“With ‘Ask A Muslim Anything’ Events, N.H. Man Hopes To Tackle Misunderstandings Around His Faith” is the title of a recent report at WBUR, which you can find here.
So here we are again, with one more of those Ask-a-Muslim-Anything Defenders of the Faith. There is a piquant aspect to this, in that the defender in question, Robert Azzi, is a Lebanese American, born a Christian, who as a young man was so impressed with “one close friend who had such an appealing, accepting outlook on the world” that he converted to Islam.
Azzi has been “encouraging dialogue” in New Hampshire, in “series of conversations that he’s been leading at community centers, churches and town halls across New Hampshire.
Many Muslim-Americans will tell you that this is a tough time for them. From the 9/11 attacks to President Trump’s proposed travel ban, Muslims in America feel besieged by discrimination and misunderstanding.
So Robert Azzi, a Lebanese-American Muslim who lives in Exeter, New Hampshire, is hoping to clear up some of that misunderstanding by encouraging dialogue with an invitation to “Ask a Muslim Anything.”
At a recent event in the town of Dublin, in the southwestern part of the state, he welcomed a small audience with the traditional Muslim greeting.’”
“As-salamu alaykum. Peace be upon you.”
Azzi is a veteran photo-journalist who spent years in the Middle East, after growing up in New Hampshire, where there are very few Muslims. Azzi started these conversations a year and a half ago because of what he saw as growing Islamophobia. He wanted to address people’s fears and questions head on.”
“I challenge you to ask me challenging questions,” Azzi told his audience in Dublin. “There’s no such thing as a stupid question.”
Among the questions he got on this night was: ‘Why are so many people in this country afraid of Muslims?’”
“It’s really interesting to me about why people are fearful,” Azzi responded.
Is that “fear” really a puzzlement? Could more than 30,000 attacks by Muslims on non-Muslims since 9/11 have something to do with why “people are fearful”? Might the incessant news, weekly or daily, of such attacks by Muslims, somewhere in the world, in New York, Washington, London, Manchester, Paris, Nice, Toulouse, Brussels, Madrid, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Wurzburg, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Turku, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Beslan, Cairo, Alexandria, Mumbai, in Orlando, Fort Hood, Chattanooga, San Bernardino, and hundreds of other places, make people “fearful”? Might the ISIS killers, in their videotaped appearances, quoting from the Qur’an to justify their mass-murdering of those they considered to be Infidels, or showing the world with what enthusiasm they decapitated a line of orange-suited Christians, just as Al-Qaeda so enjoyed putting online its beheadings of Western journalists and aid workers, have something to do with making people “fearful”? Might the news of the mass rapes of Yazidi girls and the mass murder of Yazidi men, make people “fearful”? Might the attacks on Christians by Muslims in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Iran make people “fearful”? Might the Muslim grooming gangs in England, with their thousands of young female victims? Does Robert Azzi think there is no reason to be fearful of Muslims, no reason to worry about what Islamic texts — the Qur’an and Hadith and Sira — teach Muslims about Infidels?
Azzi traces it [people being fearful] back to the 9/11 attacks, which he says encouraged the false impression that that’s when Muslims suddenly arrived in America, when in fact they have been here for centuries.
Azzi’s leap from the 9/11 attacks to when Muslims “actually” came to America is bizarre. The 9/11 attacks did not lead to anyone raising the issue of when Muslims came to America, as he claims. That matter was raised only some years later, and by Muslims themselves, propagandists who wished to engage in backdating of a Muslim presence, in an attempt to suggest that, as Barack Obama so memorably put it in his Cairo speech, “Islam has always been a part of America’s story.”
This campaign reached its absurd zenith when the State Department’s Phyllis McIntosh issued a report in 2004 entitled “Islamic Influence Runs Deep in American Culture.” In this report, she claimed that there was even a Muslim in Columbus’s crew: “Islamic influences may date back to the very beginning of American history. It is likely that Christopher Columbus, who discovered America in 1492, charted his way across the Atlantic Ocean with the help of an Arab navigator.” This is flatly untrue; that “Arab” navigator was a Jew, the converso Luis de Torres, who knew Arabic but was neither an Arab nor a Muslim. “May date back” and “It is likely that” are weasel words designed to protect from criticism a claim that is made up entirely out of whole cloth. Then there is that other dubious claim — made with very slight supporting evidence — that, among the African slaves brought to America were many who had been Muslims in Africa. Muslims, Azzi has claimed, “have been part of our historical and cultural experience for nearly 400 years.” Back to 1600? His earliest example, from 1706, is of a slave owned by Cotton Mather, named “Onesimus.” You can be sure that if he had any earlier examples, he would have mentioned them.
No one knows how many of the slaves were Muslim. Estimates are given, without any evidence, from 5% to 30%, but both figures seem to have have been plucked out of the thin air. If there were more than a handful, why did the slaveowners not seem to notice their presence? Nor did the other, non-Muslim slaves. And even the handful of Muslim slaves who did arrive would have been living in an overwhelmingly Christian environment, not in a Muslim community, without mosques or madrasas or copies of the Qur’an necessary to help perpetuate the faith, and the Islam they brought with them in their mental baggage would likely have been extinguished by the next generation.
Azzi offers only conjecture, based on his assumptions about names, to produce what he thinks are examples of Muslims who took part in the Revolutionary War. He comes up with exactly six.
One veteran of the American Revolution at Concord and Bunker Hill was a freed slave named Peter Salem, who’s believed by some historians to have been Muslim. Other soldiers with Muslim names include “Salem Poor, Yusuf Ben Ali, Bampett Muhamed, Francis Saba and Joseph Saba.” “Who’s believed by some historians” is not exactly firm evidence. Why doesn’t Azzi name those historians? And where is their evidence? Peter Salem might well have been given his surname by slave-owners thinking of the “Salem” of the Old Testament (which later became, in Genesis 14, “Jerusalem”), or of the nearby city of “Salem” north of Boston named after it. The same could explain the “Salem” in “Salem Poor.” “Peter” is not a Muslim name. As for the others Azzi lists as those with “Muslim names,” “Saba” is both a Jewish and a Muslim surname. Neither “Francis” nor “Joseph” are Muslim names. Only two of the six he lists — Yusuf Ben Ali and Bampett Muhamed — appear likely to have been Muslims.
A handful of Muslims does not make Islam “part of the American story.” The first mosque founded in the United States, in a building borrowed for that purpose, dates from 1929; the first building erected as a mosque dates from 1935. Robert Azzi wants you to believe in a Muslim presence, both backdated and exaggerated, as a way of staking a Muslim claim to America, as if that would somehow make the ideology of Islam more American and, presumably, less disturbing. But what counts are what the immutable Islamic texts teach, not when Muslims arrived. Hindus and Buddhists arrived even later than the Muslims, but their beliefs, unlike those of Muslims, do not flatly contradict the First Amendment (as to both freedom of religion, and freedom of speech), nor do they represent a permanent threat to non-Hindus or non-Buddhists, as Muslims do for non-Muslims.
Azzi displays his victimhood: “Trump has ‘painted a crescent on my forehead and a target on my back,'” he claims, “with more than a hint of anger in his voice.” He has received threatening phone calls and hate mail.” How many? He doesn’t say. Just take his word for it. He’s a victim.
So to battle the fear mongers, the hate mailers, the sowers of discord, the enemies of coexistence, he has decided to let his fellow Americans hear directly from an American Muslim — that is, from Robert Azzi himself — as to what Islam is all about, in order to break down the intolerance that Muslims must endure.
A few nights later, at the Community Church in the neighboring town of Harrisville, Jack Calhoun posed a question that Azzi often hears: “Why don’t we hear more condemnation of terrorism in the name of Islam from the Muslim community?”
Azzi offers a terse answer: “Because you’re not listening.”
He points out that Muslims from Tehran to Istanbul to New York denounced the 9/11 attacks, while scores of prominent Muslims around the world have condemned ISIS. But Azzi argues those stories are often overlooked in the current climate.
After 9/11, there were large demonstrations all over the the Palestinian territories to celebrate the attacks. There were smaller, similar demonstrations in Egypt. But most important, despite the condemnations by Muslim governments of the attacks — could they really have dared not to condemn them? — none of those same governments condemned the celebrations by the Palestinians and others. Why not? And there were large demonstrations against the 9/11 attacks, and in sympathy with the American victims in only one Muslim country — Iran.
“Muslims denouncing terrorism and violence didn’t fit the binary narrative that had taken hold in this country of us versus them,” Azzi says. “You know, there’s this great prayer in the Muslim community that says: ‘Please God, don’t let it be a Muslim.'”
This is an example of Extreme Victimhood. Azzi does not realize how offensive it is that the “great prayer in the Muslim community” after an attack is to first worry over how such an attack will affect Muslims, when they ought to be thinking about the victims of Muslim terror attacks.
Azzi want you to believe that Muslims “denouncing terrorism and violence” are not reported on. But he has it exactly backwards. The American and other Western media have been extremely eager to report on Muslims “denouncing terrorism and violence,” take these denunciations seriously even when they are clearly pro-forma, and are quick to report, too, the assertions by apologists, from Presidents on down, that the “real Islam” could not possibly have had anything to do with Islamic terrorism.
Azzi acknowledges that Islam has a problem with fundamentalism, but he claims that Christianity does as well. This is the usual tu-quoque argument. “Christian fundamentalism” may be a problem, but it is not a problem on the same scale, or with a similar origin, as “Islamic fundamentalism.” Where are the tens of thousands of victims of Christian fundamentalism all over the world? Just as important, where are the Biblical texts that command Christians to wage war on all non-Christians, to “kill them wherever you find them,” to “smite at their necks,” to “strike terror in their hearts”? Where are the equivalents in the Gospels to the 109 “Jihad” verses in the Qur’an? There are none. Nor is Jesus to be likened to the warrior Muhammad, who in his last ten years took part in 65 different campaigns, helped slaughter 600-900 prisoners of the Banu Qurayza, attacked the Jewish farmers at the Khaybar Oasis, killed them and took their women as sex slaves. Muhammad himself took the Jewish girl Saafiyah at Khaybar as his sex slave, raping her on the same day that he killed her father, husband, and brother. Whenever Muhammad expressed a desire to have those who mocked him killed, his followers were happy to comply. None of this apparently bothers Muslims, who regard Muhammad as the Model of Conduct (“uswa hasana”) and the Perfect Man (“al-insan al-kamil”). Azzi knows all of this, but he’s not about to volunteer such information.
What Azzi pretends not to know is that mainstream Muslims are all “fundamentalists.” That is, they take the Qur’an literally, some with more and some with less commitment to acting upon its commands. Azzi makes a curious remark, that “while we believe that the Qur’an is the literal Word of God that it is not meant to be read literally.” Who is this “we” for whom he claims to be speaking? Mainstream Muslims certainly are supposed to take the Qur’an literally. What theological grounds support Azzi’s claim that “it [the Qur’an] is not to be taken literally”?
“Do I condone the condition of women in most Muslim majority countries?” Azzi asks. “Absolutely not. I don’t condone it. I think they live a terrible life, and they live under terrible conditions. [But] there is nothing in Islam that supports or embraces that kind of horror or terrorism.”
Azzi admits that women in most Muslim countries “lead a terrible life” and “live under terrible conditions.” He then claims that “there is nothing in Islam that supports or embraces that kind of horror or terrorism”(against women). But if that is true, then what explains the miserable condition of women in “most Muslim majority countries” and the much better condition of women in the countries where Christianity has prevailed? Doesn’t Robert Azzi owe us an explanation for that “terrible life” of women under Islam that has nothing to do with Islam?
Robert Azzi cannot possibly have managed to forget so much of the Islam he is attempting to defend. According to the Sharia, Muslim women can inherit half as much as men (Qur’an 4:11); their testimony is worth half that of a man (2:282); polygamy is licit (Muhammad, the Perfect Man, allowed himself at least twelve, and possibly as many as fourteen wives), and so are sex slaves, “those whom your right hand possesses”; a Muslim man is allowed to beat his disobedient wife, though “lightly”; a Muslim man need only pronounce the triple-talaq to divorce his wife; and women are described as inferior to men, both in the Qur’an, for “the men are a degree above them” (2:228); and in the Hadith, that is, in Sahih Bukhari 6:301: “[Muhammad] said, ‘Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man? They replied in the affirmative. He said, ‘This [is because of] the deficiency in her intelligence.’” None of this is mentioned in Azzi’s meretricious account of Islam.
And Azzi argues that America has been complicit in propping up some of the regimes that oppress women.
Azzi immediately attempts to deflect the blame from Islam, and the texts and teachings that explain the oppression of women in Muslim societies, onto America, which is “complicit” in “propping up some of the regimes that oppress women.” This is a curious remark coming from someone who has been quite at home in the most oppressive regime for women of any of them — that of Saudi Arabia — where he even made friends with members of the ruling family. Azzi has worked over many decades taking photographs in Saudi Arabia, and even published a portfolio of photographs of the country with an introduction by His Royal Highness Prince Saud Al Faisal. His work on Saudi Arabia has been consistently uncritical. See, for another example, the praise he offers this cruel theocratic state in “Saudi Arabia: The Kingdom and the Power.” Rather than America, isn’t it Robert Azzi who has an unrivalled record of being “complicit” in the mistreatment of Muslim women in Saudi Arabia and, by extension, in the rest of the Muslim world?
Azzi knows perfectly well that the American government does not endorse in any way the oppression of women anywhere. Inability to change another country’s policies does not equal complicity. What would he have America do about the Muslim countries, and about those verses in the Qur’an and stories in the Hadith that support the mistreatment of women? How would Robert Azzi react, if the American government were to stop being “complicit” by ending support for these regimes, including military or other forms of aid? He would be outraged. And he would be particularly exercised if the American government were to make an example of Saudi Arabia, one of his favorite subjects for photographs, with a regime clearly dear to both his heart and to his bank account.
Does Azzi think America should end its support for Saudi Arabia until that misogynistic regime allows women to drive, or to work alongside men, or to be able to travel without the permission, or presence, of male relatives? Does he think the American government should downgrade relations with any country that permits polygamy? I doubt it. One would like Robert Azzi to tell us exactly what he thinks of how women are treated in Saudi Arabia, and what he would have the American government do to show it is no longer, as he puts it, “complicit” in the mistreatment of Saudi women. Would he ever have the decency to admit that his own previous work on Saudi Arabia was uncritical, at times even fawning — which explains that introduction-cum-endorsement of his “Saudi Portfolio” by His Royal Highness Prince Saud Al Faisal — and would he accept the charge that he, too, has been “complicit” in promoting a view of the country that downplays the oppression of women, and certainly does nothing to connect that oppression with Islam itself?
These are all questions for study and discussion.
The Harrisville audience is, for the most part, sympathetic, welcoming Azzi’s effort to open a dialogue about Islam.
“I think it’s essential,” Tom Porter said after the event. Porter is a lawyer, conflict mediator and Methodist minister who teaches at Boston University’s theology school. “And I like his approach. That he’s saying, ‘I’m not going to tell you all the good things about Islam; I’m going to answer your questions. I want to be in dialogue with you.’ I consider him a soulmate.”
Though Azzi describes his desire for a “dialogue,” what he offers, rather, is a Q-and-A where he, with his “answers” to those ask-anything-questions, always has the last word. And while he may promise that “I’m not going to tell you all the good things about Islam,” — there are so many, after all — he is certainly not going to tell you anything bad about Islam. Misogynistic Muslim societies, he insists, have nothing do with the real Islam, though Azzi never tells us where that widespread misogyny might come from, preferring to switch the focus of attention, and object of blame, to the “complicit’ Americans.
“Janet Selle, who came to Harrisville from Keene, said she appreciated what Azzi had to say about the “gentleness of Islam.”
Did Janet Selle “appreciate” what Azzi has to say because she wants so much to believe his feelgood remark, despite the paucity of supporting evidence? For where is this “gentleness” of Islam? Has it been on display in the “Palestinian”– and not only “Palestinian” — celebrations of terror attacks that have killed American workers in New York and Washington, on 9/11? Are the murderous attacks by terrorists on Jewish men, women, and children in Israel and the “West Bank,” with the victims blown up,shot, stabbed, on busses and at pizza parlors and even at family Passover celebrations, by Muslim terrorists treated as heroes for smashing in the heads of three-year-olds? Has that “gentleness” been on display in the attacks on innocent Christians in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, or the attacks on Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh? Is that “gentleness” on display in the handiwork of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, the Taliban and many other terrorist groups, not just in their attacks on Christians, but against the wrong kind of Muslims (e.g., Shi’a), or those who, by the lights of the fanatics, are deemed insufficiently Islamic? Has the “gentleness of Islam” that so impressed Janet Selle what comes to mind when we consider those more than 30,000 attacks by Muslims on Infidels since 9/11? Has that “gentleness” been on display in such Qur’anic verses as 9.5 (the Verse of the Sword), 9.29, 8.12, 8.60, 2.191-193, and 47.4, a representative half-dozen of the more than 100 jihad verses that Janet Selle can easily google up and ponder, far from Robert Azzi and his deeply deceptive inveiglements. Has Selle been impressed with the “gentleness” of Muhammad in calling for the murders of those who mocked or attacked him, as Asma bint Marwan, Abu ‘Afak, and Ka’b bin al-Ashraf? Or are we right to think that Janet Selle is unfamiliar with those blood-curdling verses, and those assassinations of Muhammad’s enemies, and unlikely to seek them out, in her eagerness to accept Robert Azzi’s insistence that Islam’s “gentleness” is just one more bit of evidence that ISIS and similar groups have “nothing to do with the real Islam.”
Her comment suggests she’s been easy to convince:
“It’s really important to hear the other side [the “good” and “true” and “peaceful” Muslims like Robert Azzi], and not just radicalism or the fundamentalists [ISIS, Al-Qaeda, the “extremists” who “distort” the peaceful religion] that he talked about. It’s important to hear where the belief really stems from,” Selle said.[And that would be….?]
“Azzi says these have been tough years for Muslims like him [victimhood again –tough years for Muslims like Azzi, who might get an occasional dirty look, but not for the non-Muslim targets of Islamic terrorism all over the world who might be shot, stabbed, run over, blown up?], but the positive response to these evenings gives him hope.”
“It reinforces in me [sic] that these are really good people,” Azzi says. “You know, the haters aren’t here. The haters don’t come out. This is a Muslim town hall. I’ve never used that line before, but that’s what it is.”
Comment: Janet Stelle believes it is “important to hear where the [Islamic] belief really stems from.” Of course — it comes from the immutable Qur’an, the Hadith, and the Sira. But that’s not what Robert Azzi will be talking about. His sanitized version of Islam keeps out all the many disturbing verses and stories in the Islamic texts, admits to some unacceptable behavior by Muslims but insists, with enough feeling to convince such terminally naive Infidels as Mr. Porter and Ms. Selle, that this behavior has nothing to do with Islam, though he apparently deems it unnecessary to furnish an alternative explanation.
The people who don’t show up at Azzi’s events do so not because, as he falsely claims, they are “haters,” but because they know too much about Islam to be able to endure listening to Azzi’s blend of victimization, tu-quoque, taqiya, and outright lies. Their desire not to have to listen to such nonsense is understandable. But if they can possibly steel themselves and show up for these events, painful as it may be, and come armed with questions that Azzi, who has invited everyone to ask him, as a Muslim, anything about Islam, will not be expecting, and for which he will have no satisfactory reply, the result could be most salutary. You will be doing this as a service to your fellow Infidels in the audience, to provide more than a momentary stay against confusion. If you don’t show up, that audience will have only the meretricious Robert Azzi upon whom to rely, and he has for a long time been honing his skills in presenting a soothing, innocuous, plausible, and entirely preposterous version of Islam, that many people are all too ready, even eager, to believe.
D Austin says
In other words, if you think Islam the “one true” religion”, you didn’t ask the right questions!
Ren says
“Ask a Muslim Anything” and you will get lies and lies and lies.
mariam rove says
Azzi is full of s….to say the least and someone who is white washing Islam and lecturing a bunch on uneducated Americans who know Jack… about Islam. He needs an Ex Muslim such as myself to ask questions in front the American and make him a red face liar. m
Kay says
Yes. And others who perservere to get to truth and don’t stop at just feeling good about their own “open-mindedness”.
Tagfu222 says
I would like to ask him what your punishment should be for leaving Islam. Then, as a follow up to the weasel answer he is sure to give, ask him what it would be in a Muslim country.
rubiconcrest says
Thanks Hugh. I’d love to attend one of these events as hard as it would be to listen. The challenge would be to ask good questions without appearing to know the answer beforehand and without appearing to have an agenda. As soon as the audience begins to think you are anti-Islam they would discount anything you would have say. That is the knee jerk reaction people have today.
Wellington says
It’s not with this taqiyya artist that my chagrin (and anger) is first and foremost directed but rather to the uninformed sheep knowing next to nothing about Islam and swallowing whole this guy’s Islamic bullshit.
Would love it if Hugh Fitzgerald showed up at one of these “taqiyya sessions” and began asking questions. I suspect Azzi would lose it and try and type Fitzgerald as a hater or ignorant of the true Islam or both.
Islam cannot withstand informed scrutiny if one’s moral compass and common sense are in tact. No exceptions. Rather as is the case with Nazism and Marxism, two other totalitarian belief systems which loathe freedom.
mariam rove says
Hi W! See my post above. m
Wellington says
Absolutely, mr. Would love it if YOU showed up at one of these Azzi taqiyya sessions and started asking this deceiver questions. It would be a Kodak moment. Hope you and your family, especially your son, are doing well.
dumbledoresarmy says
Wellington – you wrote – “Would love it if Hugh Fitzgerald showed up at one of these “taqiyya sessions” and began asking questions. I suspect Azzi would lose it and try and type Fitzgerald as a hater or ignorant of the true Islam or both”.
I have a strong suspicion that ‘Hugh Fitzgerald’, under a different name than the nom de guerre by which we know him, ay indeed have done just that, from time to time. It’s just something about his description of the ‘spin’ that is standard at such events.
dumbledoresarmy says
“…MAY indeed have done just that”. Arrrrrgh. The curse of poor eyesight, small print, and pale text.
gravenimage says
Yes–we’ve seen these “peaceful” Muslims lose it before when faced with someone who knows the truth. Few things so enrage them.
mortimer says
Al Walaa wal Baraa (Islam’s apartheid doctrine) is a doctrine that Robert Azzi cannot explain away.
-Imam Abdul-Latif ibn Abdur-Rahman Rahimullah said, “It is not possible for someone to realize Tawheed and act upon it, and yet not be hostile against the mushrikeen. So anyone who isn’t hostile against the mushrikeen, then it cannot be said that he acts upon Tawheed nor that he realizes it.” [ad-Durar as-Saniyyah 8/167]
-“The doctrine of al Walaa wal Baraa is the REAL IMAGE for the actual practice of this faith.” – source “Al Walaa wal Baraa According to the Aqeedah of the Salaf”, by Sheikh Muhammad Saeed al Qatani, authoritative Saudi Sharia lawyer and imam at the Abu Bakr and Al Furqan Mosques in Mecca. – https://islamfuture.wordpress.com/2009/08/20/al-wala-wal-bara-according-to-the-aqeedah-of-the-salaf-parts-123/
-Shaykh Ahmad ibn ‘Atiq, rahimahu Allah, said:
“There isn’t in the Book of Allah the Exalted – after the issue concerning the obligation of tawheed and the forbiddance of its opposite – any issue which has as so many proofs, nor so clearly explained, than the issue of al-walaa’ and al-baraa’.”
-from Sufi scholar Ahmad Sirhindi (1564-1624): “The honour of Islam lies in insulting kufr and kafirs. One who respects the kafirs dishonours the Muslims… The real purpose of levying jiziya on them is to humiliate them to such an extent that they may not be able to dress well and to live in grandeur. They should constantly remain terrified and trembling. It is intended to hold them under contempt and to uphold the honour and might of Islam.”
-from ibn Taymiyya, “Book of Emaan”: “… true believers show animosity and hatred towards disbelievers and never support them.”
-from Umar Sulayman ‘Abd-Allaah al-Ashqar, “Belief in Allah”: “The Muslim should regard the Kuffaar as enemies and hate them because of their kufr, just as he hates their kufr (disbelief) itself.”
-from [Chap.iv] “The Islaamic Concept of al-Walaa’ wal-Baraa’” by Khalid El-Gharib: “… to show enmity to those who show enmity to Allaah and His Messenger”.
(Note: Muslims are to visibly demonstrate their enmity or hatred towards the kufaar)
-from a lecture given by Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal (H.A.): “The implication of al-Baraa is that one HATES for the sake of Allah (SWT)…Al-Baraa means to recognize who your enemies are and to HATE them and EXTERMINATE them in their Endeavour to get rid of your Deen, al-Islam…Al-Baraa is to HATE the people who propagate Baatil (falsehood)—the Muslim should HATE them and (at least desire to) KILL them when the time comes.”
Wellington says
Excellent point, mortimer. Muslims are devoted to the fictional Allah and hate everything and everyone that aren’t.
BTW, which is it? Are there 109 or 164 verses in the Koran which call for war? You know a great deal about Islam and I keep getting one or the other of these numbers. So which is it? I wonder if 109 unambiguously call for war and the other 55 just imply it. Would welcome your answer here.
Jack Diamond says
My 2 cents.
There are 109 verses about war against non-believers for the sake of Islamic rule, including fighting, raiding, looting, and the distribution of spoils. As I understand it, the additions in the 164 verses include other aspects of jihad warfare less directly, such as the heavenly rewards for it, or Muhammad’s contempt for those who do not go on jihad.
Of course, jihad is a concept larger than military warfare, and it colors the entire Qur’an.
As Brigadier S.K. Malik wrote (“The Qur’anic Concept of War”): “the term Jehad, so often confused with military strategy, is, in fact, the near equivalent of total or grand strategy or policy in execution…Jehad is a continuous and never-ending struggle waged on all fronts including political, economic, social, psychological, domestic, moral, and spiritual to attain the object of policy…it is waged at the individual as well as the collective level…(which) creates conditions conducive to the military strategy to attain its objectives speedily and economically. Military strategy thus draws heavily on the total strategy (Jehad) for its successful application.”
Once the Qur’an is correctly paired with the life of Muhammad it becomes a manual of total war against disbelievers.
The number of jihad verses is less important than the placement, the references predominate in the Medinan (later and controlling) portion of the Qur’an, and occur ten times in the last chapter on warfare, Surah Nine. And while “jihad” is a term that can be slithery because it can refer to other forms of striving than holy war, the term employed in the most important bloodcurdling verses–qital–is not. The translation “fighting” (as in 2:216, 8:39 or 9:29) “q-t-l” is the root and it means killing, slaughtering, warring. It is quite specific in intention, it is used 89 times in the Medinan chapters, and it only means kill and massacre.
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/07/james-m-arlandson-jihad-and-qital-in-the-quran-traditions-and-classical-law#_Defining_Jihad_and
When Muhammad declared jihad, he also declared qital on the disbelievers.
gravenimage says
Thank you, Jack.
Wellington says
Thank you, Jack. I think you confirmed my overall suspicions here.
Damn, I resent Islam for sundry reasons but one of the reasons why I resent it is that I have to spend time figuring out all the details of how disgusting and stupid it is.
gravenimage says
True, Wellington–there are many things I am fascinated by; Islam simply isn’t one of them. If it were not for the danger Islam presents, I would pay little attention to this arid, violent, and loveless creed.
As it is, though, I have had to spend huge amounts of time studying this creed and its followers. I often have to remind myself that it would be just the same directly opposing Fascism or Communism–two other ugly, totalitarian ideologies.
Irene Brekelmans says
People are behaving like sheep, it is amazing. Th people on the streets, most of them don’t even know what is really going on, because they are kept busy by the TV, football, all kind of music festivals, they are not able to think for themselves any more.
The muslims are the victims. Did this Aziz man not know why people don’t like muslims, Really, Then I feel sorry for him. There should have been a Robbert Spencer or anybody else to give him an answer.
I don’t want to answer this question here, as I did write so many times about it.
One must be too dumb if you still don;t know it by now, but the truth is, you do know. YOU KNOW VERY WELL.
Ashley says
These “Ask a Muslim” events are a joke.
I find it difficult to swallow that Azzi goes by “Robert” at his mosque.
He is insulated by holding these events in liberal New England.
How I wish the likes of a Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, Hugh Fitzgerald, Wellington, Graven, and/or another well-spoken, measured and civil voice would attend such an event. I would get a kick watching this dude blast smoke from his ears when confronted with the teachings and directives from his beloved Koran.
And then self combust…
gravenimage says
I’m sure he’d try to deflect things, Ashley–but I hope some of the audience would start wondering if he was being honest. I’ve thought I should start seeking out these events in my area. Have any other Anti-Jihadists here done this?
dumbledoresarmy says
Gravenimage – you should probably get together with Davegreybeard and start planning to attend something *together*.
I think it would be wise for any Jihadwatchers who decide to go along to one of these dawa-fests/ PR sessions, to recruit a few other well-informed persons to come with them; and preferably make sure that the party includes a couple of large, calm, confident, able-bodied males.
Go as a group; this might be especially important *afterwards*, depending on the type of event and who is there; if you upset the dawa-and-PR applecart sufficiently, it might be a little dangerous to be heading home alone, after. In that regard, Davegreybeard, who is 1/ an army veteran and 2/ *extremely* well-informed about the contents of the Islamic texts, would be the perfect companion for *you*.
gravenimage says
Good point, Dumbledore’s Army. I would not be surprised if Muslims physically went after someone who seemed too savvy about or critical of Islam–I have to say that this is a concern.
Going with several Anti-Jihadists also means that more than one of you might be able to ask questions–with just one you would probably get just one shot at best.
Jay Quiring says
I would ask one simple question. Could you convince me islam isn’t a cult?
More Ham Ed says
“With ‘Ask A Muslim Anything’ Events, N.H. Man Hopes To Tackle Misunderstandings Around His Faith”
He’s only concerned with “infidels” that are “misunderstanding”.
He’s not concerned about this:
31624 deadly DOCUMENTED islamic terror attacks since 9/11.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com
“If it were really true, then you wouldn’t have to keep saying it.”
David M says
Ask A Muslim why their pedophile prophet married a 6 year old girl. Ask A Muslim why women in Saudi Arabia are third class citizens who can’t drive or leave the house without a male. Ask A Muslim why gays are killed in Iran & Saudi Arabia. Ask A Muslim why Muslims kill in the name of Allah.
gravenimage says
All good questions, Dave. Of course, he would try to convince you that Saudi Arabia and Iran are not really Islamic…
dumbledoresarmy says
No.
Focus on bringing up, and bringing to the attention of the assembled naive and Useful Idiot infidels at these PR-and-spin, soft-soap and sugar-on-top events, just two things that, as far as I am concerned, are the ‘deal-breakers’… and would, as far as I am concerned, identify Islam as a dangerous cult that ought NOT to be admitted inside any free society, even if Islam was NOT waging endless war in pursuit of Total World Domination.
1/ The apostasy law – orthodox Islam requires Muslims to KILL any member of the cult – whether ‘cradle Muslim’ or convert – who tries to *leave*. Exhibit A – the large number of publicly-declared apostates who, like Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Taslima Nasreen, have been threatened with death and need to use bodyguards; the hackings to death of apostates (or accused-apostates) in Bangladesh of late; the executions of apostates in Saudi Arabia; and the many apostates from Islam who, in countries like the UK or Italy, live in hiding under changed names, *exactly* like fugitives from the Mafia.
2/ The ‘blasphemy’ law – any person whether adherent or non-adherent who criticises, questions or makes fun of Islam/ Muslims/ Mohammed is supposed to be killed – exhibit A, the death fatwa on Salman Rushdie exhibit B, Charlie Hebdo exhibit C dead body of Theo van Gogh exhibit D, Danish Cartoon riots (and attempts to kill one of the cartoonists, Kurt Westergaard). Make sure that in connection with this you cite the examples of the non-Islamic poets – Jewish and pagan – who were ‘offed’ by Mohammed’s assassins, back in the day, with Mohammed’s full and gloating commendation.
gravenimage says
I agree that these are huge issues, DDA–but asking about the pedophilia of the “Perfect man” is not a bad idea, either–especially as it affects in Dar-al-Islam *today*. I bet this would shock a lot of Infidels.
gravenimage says
I should have said “girls in Dar-al-Islam taoday”.
Dacritic says
You know, one question I’d like to ask all such Christian converts to Islam: Do you believe Jesus of Nazareth died on the cross?
The Bible said he did. The Quran said he didn’t.
So did he or didn’t he?
Did the Quran lie or didn’t it?
gravenimage says
I think Robert Azzi has pretty much completely gone over to the dark side. I’m sure he’d babble about how Islam “respects” Jesus–but the Muslim “Jesus”–really, “Isa”–is *nothing* like the Jesus of the Gospels, who is a healer and peacemaker beside being the Savior. In fact, the main role of the Muslim “Jesus” is to *kill Christians* in the last days.
dumbledoresarmy says
Robert Azzi might call himself a Christian.
But he is either deeply, hopelessly dhimmified or else he is in reality a Nuaym bin Masud – that is, he is in *fact* a convert to Islam, but chooses to represent himself as a Christian-who-just-loves-Islam, for maximum PR-effect.
gravenimage says
I’m not sure *what* he is–a Muslim or a dhimmi ‘Christian’–except that he is an apologist for Islam.
gravenimage says
I’m sorry–I was cutting back and forth between this thread and the one on “National Catholic Reporter: ‘The Muslim Jesus provides common ground for Christianity, Islam’”, where it is not entirely clear whether the writer, Ra’fat Al-Dajani, is a Muslim or dhimmi Christian.
Robert Azzi is definitely a convert to Islam–he calls his events “ask a Muslim”. He was a Lebanese Christian who was likely drawn to Islam because Christians are treated like crap in Dar-al-Islam. *Ugh*.
davej says
What a sickening joke – why do people fear Muslims?
How about the hateful supremacist ideology clearly spelled out in the psychotic Koran?
How about the over 31,000 terror attacks since 9/11?
This is not just disingenuous, it is more deliberate misleading deceit.
Ask a Muslim anything – “What the F*** is wrong with your brain?”
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
Among the questions I would ask if they ever held an Ask-the-Imam event in my area:
Do jinns exist? What accounts for the Great North American Jinn Shortage?
Does Islam require only behavior (e.g., shahada, salat, zakat, sawm, hajj), or does it also require belief in certain assertions? Can you be an atheist Muslim? A non-jinn-believing Muslim? A Ninth-Amendment-believing Muslim (e.g., everyone has the right to be worshiped)?
gravenimage says
Hugh Fitzgerald: Robert Azzi and Another of Those “Ask-A-Muslim” Events
……………………………
Yes–this dishonest creep has been whitewashing Islam for quite some time.
More:
Many Muslim-Americans will tell you that this is a tough time for them. From the 9/11 attacks to President Trump’s proposed travel ban, Muslims in America feel besieged by discrimination and misunderstanding.
……………………………
Don’t you love the way Muslims posit their having slaughtered almost 3000 Americans as a tough time *for them*? Good grief…
More:
Among the questions he got on this night was: ‘Why are so many people in this country afraid of Muslims?’”
“It’s really interesting to me about why people are fearful,” Azzi responded.
……………………………
Maybe it has something to do with those 31,000+ Jihad terror attacks, including 9/11, the Boston Marathon bombing, and the Orlando Nightclub massacre?
More:
Muslims, Azzi has claimed, “have been part of our historical and cultural experience for nearly 400 years.” Back to 1600? His earliest example, from 1706, is of a slave owned by Cotton Mather, named “Onesimus.” You can be sure that if he had any earlier examples, he would have mentioned them.
……………………………
There is no indication that I have seen that Onesimus was Muslim:
http://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/onesimus-fl-1706-1717-slave-and-medical-pioneer-was-born
More:
Robert Azzi wants you to believe in a Muslim presence, both backdated and exaggerated, as a way of staking a Muslim claim to America, as if that would somehow make the ideology of Islam more American and, presumably, less disturbing.
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That’s *exactly* what Azzi is trying to do.
He is also trying to imply that hordes of Muslims were here for centuries, but they were peaceful. Of course, this is false.
More:
But what counts are what the immutable Islamic texts teach, not when Muslims arrived. Hindus and Buddhists arrived even later than the Muslims, but their beliefs, unlike those of Muslims, do not flatly contradict the First Amendment (as to both freedom of religion, and freedom of speech), nor do they represent a permanent threat to non-Hindus or non-Buddhists, as Muslims do for non-Muslims.
……………………………
Spot on.
More:
Azzi displays his victimhood: “Trump has ‘painted a crescent on my forehead and a target on my back,’” he claims, “with more than a hint of anger in his voice.” He has received threatening phone calls and hate mail.” How many? He doesn’t say. Just take his word for it. He’s a victim.
……………………………
Never mind all those dead Infidels–it is Muslims who are the “real” victims…how often have we heard *this*?
More:
“Muslims denouncing terrorism and violence didn’t fit the binary narrative that had taken hold in this country of us versus them,” Azzi says. “You know, there’s this great prayer in the Muslim community that says: ‘Please God, don’t let it be a Muslim.’”
This is an example of Extreme Victimhood. Azzi does not realize how offensive it is that the “great prayer in the Muslim community” after an attack is to first worry over how such an attack will affect Muslims, when they ought to be thinking about the victims of Muslim terror attacks.
……………………………
Exactly–no concern over the poor victims–just over whether it will inconvenience Muslims themselves.
More:
Azzi acknowledges that Islam has a problem with fundamentalism, but he claims that Christianity does as well. This is the usual tu-quoque argument.
……………………………
Where are Christians mass slaughtering non-Christians in the name of their faith? Nowhere.
More:
Her comment suggests she’s been easy to convince:
“It’s really important to hear the other side [the “good” and “true” and “peaceful” Muslims like Robert Azzi], and not just radicalism or the fundamentalists [ISIS, Al-Qaeda, the “extremists” who “distort” the peaceful religion] that he talked about. It’s important to hear where the belief really stems from,” Selle said.[And that would be….?]
……………………………
Many Infidels are all too credulous when it comes to desperately wanting to believe that Islam is peaceful. Of course, if that *were* true, then Robert Azzi should be preaching this to his violent coreligionists, not to hopeful Kuffar.
More:
“Azzi says these have been tough years for Muslims like him [victimhood again –tough years for Muslims like Azzi, who might get an occasional dirty look, but not for the non-Muslim targets of Islamic terrorism all over the world who might be shot, stabbed, run over, blown up?], but the positive response to these evenings gives him hope.”
“It reinforces in me [sic] that these are really good people,” Azzi says. “You know, the haters aren’t here. The haters don’t come out. This is a Muslim town hall. I’ve never used that line before, but that’s what it is.”
……………………………
If this were a true “Muslim town hall”, then the hapless Infidels there would be subject to savage Shari’ah law, many receiving sentences of flogging, amputation, or stoning.
But Azzi won’t tell you that, either…
Fine article on this shameless Taqiyya artist from Hugh Fitzgerald.
D Cripps says
On the matter of possible Muslim slaves in the USA, Africans were not captured for slavery by white people: white slavers bought African captives from jihad from Muslim slave-traders. Reports have it that when numbers of non-Muslim slaves ran low, the Arab Muslim slave-traders were not averse to selling captive African Muslims, though this ran afoul of sharia-law which did not permit enslavement of one who was already Muslim.
gravenimage says
There may have been a few Muslim slaves captured by their own coreligionists, but they seem to have been rather a rarity.
gravenimage says
Certainly, there were very few Muslims in the United States until just recently.
politicalqrm says
Mr. FItzgerald: You missed a big part of the story in Dublin, NH. I live in that area and have close friends who attended : they asked me, I declined because I couldn’t bear to be lied to ..He went off on Trump, ranting and raving at how evil he was… He went completely off message. When a sweet woman I know asked him why was he ranting on Trump when it was supposed to be an informational talk on islam, he turned on her and started yelling at her. As a matter of fact, 3 noted local liberals were in the audience and they took up for the woman who was being verbally attacked by him. Most of his rantings were about the President..
It was not a good night for him and showed how evil Islam is.
Grendel's mother says
But didn’t Azzi assure us, ignorant kfur that we are, that “no question is a stupid question?” It’s good to see that the mask of deception that he’s tried to maintain is beginning to slide off.
gravenimage says
Thanks for the additional information. I does not really surprise me that Azzi lost it. Good to hear that some liberals stood up for the poor woman, though. I hope Azzi wound up exposing Islam instead of defending it as he hoped.
Valkyrie Ziege says
; The answer is we don’t need another malignant narcissistic religion. Perhaps they could stick their heads up their hinder as a ”safe space”, and look for Allah there?
b.a. freeman says
anthony brooks, senior political reporter for WBUR, and a reporter for NPR for the past 30 years, posted the article on 2017-08-14. only 4 comments were made in response before WBUR closed commenting – on the same day they posted it. 3 of the 4 called bulls**t on mr. azzi, and one was apparently a woman (one can never tell, these days) who blames all bad things on men.
i have no doubt that the good people of WBUR want to ensure that a harmless muslim is heard. so do i, and when the easter bunny appears with the harmless muslim, i’ll be sure to stay quiet and listen.
Thomas Doubting says
I wish that, at the end, someone would ask the question: ” Why, after hearing the answers you’ve just delivered I’m more than ever convinced that Muhammedans are shameless liars?”