Book Reviewed: Hate: The Rising Tide of Anti-Semitism in France by Marc Weitzmann

The face of new Anti-Semitism in France

In the last forty years, tens of thousands of Jews have left France for Israel or to the peripheries of Paris and Lyon, where Muslim populations is rapidly rising. Across the globe, in Islamic countries and in Muslim communities elsewhere, Anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiments are increasing largely fueled by Muslin clerics strengthening the Islamic teachings against Jews. The Quran makes forty-three specific references to Children of Israel using the term Yahud for Jews. The Qur’an teaches Jews as evil and projects them negatively in verses: 5:82; 2:79; 3:75, 3:181; 5:64; 5:41;5:13; 2:247; 3:78; 2:14; 2:44; 2:109; 3:120; 5:18; 4:161; 4:46; 2:61; 2:74; 2:100; 5:79; 59:13-14; and 4:53.

Over the course of the past decade, France never had less than 400 anti-Semitic acts a year, including the brutal murder of Ilan Halimi by the “gang of Barbarians” in 2006; and the massacre at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse in 2012. Jewish gravestones are routinely defaced and desecrated with swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans. The northwestern Paris represents a tactical retreat for Jews; It has become a haven for many Jews who say they have faced harassment in areas with growing Muslim populations. Ms. Galilli, a Jewish woman moved to this neighborhood said that they spit when she walked in the neighborhood for wearing a Star of David. France has a painful history of anti-Semitism with its worst hours coming in the 1930s and during the German occupation in World War II. But in recent months, journalists and academics have called this “new anti-Semitism,” and they trace a wave of anti-Semitic acts to France’s growing Muslim population. For the French government, it is touching the country’s rawest political nerves, as well as ethnic and religious fault lines. They cannot categorize people by race or religious affiliation. In the eyes of the law and the French constitution all French citizens are equal. Gunther Jikeli, a German historian at Indiana University who conducted a study of Muslim anti-Semitism in Europe, called the phenomenon “blindingly obvious,” in his interview with the newspaper Le Monde. A manifesto signed by a former president, a former prime minister and numerous intellectuals warned of a “silent ethnic purge,” a reference to what Mr. Fourquet called the “large-scale phenomenon” of internal migration. The manifesto called on Muslims to renounce what it deemed anti-Semitic verses in the Quran. Author and philosopher Pascal Bruckner said that “For fear of not setting one community against another, you wind up hiding things.”

Routine expression of anti-Semitism is also linked to the state of Israel. Michel Serfaty, a rabbi, has led good-will bus tours in Muslim communities in France for more than 10 years acknowledged an uphill battle. “I’ve seen it myself,” he said. “Day after day, the insults, and finally people say, ‘Right, that’s it, we’re leaving.’ Complicating the matter, as it is happening all over the world is that the radical left and liberal feminists align with Muslim community in its expression of antisemitism. This is sad for European countries where the political, social and economic landscape is rapidly changing. The Roman Catholic Church tried to control the lives of Europeans for centuries. Now, when they are enjoying the freedom of free expression, the population is facing an uphill task of fighting the domination of Islam over their lives.

The book is very narrative and describes in detail some of the terrorist attacks on Jewish business and Jewish individuals. The author analyzes the circumstances that led to the brutal murder of Ilan Halimi by the gang of Barbarians, and other cases. For a reader interested in the influence of Islam on the growth and nurturing of antisemitism, this is quite interesting.

Book Reviewed: An Imaginary Racism: Islamophobia and Guilt by Pascal Bruckner

Is there such thing as Islamophobia?

Brilliantly written by a well-known French writer and philosopher, Pascal Bruckner has published scholarly work in the area of Islamo-fascism. He is highly analytical and skilled in describing the Muslim invasion of Europe in a historical context and the impact of modern-day immigrants from Asia and Africa.

The word “Islamophobia” was invented by Muslims that amalgamates two opposing concepts: the persecution of non-believers of Islam is acceptable; and debating Islamic belief system is unacceptable: God’s Word is too sacred for interpretation! This notion supported by all Muslim countries has made Islam above all other religions. In October 2013, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, who persecute Hindus, Jews, Christians and Buddhists into extinction, demanded that Western countries put an end to freedom of expression about Islam. Even though by all estimates, by the middle of this century, non-Islamic faiths like Christianism in Muslim Middle-East is expected to be extinct. Muslims and journalists supportive of the “Religion of Peace” enlistment leftists, neo-liberals and feminists in the defense of Islam in non-Muslim countries. They have rebaptized it as the religion of the poor. In fact, they are making criticism Muslim faith an international crime. Blasphemy laws in countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia have seriously affected the lives of non-Muslims. To contest a form of obedience, and to reject dogmas that is absurd or false is the very basis of intellectual life, but belief in the existence of Islamophobia renders such contestation impossible. The fundamentalist preacher Tariq Ramadan, now in a French jail for rape, explained that the situation of Muslims in Europe was like that of Jews in the 1930s. The implication is, if we criticize Islam, then it is nothing less than a Holocaust. The notion of Islamophobia is meant to give the religion of the Prophet a status of exemption denied to other spiritual systems. Thus, we have the reprehensible laws enacted by the U.K, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other nations that prohibits criticism of Islam, while other faiths still can be denigrated without any fear!

In Cologne, Germany, on New Year’s Eve of 2016, around 1,000 Muslim migrants congregated by the city’s main train station, where they sexually assaulted hundreds of German women, defied police; and one attacker crowed, “I’m a Syrian! you have to treat me kindly! Mrs. Merkel invited me.” In response, Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker vowed to make sure that women change their behavior so that they don’t provoke the poor immigrants to sexual assault again. The teachings are progressively taking over the cultures of Christian world.

This book is strongly Euro-centric and favors to discuss Islamic takeover of Europe rather discuss in a broader context. The efforts of Muslims to conquer India, Asia and Africa where Hinduism, Buddhism sand Christianism has suffered immensely throughout the history.

Book Reviewed: Memes to Movements: How the World's Most Viral Media Is Changing Social Protest and Power, by An Xiao Mina

The Meme machine and the social media

This book looks at media created by users of social media who express their emotions, feelings, thoughts, deeply-held beliefs; social and political, and the highs and lows of their lives. They bring a variety into the online world where they share, laugh and cry. The social media evolve continuously and educates us into socio-political movements. Photo-remixes, selfies, YouTube videos, hashtag-tweets, and all the silliness of meme culture. Sometimes the silly creations lead to social and political revolutions. This book is not about comprehensive history of memes in social movements nor is this a guide book to be creative online. The author explores the digital culture to illuminate broader-side social media. Memes are analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures. They are a viral phenomenon that may evolve by natural selection in a manner analogous to that of biological evolution. That is through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance, each of which influences a meme's reproductive success.

This book is very enjoyable, and the author’s style of writing add an extra-dimension to the meme culture that has evolved. So, what is next? Perhaps a cloud feature where we can upload our thoughts and emotions in place of videos, music, pictures and emojis.

Book Reviewed: Do Robots Make Love? Transhumanism in 12 questions, by Laurent Belando and Jean-Michel Besnier

Transhumanism and the future of humankind

This is a very short and concise book about futurology and transhumanism. Some of the topics included in the discussion are; Should humans be improved? Can the technology fix everything? Does artificial intelligence (AI) will kill mankind? And could we change the way we reproduce? These discussions provide brief introduction to the technological advancement for the future of life.

transhumanists look forward to a time when we can wrest the reins of our nature from evolution using technological enhancements to increase our intelligence, communicate brain to brain, and even upload our consciousnesses into the cloud. We use writing to extend our memories and cooking to improve our diets. But technology provides us with prosthetics that enhances strength, but there is also difference between enhancement and medical corrections that restore “normal” functions. Transhumanism believes that by altering human reproduction, genetically and technologically augmenting the body, human kind will be very different. Technology is expected to offer biological freedom and be masters of our own evolution.

Market forces and the technological advancements will drive humanity to the same end point as the “singularity” of cosmology. At the center of a black hole where matter, energy and time “dissolves” in quantum space under intense gravity. Similarly, AI transcends humanity into a unified human-machine consciousness. This unification will alter human consciousness, physical strength, and emotional state.

Both wearable and implantable brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) are being developed by Elon Musk’s Neuralink, Facebook, and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). For example, when we speak, we are limited by the speed we can speak, but with a computer, we are limited by the speed of typing. But BMIs enable us to communicate at the speed of thought. For example, when we share our vacation experiences, we upload photos and videos. With BMI we can share our sensory and emotional experience during a vacation. We can buy contact lenses that can take pictures or video, and earbuds with the capability of universal language translator that allow us to communicate anywhere in the world.

This book is poorly organized and the style of writing (French translation into English) could have been better. It is not reader-friendly. In fact, there are numerous discussions and blogs on the web that is informative and engaging.

Book Reviewed: Pocahontas and the English Boys: Caught Between Cultures in Early Virginia by Karen Ordahl Kupperman

Pocahontas and the life in early Virginia

When President Donald Trump called Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren as Pocahontas, the native American leaders expressed concern as it was offensive and hurtful to their population. Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, the chief of a kingdom that consisted of 28 tribes of Tidewater region of Virginia. She first became acquainted with the colonists who settled in the Chesapeake Bay area in 1607 and fostered accord between her people and English colonists. In 1995, Disney released an animated film, a collection of fictional tales as love story between Pocahontas and colonist John Smith; this is a romanticized version and a clear departure from the actual events.

In this book, NYU Professor Karen Kupperman focuses on the early history of Virginia illuminating on young Pocahontas' life that was spawned by colonial settlers. The author’s style of writing combined with various Native American names of early Virginia is somewhat challenging to a casual reader, but it is rewarding to know that this piece of American history is retold with passion for the fascinating life of Pocahontas and three English kids; Thomas Savage, Robert Poole, and Henry Spelman. In the early days of colonization, they live in both tribal and colonial communities, learning native American languages, translating trade negotiations, learning farming from native communities and teaching them to English colonists. Learning communication skills, acting as emissaries and surviving the harsh winters: They were essential in the process of colonization of Virginia.

The English in charge in Jamestown, Virginia believed that Pocahontas was not the same person when she grew up. They were also suspicious of three English kids being radically changed by the native population. They were bartered for food by the colonists, and the natives accepted them since they were still young, and malleable like unbaked dough. As for as the kids and Pocahontas, they experienced initial terror since they had to cross between two different cultures, but they also saw natives as a well-adapted community to the environment. The colonists raged and starved because they could not cope with challenges of the new world. The English kids saw competence and a culture in which status was earned rather than acquired. They saw the reality behind the curtain of English claim of superiority. As the colonists began to thrive after they learnt the farming techniques. The speed of economic growth based on the realities of capitalism that was also essential to economics of Virginia. The kids understand the operating style and expanding nature of the new immigrants.

This book looks at the early American and the sacrifice the kids make in the new world. Pocahontas travels to England and becomes acquainted with their culture. The English also converts her to Christianity and use her as missionary to spread the New Testament among natives in Virginia. The life of Pocahontas is fascinating to read; we get a relatively unbiassed view of the events in the early American history.

Book Reviewed: Louisa on the Front Lines: Louisa May Alcott in the Civil War, by Samantha Seiple

Louisa

Many readers of literature like myself know Louisa May Alcott as the author of “Little Women.” She was born to a loving family; her mother and sisters bonded like true friends. But her journey for thirty-six years until Little Women was published was not smooth. She improvised a wardrobe from the ragbag to the later years; she witnessed the hardship of Marmee, her beloved mother who had borne the hard years so bravely, and a father immersed deeply in philosophy never understood the generally accepted paternal obligations. Young Louisa was encumbered with family responsibilities, moved with the frequency and restlessness. In her relatively short life of fifty-six years, she lived in her home state of Massachusetts, New York, and Europe as governess to Anna Weld, and a Grand Tour of her own with her sister.

One of the highlights of Alcott’s amazing life besides her work in literature was zeal for her beliefs that all people are born equal. She was an ardent abolitionist and fierce fighter for equal rights. The future of suffrage movement that paved the way for the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that granted American women the right to vote, a right commonly known as women's suffrage was born out of passion for equality in Alcott household. Louisa’s patriotism was reflected when she chose to volunteer to work as a nurse during the Civil War. Her coworkers included Walt Whitman and John Burroughs at the Union Hospital at Georgetown in Washington D.C. During her younger days in Massachusetts, she had the privilege of being in the illustrious company of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Frank Sanborn, Elizabeth Peabody, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Theodore Parker.

The study of Louisa May Alcott and her writings are illustrated in several books including John Matteson’s acclaimed book in 2007 that won the Pulitzer Prize; the 2009 PBS documentary Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind “Little Women” directed by Nancy Porter; and the work of UNC professor Daniel Shealy. Many of the books including the current t book accounts for influence of Abigail Alcott, the mother of Louisa Alcott on Louisa’s thinking and writing. It is well known that Abigail was the model for Marmee in Little Women, and Alcott scholars have appreciated how she encouraged her daughter to become a writer and politically active for abolition, equality and women’s rights. In 1877, the New England Woman Suffrage Association campaigned to allow women to vote in local town meetings. Later the state of Massachusetts voted to pass the measure.

In this book, the author focuses on Louisa Alcott’s work as a nurse that highlighted the unacceptable conditions in military hospitals and the sufferings endured by the soldiers of civil war. The narrative method employed by the author is engaging to connect with her stories and sometimes breaks off too quickly. For example, Alcott’s relationship with Anna Weld ends abruptly in Switzerland. In the next paragraph we find she is flying to Paris. There are some interesting day-day incidents at the Switzerland hotel when Louisa Alcott comes to meet the Polk family from Tennessee. Colonel Andrew Polk one of the wealthiest plantation owners had fought for confederate army and badly wounded. The author’s work has a marked appreciation of Alcott’s work as a nurse. Considering many scholarly works on Alcott’s life, this work with reference to her career in nursing stands out as a distinct work of literature.

Book Reviewed: Should We Colonize Other Planets? by Adam Morton

Mission to Mars

Our intelligence and imagination are rooted in the biological history which limits our thinking. There are lot of things we don’t understand in our own backyard let alone the cosmos. We have not comprehended the other co-inhabitants of this planet. Life on earth is associated with geological and cosmological consequences in solar system. Earth and moon are a tidally connected system that affects stability to earth’s biological evolution. The human possibilities in Mars colonization is a great challenge to human thinking not only in terms of technological advancement, biological endurance but also inter-planetary economics. Earth’s species cannot exist elsewhere without with the help from home planet. We are not well adapted for life away from earth. They cannot live outside this planet unless they are equipped with high-tech modifications such as Artificial Intelligence (AI)-human species (semi-organic beings, neuralink, brain-machine interface, etc. ) that combines machine intelligence and human nature.

In this book the author provides an explication of Mars colonization and the obstacles in these plans including estimates of costs and future of intelligent life. But it is curious as to why a philosophy professor would be interested in humans colonizing other planets. Because, with the progress made in colonization of Mars, we must start discussing the nature of life elsewhere; the challenges to existence would be very different from earth.

This is a short little book of 120 pages with a trove of information about additional reading, this is informative, and the text is engaging. There are numerous books about travelling to Mars and colonizing other planets in literature, and this book certainly adds some value to this growing field.

Book Reviewed: The Future of Academic Freedom, by Henry Reichman

The meaning of academic freedom from the point of a liberal professor

Many people mistake academic freedom with individual right for free speech: Academic freedom tries to protect a scholars’ freedom of research, freedom in the classroom, and freedom of “extramural utterances” and actions. The guarantee to freedom of research is primary, and it has nothing to do with one’s constitutional right to free speech. Prior to 20th century, American universities were dominantly Christian institutions that instructed young men in Biblical truths, but things began to change after the civil war.

One of the unique feature of an American university is that they are owned by a state, a church, or by a private individual or family. The academic freedom in the early 20th century came directly from a shift in the mission of the university. The responsibility of a professor is primarily to the public based on the judgment of his/her own profession. Under the First Amendment, there’s no content discrimination, and the constitution does not penalize someone because of the content of their speech, but academic freedom allows us to determine an idea to be true or false. And the false idea cannot be a ground for retaliatory action.

According to Albert Einstein, academic freedom is the right to search for truth, publish and teach what one holds to be true. Any restriction on academic freedom that hampers the dissemination of knowledge impedes judgment and action. Once, William O. Douglas, the Justice of Supreme Court of the United States, said that the key aspect of freedom of speech is freedom to learn, and life and education is a continuous dialogue with questions and answers that pursue every problem on the horizon. Considering the state of affairs in American colleges, the ideologies has turned to extreme. Justice Douglas’ optimism is not reflected in academic institutions today. Many topics for discussion are taboo because it offends, racial minorities, feminists, Muslims, LGBTQ, multiculturism, environmentalists, liberals, and socialists.

The author is a liberal professor who discusses the contemporary practice of academic freedom. Much of the book focus on how conservatives and corporate trustees have negatively impacted the free thinking of academic institutions. The role of online education, social media, and the influence of ideologically motivated donors on our education have also been discussed. Currently, majority of academic institutions in the U.S. are liberal and highly biased. The author is overly concerned about conservatives but protects everyone else. The dark wave of anti-Semitism is strong and heavy across American campuses. This is correlated with growing strength of anti-Semitism in Muslim countries. Islam and antisemitism relate to Islamic theological teachings against Jews and Judaism. It has produced an environment of bullying, intimidation, and fear for Jews on campuses. This has entwined into the fabric of many educational institutions via multicultural ideology that pronounces Israel to be its enemy.

The author expresses concern that conservatives are becoming an increasing threat to academic freedom. While it is the liberals, left-wing extremists, Antifa, and Muslims are a threat to academic freedom. Did the author ever consider that an academic debate on topics like sharia, hijab, jihad, fatwa, death for apostates, women’s freedom under Islam and its role in spreading anti-Semitism will ever be allowed? No, it will never be debated due to the looming threat of violence by Muslims. We cannot discuss any other religion except one religion. When University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill described the victims of the 9/11 attacks as “little Eichmanns”, a reference to the passively complicit Nazi Adolf Eichmann. It was not a problem for such an extreme view about 9/11 that was a concerted effort of Islamists including Saudi Arabia that drew this country into a state of war.

In Chapter 8, “Are Invited Speakers entitled to a platform” the author blames speakers Milo Yiannopoulos and Ann coulter for violence that occurred at U.C Berkeley campus in 2017. Students and outside forces were equally to blame, and such ruckus and tirade was expressed against Coulter at all campuses she went to speak in the last 15 years. Robert Spencer (not Richard Spencer), Dinesh D’Souza and Laura Ingraham have been obstructed and intimidated by Muslims, leftists and liberals. These speakers had the courage to discuss topics most academics refuse to discuss. Liberal professors give away so easily against intimidation and threat. The fake media on one hand and the liberal professors on the other are decimating the academic freedom that was so sacred for so long.