Poll – American Atheists know religion the best

The PEW Research Center issued the results of its US Religious Survey on September 28, 2010. The survey shows that the Atheists within the US know the Judeo-Christian religion better than Jews and Christians. However, all three groups could be pardoned for their ignorance of Islam – thanks to the Israeli anti-Islam propaganda. For example, only 54% of the 3,400 participant knew that Koran (Qur’an) is Islamic holy book or 52% knew that Ramadan is Islamic month of fasting – but more of them knew about the Danish Cartoons.

On average, Americans correctly answer 16 of the 32 religious knowledge questions on the survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Atheists and agnostics average 20.9 correct answers. Jews and Mormons do about as well, averaging 20.5 and 20.3 correct answers, respectively. Protestants as a whole average 16 correct answers; Catholics as a whole, 14.7. Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons perform better than other groups on the survey even after controlling for differing levels of education.

Interestingly, the Jew participants who came second after the Atheists – only 8% of them knew that Maimonides was Jewish. Rabbi Moshe Maimonides (also known as the 2nd Moses) was born in Cardoba in Al-Andalus and is universally considered the greatest Jewish thinker in the last 2,000 years. Rabbi Moshe Maimonides was the royal physian to the famous Sultan Salahuddin Ayubi. Jacob Bender, a US Jewish film-maker has produced a documentary on Rabbi Moshe Maimonides’ life and work under the title “Reason and Revelation: Averroes, Maimonides, Aquinas in Their Time and Ours” after 9/11 to show how Jews and Christians prospered under Muslim rule.

The other interesting figures on Americans’ general knowledge are:

1. Majority of Indonesians are Muslims – 27%
2. Majority of Pakistani people are Muslims – 68%
3. Jesus was born in Bethlehem – 71%
4. Dalai Lama is Buddhist – 47%
5. Martin Luther inspired Protestant religion – 46%
6. Moses led the exodus from Egypt – 72%
7. Only Protestants (not Catholics) traditionally teaches Salvation comes through faith alone – 16%
8. Mother Theresa was Catholic – 82%
9. Four Gospels are Matthew, John, Mark, Luke – 45%
10. Joseph Smith was Mormon – 51%.

West’s tax benefits for donation to Israel Army

In July 2010, the British goverment launched an investigation into the possible links between country’s leading Muslim charity, Islamic Dawah Centre International and the anti-USrael terrorist groups. The IDCI joined the list after the British Home Secretary, Zionist Theresa May, banned India’s top Muslim preacher, Dr. Zakir Naik, to address a meeting sonsored by the charity group.

Interestingly, British Prime Minister, David Cameron, who had boasted of his Jewish roots – has agreed to become a patron of Jewish National Fund (JNF), following in the footsteps of his predecessors Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. JNF collected US$12.2 million last year and is well-known for giving financial aid to Israel Occupation Force (IOF) projects.

In July 2008, Zionist entity’s defence minister Ehud Barak banned 36 Muslim charities around the world for providing financial support to the Jewish victims in Gaza and Lebanon. The US State Department put its international arm twisting and got most of those organization banned in the US, Canada, Europe and within many countries in the the Muslim world. The Israeli list included Interpal in the UK, branches of the Al Aqsa Foundation in Europe, the Holy Land Foundation in the US, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) in Saudi Arabia, and additional foundations in Turkey, Qatar, South Africa, Austria, Jordan, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Denmark and Sweden.

A recent study conducted by IPS shows that many western countries offer tax benefits for Jewish organizations raising funds for Israeli Army and illegal Jewish settlements in Palestine.

The Sar-El Foundation is one of several groups working in the Netherlands dedicated to supporting the Israel Defence Forces. It organises regular visits to Israel, where Dutch volunteers spend three-week periods training with the IDF. Max Arpels Lezer, the foundation’s Amsterdam-based chairman, said that he tries to encourage volunteers to work in Israeli hospitals but if “that is not possible they can do civilian work on military bases.” He has previously stated that while the volunteers do not become soldiers, “they help in the battle against the Palestinians.” But he would not comment when asked why he wishes to assist the Israeli army, given that a United Nations inquiry led by retired South African judge Richard Goldstone found that its troops committed war crimes during a three-week offensive against Gaza in 2008-2009. “I don’t wish to answer the question,” he said. “We don’t talk about politics. Our organisation is a non-political organisation.”

Under Dutch law, foundations such as Sar-El are exempt from tax, and individuals giving money to them can deduct the donations from their income tax.

The Collectieve Israël Action (Collective Action Israel) collects about eight million euros (11 million dollars) per year, according to its website. Among the projects it assists are training for Israeli soldiers, particularly on the applications of advanced technology. The CIA’s board of advisers includes Doron Livnat, director of Riwal, a supplier of cranes used in the construction of the massive wall that Israel has built in the West Bank. That wall was found to be illegal in a 2004 opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The Nachamoe Foundation, meanwhile, raises money for the upkeep of Israeli families. The foundation has admitted that some of the families live on Israeli settlements between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.These settlements violate international law; the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention forbids an occupying power from transferring part of its own civilian population into the land it is occupying.

The Visie voor Israël (Vision for Israel) encourages its sympathisers to give donations that will be used to buy gifts such as backpacks for Israeli soldiers. A newsletter from the organisation says that the quantity of gifts provided has increased substantially since the Israeli army’s offensive against Gaza over the past two years.

Shuva is one of several Christian Zionist organisations working in the Netherlands viewing the foundation of Israel and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as the fulfilment of a Biblical prophecy. According to one of its 2009 newsletters, it has financed a school in Nofei Nechemia, an extension (frequently termed an “illegal outpost” by Israeli newspapers) of the Israeli settlement of Ariel the West Bank. Shuva has stated too that it helps hundreds of settlers establish themselves in four Israeli communities in the West Bank every year.

Ghada Zeidan from United Civilians for Peace, a Palestinian solidarity group in the Netherlands, said it is “very difficult” to convince the authorities that they should take action against fundraising by pro-Israel organisations. “The problem is that there is a kind of culture of acceptance of it,” she added.

Poll – Arabs prefer Ahmadinejad over Obama

Last month, Brookings Institute released results of a poll conducted by Professor Shibley Telhami of Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings Institute – in co-operation with Zogby and the University of Maryland. The participants from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates expressed they’re more supportive of Iranian President Dr. Ahmadinejad’s views on the Middle East than US President Barack Obama.

Professor Shibley Telhami pointed out that the results of “the poll present problem for the US, which has counted on Arabs seeing Iran as a threat – maybe even bigger one than Israel”.

“According to our polling, a majority of Arabs do not believe Iran’s claim that it is merely pursuing a peaceful nuclear program. But an overwhelming majority believe that Iran has the right to develop nuclear weapons and should not be pressured by the international community to curtail its program. Even more telling, a majority of those polled this year say that if Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, the outcome would be positive for the Middle East. In 2009, only 29% of respondents viewed that as a positive.

To be sure, the results varied from country to country, with a significant majority in Egypt viewing a nuclear Iran positively, while a majority in the United Arab Emirates viewed such an outcome negatively. However, the trend in the past year is striking.

The shortest path to understanding this turn in Arab public opinion is to examine Arab views of American foreign policy in the Middle East. In the early months of the Obama administration (spring 2009), our polling found that a remarkable 51% of those surveyed expressed optimism about American policy in the Middle East, a stark contrast to nearly a decade of gloom that preceded Obama’s election. A little over a year later, however, the number of optimists had dropped to only 16%, with 63% expressing pessimism. This pessimism, more than any other issue, explains the turn in Arab attitudes toward Iran. Arabs tend to view Iran largely through the prism of American and Israeli policies,” wrote Professor Shibley Telhami.

Now, before some ‘Iranophobe’ idiot call Professor Shibley Telhami an ‘anti-Semite’, let me explain who are his employers and his partners – because I bet all of them were also shocked by the results of the poll as much as the ‘Iranophobe’ idiot.

Brookings Institute’s president Strobe Talbott is a former director of foreign services at the Jewish TIME magazine. Professor John L. Thompton, the president of Goldman Sachs, also worked for Brookings and so did Teresa Heinz, Senator John Kerry’s wife. It seems that all members of Brookings Administration Council are approved by the Zionist think tank Council on Foreign CFR), headed by Zionist Jew Dr. Richard Haass, Ben Obama’s senior foreign policy adviser.

The analyses prepared by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, are made from American and Zionist perspectives. It is directed by Dr. Martin S. Indyk, a British-born Jew and former American ambassador to Tel Aviv. He is also co-founder of the WINEP, a think tank of Likud. It was name after his sponsor, Zionist Jew millionaire Haim Saban, co-owner of Fox TV.

The Zogby International was founded by two Zogby brothers, John and James, born in NY State to Lebanese Catholic parents.Dr. John Zogby is a regular contributor to the Israeli propaganda outlet, The Huffington Post. He also writes weekly column for Forbes com. and US News and World’s Report.

One of the ‘Iranophone’, David Pollock, a senior fellow at the Jewish think tank, Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) – took an ‘anti-Semite’ shot at Shibley Telhami on September 16, 2010. Dr. Mahmoud Reza Golshanpazhooh has refuted David Pollock’s allegations against the ‘Friends of Israel’ behind the poll here.