Shaukat wishes there were no Jews
Islamist blogger Shaukat Khawja really, really doesn’t like Jews — so much so, in fact, that he would rather that Theodor Herzl’s proposal that all Jews convert (or be converted) to Christianity had gone through back in its day.
Got that? A radical Muslim so hates the Jews that he would rather they had all been converted into infidel Christians, instead of being allowed to remain Jews.
And why?
Speaks Shaukat:
The history of the world would have been so peacefully different if the propsed mass Baptism of European Jewry had gone through.
Because clearly, Jews are responsible for all the wars of the world, right?
How much more true would Shaukat’s statement be, I wonder, were it modified to allow for the possibility that Muhammad had been killed in a tribal skirmish just prior to his first “visitation” from whatever demonic entity decided to temporarily assume the identity of Gabriel?
Update: Welcome, Steynians!
Update – the Meltdown: I seem to have touched a nerve, as Shaukat has now done two things. He had begun by demonstrating the maturity I have come to expect from him now, on par with that of a twelve-year-old casting angry aspersions from atop a playground. But following that up, he says a couple of…well, to be honest, his statements are gems in their own right.
For example:
Without going into Biblical treatment of Jews, which quotes contempt coming from Moses, Jesus, and St. Paul – I wonder why Jews were expelled from almost every European country — England topping the list — expulsion of Jews for almost 350 years. Could it be interpreted as a sign of Christians’ love or hatred towards Jews – and for what reasons???
Poor grammar aside, it is interesting that Shaukat chose to mention Moses — the man who, arguably, was the instrument by which God established the foundations of Judaism — as an example of one who has only demonstrated “contempt” for Jews. I suppose a narrow reading of, for example, the Book of Exodus could lead one to think that, since Moses does spend quite a bit of time castigating the Hebrew people for their sinfulness.
But then, the Hebrew people did sinful things in the desert, not the least of which was to build a golden calf and worship it. Humanity as a whole regularly sins, and periodically needs to be corrected, sometimes harshly. Certainly, Jesus and St. Paul both give example of this, as did Moses in his day.
Following Shaukat’s odd statement, though, is a list of dates in history that supposedly demonstrate Christian persecution of Jews. And, to be fair, many of the dates he lists do in fact accurately mention instances of persecution of Jews by Christian religious authorities. Other dates he lists, however, do not belong on the list.
To take one easy example, the first item on the list is “70——————————Jerusalem” (that would probably be a reference to the sacking of the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D). That’s all well and good, except that it was not Christians who sacked the Temple — it was the pagan Romans under Titus. So Shaukat has been caught in something of a lie, hasn’t he?
I’m sure that if I parsed the list further, I’d find more distortions of historical fact. But rather than do so, I’m going to wonder at something. The implication that Shaukat would seem to be making is that Islam has not persecuted the Jews to the same extent, and that it has not vilified them to the same extent, as has Christianity.
That would probably come as news to all the many Jews forcibly expelled from various Arab (and then predominantly Islamic) nations in the wake of the establishment of the state of Israel sixty years ago. But what more do we learn from an examination of Islam’s relationship with Judaism through its teachings and by its history?
First, what of the hadith, which Shaukat regards as valid teaching? The hadith are ostensibly the collected teachings and example of Muhammad, and the treatment of Jews within the hadith is…less than pleasant. Although in one hadith the (false) prophet of Islam does note that “He who wrongs a Jew or Christian will have myself as his indicter on the Day of Judgment,”, many other hadith exist which contradict this (unless the indiscriminate slaughter of Jews is not counted among the ways in which Jews can be wronged).
To wit, there is a hadith that states “A Jew will not be found alone with a Muslim without plotting to kill him.” Another hadith says “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.” The Koran is little better, remarking of Jews that “abasement and poverty were pitched upon them, and they were laden with the burden of God’s anger; that, because they had disbelieved the signs of God and slain the Prophets unrightfully; that, because they disobeyed, and were transgressors.”
And even the historical claim of Islamic tolerance towards Jews does not stand up completely under examination. Pogroms against Jews happened in 1011 (in Cordoba), 1066 (in Granada – over 4,000 Jews were killed here). The Almohad dynasty, which ruled Southern Spain and parts of Northern Africa from 1121 until about 1269 threatened all Jews (and Christians) within its domain with either forced conversion to Islam or expulsion — indeed, in 1165, Jews were given the choice between conversion and the sword.
Moreover, in more recent centuries, Islamic sentiment towards Jews has soured considerably, and persecutions against Jews by Muslims have been noted in Aleppo (1850, 1875), Damascus (1840, 1848, 1890), Beirut (1862, 1874), Dayr al-Qamar (1847), Jerusalem (1847), Cairo (1844, 1890, 1901-02), Mansura (1877), Alexandria (1870, 1882, 1901-07), Port Said (1903, 1908), Damanhur (1871, 1873, 1877, 1891), Istanbul (1870, 1874), Buyukdere (1864), Kuzguncuk (1866), Eyub (1868), Edirne (1872), and Izmir (1872, 1874). Jews in Baghdad were slaughtered in 1828. Another massacre took place in Meshed in 1839.
The reader may note that all the above dates are in the 1800s or very early 1900s — pre-dating the establishment of the modern state of Israel by many decades, if not by more than a century in some cases. Islamic persecution of Jews in the 20th century included several more massacres: Fez in 1912, Algeria in the 1930s, Libya and Iraq in the 1940s, and Baghdad again in 1941.
And of course, one cannot mention Islamic persecution of Jews in the 20th century without mentioning the man who has come to be called “Hitler’s Mufti[/tag]“, Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, who — as Mufti of Jerusalem — openly expressed support for Hitler’s anti-Jewish ideals, even going so far as to publicly call for the death of Jews and to encourage the formation of Islamic SS brigades.
In contrast, the Catholic Pope at the time — Pius XII, who is sometimes unjustly called “Hitler’s Pope” — worked against the evils of the Nazi regime at every turn. In his 2005 book The Myth of Hitler’s Pope, Rabbi David G. Dalin notes that Pius XII took every opportunity to denounce the evils of the Nazi regime and the Jewish Holocaust, and that Catholics at every level of the Church’s hierarchy were involved in processes by which Jews were smuggled out of Nazi-occupied territories.
In modern times, of course, anti-Jewish sentiments are easily evident in most mainstream sources of Islamic ideological statements. In particular, Shaukat’s own much-loved Iranian ayatollahs, and also a succession of presidents of Iran since the 1979 revolution, have espoused harshly anti-Jewish sentiments (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s desire to see Israel “wiped off the map” is small fries; Iranian Hashemi Rafsanjani is on the record as saying that “when the Muslim world gets nuclear weapons the Jewish question will be settled forever.”).
Shaukat will likely keel over from apoplexy for my saying so, but it would seem to be the case that Muslims have persecuted Jews at least as much as Christians have. And even if we charitably allow that history is just that — bygone events which cannot be altered — then in the modern picture Islam comes out looking even worse in terms of its attitude toward and treatment of Judaism. For whereas most modern Christians are either on amicable terms with, or are ardent supporters of, Jews and Israel, most of modern Islam — Shaukat and his ilk included — sees only Jewish conspiracies everywhere, and desires only for the blood of Israelis.
Update – Dawn of the Dinosaurs: Shaukat’s blog is down now, but the Google cache still has the content of the post stored.
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