although people use religions). My grandfather's best friend in school was Jewish (before the Zionist program) and my best friend in highschool was a Muslim.
2) Let us imagine if someone asked us to articulate what moderate native American voices spoke against the extremism of Native Americans during the European colonization. You can see it would be arguable whether this was even the right question. The answer would ofcourse be fairly complicated and not simple even if one was to ignore the fact that this is not the right question!.
3) I think it is more relevant to bringing about peace is to talk to those whom you do not know much about or whob the media tries to convince us are enemies (e.g. "Muslims"). With 1.3 billion Muslims around the world, it would be self-defeating to try to make generalizations. The largest Muslim populations BTW live in countries like India and Indonesia and Malaysia (hardly hotbeds of radicalism). But there are also over 9 million Muslims in America and why not engage with them directly (not via email).
With these caveats/disclaimers, I will try to answer briefly.
This article deals with hate and education but also about issues of extremism in general
http://www.qumsiyeh.org/educationandhate/
A more pertinent article on extremism and terrorism that I wrote after September 11 is posted here
http://www.cactus48.com/struggle.html
(note the email for me listed on top of that article is not the functioning email, please use this one qumsi001@hotmail.com)
If you read these two articles, you will realize that there is extremism in every society. But it is important to address the etiology of the diseases rather than their symptoms (I am in the medical field ;-). Islam is a more moderate religion IMHO than Judaism or organized Christianity (my own religion which has strayed quite far from what Jesus taught). Certainly historically far more destruction was done in the name of or by adherents of the latter two religions than in the name of Islam (e.g. Crusades, European Colonization of the Americas, genocides in WWII, Hiroshima and Nagazaki, ethnic cleansing of Palestine etc). The disparity gets even more amazing when we consider that there are 1.3 billion Muslims in the world (1/5th) and divide violence & extremism per unit population size.
The problem is that most US citizens get their information from mainstream media outlets and do not have time or inclination to read books, get research facts, etc. And mainstream media in the US has for far too long been dominated by racists with an agenda that has little to do with news or factual information (what Noam Chomsky calls miseducation). So I urge people interested to arrange teach-ins and other educational events on such topics. People are eager for more truthful information. I give talks on average 3 times a week and I am always amazed at how receptive people are to real information. A short email response is not the best way to communicate. I would be happy to go speak in a public forum that your friend or his conservative acquaintances would organize and/or attend. You can also bring speakers from the Muslim community (there are many everywhere). It is far better to engage in dialogue rather than make assumptions and projections (the outcome of that can only be conflict).
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Monsieur le Président,
Cher Camarade,
BIENVENUE EN PALESTINE est le nom de cette opération qui a fait beaucoup parler d'elle au début de ce mois, après l'échec de la flottille sur Gaza.
J'ai eu la chance de faire partie de la minorité de sympathisants palestiniens à avoir franchi les barrages israéliens et à avoir évité l'expulsion. Ce fut une expérience souvent stressante mais passionnante, sous la conduite du Dr Mazin QUMSIYEH, professeur de génétique aux USA et à l'Université de BETHLEEM. Mazin est l'animateur principal du mouvement de résistance non-violente aux actions récurrentes de colonisation et d'occupation progressive de tout le territoire cisjordanien par Israël.
Tu trouveras ci-dessous le message qu'il m'adresse aujourd'hui après avoir été lui-même, une fois de plus, molesté par l'armée israélienne lors d'une
manifestation contre l'extension du mur séparant Israël de la Palestine.
Je te sais évidemment très occupé par tes fonctions de formateur du gouvernement fédéral.
Ne pourrais-tu intervenir auprès des personnes que tu jugeras les plus aptes à faire passer le message pour protester officiellement contre les perpétuelles perpétrations israéliennes contre la Palestine, au mépris le plus évident de toutes les résolutions adoptées par l'O.N.U.
D'avance, je t'en remercie et te prie de me croire, Monsieur le Président, Cher Camarade, ton dévoué
Jean-Paul MAWET
27/7/2011
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