One of my readers pointed to the Jewish settler as proof that Jews also commit murder and therefore I should not pick on Muslims for their barbarities. However, I do not pick on Muslims because they commit thousands of acts of violent savagery, but because as a group they disproportionately commit violent murders, rapes, tortures, honor mutilations, etc.

If the Muslim population of a particular country is 1% then you can take it to the bank that 5 to 10 times that percentage of the country's prison population will be filled with Muslims; In France, Muslims are 12% of the population but 5 to 6 times that percentage in the prisons, in the UK Muslims are 3.3% of the population but more than 10 times that percentage in the prisons, in America Muslims make up 2% of the population but 8 to 10 times that percentage in the prisons [see article How Many Muslims are there in Prisons?].

So, OK, an Israeli Jew murdered two Palestinians and attempted to murder fellow Jews with whom he had disagreements. But here's the difference between Jews and Palestinians:

When a Jew murders a fellow Jew, the Israeli Authority arrests him, prosecutes him, and puts him in prison. When a Jew murders a Palestinian, the Israeli Authority arrests him, prosecutes him, and puts him in prison. In either case, there are no parades to glorify his deeds and he is considered mentally disturbed.

When a Palestinian (Hamas, for example) murders a fellow Palestinian (al Fatah, for example), the Palestinian Authority does not arrest him, prosecute him, or put him in prison. When a Palestinian murders a Jew, the Palestinian Authority does not arrest him, prosecute him, or put him in prison. In both cases, there are parades to glorify his deeds and he is considered a hero.

Palestinians have killed more fellow Palestinians than Israel ever has.² Here's something to think about: last year more than 180 Palestinians allied to the former Fatah government were sheltered by Israel as they fled from Hamas.³ That's right, when Palestinians need to be safe, they can find sanctuary among the Jews, how screwed up is that?

And, that, my dear Ahmed, is the difference between Jews and Muslims and that difference is why I "pick" on Muslims.

Notes

(1):

BBC News, 12 Nov 2009, Murder charges for Jewish settler

Yaakov Teitel, an American immigrant who lives in the West Bank, faces 14 charges, including two counts of murder and three of attempted murder.

"God is proud of what I have done," Mr Teitel said in court.

Police called him a "Jewish terrorist" when he was arrested in October. His lawyer says he is mentally disturbed.

"It's been a pleasure and an honour to serve my God," he said as he entered Jerusalem District Court. "God is proud of what I have done, I have no regrets."

Police say Mr Teitel, a 37-year-old and father of four, has confessed to the 1997 murder of a Palestinian taxi driver in East Jerusalem and a shepherd in the West Bank, which he told them were to avenge suicide bombings in Israel.

...

The charge sheet says some of the attacks were motivated by Mr Teitel's "hatred and objection" to individuals and groups whose lifestyles and ideology conflicted with his own.

Charges include: Premeditated murder, attempted murder, weapons violations, arson in grave circumstances, incitement to violence and terror, threatening from a motive of hostility against a specific group.

...

He was arrested in Jerusalem after he was found giving out leaflets in the ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood praising an attack on a gay youth club in Tel Aviv in August that killed two people.

A large weapons cache was later found at his home in the West Bank settlement

Mr Teitel's lawyer, Adi Keidar, at the time said his client was "mentally disturbed" and believed he was an "emissary of the Lord" who was instructed to carry out the attacks by God.

(2):

About: Middle East Issues, Hamas Torture and Repression in Gaza

[A Hamas militant shows what he thinks of Fatah's leaders, in this case an image of Mohamad Dahalan]

On the fourth day of Israel’s war on Gaza in December 2008, as more than 350 people had already been killed by the assault (and 1,434 would be killed by war’s end) the New York Times’ Taghreed El-Khodary described a stunning scene at Shifa Hospital in Gaza that had nothing to do with the war. El-Khodary was talking to the hospital director, Dr. Hussein Ashour, who was describing the difficulties he was having in keeping patients alive with little equipment. At the time, there were 1,500 wounded spread around Gaza’s nine hospitals. As El-Khodary talked to the doctor, he saw armed, masked militants roaming the hospital’s hallways. They claimed to be conducting security.

That wasn’t the case. For all the bloodletting beyond the hospital walls, “there was internal bloodletting under way,” El-Khodary wrote (in an article also authored by Ethan Bronner): Hamas militants were on the hunt for “collaborators,” whom they would stop and summarily execute on the spot. Luckier ones would be tortured and released.

(3):

Daily Telegraph, 5 Aug 2008, Israel provides sanctuary for fleeing Palestinians

THE international Left and our own flag-waving supporters of Hamas, Hezbollah and every other Palestinian terror organisation, look pretty stupid today as Israel provides sanctuary for Palestinians fleeing home-grown terror directed against each other.

The bloody infighting between rival terrorist gangs has long been a feature of the fractured Arab bloc but the reality that Israel does provide the only island of security in the middle of the carnage has never been so starkly illustrated.

More than 180 members of the Hiles (or Hilles) clan which is allied to the former Fatah government have been sheltered by Israel in an astonishing act of mercy as they fled killers from the radical Islamic resistance movement Hamas.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak made the decision to allow the young men to enter Israel on humanitarian grounds after receiving a plea for help from Palestinian President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and the Egyptian Government.

Those fleeing Hamas accused the group of attempting to wipe out all supporters of Fatah from the Gaza Strip in an act of "political cleansing".