Israel Matzav

Desecrating Korans

The rage of the blogosphere this weekend is the arrest of a New York man for desecrating the Koran, Islam's holy book. He has been charged with a 'hate crime.'

Stanislav Shmulevich of Brooklyn was arrested on charges of criminal mischief and aggravated harassment, both hate crimes, police said. It was unclear if he was a student at the school. A message left at the Shmulevich home was not immediately returned.

The Islamic holy book was found in a toilet at Pace's lower Manhattan campus by a teacher on Oct. 13. A student discovered another book in a toilet on Nov. 21, police said.

Muslim activists had called on Pace University to crack down on hate crimes after the incidents. As a result, the university said it would offer sensitivity training to its students.

The school was accused by Muslim students of not taking the incident seriously enough at first. Pace classified the first desecration of the holy book as an act of vandalism, but university officials later reversed themselves and referred the incident to the New York Police Department's hate crimes unit.

David Zincavage at Never Yet Melted sums up the reaction of the right wing blogosphere:

Can anyone imagine a similar arrest for doing the same thing to the bible or a crucifix? As Tom Maguire recalls, when Andres Serrano submerged a crucifix in a bottle of urine, the result was an art competition award and a succès de scandale.

Well, no, I cannot recall any such incident with a bible or a crucifix. But only one non-Muslim country of which I am aware has sent someone to jail for drawing a caricature of the Koran with a pig standing on top of it (seen at the top of this post). That country is Israel.

On a hot day in June 1997, Tatiana Soskin took her black and white caricature sketch of "Mohamed" and attempted to attach it to an Arab storefront. Israeli security forces arrested her for attempted vandalism and attempted incitement to riot. She was arraigned and ordered by the judge to be taken to the Beer Ya'akov Mental Hospital for a series of psychiatric exams to be sure that this "Kahanist racist" was mentally fit to stand trial. While there she commented, "I would rather be in a small mental hospital here than to live in the bigger mental hospital that is the State of Israel!"

Judge Zvi Segal presided over this case against Tatiana Soskin. The young immigrant from the Soviet Union wearing a KACH shirt didn't stand a chance! In the judge's view she was guilty of incitement, racism and perhaps even endangering world peace! He even went so far as to compare her childish "pig poster" to the most evil anti-Semitic forgery ever conceived... the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion!" But young Soskin had no regrets..."I haven't done anything I should be sorry about. I think it's a matter of freedom of speech... how can somebody sit in jail for a drawing? It's only a drawing!"

But Judge Segal was not moved nor finished with the 28-year old Hebron resident as he tried to compare her drawings to the atrocities committed by the Nazis! Tatiana saw her chance and took this opportunity to give the judge a history lesson. "How can you compare a drawing to the actions of the Nazis and the slaughter of millions of our people? My motivation was love of Jews. My relatives who perished in the Holocaust would be ashamed to hear what you said! My grandparents died in the Holocaust but, if they heard this, they would die again!" In lieu of Judge Segal's disgraceful behavior, many of us are wondering why Judge Segal has never been required to submit to a series of mental exams as Tatiana was... to determine if he was fit to be a Jew!

Tatiana Soskin was the perfect victim. She is poorly educated, with few friends and with no family in Israel. There would be no protests in the Western press for this young Russian immigrant. Even the Jewish lawyers at the A.C.L.U. would be of no use. Besides, if asked, they'd run over to Israel to defend Mohamed, the pig! And so on January 8, 1998 Tatiana began her two-year sentence.

I always knew we were the most politically correct country in the world.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:24 PM