In this weeks Beauty for Ashes we look at the Bondi massacres and the rise of anti-semitism in Australia and the Western world; Amsterdam; Belgium; Germany; France; England; Country of the Week – Bulgaria; Chile turns Conservative; The unelected EU President argues for elected democracies; Tommy Robinson’s Carol Service; with music from Annie Lennox; Joshua Aaron; Mystery of Bulgaria Voices; Booker T and the MGs; The Ramones; and Dave Henderson
Here is the music used in this months podcast on Spotify….
Countries: Bulgaria; Australia; Pakistan; the Netherlands; the UK; Germany; Morocco; the USA; Chile; Belgium; France; the USA
Music: Mystery of Bulgarian Voices: Booker T and the MGs; Annie Lennox; The Ramones; Dave Henderson; Joshua Aaron
Sources: YouTube; The Spectator; X; the Australian; the BBC; The New York Times; Sky News;
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Catch up on last weeks episode here – Beauty for Ashes 9 – Christmas, Northern Ireland, Trial by Jury and Radiohead Psalms
Here is the local segment used on the radio show – we look at these issues from a local perspective…
Quantum 375 – The Islam Special
One of the wishes of my late husband (Church of Scotland Scots Jew) was that our lived experience of trying to settle in Israel did not go unrecorded. To save time and space I will not repeat what I have said in previous responses to you – interested readers can find and read these on the site.
Additionally there are some rather concerning parts of this broadcast – namely the lack of recognition and historical inaccuracies of what has happened in the region since 1947 and continues to this day. Most obvious being the continued theft of land by the Israeli government and settlers – breaching numerous United Nations resolutions.
All life is sacred and my other concern is that some lives seem to matter more to you than others. In the broadcast you spend a lot of time personalising some lives whereas you gloss over other lives as if they didn’t matter.
To finish I think (and my late husband also felt this and wanted it publicised) anti-Semitism could be virtually wiped out overnight if the injustices of 1947 to the present were accepted and addressed – perhaps in the way they have been partially resolved in South Africa and in Ireland.
Hamas does not of course think that all life is sacred….And your late husband was profoundly wrong to think that anti-semitism could be wiped out overnight if Israel were dealt with. Anti-semitism has been around for thousands of years….sadly it will continue. Your position is a naive and dangerous one….
Hi David, 1. It’s worth remembering that when Tommy Robinson says the church was against him, he isn’t talking about the church being against a working class man defending his community but against the BNP and the EDL. Surely that was a good thing and hopefully if he is hearing the Gospel somewhere then one day he will come to realise that? 2. Saturday’s event was primarily a recruitment drive targeted at Christians to draw them into UTK. So you have to look at the whole thing in context (I commend to you Stephen Kneale’s modern day parable on this). In terms of the context, the event was organized by a group self styled the patriot pastors and it is possible to discover what exactly they teach week in week out (which is actually very similar to Joel Osteen but with a nationalist tinge). It’s the week in week out stuff they say from their pulpits that I’ve spent time engaging with here Christian nationalism – Faithroots https://share.google/lrrNgXzvgHrnNHlxH
I don’t think so. He rejected the BNP – and yes I think the church is against working class people… You don’t know point 2….don’t speculate. And even if that were true it was remarkably unsucessfull! Yes I am sure there are many of the pastors who would teach what I do not agree with…but I was just writing about the event itself….it ended up being better than I anticipated…
In terms of “successful” you always have to ask what the intended success was. If I were one of the organisers I’d probably have settled for 1k coming to the Christian focused event. I’d settle even more for getting puff pieces about how nice it was in Christian newspapers and positive comment on the bigger blogs.
Hi David, 1. he left the BNP to form the EDL. However the point stands that at the time he says the church opposed him, it was opposing his activities as part of those two organizations. 2. David, I know exactly what last Saturday’s event was because I have been tracking this specific movement for some time and I was able to see how it was pitched by its organisers. It’s not speculation to say that an event pitched directly to Christians as a save Christmas event was that. We know the tactics can of the far right and far left. They let you see just what you want them to see and what they want you to see. Have you read Steve Kneale’s piece!