My thanks to Jonathan Schwarz over at Slate for pointing out that various Islamic terrorist organisations including Hamas and Al Qaeda include of all things Rotary Clubs amongst their lists of anti-Islamic organisations that they believe are waging crusades on them. From the Hamas charter, for instance
…you can see [the enemies] making consistent efforts by way of publicity and movies, curriculi of education and culture, using as their intermediaries their craftsmen who are part of the various Zionist Organizations which take on all sorts of names and shapes such as: the Free Masons, Rotary Clubs, gangs of spies and the like. All of them are nests of saboteurs and sabotage.
My first thought is to almost wish it were true: if my local Rotary club was in fact on organisation of saboteurs fighting the Jihadis, I might almost want to join. It sounds quite exciting. My second thought, however, is I think the sort of uneasy thought that Group Captain Mandrake gets in Dr Strangelove when Gen. Ripper explains to him that he has just launched a nuclear attack on Moscow to fight fluoridation of drinking water. In this war one occasionally feels that the enemy does not need to be fought so much as it needs to be medicated, and this is one of those times.
Then again, I suppose this makes no more or less sense than blaming the Jews.
Who thought that Rotary were so exciting!
Where are the memberhsip forms?
On membership do you get a number. Dibs on 007!
Rotary is a Zionist front organisation. I thought everyone knew that!
And to think the benighted Palistinians voted for these guys? I guess they got the goverment they deserved, one hostile to the very organisations that make a civil society civilised.
They missed the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Rebekahs, and most stunning of all, the secret of world domination, the Partriarchs Militant. Mwaaaaahaha. Their cause is a lost cause.
Yeah… most Muslims’ views of the West are ridiculously skewed.
If your entire information comes from Daniel Pipes your view of Muslims might end up ridiculously skewed… (The Pew Survey itself – which is not of “most Muslims” but of samples in specific important countries – is worth reading.) But it would be astonishing if the largely illiterate and unschooled populations of propagandising dictatorships knew much reliable about the outside world. Most westerners are ignorant and credulous too, with somewhat less excuse.
What about the YMCA? The “Christian” in the name is a big giveaway. The Village People are the link with secret Masonic orders (the Construction Worker, you see) and aggressive US foreign policy (with their encouragement of young men to join the navy).
I personally think the islamofascists might be worried about the Girl Guides.
Seriously, the mindset Michael describes is that of the medically insane.
I wish it were so. It is closer to normal psychology, I fear.
Guy, what do the Village People and the YMCA have to do with the Rotary club? Nevermind. I’ll read the article again.
Oh. That must be what the less ignorant westerners call “irony”. heh
Mahometans taking against the Freemasons is particularly odd, since a great deal of the masonic lore is in fact third-hand sufism.
Indeed.
Generally, there is a Masonic Lodge associated with each Rotary Club branch.
Oh dear [edges away from Laughing Cavalier]
Fear not the Rotarians are feared by others too. The late unlamented Hunter S Thompson for one.
And the WI is a Zionist entity intent on destroying mosques with exploding victoria sponge cakes. I’ve known that for years… I think samizdata funds could stretch to sending Mr Abbas a tinfoil hat.
I still can’t see “The Village People” connection. This is all so sinister.
They don’t like the Lion Clubs either. They are a front for MI6 or something…
Nick M;
Ahh yes, the famous Special Operations Executive of the Womens Institute…….someday the story can be told.
The ‘slims have finally reached the stage of being self-mocking, all challenge is gone.
The Jaycees in my home town run the annual Rattlesnake Roundup. If that isn’t a front for global domination I don’t know what is.
Mr. Jennings, forgive a picky lurker, but wasn’t Mandrake an RAF Group Captain?
Editor’s note: you are of course correct. Duly amended
It’s got to be the Moslah Shriner’s that have Hamas worried. They build hospitals and perform charitable works (just like Hamas likes to brag about), but with the fez’s they could blend right in with the Hamas Lawnmower Brigades, infiltrating and disrupting their plans to destroy the evil gardens of Israel.
Here’s the link to prove my point: http://www.moslahshrinecenter.org/.
The Potentate looks to be the terrorist type, must be very confusing to the Arab street.
Duh, the Jaycees are the enemy.
Jaycee
JC
Jesus Christ!
Don’t forget the PEO, Order of the Rainbow, Eastern Star, Eagles, Elks, Moose Lodge…secret militia all….
But the ol’ beer swillers at the VFW Hall are the best trained. (At least according to their bragging)
Sorry Guy Muslims in a lot of counties (not just the third world) tend to think that either 9/11 was not the work of Muslims – or that it was a good thing (sometimes they manage to think both of these things at the same time).
The world would be a nicer place if most Muslims were like that British soldier who got killed on Afghan plains the other day – but they are not.
I’ve laught. Thanks.