Free societies do not negate the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience. Politeness, courtesy and decency are considered virtuous but vain talk or the things that injure feelings of others unjustly or offensive or disrespectful expressions especially for elders, women and superiors are not favored. Lies, distortions, sensual and vile expressions inciting to sin or illegal action as well as backbiting and spreading hatred or rumors are prohibited.

A rightwing thinktank which claimed to have uncovered extremist literature on sale at dozens of British mosques was last night accused of basing a report on fabricated evidence.

The report by Policy Exchange alleged that books condoning violent jihad and encouraging hatred of Christians, Jews and gays were being sold in a quarter of the 100 mosques visited.

But BBC2's Newsnight said examination of receipts provided by the researchers to verify their purchases showed some had been written by the same person - even though they purported to come from different mosques.

Self-hate, in the Jewish context, is assailed by traditionalists, quantified by sociologists, catalogued by hobbyists, ribbed by comedians, feared by parents.

It is also underrated.

Simply put, we have much to learn from the self-hating Jew. Like the paranoid who is under actual surveillance, the Jew who is viciously critical of matters Jewish - or for whom Jewishness and Israel are sources of shame - may shed light on issues we may wrongly choose to ignore or accept. 

A former Catholic nun and author of books on many of the world's religions including Islam, English writer Karen Armstrong speaks about Western views of Islam, the mood after 11 September and her hopes for better relations between Islam and the West.

"What more concessions should the West make to Muslims? When should we draw the line and stop sacrificing our ideals?" The question was posed by a young Englishman at the end of a lecture on "Understanding Islam" at Oxford University's Institute for American Studies in England. While the question revealed many Western concerns and assumptions, as well as the extent to which an anti-Islamic mood has prevailed in the West since the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September last year, the answer, however, was quick. "Muslims did not ask us to give up our ideals and values. On the contrary, it is the West which does not honour these very ideals when dealing with Muslims and Islam," said the lecturer, Karen Armstrong, a Catholic nun turned Christian theologian.

In 1994, I travelled to Israel for three weeks and found it very interesting. The next year, I went again, but this time, my curiosity was awakened as regards the troubles between the Israelis and Palestinians. I was also confused about the 1967 and 1973 wars Israel had with its neighbours. On my return to Iceland, my oldest son asked me if I could find him a job in Israel and I did. He got work at a hotel in Eilat. Around nine months later, I visited him and found him with a very good job and a nice salary. But he was not happy. He told me he was very angry at the Israelis. I was very surprised because at this time I really thought they were the good guys, but then my son told me about the differences Israelis make between Jews and the others, i.e. the Arabs, Muslim or Christian. He explained to me, for example, that he, as a foreign young man, a European, was after a very short time put in a job with a lot of power, and at the same time, Arabs that had been working there for years were treated as slaves, as subhuman. He had been told that he needed to be hard on Arabs, treat them like slaves, because, as the Israelis put it, they were lazy. But he had found his Arab friends to be very nice, polite, extremely generous and good, hard workers. In the end, he moved from his comfortable flat in the hotel to their housing, which consisted of just tents and shacks! Their place was far from as nice as what he had been used to, but he wanted to be with them because there, he had found real friends.