A while back, I saw this news story.

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations opens its first global racism conference in eight years on Monday with the U.S. and at least five other countries boycotting the event out of concern that Islamic countries will demand that in denounce Israel and ban criticism of Islam.

The administration of President Barack Obama, America's first black head of state, announced Saturday that it would boycott "with regret" the weeklong meeting in Geneva, which already is experiencing much of the bickering and political infighting that marred the 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa.

"I would love to be involved in a useful conference that addressed continuing issues of racism and discrimination around the globe," Obama said in Trinidad on Sunday after attending the Summit of the Americas. But he said the language of the U.N.'s draft declaration "raised a whole set of objectionable provisions" and risked a reprise of Durban, "which became a session through which folks expressed antagonism toward Israel in ways that were often times completely hypocritical and counterproductive."

The major sticking points regarding the proposed final U.N. declaration are its implied criticism of Israel and an attempt by Muslim governments to ban all criticism of Islam, Sharia law, the prophet Muhammad and other tenets of their faith.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — who repeatedly has called for the destruction of Israel and denied the Holocaust — is slated to speak on the first day.

The bland U.N. draft statement does not mention Israel by name, but it reaffirms the Durban statement and its reference to the plight of Palestinians. That document was agreed after the United States and Israel had walked out over attempts to liken Zionism — the movement to establish a Jewish state in the Holy Land — to racism.

At first it shocked me to be talking about the destruction of Israel at an "anti-racism" conference. But then I learned something...

Muslims believe that Israel is racist. So an anti-racism conference would naturally be against Israel. Read this article from a "reasonable" apologetics type website that attempts to inform people about Islam. Read this:

It is really interesting to see that the Americans and the Europeans, who support the claims of Israel based on their racism, call themselves the apostles of human rights, freedom and secularism! They have no qualms at all in sending their financial and military aid to deny the Palestinians their birthright to their homeland.

Muslims consider Zionism "racist" because it favors Jews residing in the Promised Land, not the other "Children of Abraham".

It is considered "Haram" (sinful because it is forbidden by Islam) to make peace with Israel.

Allah (S.W.T.) and His messenger Muhammad (S) have defined well the conditions and rules of making peace. The case of Israel does not qualify under those conditions because of the many violations committed by Israel against the Palestinians, the Muslims and the International agreements. Therefore, It is Haram to do peace with them under the current circumstances.

Check out this point of view.

For long, Zionism was equated with racism, as it is a doctrine based on the concept of "the chosen people" and the Promised Land. Only recently, due to pressures, which Zionists have exercised over people and governments, along with their basic abuse of the suffering of the Jews, during the Nazi era - that Zionism ceased to be equated with racism, in the decrees of the UN. This is despite the fact that it is still equated with racism, within the global civil society.

Here's why Muslims view Israel and Zionists as "racist":

The key point of the Palestinian issue is closely related to this idea of the “uniqueness” of the children of Israel. In fact the Torah does speak of God’s gift of Palestine to the children of Abraham; but the Jews believe that since they are the “chosen” of God, the other children of Abraham have no right to the land! Particularly, they argue that the children of the firstborn of Abraham have no right to this land, since the mother happened to be a slave.

Even in this modern age, when so much is heard about human equality, brotherhood and human rights, the Jews and also the Evangelical Christians of America, hold fast to this obscurantist view. They maintain that the Arabs, who are the children of Ishmael - the firstborn of Abraham - have no right to the land of their birth, as that land had been promised by Jehovah to the children of Abraham - by his second son.

Muslims look at the world, history, and words like "racism" through a different lense.

Any sensible person can see that justice is the key to world harmony and peace. Indeed human equality and justice are the bases on which all human rights are founded. This is a fact acknowledged by all those who value human dignity.

Whereas we can see that Zionism denies human equality, as it is founded on the racist idea that by birth the Children of Israel as "God's Chosen People" are a cut above the rest of the world. They claim that the Land of Canaan (Palestine) is promised to them exclusively by none other than God Himself.

In fact, their own Torah says that the Land of Canaan is given to Abraham's "seed" (Genesis 17:8-9), who should reasonably include all the children of Abraham. But from the angle of Zionist interpretation, Abraham's firstborn Ishmael and his children have no right to the Promised Land.

What is funny is that the "secularist", postmodern "civilized" world led by the self-styled upholders of "democracy, freedom and human rights" supports, for all practical purposes, the racist claim that YHWH (God) about four thousand years ago had granted to the Israelis exclusive right to Palestine now occupied by the Zionists.

And the State of Israel illegally founded on Arab land in 1948 is allowed to hold hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs ransom. Their atrocities began with the massacre of over 250 Palestinian men, women and children of Deir Yassin committed by terrorist gangs led by Menachem Begin.

The systematic occupation of more and more of Arab land by Israel has been going on all the while. It was made easy for Israel to do this by the United States. It is interesting to note that Israel goes on changing its border as it needs more and more land for its planned expansion at the expense of the Palestinians.

The "Intifada" (the Uprising) and the recent "martyr-operations" of the Palestinians is the last ditch battle of a people for their basic human rights. But the world media distort the facts to tell the world a different story.

Now the original news story makes more sense to me. Muslims viewed the UN declaration at Durban as a victory, because Israel was finally condemned. And this point of view is not just from the "radical Islamists". I found this same point of view in basic Islamic textbooks written for the general public.

I wondered how one who is "Anti-Israel" could be "Anti-Racism". It seems like an oxymoron to me. But to Muslims to be anti-racism is to be anti-Israel and those of us who claim to be against Racism, but are for Israel are the actual hypocrites. We think they are hypocrites because they claim to be against Racism and hate Israel, and they think we are hypocrites because we claim to be against Racism and support Israel.