In these very difficult times, when so many people seem to have lost their powers of reason along with their moral compass, I draw strength and comfort from the many people I encounter who remain sane and decent, who are horrified by the onslaught against Israel, the Jews and western civilisation and who understand the connection between them.
I was particularly moved to receive this message from a reader:
I am a former Muslim atheist in London. Day to day, I see antisemitism and casual hatred of Israel around me in conversations, on the streets, and in public life. I am writing to say, please do not lose hope.
Your writing has given courage to people like me who refuse to look away or stay silent. Whatever our differences in politics or theology, my solidarity with the Jewish people is unwavering. I will always stand up for the right of Jews in the United Kingdom and in Israel to live in safety and dignity, free from intimidation and dehumanisation.
Thank you for your voice, your clarity, and your persistence in hard times. If there is ever a way an ordinary Londoner can help by speaking up, writing, or showing up, I am willing.
I was so impressed by this person’s intellectual integrity and moral courage that I wrote back to ask him how he had extricated himself from the assumptions that he indicated had been part of his upbringing as a Muslim. He wrote back:
I began by listening to the New Atheists, including Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins. Little by little, my religious convictions eroded. Even after I became an atheist, I still saw myself as pro-Palestine, because I accepted the usual progressive story in which Israelis are the oppressors and Palestinians the oppressed.
Only after watching Sam Harris’s video “Why Don’t I Criticise Israel?” did I begin to grasp the profound moral difference between Israel and its enemies. Today, I am as pro-Israel as the editor-in-chief of Jewish News Syndicate, because I now understand this as a religious conflict rather than an ethnic one. The kind of jihadist atrocities that strike Western Europe every few months strike Israel every few weeks.
Israel has long stood on the front line of the fight against jihadist ideology, and it deserves unequivocal support. As Sam Harris put it, “We all live in Israel, it is just that some of us have not realised it yet.”
This brave person needs to be very careful about where he may or may not speak out. May he stay safe. A small light shining out like this from the gathering darkness should give us all hope.
Melanie Phillips is a British journalist, broadcaster and author - you can follow her work on her website HERE
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