• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Does John Thomas really want to stand with Mahdi Bray?

Jun 2, 2006 6:47 am By Robert Spencer

On two separate occasions, John Thomas, the general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, has shared a public venue with Imam Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society. (Here is Hugh Fitzgerald’s piece on Bray.)

I met Bray when I was speaking in Boston a year or so ago. He sweet-talked me and the audience during the Question-and-Answer period with a smooth series of empty assertions, including a claim that he had never heard of the Islam that I had sketched out during my talk, which is tantamount to saying he never heard of Osama bin Laden, or Omar Bakri, or Abu Bakar Bashir or all the rest. He also promised me that soon, in the interests of common understanding and mutual good fellowship, he would arrange for me to visit a mosque and engage in friendly dialogue there. But in that, of course, Bray was strictly grandstanding for the benefit of the audience, showing the face of Islam as all sweet reason in the face of the evidence I had presented about jihad and Sharia supremacism. I never heard from Mahdi Bray again, and did not expect to — for I suspect that Mahdi Bray knows that I know what he has said and done in the public sphere.

John Thomas, however, apparently does not. But he should.

In September 2005 he appeared on the same stage with Mahdi Bray at a rally protesting the Iraq war. Details here.

More recently, and more troubling, they co-authored a letter in support of workers rights that appeared in the Hartford Courant.

To the uninformed, this would appear to be nothing more than an interfaith effort to promote economic justice, but those who have paid any attention to Mahdi Bray’s career have reason to wonder if John Thomas and the Christian denomination he leads are being used in an effort to legitimize and mainstream someone who has exhibited an indifference bordering on outright contempt for Jews.

An affidavit available here describes two troubling episodes in which Bray was involved. These events have been widely reported.

“In October, 1998, Bray coordinated and led a Washington rally of 2,000 people, during which he played the tambourine as the crowd repeated, “[L]et’s all go into jihad, and throw stones at the face of the Jews.”

And:

“On December 22, 2000, Bray organized and spoke at a rally outside the White House, at which the emcee and crowd chanted responsively in Arabic, ‘oh Jews, the Army of Muhammad is coming for you!'”

This Dec. 22, 2000 instance is reported in Steven Emerson’s important book, American Jihad. The full quote in the book is “Khaybar, Khaybar oh Jews, the Army of Muhammad is coming for you!”

Khaybar was a city in Arabia of the Banu Nadir — a Jewish tribe. The Muslim Prophet Muhammad attacked and conquered it in 628. The Jews there were massacred, enslaved, or made to pay heavy taxes (jizya) for the privilege of remaining in the area — as I will detail in my book The Truth About Muhammad (coming this fall from Regnery Publishing). How Muhammad treated the Banu Nadir — conquest and subjugation — became a foundation of the dhimmi laws imposed on non-Muslims by Islamic law ever after. To play the tambourine while Khaybar is invoked in a laudatory manner is thus troublesome to say the least.

Just as troubling was another instance in which Bray raised his fist in support of laudatory statements of Hamas and Hezbollah. Details of this event, which took place in 2000 are available here.

Yes, these instances are several years old. Maybe Mahdi Bray doesn’t feel this way anymore. But has he issued any public disavowal or denial of these events? Has John Thomas spoken to Bray about these issues?

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Uncategorized


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • Crusades Were Right on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • William Garrison on The Fantasy Islam of Rice University’s Craig Considine (Part 3)
  • Vladimir on Islamic Republic of Iran: Turkey’s Erdogan champions Islam only as a tool to further his own interests
  • John on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • Vladimir on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.