One of the ways to avoid thinking about the ideology of Islam – what its texts contain, how those texts explain the attitudes toward non-Muslims, and the behavior of Muslims over the past 1400 years – is to focus on the Feelgood. By Feelgood I mean those heartwarming stories in which non-Muslims and Muslims feel each other’s pain, help each other out, come to each other’s rescue, express solidarity and fellow-feeling, give the world an inspiring example of why-can’t-we-all-get-along-we’re-all-brothers-under the-skin-we-have-to-stand-togetherness against the naysayers, the right-wingers, the preachers of hate, the Islamophobes who want to keep us apart rather than bring us together. For if the bigots and the backbiters and the bannons were to prevail, and manage to divide non-Muslim from Muslim, then “the terrorists will have won.” It’s a crazed variant on Christian Bomfoggery – Brotherhood Of Man, Fatherhood Of God. It’s sentimentalism on stilts. And it’s now part of the atmosphere.
In Victoria, Texas, a mosque burned down on January 28. By January 31, just three days later, one million dollars in donations had poured in:
Days after fire destroyed the Victoria Islamic Center in Victoria, Texas, donations to rebuild the mosque have passed $1 million. And that’s only one part of the support local Muslims have received: Four churches and a synagogue say Muslims are welcome to hold services in their buildings.
News stories focused on the local Jewish community, which did not just declare the Muslims welcome to hold their services in the synagogue, but actually did something even more dramatic:
Jewish people in a small Texas city handed Muslim worshippers the keys to their synagogue after the town’s only mosque was destroyed in a fire. The Victoria Islamic Centre burned down on Saturday and had previously been burgled—the cause is being investigated by federal officials.
But the town’s Muslim population will not be without a place to worship while their building is reconstructed, thanks to their Jewish neighbours.
Robert Loeb, the president of Temple Bnai Israel, told Forward: “Everyone knows everybody, I know several members of the mosque, and we felt for them. When a calamity like this happens, we have to stand together.
“We have probably 25 to 30 Jewish people in Victoria, and they probably have 100 Muslims. We got a lot of building for a small amount of Jews.”
One of the mosque’s founders, Shahid Hashmi, said: “Jewish community members walked into my home and gave me a key to the synagogue.”
Why should anyone be anything but heartened by this act of human solidarity? Possibly because the massive coverage of it, as a Feelgood story of the kind that the media loves, obscures important truths, diverting attention away from the real nature of Islam. It reinforces the idea that we are all brothers under the skin, and that if we treat Muslims with great kindness, as these Jews in Victoria, Texas did, Muslims will be suitably impressed and grateful and – this is most important – will somehow manage to permanently ignore what Islam teaches them to believe about Jews. And what exactly is it that they are taught about Jews?
Perhaps we can best begin with the useful compendium of Qur’anic verses concerning the Jews that Robert Spencer has assembled here (and which can handily be cut-and-pasted into every Internet discussion of the matter).
The Qur’an depicts the Jews as inveterately evil and bent on destroying the wellbeing of the Muslims. They are the strongest of all people in enmity toward the Muslims (5:82); as fabricating things and falsely ascribing them to Allah (2:79; 3:75, 3:181); claiming that Allah’s power is limited (5:64); loving to listen to lies (5:41); disobeying Allah and never observing his commands (5:13); disputing and quarreling (2:247); hiding the truth and misleading people (3:78); staging rebellion against the prophets and rejecting their guidance (2:55); being hypocritical (2:14, 2:44); giving preference to their own interests over the teachings of Muhammad (2:87); wishing evil for people and trying to mislead them (2:109); feeling pain when others are happy or fortunate (3:120); being arrogant about their being Allah’s beloved people (5:18); devouring people’s wealth by subterfuge (4:161); slandering the true religion and being cursed by Allah (4:46); killing the prophets (2:61); being merciless and heartless (2:74); never keeping their promises or fulfilling their words (2:100); being unrestrained in committing sins (5:79); being cowardly (59:13-14); being miserly (4:53); being transformed into apes and pigs for breaking the Sabbath (2:63-65; 5:59-60; 7:166); and more.
The classic Qur’anic commentators do not mitigate the Qur’an’s words against Jews, but only add fuel to the fire. Ibn Kathir explained Qur’an 2:61 (“They were covered with humiliation and misery; they drew on themselves the wrath of Allah”) this way: “This Ayah [verse] indicates that the Children of Israel were plagued with humiliation, and that this will continue, meaning that it will never cease. They will continue to suffer humiliation at the hands of all who interact with them, along with the disgrace that they feel inwardly.” Another Middle Ages commentator of lingering influence, Abdallah ibn Umar al-Baidawi, explains the same verse this way: “The Jews are mostly humiliated and wretched either of their own accord, or out of coercion of the fear of having their jizya [punitive tax] doubled.
And there are similar, though not quite as numerous or as vehement, verses in the Qur’an against Christians.
During the many months it will take to rebuild the mosque in Victoria, one wonders what Muslim prayers will be said, what Muslim sermons delivered, in the synagogue or in the churches where Muslims will be holding their services. Will those grateful Muslims still curse the Infidels seventeen times a day in their prayers? If they do so (and those prayers don’t change), will they begin to have any doubts as to whether they should be cursing the kuffar at all? Will any Muslims dare to discuss this among themselves, any Muslims begin to think that just possibly what they learn in the Qur’an and Hadith about Infidels, and especially about Jews, does not correspond to reality?
And does Robert Loeb, or do any of his coreligionists in Victoria, Texas have any idea of what is written in the Qur’an and Hadith about Jews? Would they be interested in finding out what is contained in those texts? If they now were to discover what is written about Jews, would they deem it improper or unhelpful or undiplomatic ever to raise the matter with the Muslims who had been offered the use of, and likely are using, the synagogue? Why shouldn’t they feel free to discuss this? Why shouldn’t there be an uninhibited discussion about these matters, among all these new friends who presumably can talk straight, without benefit of embarrassed circumlocution on one side or taqiyya on the other? Why shouldn’t Jews and Christians who have offered help also want to find out exactly what their new, grateful Muslim friends are taught about Jews and Christians, and what they claim to believe as compared to what they are taught to believe? Why should the local Muslims, the recipients of genuine and spontaneous kindnesses from the Kuffar, be reluctant to enlighten them? Or if the local Muslims do try to mislead about what the Qur’an and Hadith say about Jews, what should the Jews of Victoria, Texas make of that? Anything? Nothing?
Omar Rachid, who attended the Victoria mosque, and is in charge of fundraising for its repair, is full of gratitude:
“Our hearts are filled with gratitude for the tremendous support we’ve received,” wrote campaign organizer [of the fund-raising] Omar Rachid, who attends the mosque. “The outpouring of love, kind words, hugs, helping hands and the financial contributions are examples of the true American Spirit and Humanity at its best with donations coming in from all over the world.“
This sounds sincere. Omar Rachid is effusively grateful, as of right now. But one would also like to learn a bit more, to ask him what he thinks, at this point, of what is written in the Qur’an about Jews and Christians. Would he attempt to convince Infidels that all those Qur’anic quotes about Jews (see above) are limited in time and space, that is, to a particular context, and have no relevance to what Muslims believe today? Does he believe that himself? Is he willing to concede that those quotes are valid for all time, and that they are not to be “contextualized”?
If he is unwilling to recognize what is so lethal about those quotes, should we still judge his gratitude to be sincere? Might he admit that the Islamic texts do not correspond to what his personal experience of Jews and Christians has been, and that he has had a change of mind and heart, and hopes to convince other Muslims to undergo the same? Was he surprised at how Christians and Jews so quickly offered their houses of worship to local Muslims, and offered, as well, all those “outpourings of love, kind words, hugs, helping hands” and financial contributions?
And one final question: does he know of, can he even conceive of, anywhere in the world, Muslims offering Christians and Jews the use of their mosques in case of need? If so, it would be good to hear about it, and not just from Omar Rachid. But even if we believe that Omar Rachid is sincerely grateful, and sincere in his belief that “contextualization” of Qur’anic verses is permissible, we must not make the mistake of thinking that this – his — understanding of the Qur’an is held by many others. For almost all Muslims, and certainly for all the clerics and Qur’anic commentators, what is in the Qur’an means today just what it meant 1,400 years ago, and with as much ferocity in Victoria, Texas now as it did in Arabia then. And while effusions of gratitude can eventually subside, the words of the Qur’an remain fixed in amber. Verba volant, scripta manent.
Angemon says
Must be a great sensation, marching along with the crowd and fighting for what one feels is right, rather than for what actually is…
citycat says
What is the religion of the officials investigating the fire?
Muslims would not torch a mosque
Muslims are innocent
I wonder when is the next move
Before or after the new mosque is built
Intriguing
Cornelius Bradley says
History shows how Muslims responded to Jewish hospitality.
StacyGirl says
Recently the headstones in a Jewish cemetery were toppled here. Yesterday the local Jewish Light paper published a front page photo of a hijabed brown skinned woman volunteering to repair the damage.
The woman was actually putting leaves in a sack. The white good old boys resetting the grave markers not pictured. Now you know.
Max Publius says
Maybe they can all talk about Juan Thompson, the African-American Muslim just arrested for going on a anti-semitic hate spree: http://www.infowars.com/man-arrested-for-jewish-center-bomb-threats-is-an-anti-trump-muslim-convert/
StacyGirl says
Another local crime from St Louis, whrre Democrsts run everything. This story is being spun by local media that a young man was trying to get his ex girlfriend’s attention or some rot. The perp is black and there can be no racism or religious hatred, see?
Wellington says
Sound article all around, but that last query by Hugh Fitzgerald is one for the ages. Yes indeed, when have Muslims offered to Jews or Christians the use of a mosque for a Jewish or Christian purpose in “time of need?”
Speaks volumes said question does. A metaphorical noise to the rooftops said question accomplishes. Indubitably.
billybob says
Well of course not. The compact of the dimmi requires that both Christians and Jews give up their synagogues or churches to Muslims for shelter whenever the need arises.
commonsense says
And not only that, billybob – Islamic jurists could also legitimately argue that since this synagogue was used by Muslims for religious purposes, it now, legally, becomes a waqf, i.e. Muslim territory, and remains so in perpetuity.
Saleem Smith says
We ex-Muslims know that when Muhammad the prophet of Islam became the absolute ruler of Medina, the Jews of Medina were put to death or enslaved. The more Islam that gets applied to a country the worse things will inevitably become.
The Qur’an is a much more evil book than the Muhammad’s Sunnah, but since 95% of Muslims worldwide believe the Bukhari hadiths to be authentic, Islamic Jew hatred is sure to continue until the end of time.
Hadith: Sahih Bukhari, Vol. 4, Book 53, No. 392:
Narrated Abu Huraira:
“While we were in the Mosque, the Prophet came out and said, “Let us go to the Jews” We went out till we reached Bait-ul-Midras. He said to them, “If you embrace Islam, you will be safe. You should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle, and I want to expel you from this land. So, if anyone amongst you owns some property, he is permitted to sell it, otherwise you should know that the Earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle.”
“Muhammad was once a refugee taken in by the Jewish City of Medina. Within 5-years, he had driven out, executed, or enslaved every Jew there.”
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Main_Page
billybob says
In my community, the Muslims are wonderful people and a credit to America. Back in December, in solidarity with the victims of the massacre in San Bernardino, they lit a great bonfire in the central square and threw all their Qurans into it and burned them. The women followed, throwing in their hijabs and veils. Then they all sat down around our community Christmas tree and sang Christmas carols with us.
In the following days, they closed down their mosque and reopened it as a shelter for the homeless. Their school became a resource centre dedicated to teaching new immigrants how to integrate with American culture, and features daily lectures on the Constitution and democracy. Nowadays they all attend the Baptist church down the street from the their old mosque, and they and their new Baptists friends work together in the shelter not only helping the homeless, but have opened a soup kitchen as well. They have become some of our finest citizens and we are proud of them!
The truth says
A group of radical Muslims from the Middle East visiting my state tried to have my Jewish friend killed. I’m sorry. Everything was cool until he told his new friends that hew as Jewish. The minute he told them, they tried to kill him.
Veka Fitzfrancis says
Cite your source or I call this BS. Without proof I cannot believe that is anything but taqquiya- no muslim would ever burn their Korans.
billybob says
My source??? My imagination of course 🙂
RAB says
Sounds lovely but I don’t buy it for a minute. I know the Koran and the Sunnah too well to believe that any such act of charity is going to make any difference in the end. Wait until the Muslims are in the majority in this lovely friendly dangerously naive town of Victoria, Texas, and then see what happens when there are ten mosques to each church or synagogue and one of them gets burned down. Will the Muslims come to their rescue then? I don’t think so. Hatred of kuffars is in the Muslim DNA. Only the destruction of core Islamic doctrine can end this insanity.
Pierre Le Kuffar says
I’ve no doubt whatsoever that you are right. A quick look around countries that are majority mussssslim ( imagine rattlesnake effect ) will show that if there are any tiny benefits at all in isssslam ( rattlesnake sound again!) they are far outweighed by the non functioning hell holes their religio-cracy creates when a whole country takes it’s direction from isslam ( rattler)
Shmooviyet says
Thank you again, Mr. Fitzgerald.
The Feelgoodness was at a dizzying height after the destruction in the Philly Jewish cemetery; the articles, one after another, became hymns to the local muslims helping their “Jewish brothers and sisters”.
Boggled the mind, upset the belly.
mortimer says
Let Saudi Arabia pay for another supremacist mosque.
Fromafar says
Where do you suppose that million dollars came from?
Fromafar says
Is this the condemned paying the executioner so that death may be swift?
Tuvia Fogel says
All one needs to know about the future of American Jewry is in the fact that those Jew-cursing prayers will henceforth be triumphantly recited in a conquered synagogue.
Sam says
Liberals can not and would not understand Islam as it is totally against their world view that all “religions are the same”
Inviting muslims to pray in their churches and synagogue indicates total ignorance which will lead to no good.
Singh the Sikh says
The price for dumbness and stupidity can be very costly. If Jews and Chrisitians choose to be dumb and stupid with ostrich-like tendencies the price will be a broken neck – and back. If they continue being downright stupid, it’s only a matter of time. The world is not a kind place for the dim-witted, in this case the remarkably dim-witted.
IQ al Rassooli says
Again I repeat that the ADL is NOT the voice of ALL American Jews. They are the clueless voice of their own ECHO CHAMBER
These so called Jews demonstrating against DJ Trump are completely out of touch with reality but are driven with emotionalism without an iota of rationalism.
Comparing Jews to Muslims and the temporary ban on Muslims from six dysfunctional Muslim states (for these demonstrating idiots there are 57 Muslim majority states) to Hitler’s Holocaust already demonstrates how DELUDED these morons are.
These so called Jews are following the leftist piper to their doom like lemmings. Actually, contrary to all their declarations, these Jews have NOT learned anything from recent history otherwise they would not be demonstrating against DJ Trump’s attempts to SECURE America and Americans
Jews throughout their history Assimilate, Integrate and become Patriots in every state that gives them harbour and shelter.
Can any of these so called Jews explain WHY there are no Jews left in Arab and Muslim countries? Why are they more concerned about Muslims while they kept their mouths SHUT when 950,000 Jews from Arab and Muslim states were forced OUT of their ancestral lands
Where was the indignation, revulsion and anger of these all of a sudden ‘concerned citizens’ while the most PERSECUTED people on Earth in the 21st century are CHRISTIANS by MUSLIMS?
Muslims cannot EVER be LOYAL to either the Laws or peoples who are NOT Muslims because they are considered Infidels/ Kuffar not submitting to Allah’s Sharia
Not ALL Muslims are TERRORISTS but most assuredly ALL terrorist acts against Infidels are committed by MUSLIMS!
I dare any Jew to find fault with what I am stating
IQ al Rassooli
Kafir & Proud!
MAGA & DTS!
http://www.alrassooli.com
Florida Jim says
Why doesn’t the FBI follow your work closely and track those you expose, do they not care Are they under the CAIR Taqiyya tactic?
Walter Sieruk says
Whoever may have set fire to that mosque in Victoria Texas, did a criminal and despicable thing. For ,if intentionally set , to action was not only illegal and wrong but it’s also is a violation of one of the basic concepts of Western civilization . Which is the respect for private property is one of the foundation values of Western society.
As speaking as some one who denounces Islam as a false and dangerous religion I also denounce violence against Muslims or destruction of private property of Muslim of any kind. I never have or never will do such a approve of lawless violence . It’s very important for the people of the West not to sink to low level of violent action of the jihadists for their cause of Islam
The way for American civilians to handle the problem of Islam is ,not by violence, but by reason and logic. As in ,for example, the following essay.
A claim by Islamic scholars as well as jihadists is that no one can produce something as beautiful as the Quran in the way the words are arranged and thus it can only be of God. This claim should be answered.
First, all someone has to do is examine some of the great works of literature to fine much written beauty. Such as the Greek epic poet Homer with his Iliad and Odyssey and then Virgil who produced the Aeneid has beauty. Even one of the non-Bible books in the Apocrypha called The Song of Three Children is also very beautiful. Thus just because someone sees a work that is written in great beauty doesn’t mean it’s inspired by God.
Second, the scholar Edward Gibbon wrote after an examination of the Quran that it is an “incoherent jumble of fable and precept and declamation which seldom excites a sentiment or an idea, sometimes craws in the dust and is sometimes lost in the clouds…” The writer Thomas Carlyle wrote the Quran is “A wearisome jumble, crude, incondite [with] endless iterations [and] longwindedness…” Likewise, the philosopher David Hume was NOT favorably impressed after reading the Quran.
[Source of the three scholars mentioned – Secrets of The Koran: Revealing Insight Into Islam’s Holy Book .56,66, by Don Richardson]
Furthermore, the following should be taken into consideration.
Of course the Muslim who reads the Quran will see great beauty in the way the words are arranged. This is, in part, because of the power of suggestion after being told so many times that the Quran is so beautifully written. That’s an old brainwashing method, repeating and being told that same thing again and again. Since he or she is always being told the same lie will end up believing that lie. In addition to that, the Imams try to discourage their people from reading other works, such as the Bible, so then they don’t have much or anything to compare or contrast the Quran with. Of course there are some Muslim’s that do read other works, but they are exceptions and they read other things only after they were already brainwashed by the Imams. In short, the Muslims can’t read the Quran objectively because their Imams have programmed them to have a strong bias towards it.
dumbledoresarmy says
Those very foolish Jews in Texas, letting Muslims use their synagogue, have a counterpart right here in Australia.
To wit, a totally-deluded and conned Anglican priest who *lets the local mohammedans use his church (!!!) for Muslim “prayers” every Friday!!!*** And what is more his even more foolish Bishop **let him do it**. (There were parishiioners, I discovered, who very sensibly left the congregation and went elsewhere, voting with their feet, not wanting to be party to such incredible folly).
Here’s the story (be sure to click on the link; the photo of the priest and the imam together, the priest totally fooled, the imam grinning like the cat that ate the canary, cries out for a photoshop – namely the imam should have a caption on his shirt – “I’m with STUPID”).
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-28/beaconsfield-mosque-plans-church-offers-land/8312112
“Beaconsfield Anglican church welcomes Muslim community, offers land for mosque”
By Briana Shepherd
brightmidnight777 says
i believe that the set fire was an inside job for insurance money. can i prove it? no. would anyone investigate it? only superficially. insurance money plus 1M in donations!? they made out really well. taqiyya is here.