Very Hopeful.  

Have you convinced Roi of the following below? Sounds like a great start for dialog

For example, in a weekly sermon in April 2002, Al-Azhar Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, the highest-ranking cleric in the Sunni Muslim world, called the Jews "the enemies of Allah, descendants of apes and pigs."[1]

In one of his sermons, Saudi sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis, imam and preacher at the Al-Haraam mosque – the most important mosque in Mecca – beseeched Allah to annihilate the Jews. He also urged the Arabs to give up peace initiatives with them because they are "the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the violators of pacts and agreements, the murderers of the prophets, and the offspring of apes and pigs."[2]

"Read history," called Al-Sudayyis in another sermon, "and you will understand that the Jews of yesterday are the evil fathers of the Jews of today, who are evil offspring, infidels, distorters of [others'] words, calf-worshippers, prophet-murderers, prophecy-deniers... the scum of the human race 'whom Allah cursed and turned into apes and pigs...' These are the Jews, an ongoing continuum of deceit, obstinacy, licentiousness, evil, and corruption..."[3]

In a sermon at the Said Al-Jandoul mosque in Al-Taif, Saudi sheikh Ba'd bin Abdallah Al-Ajameh Al-Ghamidi explained that "the qualities of the Jews" were present at all times and in all places: "The current behavior of the brothers of apes and pigs, their treachery, violation of agreements, and defiling of holy places... is connected with the deeds of their forefathers during the early period of Islam – which proves the great similarity between all the Jews living today and the Jews who lived at the dawn of Islam."[4]

In an August 2001 sermon, Sheikh Ibrahim Madhi, Palestinian Authority official and imam of the Sheikh Ijlin mosque, Gaza City's main mosque, called on the Palestinian people to forget their internal disagreements and turn all weapons against Jews: "lances must be directed at the Jews, the enemies of Allah, the nation accursed in Allah's book. Allah described [them] as apes and pigs, calf-worshipers, idol-worshippers..."[5]

Seeing Jews as "descendants of apes and pigs" is common also in Shi'ite Islam. Such statements appear, for instance, in a 1998 speech by Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on the occasion of the Shi'ite 'Ashoura holiday. Nasrallah regretted that the holiday fell "on the 50th anniversary of the bitter and distressing historical catastrophe of the establishment of the state of the grandsons of apes and pigs – the Zionist Jews – on the land of Palestine and Jerusalem." He closed his speech with these words: "... We reaffirm the slogan of the struggle against the Great Satan and call, like last year: 'Death to America. To the murderers of the prophets, the grandsons of apes and pigs,' we say: ... 'Death to Israel...'"[6]

These statements are made not only by clerics and preachers. Following their lead, public opinion leaders in the Arab world also call the Jews "the descendants of apes and pigs." The image has pervaded the public consciousness, even in child-rearing. In May 2002, Iqraa, the Saudi-Egyptian satellite television station, which according to its website[7] sets for itself the goals of "highlighting aspects of Arab Islamic culture that inspire respect," "highlighting the true and tolerant picture of Islam and refuting the accusations directed against Islam," and "planting a spirit of mutual understanding and dialogue among members of the nation and opening channels of cultural connection with the cultures of other nations," interviewed a three-and-a-half-year-old "real Muslim girl" about Jews. On "The Muslim Woman Magazine" program, the girl was asked whether she liked Jews; she answered, "no." When asked why she didn't like them, she said that Jews were "apes and pigs." "Who said this?" the moderator asked. The girl answered, "Our God." "Where did He say this?" "In the Koran." At the end of the interview, the pleased moderator said: "No [parents] could wish for Allah to give them a more believing girl than she... May Allah bless her, her father and mother. The next generation of children must be true Muslims. We must educate them now while they are children, so that they will be true Muslims."[8]

In April 2002, a weekly talk show on the Al-Jazeera satellite television station, "The Opposite Direction" which claims to have tens of millions of viewers across the world, addressed the question "Is Zionism worse than Nazism?" The moderator, Dr. Faisal Al-Qassam, included in the discussion the opinion of a viewer who wrote in from the station's website: "The sons of Zion, whom our God described as the sons of apes and pigs, will not be deterred unless there is a real holocaust, that will destroy all of them at once, together with the traitors – those who collaborate with them, the scum of this [Islamic] nation."[9]

Salim 'Azzouz, columnist for the Al-Ahrar Egyptian opposition daily, affiliated with the religious Liberal Party, described Israel's May 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon: "They fled with only the skin on their bodies, like pigs flee. And why say 'like,' when they actually are pigs and apes?"[10]

There is no Palestine!  Get over it!  There has never been a Palestinian country, people, language or society!  Israel was re-named Palestine by the Romans and it has nothing to do with the Arabs or Muslims!  Jews have always lived in Israel because they are indigenous to the land. The Quran never even mentions Jerusalem once.  So much for being the holy land of the Muslims.  Your holy land is in Mecca.

The Arabs invadors arived thousands of years later and have absolutely no right to the Jewish homeland.  Several Arab countries were carved out of the land of Ancient Israel and it is the Arabs who are occupying Jewish land. 

If you really cared about human rights you would protest the Muslim countries where female honor killing and oppression of non-Muslims is par for the course.  Of course it's much easier to attack Israel and believe in a psychotic fairy tale that was created by Arafat and the KGB.  By the way, Roi is a damn idiot!

Raquel-

I admire your willingness to question rethink your own positions, but in this case you may have been too quick to blame yourself.

Defenders of Israeli policy often resort to demanding that events with a pro-Palestinian perspective include voices from the opposite side. Recall Dershowitz's insistence that he be allowed to debate Jimmy Carter when the latter was invited to speak at Brandeis. Recall the calls for "My Name is Rachel Corrie" and similar plays being programmed alongside works which counter their viewpoint. Recall the numberless requirements that presentations of the Palestinian case in schools, libraries, etc. be accompanied by "balancing" ones.

In the abstract, no one can argue with letting a hundred political flowers bloom. More speech is better than less. But notice that this sort of request for "balance" seldom occurs when the subject isn't Israel/Palestine. A feminist play being shuttered unless a traditionalist one is presented alongside? Preposterous. A film about single payer healthcare remains unspooled unless one from your friends at Blue Cross is on the double feature? Never happen. Have any Palestinians on US campuses demanded that Birthright Israel presentations be paired with lectures on how these junkets are complicit with Israeli mischief? Don't think so.

The result of these unusual, maybe unique, demands is to tag the pro-Palestinian perspective as somehow toxic, requiring neutralization by its opposite. Why should this be? Why should Pilger's film not be treated like any other  political expression-come if you want, stay away if you'd prefer, talk all you want afterwards, program your own anti-Pilger film, even get together with your opposite number and plan a panel discussion with all viewpoints represented. Who would object?

But to insist that, whenever a highly partisan expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people occurs, it be accompanied by a mitigating counter-event, well, this isn't about free speech; it's about marginalization.

I think you should have politely suggested to your friends on the other side that you thought the film could stand on its own and didn't need to be "balanced" in some formal fashion (I assume that, like most such events, there would have been an informal question and answer period afterward).

Your account suggests that the other side would have been fine with the film as long as they had a chance to use your event to refute it. When your side declined their offer, they protested. The message? That pro-Palestinian works must not be allowed to stand alone. Again, note the uniqueness of this position; I can imagine urging the outright suppression of an event (libelous, pornographic, etc.), although I tend to be an absolutist "anything goes" type about such things, or taking the usual enlightened policy of letting all perspectives be represented on their own terms. But to say that there's one issue which is permissible only when paired with its opposite? Nope. 

Your friendly adversaries requested a change in format, you demurred, they showed up to protest a screening of a film because they didn't get their way (I assume from your description that the protest was disruptive), and you're apologizing? 

Why? 

I would like to see a dialog between Evita and Ismail on the benefits of female circumcision, as well as how the above statements from the Koran and Hadiths lend themselves to dialog. You should be marginalized because you have nothing worthwhile to say. Now go to Algiers, Halabja, and Homs and apologize to the families of thousands of Muslims who were killed in your religions name (and didnt make the news). Sorry, but today you represent a culture of mindless violence

How often have I heard people wish they had muslim's whom they could talk to, insteadof terrorists who we need to run from ?

This girl is trying to be open. Her position in the muslim community does not make this a natural act, just as most jews (see other comments) are naturally uncomfortable being open to the muslim position. You can not look at the individuals on the ground and really beleive that no one, is ever wronged by the circumstances of our world. Israel gave muslims in the geography of Israel a choice in 1947-48.. stand beside us as members of our society and you are one of us, run based on claims by arab countries that they will drive the jews into the sea and you are not one of us. No doubt, this position was right to the extent that indivudals living in Israel need to know whom their friends and foes are. Still, many individuals living in poverty today are innocents in the sense that they were born to parents who happened to live in a certain place. these individuals comitted no crime, but deal with significant disadvantages that I hope my children will never need to deal with.

Yes, the arab world ca help them and does not, but it does not free us of all responsibility either. This young woman is trying to make progress and while I amy or may not be totally comfortable with what she thinks or proposes, listening and talking must be better than shooting and bombing. I understand that many will see this approach as a naive liberal approach to dealing with a situation where terrorists are often in control and I understand that. But at the same time, this is a case where the liberals whom are typically accused of being the cynics are the optomists and I think there is little reason not to try to talk. The sad thing, and I do not know how to fix this, is that one person intent on murdering via terror, can terrorise an entire community into collaborating. And this is something I do not know how to fix. Still, my sense is that it must be fixed from within the muslim community and I must say that I am pleased to see a young muslim woman who is acting with integrity in an effort to make things better. Again, I may not be comfortable with her opinions and insights, but if I do not understand and emapathise with people, how can we ever learn to live together. I Personally hope that we learn to live together in peace in the middle east and the rest of the world, even if we are not always comfortable with each other. The alternative is not good.