I translated this article by Magdi Allam from the Italian original that first appeared in the Corriere della Sera:
The Fatwa of Anti-Israel Hatred that Constrains the "Moderates":What a grave mistake it is on the part of those who have deluded themselves into believing that the normalization of relations between Islam and Judaism in Italy could conceivably be effected while ignoring the question of Israel.
That is to say, avoiding the essential question: the right of Israel to exist. The cancelling of today’s visit [January 21, 2008] by the Imam of the Grand Mosque in Rome to the Synagogue of Rome, because of a decision communicated to him by the Islamic university of Al Azhar, headquartered in Cairo, a kind of “Vatican of Sunni Islam,” confirms that even the so-called Muslim moderates share the ideology of hate, violence and death when it comes to dealing with the Jewish State.
That response by Abdel Fattah Allam, the right-hand man of the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Sehik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, was, in effect, a fatwa, a juridical response based on the Shari’a, the Law of Islam: “The dialogue between Islam and Judaism cannot begin until rights have been restored to those who properly should possess them.” This translates thus: only after the “Palestinians” have acquired the whole of the geographic entity called “Palestine,” therefore only after the elimination of the state of Israel, will it be possible for Muslims to carry on a “dialogue” with Jews in Italy. This is the official, public position of Al Azhar, already expressed in the fatwa of April 4, 2002, by the same Tantawi, the fatwa by which he legitimized “Palestinian” suicide terrorism: “Israeli citizens constitute an occupation force. Therefore “martyrdom operations” are the highest form of Jihad,they are an Islamic duty until the “Palestinians” reconquer their land and push back the cruel Israeli aggression.” And in an explanatory note about this fatwa, broadcast on the Al Azhar website, it is specified that “any “martyrdom operation” against any Israeli, including small children, women, and adolestcents, is a legitimate act according to Islamic law.”
Thus, as it is Al Azhar who names the Imam of the Grand Mosque of Rome, the latter was ordered to renounce the visit to the Rome Synagogue. After all it is not anything new. Already, on June 6, 2003, the then-Imam Abdel-Samie Mahmoud Ibrahim Moussa delivered a sermon in which he delivered hysterical cries: “ O Allah, make the Islamic warriors in Palestine triumphant! O Allah, help us to wipe out the enemies of Islam!.” On March 26, 2004, it was discovered that inside the Grand Mosque of Rome there had been nurtured a group of Islamic extremists, when they decided to recite the “Prayer of Death” to commemorate the recent killing of the Hamas leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. And afterwards, to calm things down, it was decided to send back to Egypt the new Imam Abdulwahab Hussein Gomaa. And now, with the new scandal, the prohibiting [by Al Azhar] of a visit by the present Imam to the Synagogue, the reality of the ideological extremism that inspires the spiritual guide of the Grand Mosque of Rome is palpable.
At this point Italy can no longer simply remain an observer. We cannot allow the present and future reality of Islam and of Muslims in Italy to be determined by the negators, the deniers of Israel who live outside Italy, nor by the apologists for Palestinian suicide terrorism. Let it be clearly understood, once and for all, that Al Azhar is a fortress of Muslim extremism and of Muslim terrorism. Let the Minister of the Interior send back to their countries of origin those Imams who are submissive adherents of this ideology. Let the Minister of Foreign Affairs clearly denounce the agreement of cooperation signed on June 15, 2005, between Al Azhar and five Italian universities, signed by Ambassador Antonio Badini with the rector of Al Azhar, Sheikh Ahmad al Tayyeb, who on April 4, 2002 said: “The solution to Israeli terror can be found in suicide attacks that will sow terror in the hearts of the enemies of Islam.”Let everyone stop legitimizing the ideologues of the Muslim Brotherhood, beginning with Tariq Ramadan. Let the state, and local institutions, stop handing over the mosques to UCOII. the lesson we must all learn from the latest scandal emanating from the Grand Mosque of Rome, is that before accrediting any Muslim as an official interlocutor, it is necessary to make him subscribe to a declaration in which he publicly recognizes the right of Israel to exist and condemns unequivocally Palestinian terrorism.
Magdi Allam
[Trans. HF]
"At this point Italy can no longer simply remain an observer. We cannot allow the present and future reality of Islam and of Muslims in Italy to be determined by the negators, the deniers of Israel who live outside Italy, nor by the apologists for Palestinian suicide terrorism. Let it be clearly understood, once and for all, that Al Azhar is a fortress of Muslim extremism and of Muslim terrorism."
Perfect! A hint of sanity in an insane world?
'And in an explanatory note about this fatwa, broadcast on the Al Azhar website, it is specified that “any “martyrdom operation” against any Israeli, including small children, women, and adolestcents, is a legitimate act according to Islamic law.”'
This is the voice of absolute evil incarnate. It should be dealt with accordingly before it is too late. It flourishes when good men do nothing, as occurred in the 30s. History is repeating itself...we can always rely on that.
Re: "Thus, as it is Al Azhar who names the Imam of the Grand Mosque of Rome, the latter was ordered to renounce the visit to the Rome Synagogue".
"The next segment of Sura 2, verses 75-105, continues the Qur’an’s criticism of the Jews. When you read statements by Hamas leaders or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about Israel, remember that they view Israel and Jews through a Qur’anic prism. They have learned, if they have studied the Qur’an at all, that the Jews are the most perverse and guilty – as well as the craftiest and most persistent – enemies of Allah, Muhammad and the Muslims"-Robert Spencer.
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/06/24/blogging-the-qur%e2%80%99an-sura-2-%e2%80%9cthe-cow%e2%80%9d-verses-75-140/
"A hint of sanity in an insane world?"
True but also irrelevant. The inmates are still running the asylum.
...it is time to quit allowing Muslims to make the rules.....
...Ban Muslim Immigration..
How the Italian government responds will be the key factor here. If they call this guy an islamaphobe and possibly have him charged with hate speech, then Italy will be lost (along with France, Great Britain, Netherlands etc.).
But if the Italian government moves to have this mosque closed down and all the imams deported back to Egypt, then there will be hope.
Not holding my breath.
Don't worry about Magdi Allam. He's an editor at the Corriere. He appears constantly on the RAI (government television). And because of his background -- Muslim Egyptian parents -- he has that "authenticity" that proves so helpful.
For in this identity-crazed age, where what is said or written is often clapper-clawed by the hands of the vulgar not on the basis of its perceived merits, but rather, in large part, on the basis of the presumed "identity" of the person who said or wrote it, such a background comes in handy. If two people write roughly the same thing about Islam, and one is called, say, Indro Montanelli, and the other Magdi Allam, and even if Montanelli is were to be even more acute in his analysis than Allam, then nowadays -- it wasn't always thus -- the "more authentic" Allam, rather than the more acute Montanelli, is almost certainly to be listened to with greater attention, greater respect.
We see the same "identity-authenticity" phenomenon in political life, "intellectual" life, everywhere. And this is reflected in the supposed need to supply "role models" of the same race, gender, you name it. Immigrant children, fresh off the boat, from Palermo or Pinsk, in New York City schools in the period 1900-1930, did not demand, and certainly would not have been given, teachers who were "role models" because they were exactly like themselves in ethnic background, religion, and so on. And those students thrived, with the ill-paid no-nonsense selflessness of their teachers, and a curriculum that brooked no nonsense. This "role-model" stuff is all part of the civilizational last-days-of-mankind degringolade which, by the way, is not as much fun as it was once cracked up to be, and I suggest we put the whole thing to bed, and refuse to passively accept our civilizational going hence, even as our civilizational coming hither.
And that's true too.
Attempting to do favors of any type whatsoever for Muslims doesn't help non-Muslims in any way, shape, or form with regards to Islam (which will remain anti-"unbeliever" no matter what any and all non-Muslims do to change this). Islam's anti-"unbeliever" ideology can not and will not change given the inherent nature of Islamic doctrine set down by Muhammad in the Kuran.
The Italian government's failure to comprehend this basic fact of life was the underlying mistake.....
A lesson to be learned in the "THE TWILIGHT ZONE."
Magdi Allam brings to light a pernicious conundrum for Italy, and all other European Union states, in terms of politically correct multiculturalism, that not all cultures are equally valid when it comes to criminal activities, or those activities that are socially violent and coercive. The Jewish Temple of Rome may invite the head Imam of the Grand Mosque of Rome for dialogue and visit, but the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, a kind of “Vatican of Sunni Islam”, disallows such visits upon scriptural grounds. His fatwa against such visits, and by extension against meaningful dialogue, endorses hostility towards Judaism, and the sovereign state of Israel, so his instructions are inherently hostile and coercive, or more directly advocating killing innocent civilians of a nation. How do the PC-MC crowds deal with this? Can they truly advocate for any organizational group to do violence against others, both as individuals or groups, on multiculturalist grounds? Italy will have to address this and take a stand. Either they are for killing, suicide bombings, and perpetual hostility against the people of a sovereign state, or they area against such vile coercive and barbaric social practices, so they condemn it. They must take a stand. Knowing what I know of European social sentiments, and in particularly of Italian sentiments towards violence in modern times, I am confident this Grand Mosque snub will not go unnoticed, but may in fact backfire against the Islamists with their condemnation.
This is a major test for the whole social thesis of Multiculturalism in Europe, and whether or not political correctness can override the innate hostility and violence condoned within the texts and annals of Islam. They must choose between accepting peaceful coexistence and social assimilation, or rejecting Muslim hostility and criminal behaviors on religious principles harking back to more barbaric times, as enshrined in the Quran and Hadiths. Italy will have to choose, and it is great for Magdi Allam to bring this to their attention, and rub their collective noses in it. The victim here is not the Grand Mosque of Rome, but the Jewish Temple. Their choice is between religious peace and criminal activity, a kind of Dostoyevskian choice, but it must be made in light of our humanistic modern values. Multiculturalist secularist values must choose.
"His fatwa against such visits, and by extension against meaningful dialogue, endorses hostility towards Judaism, and the sovereign state of Israel, so his instructions are inherently hostile and coercive, or more directly advocating killing innocent civilians of a nation. How do the PC-MC crowds deal with this? Can they truly advocate for any organizational group to do violence against others, both as individuals or groups, on multiculturalist grounds?"
Easy as pie: Simply define "Palestinians" as aggrieved, oppressed, economically disadvantaged, "occupied" Third World peoples who out of desperation at their "plight" turn to desperate measures to "defend" themselves; and simply define Israel as a "racist" "apartheid" state "oppressing" and "occupying" those lovely 3rd World "Palestinians". In light of these PC MC definitions, the attitudes of the Muslim leadership Allam is writing about become "understandable" and even defensible. And the threshhold for a change of mind, in the face of sufficient data to the contrary, is irrationally, even pathologically, high.
Thank you very much for translating the article.
"We see it in political life, "intellectual" life, everywhere. We are supposed to require "role models" of the same race, gender, you name it".
It's so true. In fact (as per a post to Cantor on another thread) I responded to a reference to All in the Family (jokingly) that goes to the point of this race-gender-game. I did not say so to Cantor, but I've never felt conformable with the stereotypes presented on All In The Family.
I've always sensed (since I come from a working-class neighborhood in Queens) that Lear's stereotypes are meant to justify the bourgeois attitudes re "affirmative action" etc., is meant to protect their privileged turf as they pass on the burdens of "past discrimination" to working class guys (very often bright people-brighter than them) as they present themselves as "principled people".
One thing I note about the bourgeois, they ALWAYS present their selfishness (feminism, "liberal" race bating, stereotyping of working class people, etc.) as "disinterested principle". But the "liberal" bourgeois are as predatory as they come. (Michael Savage is a guy who has their number.)
I have met many who looked Carroll O'Connor (Archie)-but few who thought like him. The type I met in my neighborhood thought more like Michael Savage.
The whole system is rigged with selfishness presented as disinterested principle. They (Lear "Liberal" types) are playing the same game with Islam.
Hugh-
A lot of this stuff ("We are supposed to require "role models" of the same race, gender, you name it") is meant to hide the class issues in society. For example, why should some privileged Saudi moron (from a society that is practically apartheid) get a place at Harvard when some middle class or blue collar class GI (maybe with an I.Q. of 180) returning from Iraq goes to some local college? The system is rigged and this "visual diversity" crap is the foundation of of the rig. A lot of these creeps defining the "race, gender, you name it" parameters have to go. Many of them are overprivelaged (which is not so bad) but they are also predators who pit people against each other using "visual diversity" as their tool.
One day, what I am saying here will be evident and conscious with may people. They fear that day. It's coming.
Note well, everyone, that "the rector of Al Azhar, Sheikh Ahmad al Tayyeb, who on April 4, 2002 said: 'The solution to Israeli terror can be found in suicide attacks that will sow terror in the hearts of the enemies of Islam'", is one of the 138 Muslim 'scholars' who signed off on that 'A Common Word' letter from the Muslims to the Christians, in October 2007.
The virulent antisemitism that is documented as having been expressed by more than one of those 138 'scholars' should have been enough to prevent any Christian leader or scholar worthy of the name from stooping to dignify 'a common word' with any response at all. It should have been received with nothing less than resolute, stony silence.
Magdi Allam almost gets it. Almost. In the end Magdi Allam is utterly clueless (or simply mendacious). Throw out extremist imams, he says? How are we to know if their replacements aren't as evil as their forebears, but more circumspect so as not to arouse infidel suspicions? Ask them?
" How do the
PC-MC crowds deal with this? Can they truly advocate for any organizational group to do violence against others, both as individuals or groups, on
multiculturalist grounds?"
What they do is study to ignore such events. And when they ineveitably occur they are always on a sharp lookout to make sure the reporting of those incidents do not use non-pc terminologies.
So if a synagogue is vandalized, he can rage if he thinks that it is some neonazi yahoo, if the perpetrators are described as asian or muslims he will rage at the insensitivity and prejudice of the writers reporting the incident.
As with any sort of ideologue, the ideas that have captured the multiculti are never examined, they often are more associated with a self image they have of themselves as being open minded, tolerant, wise, and cosmopolitan.
Until the multiculti personae becomes such a joke that the self image is no longer desirable, events in the real world will not change the minds of those cultivated to be multicultis.
Can anyone provide an authoritative reference to the Tantawi fatwa of April 4, 2002? Ideally both a reference to the original Arabic text and to a translation into a European language. I've searched the MEMRI site without success.
Easy as pie: Simply define "Palestinians" as aggrieved, oppressed, economically disadvantaged, "occupied" Third World peoples who out of desperation at their "plight" turn to desperate measures to "defend" themselves; and simply define Israel as a "racist" "apartheid" state "oppressing" and "occupying" those lovely 3rd World "Palestinians".
Of course you are right, Cantor. Ditto Stickman. As Hugh wrote later on the "Hamas staged some of the blackouts" thread: http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/019684.php
There is the sad truth of it, that they have so contorted the truth of their aggressions against Israel’s existence that in renaming themselves Palestinian ‘victims’ they have enlisted the sympathies of a gullible world into thinking they are the ones wronged, while in truth they are the ones who threaten and kill to further their Arab imperialism as demanded by their 7th century warlord (pbuh) to never have peace with Jews, or any other so-called ‘infidels’, those who fail to accept the primitively barbaric codex of his supremacist bigoted Koran. When will the MSM and PC multiculturalism world understand the nature of this deceit, or as their warlord (pbuh) dictated “War is deceit”? How long must they remain in that fog of deceit and still maintain sanity in a world made insane by Islam’s perpetual hostility? Fast jihad ala Hama, or slow jihad ala Fatah, is still the same aggression, that they will never accept in formerly Dar-al-Islam a nation where human beings not part of his slave—war-cult can live in peace and prosperity. Israel is our battle front against Arab imperialism, both in Moslem lands in their newly ‘colonized’ nations of the West. We must not allow ourselves to be deceived by their plaintive calls of ‘victimhood’ but expose them to the truth… that the truth may set them free, though they may not like it. Instead, they have their begging hat in hand while using the money for their violent Jihad against Israel. That is the sad twisted perverted truth.