Contrary to the Virginia state motto (Sic semper tyrannis, thus always to tyrants), The Virginia State Bar (VSB) has joined the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign of the tyrannical Muslim Brotherhood (MB); its president, Kevin A. Martingayle, a Virginia Beach attorney, cancelled the Mid-Year Legal Seminar planned for Jerusalem in November.  The boycott is a non-violent war strategy, a means of denunciation and isolation consistently directed against Israel, the only democratic Jewish state in the Middle East.

Martingayle criticized Israel for its “unacceptable discriminatory policies and practices pertaining to border security,” with particular concerns that VSB’s Arab/Muslim/Palestinian members would be questioned more extensively.  Surely members of the Bar understand that security is fundamental to civilization, and that all travelers are subject to a measure of scrutiny upon entry to any country.  Martingayle cannot be unaware that Israel’s Declaration of Independence ensures “complete equality of social and political rights to all, irrespective of religion, race, or sex…”   The dissenters/petitioners would also benefit from Israel’s security arrangements unless, of course, they support the BDS movement or are found to be associated with Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator of the Holy Land Foundation trial), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Muslim Student Association/Hamas (MSA), or any of a number of affiliated terrorist organizations that are dedicated to Israel’s destruction – the same groups that cry “Death to America.”

What jihad means

Jihad comes from the Arabic verb, jihada, meaning “exerted” (struggled), but it is defined as “holy war.”  Although jihad is usually associated with violence, as we learn of Islamic terrorists who carry out horrific acts against non-Muslims, Israel and the West, Islamists may battle non-believers clandestinely and peacefully – by means of boycott.

Interestingly, in 1945, an Arab boycott was formally declared by the newly created Arab League Council – years before Israel’s statehood.  “Jewish products and manufactured goods shall be considered undesirable to the Arab countries.”  All Arab institutions, businesses, and individuals were “to refuse to deal in, distribute, or consume Zionist products or manufactured goods.” After 1948, the boycott prohibited direct and indirect trade between Israel and Arab nations.  The intent was to isolate Israel from the world, damage her economy, and render her incapable of defending herself. Worldwide Jewry was also targeted.

In 1977, Congress prohibited the American companies from cooperating with the Arab boycott.  When President Carter signed the law, he said, “the issue goes to the very heart of free trade among nations,” and that it was designed to “end the divisive effects on American life of foreign boycotts aimed at Jewish members of our society.”

Virginia, how soon you forget

View, looking toward Jerusalem, from the immediate exit from the Hall of Remembrance at Yad VaShem, the International Shoah Memorial. Photo: CNAV

The next excuse given by Martingayle and President-elect Edward L. Wiener, a Fairfax, Virginia attorney, was the thus-far low enrolment for the seminar (barely 30 of the expected 60). But they shrewdly canceled before the registration deadline, and there was still ample time to extend the sign-up date for the November event.

Once again, Israel has been singled out, the only nation among the more than thirty Muslim-majority countries where the travelers’ safety was guaranteed by the US concept of due process.  The Torah is the bedrock of Israel’s contemporary democratic constitution; Israel’s laws are the antithesis of Islamic evil, Sharia, yet Israel is targeted for a boycott that is calculated to destabilize, delegitimize and eventually destroy the Jewish State.

Disgracefully, the VSB was lured from its original objectives of pubic protection, justice, and morality by fewer than 40 out of a possible 40,000 signatures on a petition of boycott, and the decision was made in secrecy to elude attention.  Every year, Israel welcomes millions of tourists and visitors, of all religions, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, many from the United States.  And, as there have been no complaints of discrimination, we can only deduce that the cancellation was prompted by anti-Semitism.

Violence won’t always work, so…

When violent terrorist attacks are not always feasible, non-violent initiatives or stealth (soft) jihad is used to impose Islamic law, Sharia, over the host population.  Under the banners of “tolerance” and “civil rights,” stealth jihadists (moderates) gradually introduce elements of Sharia into Western societies by demanding that non-Muslims grant those essentials or be smeared with accusations of racist and “Islamophobe” for daring to decline or stop the erosion of the host’s own culture.

Some examples of how stealth jihad has made inroads into U.S. and Western culture are already evident:

• Since 9/11, American and Canadian political leaders, educators, and media have buckled under the Council of American-Islamic Relation’s (CAIR) insistence that Islam is a “religion of peace” and tolerance, and “undesirable language” (truth of Islamic activities) is curbed.

• The Muslim Student Association (MSA) holds anti-Israeli rallies, riots against Jewish students, insists on footbaths for Muslim students, and NY public schools will now be observing Muslim holidays.
• Asserting that Muslims are victimized, CAIR conducts sensitivity-training programs for our nation’s police departments; and has purged the FBI’s counterterrorism manuals of all Islamic references.
• Some American textbooks have gone from one page to several chapters on Islam, with nothing comparable for Christianity and Judaism; indoctrinal Islamic films are presented.    America’s heritage and exceptionalism are destroyed and replaced by Islam.
• Britain’s leading Islamic group demanded complete changes in public school curricula, including swim schedules and clothing requirements, Islamic prayer times and rooms.  Muslim dietary prohibitions are imposed on the whole school population, and western sports events have been discontinued.
• Some aspects of Sharia law have been adopted in Britain, and at least 85 Sharia courts have been operating in Britain as of June 2009.
• Swiss courts ruled in favor of “democratic pluralism” and stoning as punishment for adultery.
• Compliance with boycott campaigns against Israel and Jewish businesses.
• Stealth jihadists are promoting Islamic banking consistent with the principles of Sharia, and prohibiting investments that are contrary to Islamic principles.  The Islamic finance industry is worth about $800bn globally, growing at an annual rate of 10 to 15 per cent.

By exploiting the West’s respect for minority rights and cultures, stealth jihadists seek to transform pluralistic societies into Islamic states and to gradually sweep away Western notions of legal equality, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, and more. Giuseppe Bernardini, a Roman Catholic Archbishop in Turkey, notes that Saudi “petro-dollars” have been used “not to create work in the poor North African or Middle Eastern countries, but to build mosques and cultural centers in Christian countries with Islamic immigration.” He was told of this “program of expansion and re-conquest,” by a Muslim leader, who said, “Thanks to your democratic laws, we will invade you. Thanks to our religious laws, we will dominate you.”

The real Muslim plan

A top Muslim Brotherhood operative in the United States, Mohamed Akram, explained that the Brotherhood “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”  In an MB memorandum, dated May 22 1991, titled, “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America,” Akram laid out a plan to conquer and Islamize the United States, another step toward “the global Islamic state.”

In America, Akram explained, it would be extremely difficult to promote Islam by means of terror attacks. Thus the priority would be to “settle” Islam and the Brotherhood movement in the United States — by way of Islamic organizations posing as civil-rights groups — so that the Muslim faith would be incrementally accepted and “enabled within the souls, minds and the lives of the people of the country.”

I urge the Virginia State Bar to review its motto and ethics, and reinstate the trip to Israel.  Perhaps they can encourage the Islamists/protestors to see that they would be far more graciously welcomed in Israel than any Jewish attorney in Palestinian Gaza.  ☼