Last Thursday was for Shi’ite Muslims Milad an-Nabi, the birthday of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Somewhat belatedly, therefore, and in a gesture of goodwill to the Florence Shapiros of the world, I offer you this speech by the Ayatollah Khomeini on this occasion in 1981, via FaithFreedom.
The real Day of God is the day that Amir al mo”menin [Ali, Shi’ite Islam’s first Imam] drew his sword and slaughtered all the khavarej [a group that rejected Ali’s leadership] and killed them from the first to the last.
The Days of God are when Allah, the gracious, the almighty, causes an earthquake. It is when He slaps on the face. It is when he causes a hurricane. He whips this people to become humans.
If the Amir al mo”menin [the leaders of the believers, Ali] wanted to be tolerant, he would not have drawn his sword killing 700 people in one go.
In our prisons we have more of the same kind of people who are corrupt. If we do not kill them, each one of them that gets out, will become a murderer! They don’t become humans.
Why do you Mullahs only go after the ordinances of prayer and fasting? Why do you only read the Quranic verses of mercy and do not read the verses of killing?
Quran says; kill, imprison!
Why are you only clinging to the part that talks about mercy? Mercy is against God.
Mehrab [the prayer niche in a mosque, in front of which the imam stands to lead prayers] means the place of war, the place of fighting. Out of the mehrabs, wars should proceed, just as all the wars of Islam used to proceeded out of the mehrabs.
The prophet has [had] sword to kill people.
Our [Holy] Imams were quite military men. All of them were warriors. They used to wield swords; they used to kill people. We need a Khalifa [caliph, leader] who would chop hands, cut throat, stone people. In the same way that the messenger of God used to chop hands, cut throats, and stone people. In the same way that he massacred the Jews of Bani Qurayza [a Jewish tribe of Medina, massacred by Muhammad] because they were a bunch of discontent[ed] people. If the Prophet used to order to burn a house or exterminate a tribe that was justice.
The lives of people must be secured through punishment. Because, the protection of the masses lies beneath these very punitive executions. With just a few years of imprisonment things don’t get fixed. You must put aside these childish sentimentalism. We believe that the accused essentially does not have to be tried. He or she must just be killed. Only their identity is to be established and then they should be killed.
I am these days finishing up a new book, A Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t (coming in August from Regnery Publishing). (I see that Amazon has given me a new middle initial; thanks, fellows.) This book counters the moral equivalence arguments that attempt to excuse or divert attention from the actions of Islamic jihadists and supremacists by invoking the real and imagined sins of Christianity, Judeo-Christian civilization, and the West. It is not an exercise in sectarianism, for it is a book that any neutral analyst, whether Christian or Jewish or Hindu or Buddhist or atheist or whatever, could write, and it is intended to demonstrate that Western civilization, rooted as it is in Christianity, is different from the model of society dictated by Islamic Sharia, and is worth defending.
I examine the history and teachings of Christianity and Islam to show that they are not equally likely to incite violence, and that Islamic civilization is not equivalent to Judeo-Christian civilization. I also look into the claim that Christian “theocrats” want to impose religious law on the U.S., and compare these fantasies to the global jihad that, now so many years after 9/11, few are yet willing to acknowledge fully. A Religion of Peace? exposes the Left’s ideological affinity with the worldwide jihad and rejects the relativist multiculturalism that saps our will to resist it. It is a call to Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, non-believers, and all the potential victims of Islamic supremacism to ally together, and in the West to regain a sense of the value of Judeo-Christian culture in order to defend themselves adequately against the global jihad threat.
So, with all that in mind, and with tomorrow being Easter, for Christians the Feast of Feasts, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, I thought that by way of comparison and contrast with Khomeini’s meditation on Muhammad’s birthday I would offer the Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom, which will be read tonight in Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches:
Let all pious men rejoice and all lovers of God rejoice in the splendor of this feast; let the wise servants blissfully enter into the joy of their Lord, let those who have borne the burden of Lent now receive their pay, and those who have toiled since the first hour, let them now receive their due reward; let any who came after the third hour be grateful to join in the feast, and those who may have come after the sixth, let them not be afraid of being too late, for the Lord is gracious and He receives the last even as the first.
He gives rest to him who comes on the eleventh hour as well as to him who has toiled since the first: yes, He has pity on the last and he serves the first; He rewards the one and is generous to the other; He repays the deed and praises the effort.
Come, all of you: enter into the joy of your Lord. You the first and you the last, receive alike your reward; you rich and you poor, dance together; you sober and you weaklings, celebrate the day; you who have kept the Fast and you who have not, rejoice today.
The table is richly laden; enjoy its royal banquet. The calf is a fatted one; let no one go away hungry. All of you enjoy the banquet of faith; all of you receive the riches of His goodness. Let no one grieve over his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed; let no one weep over his sins, for pardon has shone from the grave; let no one fear death, for the death of our Savior has set us free. He has destroyed it by enduring it; He has despoiled Hades by going down into its kingdom; He has angered it by allowing it to taste of His flesh.
When Isaiah foresaw all this, he cried out: “O Hades, you have been angered by encountering Him in the nether world.” Hades is angered because it is frustrated. It is angered because it has been mocked. It is angered because it has been destroyed. It is angered because it has been reduced to naught. It is angered because it is now captive. It seized a body, and lo! It discovered God. It seized earth, and behold! It encountered heaven. It seized the visible, and was overcome by the invisible.
“O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” Christ is risen, and you are abolished! Christ is risen and the demons are cast down! Christ is risen and the angels rejoice! Christ is risen and life is freed! Christ is risen and the tomb is emptied of its dead! For Christ, being risen from the dead, has become the leader and reviver of those who had fallen asleep. To Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.