The Islamic State

If I'm reading you correctly, the term "Anti-Semitism" has NOT been bastardized. The term was coined by Wilhelm Marr, a 19th-Century German politician and founder of the "Anti-Semite's League," who campaigned on an anti-Jewish platform and specifically referred to Jews.

People THINK it's been bastardized because of the classification of "semitic" languages, which pre-dates the term "anti-semitism." Hence the "I can't be anti-Semitic if I'm an Arab because I'm 'Semitic' myself" canard. But the term "anti-Semitism" was never intended by those who invented the phrase to refer to anything other than hatred toward Jews. Unless you're referring to the bastardization of the term by those who claim it refers to hatred of all "semitic" people (and there's really no such thing as "semitic" peoples -- just semitic languages) in order to trivialize persecution of Jews. In which case I stand corrected.

 

American reporter James Foley was beheaded.

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/former-stars-and-stripes-reporter-foley-beheaded-by-militants-1.299040

 

Ronald Lauder with a New York Times op-ed:

WHY is the world silent while Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East and Africa? In Europe and in the United States, we have witnessed demonstrations over the tragic deaths of Palestinians who have been used as human shields by Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls Gaza. The United Nations has held inquiries and focuses its anger on Israel for defending itself against that same terrorist organization. But the barbarous slaughter of thousands upon thousands of Christians is met with relative indifference.

The Middle East and parts of central Africa are losing entire Christian communities that have lived in peace for centuries. The terrorist group Boko Haram has kidnapped and killed hundreds of Christians this year — ravaging the predominantly Christian town of Gwoza, in Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, two weeks ago. Half a million Christian Arabs have been driven out of Syria during the three-plus years of civil war there. Christians have been persecuted and killed in countries from Lebanon to Sudan.

Historians may look back at this period and wonder if people had lost their bearings. Few reporters have traveled to Iraq to bear witness to the Nazi-like wave of terror that is rolling across that country. The United Nations has been mostly mum. World leaders seem to be consumed with other matters in this strange summer of 2014. There are no flotillas traveling to Syria or Iraq. And the beautiful celebrities and aging rock stars — why doesn’t the slaughter of Christians seem to activate their social antennas?

President Obama should be commended for ordering airstrikes to save tens of thousands of Yazidis, who follow an ancient religion and have been stranded on a mountain in northern Iraq, besieged by Sunni Muslim militants. But sadly, airstrikes alone are not enough to stop this grotesque wave of terrorism.

http://nyti.ms/VEdYsR

 

LOL. They changed the headline: