Ignorance everywhere

If you follow me on Twitter then you might have noticed that I am currently fact checking and challenging the views of @Jew4palestine. Today he and others were on the Israel is an apartheid state line and I got a little fed up. I noted earlier today that the 'apartheid state of Israel' is indeed banning entry to part of Israel to people not of one religion. The problem is that it is non-Muslims who are being banned from the Temple Mount, control of which is being given to Muslims for the last five days of Ramadan. Yes, that's right Jews will be banned from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Apartheid state? No.

However here's an example of a form of apartheid in the Middle East...

It's a road sign to be found on the road to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It's not their for the period of the haj, it's a permanent fixture. Non-Muslims are banned from entry to Mecca, some do sneak in it is true, but they are officially banned and the punishment if caught can be extreme.

Here are some more examples of apartheid from some other Islamic countries. These are excerpts from the State Department's International Religious Freedom Reports for 2009:
YEMEN
"...the General Election Committee has adopted a policy barring all non-Muslims from running for Parliament..."

AFGHANISTAN
"Citizens who convert from Islam to the Baha'i faith face risk of persecution, similar to that of Christian converts, up to and including the death penalty..."

JORDAN
"...the Government prohibits conversion from Islam in that it accords primacy to Shari'a, which prohibits Muslims from converting ... The Government freely allows conversion to Islam..."

INDONESIA
"Article 156 of the Criminal Code makes spreading hatred, heresy, and blasphemy punishable by up to five years in prison. Although the law applies to all officially recognized religions, the few cases in which it has been enforced have almost always involved blasphemy and heresy against Islam..."

But Israel is the apartheid state? 

Something worth a mention missing from this Guardian report?

The Guardian, that bastion of liberal free-speech and doughty defender of human rights, reports that:

'Explosives detectors to be installed at gates of Mecca's Holy Mosque'

and gives all sort of big numbers relating to Mecca and the Hajj. Somehow they neglect to mention that only Muslims are allowed into Mecca and any infidels caught there are liable to be killed. Only a small detail but one that I thought was worth a mention.

The Guardian could have then contrasted the attitude of the Islamic government of Saudi Arabia to non-Muslims entering their holiest site with that of Israel who don't allow Jews to worship on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Judaism's holiest site, in case it upsets the Muslims who built a mosque on top of the last Jerusalem Temple.

I suppose reporting such facts would ruin the Guardian/BBC/Muslim narrative of educated, civilised Muslims facing an evil Jewish state.

The hajj

The UK media is full of coverage of the hajj, as more than two million Muslims gather to enter Mecca. What I have not seen mentioned is that under the law of Saudi Arabia it is illegal for non-Muslims to even enter Mecca. This is based on a verse of the Koran:

'O you who believe! the idolaters are nothing but unclean, so they shall not approach the Sacred Mosque after this year; and if you fear poverty then Allah will enrich you out of His grace if He please; surely Allah is Knowing Wise.'
blockquote>
—Qur'an, Sura 9 At-Tawba, ayah 28

Please note that any non-Muslims who enter Mecca are liable to arrest and prosecution by the Saudi authorities.

All of this and yet the Western media call Israel 'an apartheid state' never criticising Saudi Arabia for its 'apartheid' policy regarding entry to Mecca. Those of all religions, or none, may enter Jerusalem. Indeed in the oldest part of the eternal capital of the Jewish state, Jews are restricted to worshipping at the one remaining wall of the Temple (the so called Wailing or Western Wall) whilst Muslims worship in the two mosque built either side of the Temple Mount - the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This contrasts with the state of affairs that existed in Jerusalem between 1948 and its liberation in 1967. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War the Old City including the Wailing Wall were captured by Jordan. Article VIII of the 1949 Armistice Agreement provided for Israeli Jewish access to the Wall. However for the following nineteen years, despite numerous requests by Israeli officials and Jewish groups to the United Nations and other international bodies to attempt to enforce the armistice agreement, Jordan refused to abide by this clause as part of a policy of Islamization. Some sources claim Jews could only visit the wall if they travelled through Jordan (which was not an option for Israelis) and did not have an Israeli visa stamped in their passports. Others say Jordan even barred non-Israeli Jews, demanding that tourists present a certificate of baptism before a visa would be granted.

The most sickening thing about this, is that if you presented this information to the sanctimonious hypocrites that call Israel an apartheid state they wouldn't even care. They 'know' the 'truth' and everything else is irrelevant. They know that Israel is an 'apartheid state' and nothing will change their sick, closed, hate-filled minds.