Muslim Who Saved Shoppers At Paris Kosher Deli Awarded Citizenship

The Muslim worker at the Jewish kosher deli who saved a bunch of shoppers from Amedy Coulibaly's terrorist rampage, is now a Frenchman. He had his citizenship ceremony on Tuesday, attended by France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, and others.

24-year-old Lassana Bathily, had applied for citizenship last year after arriving in France some 8 years or so ago from Mali.  After his heroics (hiding a bunch of shoppers in the basement fridge), his application was fast tracked.

Bathily said he was "proud and moved" to have been granted citizenship. "People say I'm a hero, but I'm not a hero. I'm Lassana," he said at the ceremony. "I'll stay the same. I would do the same again, because I was following my heart."

The 24-year-old told France's BFM TV, "We are all brothers. It's not a question of being Jews, Christians or Muslims. We were all in the same boat. We had to help each other to get out of that crisis."

Bathily explained:

"I was down in the basement for five minutes when I heard shots up there. … After the problems at Charlie Hebdo, I thought maybe the same thing was happening to us. At the same time, if not a few minutes later, I saw everyone running down. They started screaming, “They are there, they are there, they're in the shop!"

According to VOA News:

Bathily described fleeing through a small but noisy freight lift. The frightened shoppers he harbored in the refrigerator chose to remain behind, with the lights turned off to avoid detection as gunman Coulibaly loomed overhead on the store's main floor.

Outside, a police force still reeling from the deadly attack on the magazine offices and the fatal shooting of a policewoman, handcuffed Bathily for 90 minutes until people who knew him confirmed he was not the attacker. Coulibaly was also black, French-speaking and of Malian origin.

With his hands freed, Bathily then drew a map of the store for police, detailing the offices, aisles and cash registers.

He pointed them to where the group was hidden in the basement. After four years of working there and praying within its walls during his shifts, he knew the shop by heart.

What he did was definitely commendable, but he's in denial- as so many others are- regarding terrorists being Muslim.

He said:

"I do not think they are Muslims, they are bandits. They are bandits. I am a Muslim and this is not our religion, our religion is not based on this. A terrorist is not a Muslim. Anyone can be a terrorist, anyone. These are bandits,” he said.

Sorry, but they are.

Muslim Doctor Offers To Pay Islamic Radicals To Leave Australia

Dr. Jamal Rifi, national finalist in Australia's Local Hero 2009, and founding member of the Christian Muslim Friendship Society, told Islamic extremists he'd "buy them a one-way ticket out of Australia." This was in response to the manager of Al-Risalah Islamic Center- Wissam Haddad- saying that he and his flock would

“give up their passports” if they could leave without “being incriminated”.

Haddad was responding to Australia's announcement regarding the implementation of a $64 million package to counter violent extremism and radicalization.

Dr. Rifi said:

“Let them give away their citizenship. These people are saying they want to go and ­relieve the oppressed Muslims overseas.

“Why would they care so much about the oppression of the Muslims overseas and through their actions and statements cause so much ­oppression and trouble to the Muslims in Australia?”

Haddad had spoken on a radio show and about leaving without incrimination and then posted on Facebook:

“So from what I’ve heard I have been depicted as a radical extremist lunitic (sic) who allegedly supports terror ­activity overseas, (news to me),” he posted on Facebook.

He then issued a challenge to the Australian government to charge Hadley and his listeners who wanted to fund his return to the Middle East.

“Will Ray and his friends be charged with incitement or with the new foreign incursions act I await your humble reply!” Mr Haddad posted on Facebook yesterday, adding in the same Facebook post: “Don’t run Ray”.

Hadley, who exclusively broke the story about the men wanting to revoke their citizenship, refused to be baited by the radicals when The Daily Telegraph contacted him about the post.

Mr Haddad also previously commented he would “live and die” for the Islamic flag not the Australian flag, which also shocked Dr Rifi.

Rifi's response:

“If given the option to fight for the Australian flag or the ISIS (Islamic State) flag I, without any hesitation, will choose the Australian flag ­because I totally believe ISIS and its ideology are the enemy of Islam."

"I am in touch with my community and I am talking in the voice of the majority.”

Good for Rifi.

But not many high-profile Muslims are willing to openly criticize extremists.  After all, they're usually threatened, as was Rifi himself. Back in early August Rifi was threatened by Islamic State jihadist Mohamed Elomar.

H/T Creeping Sharia

Young Muslim Man Fighting Anti-Semitism in Sweden

Siavosh Derakhti is a young Muslim living in Malmo, Sweden. Fortunate enough to have been raised by parents who are seemingly open and tolerant, they've brought up a young Muslim who gives the world hope. Siavosh has made it his goal to fight anti-Semitism in his adopted country, a dangerous thing considering most Muslims there don't feel the same way, but he's determined to educate others, and he's being rewarded for that.

The Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism gave out its first Elsa Award to a young Muslim Swede named Siavosh Derakhti on Nov. 8, 2012. Derakhti, who is 21 years old, works tirelessly to teach students about anti-Semitism in his hometown of Malmo. In 2010, he founded “Young Muslims against Anti-Semitism” and organized a student trip to Auschwitz. His work frequently takes him across the country to educate students about anti-Jewish bigotry and the Holocaust.

From a young age, Derakhti has been interested in World War II, and specifically the Holocaust. “I asked my father how I could learn more about this, and he told me, ‘No problem, I will take you to a concentration camp so you can see it with your own eyes." Derakhti went to Bergen-Belsen with his father at 13, as well as Auschwitz at 15.

The trip affected him deeply. "When you come to Auschwitz, suddenly everything feels so amazingly real, even though it is inconceivable that there are people - not animals - who have been detained there...I could smell and feel what had happened, and I thought, ‘That could have been me, or it could happen again if nothing is done,” Derakhti said.

Keep in mind that people could be brought here for no reason other than that they were Jews. Or, for that matter, they were also political opponents of the regime, Roma, homosexuals, socialists, and others.

A lifelong resident of Malmo, Derakhti was shocked when he read in the newspapers about anti-Semitism in the city, which is Sweden‘s third-largest and is the site of regular anti-Semitic attacks and intimidation. "I was so sorry that Jew hatred is so strong. And to blame the Jews in Malmö for the state of Israel policy is not sensible," Derakhti said. This anti-Semitism struck a chord in Derakhti, whose Turkish-Azerbaijani family left Iran during the country’s war with Iraq in hopes of an easier, safer life in Scandinavia.

With an estimated 1,500 Jews among an overall population of 300,000, Malmo has also gained a reputation as the scene of some of the most hostile anti-Israel demonstrations in Europe in recent years. The city’s mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, has been criticized for blaming Jews for attacks against them, saying they must distance themselves from Israel. He was also forced to apologize for claiming, perversely, that they have ties to the country’s anti-Semitic far right.

“I found out Jews are fleeing Malmo, that they feel scared and unsafe on the streets,” says Derakhti. “And then I thought that something needs to be done. We can’t keep on letting this happen — not in a country like Sweden, and not in my hometown of Malmo.”

“My parents fled from dictatorship so their children could grow up in a peaceful place and experience democracy, and then to come to a country where there is hate, discrimination and racism on our streets, this is not acceptable. His father taught him that there is no place in this world for hatred. Something must be done,” Derakhti says.

Sia Derakhti asked classmates what they knew about Auschwitz - and was frightened by how little his high school classmates knew, and that his school, Malmös Latinskola, was not trying to change the situation.

Derakhti decided to educate his fellow Swedes about anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. “I proposed the idea of a class trip to Auschwitz, to teachers and principals, but nobody supported me,” he said. He was completely alone, not because of the destination, but because the school considered it impossible to get all the money that would be needed.

Read the rest of Siavosh's story here.

The key to peace between Muslims and Jews lies with the Muslim youth. But that all depends on their parents- and whether those parents raise their kids to be tolerant, like Siavosh's parents, or indoctrinate them with hate like parents in Palestine.

Too many do the latter.