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New York Times: “Allahu akbar” has “somehow” become “intertwined with terrorism”

Nov 3, 2017 8:11 am By Robert Spencer

Somehow! How could this have possibly happened? Could it possibly have to do with the numerous Muslims who scream “Allahu akbar” while in the process of murdering infidels? Could it have something to do with 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta, who reminded himself to “shout, ‘Allahu Akbar,’ because this strikes fear in the hearts of the non-believers”?

The association of “Allahu akbar” with jihad violence is not something new. When Muhammad launched his surprise attack on the Jews of the Khaybar oasis in Arabia, he screamed “Allahu akbar”:

We reached Khaibar early in the morning and the inhabitants of Khaibar came out carrying their spades, and when they saw the Prophet (ﷺ) they said, “Muhammad! By Allah! Muhammad and his army!” The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “Allahu-Akbar! Khaibar is destroyed, for whenever we approach a (hostile) nation (to fight) then evil will be the morning for those who have been warned.” (Bukhari 64.238.4198)

This New York Times article is correct in saying that Muslims say “Allahu akbar” in a wide variety of contexts. That does not change the fact, however, that jihadis routinely scream it during their attacks, precisely in order to “strike terror in the enemies of Allah” (Qur’an 8:60).

“‘Allahu Akbar’: An Everyday Phrase, Tarnished by Attacks,” by Eric Nagourney, New York Times, November 2, 2017:

When H. A. Hellyer is out walking with his family, strangers sometimes approach him and declare, “Allahu akbar!”

Many Westerners may find it hard to believe these days, but Mr. Hellyer does not recoil in fear.

“I’ll be walking out with my kids,” he said, “and someone will say: ‘Oh, they’re so cute. Allahu akbar.’ And I’ll joke, ‘Thank you — now stop talking to my kids.’”

The Arabic phrase, which means simply “God is great,” has, it sometimes seems, become intertwined with terrorism.

The driver of a truck that mowed down 20 people on a Manhattan bike path on Tuesday was said to have cried out “Allahu akbar” before he was shot by a police officer. The men who carried out the attack on the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo in 2015 shouted it during their onslaught. And the phrase rang through the air as a British soldier was run down near military barracks in 2013 and then hacked to death.

But for Mr. Hellyer and other Muslims, Allahu akbar is so commonplace a saying as to be utterly unworthy of note. “It’s quite an innocuous expression,” he said.

Its origin is explicitly religious. It is said in the call to prayer that is heard five times day, and in the prayers that follow.

But it is heard far from the mosque, too.

“Something good will happen and people will say, ‘Congratulations’ — and they will proclaim God’s greatness as a way of recognizing what they see as the divine blessing,” said Mr. Hellyer, a scholar of religion and politics at the Atlantic Council who lives in London.

Its use can be even less divinely inspired.

“Let’s say your football team is mounting an attack,” said Ahdaf Soueif, an Egyptian author. “You can say, ‘Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar,’ and you’re pushing them along, like, ‘Go for it, go for it, go for it.’”

Even more prosaically, Ms. Soueif said, “You see a really beautiful woman or a good-looking guy, you go, ‘Allahu akbar.’”

But the phrase — to many Muslims’ distress — has also been seized on by jihadists who claim that Islam justifies their attacks on innocent civilians in the name of God….

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Filed Under: Featured, journalistic bias, Useful idiots Tagged With: Allahu akbar, New York Times


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Comments

  1. Mike9a says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 8:30 am

    Why a few of us are not under this general hypnosis?

    • mortimer says

      Nov 3, 2017 at 9:00 am

      Islamic Stockholm syndrome is a form of self-hypnosis.

  2. JW_Reader says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 8:53 am

    When H. A. Hellyer is out walking with his family, strangers sometimes approach him and declare, “Allahu akbar!”
    ====================================\
    The above story is totally made up. A muslim will say ‘Salaam Aleykum’ to greet a stranger on the street. If they are struck with the beauty of something, they will say something like ‘insah-allah’ or ‘suhan-allah’. ‘Allahu Akbar’ is generally uttered when a muslim wants to express the superiority of their faith in relation to non-belivers of islam.

  3. religionofpeace says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 8:56 am

    Islamic Mohammad had “somehow” become a prophet and killed many infidels while crying “Allahu Akbar”.

    • harbidoll says

      Nov 5, 2017 at 1:35 am

      when he approached a village he would cry this loudly. If they didnt answer this back, he would attack!! Its written.

      • gravenimage says

        Nov 6, 2017 at 2:31 am

        Yes–if Muhammed did not hear the Islamic call to prayer in the morning when he approached a town, he would attack.

  4. mortimer says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 9:02 am

    In 624, at the ‘battle called Uhud’, the war cry of the Qurayshites was, “O people of Uzzā, o people of Hubal!” (The two principal gods of Arabia were ‘Allat wa-Hubal or vice versa… Allah wa-Kubar.’)

    Mohammed using a pun, twisted the names of the divine couple into ‘Allahu Akbar’, implying that ‘Allah is greater than Allat’ and ‘Allah is even mightier than the goddess Uzza (mighty Aphrodite)’.

    Allat or Al-‘Uzzá was called ‘Chabar’ or al-Chabra (the great). She was identified with the brightest Star Venus and the mighty goddess Aphrodite. Uzza means ‘mighty’.

    Mohammed’s cruel, misogynistic joke is similar to the phrase. “Allah wa-Kubâr”…Allah (Hubal) and (his) Great (goddess Uzza…Venus).

    The moon crescent of Hubal and the star of Venus are the symbols of early Islam representing the divine husband and wife. Islam continued the use of these symbols as Arabs gradually kicked Uzza out of the Arabian pantheon of gods. The Kaaba remains a veiled female symbol of Uzza giving birth to her incestuous son Hubal.

    • eduardo odraude says

      Nov 3, 2017 at 12:19 pm

      mortimer, an interesting etymology for Allah Akbar — where did you find it?

  5. Jaladhi says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 9:18 am

    For centuries, Muslims have shouted allahu akbar while carrying out jihad of invading, looting, stealing, murdering, raping, … infidels. And this garbage newspaper comes out and tells us allahu akbar has a far more innocent meaning. Yeah, if you take it literally, it only means allah is greater than other gods but when you consider the context, it is always used while subjugating the infidels. NYTimes writers can never understand this since they the stupidest of the stupids!!

  6. mgoldberg says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 9:39 am

    The NY Times has somehow been intertwined with false news.
    Indeed, ever since Walter Durantly lied about the wonderful soviet experiments in collectivation of their farms, they have been so ‘intertwined’
    Back then, Mr Duranty, lied about the massive amounts of deaths due to the utter failure of collectivation, and starvation of the once famously productive farms and
    agricultural production, in the name of the glory’s of the marists utopian dreams.
    Even when it was discovered that Duranty knew, and the prize he was awarded for his reportage was a known compilation of lies, he was never stripped of his ‘pulitzer’ prize.
    Yes…. the NY Times has long been intertwined with distortion, fake news, anti americanism, anticapitalism, and a host of issues such as this lie- that ‘allahu akbar’ means something peaceful.
    It is a statement of superiority, and conquest, historically, and theologically.

    • gravenimage says

      Nov 3, 2017 at 3:36 pm

      Yes–the NYT has been whitewashing barbarism for a very long time.

  7. Moshe says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 9:44 am

    I would not dismiss out of hand the NYT story as renowned Feminist leader Ms. Linda Sarsour has tweeted essentially the same thing. She has credibility as a self-actualized Muslim woman of color woke to social justice.

    Ms. Sarsour has also made important efforts to protect New York City from extremist violence through her community outreach with Mayor de Blasio and NYC Police Department. These efforts were well recognized this week.

    There is much that can be learned from Ms. Sarsour’s tweets as they often presage trends in the NYT and NPR as our media of record.

    • gravenimage says

      Nov 3, 2017 at 4:07 pm

      Really, it’s comments like this that make me wonder if “Moshe” is just an agent provocateur. He wrote:

      I would not dismiss out of hand the NYT story as renowned Feminist leader Ms. Linda Sarsour has tweeted essentially the same thing. She has credibility as a self-actualized Muslim woman of color woke (sic) to social justice.
      ……………………………

      The appalling Linda Sarsour is a Muslim supremacist–and that includes all of the horrors of Shari’ah law, none of which are “feminist”. She is doing nothing but posing as a feminist to snow the “filthy Infidels”.

      More:

      Ms. Sarsour has also made important efforts to protect New York City from extremist violence through her community outreach with Mayor de Blasio and NYC Police Department. These efforts were well recognized this week.
      ……………………………

      Does “Moshe” means with the hideous Jihad terror attack there?

      More:

      There is much that can be learned from Ms. Sarsour’s tweets as they often presage trends in the NYT and NPR as our media of record.
      ……………………………

      If “Moshe” means that the NYT and NPR suck up to the vicious Linda Sarsour, then he is right…

  8. Gbox says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 9:51 am

    It’s really pathetic that the writers at the NYT are too ignorant to be embarrassed by that article.

    • mortimer says

      Nov 3, 2017 at 10:10 am

      Pathetic indeed! NYT is defending JIHAD TERRORISM from criticism.

      “We have to be able to criticize bad ideas, and Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas.” – Bill Maher

      • Mockingjay says

        Nov 3, 2017 at 4:21 pm

        – Think that was actually Sam Harris who made that statement – (while appearing on the Bill Maher show), and he later backtracked a bit on it, saying he now regretted not saying “A mother lode, instead of THE.”

        – I think his original, spontaneous statement was closer to the truth though.

      • boakai ngombu says

        Nov 4, 2017 at 12:25 pm

        NYT is defending JIHAD TERRORISM from criticism

        and a travesty that is. the statement is utter blasphemy against the Living God, who is a “…jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children …” (Ex20:5b, ESV). the statement, when uttered puts the slaves (muslims) of the allah god of islam (unknowable; the best of all deceivers) under the prospect of condemnation to hell for hating the One and Only Righteous God, who would remove that condemnation had they TRUE faith.

  9. Jayell says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 10:11 am

    “Allahu akbar” has “somehow” become “intertwined with terrorism”….Goodness gracious, why ever might THAT be?

  10. Tom says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 10:33 am

    Allahu Akhbar has “somehow” become intertwined with terrorism because Muslims have “somehow” been the vast majority of terrorists committing thise acts of terror.

    Are Liberals SO STUPID ? That they cannot see what is clear and right there before their eyes.

    Those who fail to learn from the attacks and motivation for those attacks will eventually pay the ultimate price for their willfully blind liberal attitude.

  11. mortimer says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 10:48 am

    Quote: “It’s quite an innocuous expression.”

    Actually, no, it is a SUPREMACIST expression, meaning MY god is GREATER than your god and thus I have a God-given right to reign supreme over YOU.

    Supremacism is NOT innocuous.

    • gravenimage says

      Nov 3, 2017 at 4:10 pm

      And this is not just their thinking they are superior to others–but that they have the right to oppress and slaughter all non-Muslims.

  12. Vajapeya says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 11:29 am

    Idiot NYT, the prophet himself used this chant when raiding Khaibar as seen in the Hadith below(Emboldened for the blind NYT). This is in English and it means “Allahu Akbar”. Hope you get that NYT. I’ve heard Muslims say Mashallah, Inshallah, but never heard them say “Allahu Akbar” in normal circumstances.

    Sahih Muslim:4437

    It has been narrated on the authority of Anas that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) raided Khaibar. One morning we offered prayers in the darkness of early dawn (near Khaibar). Then the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) mounted (his horse). Abu Talha mounted his and I mounted behind Abu Talha on the same horse. The Prophet of Allah (may peace be upon him) rode through the streets of Khaibar and (I rode so close to him) that my knee touched the thigh of the Prophet of Allah (may peace be upon him). The wrapper got aside from his thigh, and I could see its whiteness. When he entered the town, he said: God is Great. Khaibar shall face destruction. When we descend in the city-square of a people, it is a bad day for them who have been warned (and have not taken heed). He said these words thrice. The people of the town had just come out from (their houses) to go about their jobs. They said (in surprise): Muhammad has come. We captured Khaibar by force.

  13. billybob says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 12:03 pm

    ALLAHU AKBAR! MUHAMMAD’S WAR CRY – David Wood
    https://youtu.be/AhdNG4tjOUs

    • eduardo odraude says

      Nov 3, 2017 at 12:13 pm

      billybob, that’s a brilliant video — all should watch it.

  14. Gigi says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 12:21 pm

    I think to yell Allahu akbar in a public place should be made illegal. It has probably been more potential to incite panic even than, “Fire.”

    • Tom says

      Nov 3, 2017 at 2:17 pm

      Great point and one that should be heeded. In a crowded environment shouting fire, bomb, or allahu akbar should all be punishable by incarceration in a prison for several years if those shouts are done in false alarm.

      If a terrorist shouts allahu ackbar during an attack then the sentence must automatically be death, either then at the hand of someone, an armedcitizen or first responder, or later as part of their sentence.

  15. eduardo odraude says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 12:31 pm

    Another useful video from David Wood commenting on a CNN interview:

    • Jaladhi says

      Nov 3, 2017 at 12:56 pm

      Hilarious!

  16. eduardo odraude says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 12:34 pm

    And if you still believe in big media’s presentation of Islam, here’s another devastating David Wood commentary, this time on the ABC program 20/20:

    • gravenimage says

      Nov 3, 2017 at 9:24 pm

      Thanks for posting these excellent videos by David Wood, Eduardo.

  17. Jack Diamond says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 2:06 pm

    “When allah’s apostle fought or raided people we raised our voices saying ‘allahu akbar! allahu akbar!” none has the right to be worshipped but allah.” Sahih Bukhari v5 bk59 no 516

    “Remember it is a raid for the sake of allah…When the hijacking begins shout “{allahu akbar}” because this shout strikes terror in the hearts of the infidels…seconds before the target your last words should be, there is no god but allah and Muhammad is his messenger!” –written instructions to 9/11 hijackers

    • gravenimage says

      Nov 3, 2017 at 9:29 pm

      Spot on, Jack.

  18. Voytek Gagalka says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 2:19 pm

    That criminals (murderers) sometimes somehow happen to use the same words of common folk vocabulary, is does not mean that their designs are gentle and we should never be afraid of them, and on heavens’ sake never to call police in order not to be called “criminal-phobe”!

  19. Ren says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 3:16 pm

    Allahu akbar has not “somehow” become intertwined with terrorism. It is the “core” of islamic terrorism. Only educated people know about that.

  20. gravenimage says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 3:29 pm

    New York Times: “Allahu akbar” has “somehow” become “intertwined with terrorism”
    …………………….

    Gee! How did *that* ever happen?

    Despite ludicrous stories like this, journalists at the NYT would hit the floor or run for the exits if someone started screaming “Allahu Akbar!”–so would most Leftists.

    They would *know* that this would be threatening.

    They are pretending to be more ignorant than they are.

    • eduardo odraude says

      Nov 3, 2017 at 6:08 pm

      They would reply that “we would run only because the phrase has recently become connected with terror. But Muhammad would never use the phrase that way and he himself was actually the source of the Beatles song “All You Need Is Love — don’t you know that you Islamophobe?! Reza Aslan has pointed that out!”

      • gravenimage says

        Nov 3, 2017 at 9:37 pm

        Yes, I’m sure this is the sort of tripe they would trot out…

  21. Mockingjay says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 4:33 pm

    Yeah, and SIEG HEIL has “somehow” become “intertwined” with the murderous regime of the nazis.

    Gee. Wonder how that ever could happen with such beautiful, innocuous words that merely mean “blessed victory”…?

  22. Gen Jones says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 4:52 pm

    As for the useful idiots at The NY Times, google “Hitler Tamed By Prison” and read their story from 1924. The Times sounds so consistently like the builders of Titanic in getting it wrong. HRC was destined to beat Trump by 85% the day of the election!

    • eduardo odraude says

      Nov 3, 2017 at 6:14 pm

      Yep, and we’ll never have 3% GDP growth again either, they told us. Yet the last two quarters have been 3%+ growth now, hmmm. Still, surely the claims that the new tax cuts if passed will never mean 4% growth are trustworthy, right? Not.

  23. Lydia says

    Nov 3, 2017 at 11:01 pm

    Er, yeah…. SOMEHOW…. the HOW can be found in the KORAN!

    Total idiots.

  24. FYI says

    Nov 4, 2017 at 7:18 am

    “the New York Times” has somehow become intertwined with poor journalism.
    Its real purpose is far less innocent.

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