Hamas-linked CAIR has proven itself to be impervious to embarrassment; otherwise, it would have had a highly embarrassing week, with three huge jihad murder attacks following quickly in the wake of its new, fact-free “Islamophobia” report. Each one was a stunning rebuke to Hamas-linked CAIR’s attempt to fool people into thinking that Americans are suspicious of Islam because of propaganda from “Islamophobes,” not because of the murders that Islamic jihadists commit in the name of Islam. So today Hamas-linked CAIR is issuing a flurry of pro-forma condemnations of each jihad attacks — condemnations that ring hollow in light of its repeatedly telling Muslims not to cooperate with law enforcement.
And in the one below, Hamas-linked CAIR actually quotes the Qur’an. For years now I have been pointing out that Islamic jihadists use Qur’anic texts to justify violence and supremacism, and that self-proclaimed moderate Muslims have never mounted an effective response on Qur’anic grounds. This Hamas-linked CAIR is not that response, but it tries to appear to be, offering two Qur’an quotes that seem to establish more than they do. Neither one says in so many words that Muslims should not wage war against Christians and attempt to subjugate them under the rule of Islamic law, which is what we need to say.
But unfortunately, Qur’an 9:29 says that Muslims should fight such wars, and Hamas-linked CAIR is apparently doing so here by employing Muhammad’s maxim, “War is deceit.” The ill-informed and inattentive non-Muslim reading this press release will go away thinking he has just read a Qur’anic condemnation of jihad terror attacks. But he hasn’t. See below for details.
“CAIR Condemns Bomb Attacks by Extremists in Pakistan, Iraq,” a Hamas-linked CAIR press release, September 23:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned bomb attacks on a church in Pakistan and on funerals in Iraq.
In what was the most deadly attack targeting that nation’s Christian minority, a pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up Sunday at a church in the city of Peshawar, killing more than 80 people.
In a statement, CAIR said:
“We condemn these horrific and un-Islamic attacks targeting the Christian community in Pakistan. No one with a shred of humanity would commit such despicable acts against innocent men, women and children.
“The Quran, Islam’s revealed text, states: ‘(Rest assured that) those who believe (in the Quran), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians, and the Sabians – whoever believes in God and the last day and performs good deeds – will be rewarded by their Lord. They will have nothing to fear or to regret.’ (2:62)
This verse seems to promise a place in Paradise to “those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians.” Yet Muslim commentators are not inclined to see this as an indication of divine pluralism. The translators Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall both add parenthetical glosses that make the passage mean that Jews and Christians (as well as Sabians, whose identity is disputed) will be saved only if they become Muslims. And according to Ibn Abbas, this verse was abrogated by Qur’an 3:85: “If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah), never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter he will be in the ranks of those who have lost (all spiritual good).” Sayyid Qutb opines that 2:62 applied only before Muhammad brought Islam to the world, a view supported by a saying of Muhammad recorded by Tabari, in which the Prophet of Islam says that Christians who died before his coming will be saved, but those who have heard of him and yet rejected his prophetic claim will not be.
And most importantly, there is no Islamic authority that says that this verse means that Muslims must not fight against Christians in order to try to bring them under the rule of Islamic law.
“The Quran goes on to state: ‘Say: ‘We believe in God and the revelation given to us and to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and it is to Him that we surrender ourselves.'” (2:136)
Muslim spokesmen in the West often present the status of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus as Muslim prophets as evidence of Islamic open-mindedness and ecumenical-mindedness. In fact, however, it is only a declaration of the supremacy of Islam and the illegitimacy of Judaism and Christianity. It is a recurring Qur’anic theme that the people we know of today as Jews and Christians are renegades from the true religion actually taught by Abraham and Moses, as well as Jesus — and that true religion was Islam. The Qur’an says that Abraham was a Muslim (3:67) and assumes it about the other Biblical prophets. So this statement of theological generosity is actually, on closer inspection, a declaration of supremacism.
“We also condemn the recent sectarian terror bombings at mosques and funerals in Iraq that left more than 100 people dead.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of all these attacks, and we offer sincere condolences to the loved ones of those killed or injured. No cause, faith or ideology could ever excuse such barbarity. The perpetrators of these acts of terror must be brought to justice.”
Yesterday, CAIR condemned the terror attack on the shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya….
They better print up more condemnation forms, because Islamic jihadists are going to continue to show their “Islamophobia” campaign to be the shallow, manipulative and cynical thing that it really is.