Tuesday, January 24, 2006

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=97208

At least 18 rallies will be held across the United States on Feb. 1 against "Islamo-fascism," anti-U.S. terrorism, and Saudi Arabian influence in U.S. government.

The rallies are sponsored by a consortium of Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups and the United American Committee (UAC), a non-partisan movement focusing on Islamic extremism in the U.S. and other internal American threats. The groups have declared Feb. 1 as "National Rally Against Islamofascism Day" (R.A.I.D.).

A full list of locations and times for the R.A.I.D. rally across the US is available here. The two main rallies will take place in Los Angeles (Federal Building, 11000 Wilshire Boulevard, 4:30-6:00 PM) and New York City (Ground Zero, 1 PM). Four other rallies are scheduled for California, and others will be held in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, Texas and Salt Lake City.

The UAC outlines its objections to Islamofascism by explaining,
"Militant Islamic extremists wish for Islam to be an all encompassing lifestyle and governmental law... Islamofascism [is] a growing threat against democracy and the American way of life. The UAC seeks to send a strong message against totalitarian ideals being imported to our shores. As a unifying force among all Americans of all ethnic and religious backgrounds, The United American Committee seeks to awaken Americans to oppose increasing support at home by groups that lobby and promote Islamofascism not only overseas but here at home in our libraries, our schools and in the media."

In a related item, a group of American Jewish activists named Holocaust Museum Watch demands stronger recognition of Moslem anti-Semitism by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The group says the anti-Semitic actions by Arab/Muslim leaders during World War II must be emphasized in the Museum, and that the Museum must take a leading role in fighting anti-Semitism in the Arab world.

The organization sponsored a Community Forum on the issue at the National Synagogue in Washington last week, with the participation of Congressmen Elliot Engel (D-NY), Rabbi Avi Weiss, Edwin Black (author of "IBM and the Holocaust"), Shelomo Alfassa, and Chuck Morris (author of "The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism").

"Arab anti-Semitism has not only poisoned the minds of millions of Arabs against Jews," the organization states, "as did Nazi propaganda, and has labeled the Holocaust a fake, it is widely credited with being the engine behind the re-emergence of European anti-Semitism in exactly the areas where Jews were murdered during the Holocaust." Chairperson Carol Greenwald says the Federally-funded Museum has never presented an exhibit on Muslim anti-Semitism, nor with the fate of the Jews in Arab countries during the Holocaust.

The group is focusing on three issues: The cooperation of Jerusalem's grand mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, with the Nazi regime; the anti-Jewish pogroms in Arab countries during World War II; and the current rise of anti-Semitism in Arab and Muslim countries