 Sanctuary at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago |
JERUSALEM – Sen. Barack Obama’s Chicago church published an open letter from a Palestinian activist that labels Israel an “apartheid” regime and claims the Jewish state worked on an “ethnic bomb” that kills “blacks and Arabs.”
The letter, discovered by the blog Sweetness & Light, was published on the “Pastor’s Page” of the Trinity United Church of Christ newsletter reserved for Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., whose anti-American, anti-Israel remarks prompted the presidential candidate to deliver a major race speech last week.
“I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the white supremacists of South Africa,” wrote the letter’s author, Ali Baghdadi. “In fact, South Africa allowed Israel to test its nuclear weapons in the ocean off South Africa. The Israelis were given a blank check: they could test whenever they desired and did not even have to ask permission. Both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs.”
The June 10, 2007, newsletter, which is still available at Obama’s church’s website, identifies Baghdadi as an Arab-American activist, writer and columnist who “acted as a Middle East advisor to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the founder of the Nation of Islam, as well as Minister Louis Farrakhan.”
The piece is titled “An open letter to Oprah,” referring to talk show giant Oprah Winfrey, who last year accepted an invitation to visit Israel offered to her by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. Winfrey had been a member of Obama’s church but reportedly departed in 1986.
Baghdadi’s letter originally was printed in the Palestine Times, a pro-Palestinian newspaper published in London.
Obama’s church hosted Baghdadi’s letter stating Palestinians face “genocide and ethnic cleansing … every hour of the day.”
“For many centuries, Jews escaped the discrimination and death they were subjected to in Europe, and found safety and refuge among us,” writes Baghdadi.
But the activist doesn’t address the more than 800,000 Jews who were expelled or left Arab countries under threat after Israel was founded in 1948.
Continues Baghdadi: “Muslims believe in Christianity and Judaism. The Quran states there is no distinction between Muhammad, Jesus and Moses.”
In contrast to Baghdadi’s declarations, Sheik Taysir Tamimi, chief Palestinian Justice and one of the most influential Muslim leaders in Israel, told WND during a recent interview Moses and Jesus were really “prophets for Islam.”
“Your Torah was falsified,” stated Tamimi during the interview.
Tamimi is considered the second most important Palestinian cleric after Muhammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem
Tamimi said Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Jesus were “prophets for the Israelites sent by Allah as to usher in Islam.”
Continuing in the church newsletter, Baghdadi writes: “During the Second Intifadah, the uprising against Israeli occupation, Muslim and Christian activists, chased by the Israeli death squads, were given refuge in the Church [of the Nativity in Bethlehem].”
Baghdadi was referring to an episode in 2002 when gunmen from several major Palestinian terror organizations holed up inside the nativity church while fleeing a massive Israeli anti-terror operation. More than 200 nuns and priests were trapped in the church after Israeli hostage negotiators failed to secure their immediate release. Following the ordeal, which lasted 39 days, scores of church clergy thanked Israel for securing their release.
Some clergy told reporters of deplorable conditions inside the church. Four Greek monks told the Washington Times the Palestinian gunmen holed up with them seized church stockpiles of food and “ate like greedy monsters” until the food ran out, while the trapped civilians went hungry. They said Christians were forced to sleep in cold floors while terrorist leaders occupied the priests quarters and slept on beds and mattresses.
Obama church published Hamas terror manifesto
The latest revelation about published material from Obama’s church follows the discovery last week by BizzyBlog that Trinity United Church of Christ reprinted a manifesto by Hamas that defended terrorism as legitimate resistance, refused to recognize the right of Israel to exist and compared the terror group’s official charter – which calls for the murder of Jews – to America’s Declaration of Independence.
The Hamas piece also was published on Wright’s “Pastor’s Page.” It was written by Mousa Abu Marzook, identified in the publication as a “deputy of the political bureau of Hamas.”
According to senior Israeli security officials, Marzook, who resides in Syria alongside Hamas chieftain Khaled Meshaal, is considered the “brains” behind Hamas, designing much of the terror group’s policies and ideology. Israel possesses what it says is a large volume of specific evidence that Marzook has been directly involved in calling for or planning scores of Hamas terrorist offensives, including deadly suicide bombings. He was also accused of attempting to set up a Hamas network in the U.S.
Obama e-mailed the Jewish Telegraphic Agency a statement regarding the Hamas publication in his church newsletter explaining he “certainly wasn’t in church when that outrageously wrong Los Angeles Times piece was re-printed in the bulletin.”
To interview Aaron Klein, contact M. Sliwa Public Relations by e-mail, or call 973-272-2861 or 212-202-4453.
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