Most Muslim (and non-Muslim) spokesmen in the U.S. would indignantly deny that Muslims have been cursing Jews and Christians in their prayers for 1,400 years, but what Mahdi Jassem says here is true. The final two verses of the Fatiha, the first sura of the Qur’an and the most common prayer in Islam, ask Allah:
Guide us to the straight path, the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray.
The traditional Islamic understanding of this is that the “straight path” is Islam — cf. Islamic apologist John Esposito’s book Islam: The Straight Path — while the path “of those who have evoked Allah’s anger” are the Jews, and those who have gone “astray” are the Christians.
The classic Qur’anic commentator Ibn Kathir explains that “the two paths He described here are both misguided,” and that those “two paths are the paths of the Christians and Jews, a fact that the believer should beware of so that he avoids them. The path of the believers is knowledge of the truth and abiding by it. In comparison, the Jews abandoned practicing the religion, while the Christians lost the true knowledge. This is why ‘anger’ descended upon the Jews, while being described as ‘led astray’ is more appropriate of the Christians.”
Ibn Kathir’s understanding of this passage is not a lone “extremist” interpretation. In fact, most Muslim commentators believe that the Jews are those who have earned Allah’s wrath and the Christians are those who have gone astray.
This is the view of Tabari, Zamakhshari, the Tafsir al-Jalalayn, the Tanwir al-Miqbas min Tafsir Ibn Abbas, and Ibn Arabi, as well as Ibn Kathir. One contrasting, but not majority view, is that of Nisaburi, who says that “those who have incurred Allah’s wrath are the people of negligence, and those who have gone astray are the people of immoderation.”
Wahhabis drew criticism a few years back for adding “such as the Jews” and “such as the Christians” into parenthetical glosses on this passage in Qur’ans printed in Saudi Arabia.
Some Western commentators imagined that the Saudis originated this interpretation, and indeed the whole idea of Qur’anic hostility toward Jews and Christians. They found it inconceivable that Muslims all over the world would learn as a matter of course that the central prayer of their faith anathematizes Jews and Christians.
But unfortunately, this interpretation is venerable and mainstream in Islamic theology. The printing of the interpretation in parenthetical glosses into a translation would be unlikely to affect Muslim attitudes, since the Arabic text is always and everywhere normative in any case, and since so many mainstream commentaries contain the idea that the Jews and Christians are being criticized here.
Seventeen times a day, by the pious.
“Iraqi TV Host Mahdi Jassem Reads Text by Syrian Poet: For 1,400 years We Have Been cursing the Jews and Christians, But We Are the Ones Left Without Unity,” MEMRI, August 21 [sic], 2019:
In a July 21, 2019 show on ANB TV (Iraq), Iraqi TV host Mahdi Jassem read a text from the late Syrian poet Muhammad Al-Maghut. The text was highly critical of Islam and Islamic scholars, and it questioned why Muslims are still expected to behave in the exact same way the progenitors of Islam behaved 1,400 years ago. Jassem read: “After 1,400 years of cursing the Jews and the Christians, [Muslims] are the ones left with no unity [and] it is only Muslim women who have been enslaved… Oh nation in slumber, the people you curse [have gone to] the Moon [and] split the atom… Meanwhile, for you, the only thing on the rise is your genitalia.” The text continued to criticize Muslims for studying outlandish things such as sexual Jihad, incest, breastfeeding of grown men, having “farewell sex” with one’s deceased wife, and how to properly have sex with animals. The text went on: “Don’t our minds have the right to be influenced by the knowledge, science, and technology that surround us? Must our minds be held captive after 1,400 years?”
Concerned Citizen says
Blessed is everyone that Blesses Israel… Cursed is anyone that curses Israel… Proof is in the Pudding. They even COPYCAT Christianity…
hannah robinson says
AMEN
mortimer says
Very poignant message of cognitive dissonance!!
So why is Islam ultimately so backward and retrograde, when it is supposed to be Allah’s eternal message and Muslims are called to prayer with the words “COME TO SUCCESS”. A cruel hoax it is.
Islam is blatantly a call to FAILURE, DYSFUNCTIONALITY, CORRUPTION, DICTATORSHIP, IGNORANCE, BACKWARDNESS and ENSLAVEMENT.
Islam FAILS to create a good life in almost every category.
Rob says
This is what President al Si Si of Egypt had to say about the antipathy of Western countries to Arab migrants and by extension to Muslims.
Speaking in Arabic, the President said: “Instead of asking me why the West closes its gates to us, you should ask yourself why the people of Afghanistan don’t take better care of their country… [The same is true] in Pakistan, in Egypt, in Syria, in Libya, in Iraq, in Yemen, and in Somalia.” He said also: “that people in those countries have been fighting amongst themselves for decades, so it is unreasonable for them to expect to be welcomed by Western countries while keeping their own culture and work ethic”.
Westman says
Islam has dug itself a hole and refuses to stop digging while opportunity walks by.
While Japan, Korea, and China absorbed the knowledge and technology of the West, Islam just lived a life of existence and slavery to Allah. Every Muslim with a cell phone now has a route out of ignorance and a view of what life can be. Every Mosque is a shovel – stop digging.
Terry Gain says
The hole was dug by Muhammad.
Reziac says
“Islam FAILS to create a good life in almost every category.”
That’s the POINT. Unhappy people are much more willing to blame the infidel for their unhappiness, and therefore much more willing to ATTACK the infidel — and most of all, are willing to DIE for the cause of Islam, because anything is better than this shitty Islamic life — for paradise awaits the martyr!
gordon miller (@dagmiller) says
Yikes, you mean there’s support among the muslims for grown men to drink milk from the breast of the wife of a fallen comrade? ( Yes I know, John Steinbeck put the practice in one of his novels.)
Anjuli Pandavar says
This is dynamite!!
Anjuli Pandavar says
It was OFFICIALLY aired on national TV in a MUSLIM country!!
Angemon says
“The text went on: “Don’t our minds have the right to be influenced by the knowledge, science, and technology that surround us? Must our minds be held captive after 1,400 years?””
As Umar, the son of the caliph Umar and a recognized authority in islamic jurisprudence, said: “Every innovation is misguidance, even if the people see it as something good”
https://sunnahonline.com/ilm/istiqaamah/aug1996e.htm
John Hawk says
And the Middle East, including the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Babylon, had such a grand start on the road to scientific and technological advancement. Now those lands and their people are buried beneath the dung heap of Islam. Truly sad.
Jayell says
Are they the same people?
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
Islam: The willful subjugation of its own people. Retarding the future, one Muslim at a time.
Emilie Green says
Several years ago the Kuffir Space Gods had the bright idea of sending a Muslim (a Malay) into space. (Why? Some sort of outreach?) Only the Kuffirs could do such a thing because, on their own, the Muslims could never even think of such an adventure. Along the same lines that the new Muslim mega-clock in Mecca could never have been built without the ingenuity of the Kuffir. “O Allah [as in ‘I’ll hava Coke, or a Pepsi’], why have you cursed the best of people [the Quran-inspired descriptor used by Muslims to identify themselves] with no brains, but have amply supplied the infidels with knowledge & clear thinking, leaving us so ashamed and in poverty.”
But the Malaysian Space Agency (huh? who knew such an agency even existed!), a part of the Dept of Islamic Development Malaysia (cough, cough, “Islamic Development” exists in the same universe as “dry water”), wrestled with the greatest technical problem of the entire then-upcoming flight of going beyond the earth’s atmosphere. That problem, How to face Mecca from outer space?
That question, yes, that question, was the priority.
The result, A Guideline of Performing Ibadah at the International Space Station (ISS), which concludes, “It is hoped that this guideline could assist the Muslim Astronaut to ensure the success of the mission and at the same time attaining the redha (pleasure) of Allah SWT.”
Get that? The purpose of this nonsensical “guideline” (giggle) is to help the Muslim “ensure the success of the mission.”
This pdf guideline is found here,
http://makkah.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/a_guideline_ibadah_at_iss.pdf
Anjuli Pandavar says
Thank you, Emilie. Priceless! 🙂
Anjuli Pandavar says
I am astonished at such blasphemy. Nowhere, not once, does this disgraceful document offer any guideline on the proper Islamic way to tether your buraq, let alone what one must do should it defile the place upon which it is tethered. Secondly, the Prophet Peace Be Upon Him did *not* go to Heaven from Baikonur, but from Jerusalem. This even Mehdi Hasan knows.
It is a document that encourages Muslims to *not* follow in the footsteps of Muhammad Peace Be Upon Him (or of his buraq – which still applies as the Prophet Peace Be Upon Him was in control of said buraq). A fatwa must be issues against anyone who publishes such a disgrace. It was quite clear that once a Malaysian did as the people of Lut, his nation would be led astray. First they would take infidels for helpers. Then, with this haram help, they would trespass on the first Heaven, where the sacred dung of the Prophet Peace Be Upon Him’s buraq still lies and all the djinn and all the malaikah still venerate it. Going to ISS risks interfering with the buraq’s Holy Dung. I humbly urge the wise ulema to reconsider.
FYI says
If Buraq,muhammed’s MAGICAL WINGED FLYING HORSE had a woman’s face,then surely
She must have been able to speak.
What did she eat:hardly,oats.
Typically,she is a FEMALE creature:muhammed sure loved to dominate women.
FYI says
It must be strange for a muslim going into space.
Al lah says NOBODY can go into space without his{“OUR”}permission
“Oh company of Jinn and men,if ye have power to penetrate regions of the heavens and the earth,then penetrate them!
Ye will never penetrate them save with OUR sanction”
koran 55 v 33
So al lah laughs at the idea that mere humans could go in to space!
So how did laika the dog, Yuri Gagarin,Valentina Tereshkova etc get into space and how did Neil Armstrong get to land on the moon?So many infidels in space,even a dog..
They must have asked al lah’s permission or else..wait a minute..they must have been muslims.
Yuri Gagarin{pbuh} the first muslim in space
Neil Armstrong{pbuh} the first muslim on the moon
{wait!Didn’t muhammed split the moon in half?}
Jayell says
I sometimes wonder if part of the rage of muslims against the USA is because NASA had the sheer effrontery to land a kuffar man on their God.
Raja says
Janell, that could well be the prime reason of the Islamic leaders .. …
Rjaja says
Jayell , sorry for the typo. I am having a hard time texting through my mobile.
CRUSADER says
Sleeper Cells….
https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-experts-warn-islamic-state-aiming-for-resurgence-in-iraq-syria/
CogitoErgoSum says
If Christians truly have “gone astray” who is responsible for that? The Quran indicates that it is none other than Allah. See Quran verses 4:157-158:
And [for] their saying, “Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah .” And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain.
Rather, Allah raised him to Himself. And ever is Allah Exalted in Might and Wise.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Thank you, Allah, for tricking people into believing Jesus died on the cross and then rose from the dead. Thank you for Christianity … and thank you for later telling Muslims to kill the Christians for what they believe. What a great schemer you are. And what a great sense of humor too.
Terry Gain says
This is the Islam that needs to be taught. And mocked.
Robert says
Shazam ! There ! I just cursed ya’ back !
Lloyd Miller says
Islam has been selected by the Ruling Class/ Establishment as the religion of their coming one world tyranny. I fail the evidence of Islamic failure.
Jayell says
The only thing to disguise their abject failure has been the oil that ‘Allah’ gave them. Unfortunately, ‘Allah’ didn’t also give them the intelligence to extract it and realise its value in the first place nor to see the predictable consequences of their stupid bigoted supremacism once it runs out or/and the rest of civilsed humanity has moved on to better things. Hardly surprising, since ‘Allah’, being a construct of the bloated islamic ego, can scarcely be expected to exceed the intellectual limitations if those in whose image he was concocted.
Lloyd Miller says
Modern society is helpless before the jihad.
roberta says
They are very united in their love of filth, and hate of most all things good.
They will get their victory, because they believe with all their hearts.
gravenimage says
Iraqi TV host: “After 1,400 years of cursing the Jews and the Christians, Muslims are the ones left with no unity”
…………………………….
How much danger isMahdi Jassem going to be in for noting this?
Giacomo Latta says
The Sunnis and Shias and probably others will be killing each other off to get the chance to be the ones who assassinate Jassem.
Oldone says
Spread this everywhere….(Referencing the hiring of “Infidels” to do the technical tasks, their lack of intelligence forbids them to do…I’ve said for years, that when the oil money runs out, they’ll be back living in tents, and herding goats within 30 years…)…
Ravi says
These Islamic filth curse everyone not just Jews and Christian’s. Buddhists, Hindus, Atheists all are a fair game for the tribal religion followers.
Reziac says
On that note… a fatwa against suicide bombing!
https://sunnahonline.com/library/jihad/811-fatwa-ruling-suicide-bombing
sasha says
Please, no need to judgemental. Remember, “I shall not judge.”
Let Muslims figure out for themselves what they want.
The Lord will deal with them when the time is right and He does not need our assistance in it.
Be compassionate, care, see them as humans and not as enemies.
hourifromparadise says
I have serious doubts about the authenticity of this . Technology nowadays is able to completely fake this sort of news . A non existent man insulting islam in Iraq . lol.
This is his dead sentence , they will look for him to kill him . But you know what , they will not find him because it is only an avatar .
A clever solution to say the truth about Islam .