On April 7, 2022, in Egypt, a Muslim man lunged at and viciously stabbed a Christian priest thrice in the neck with a knife; Fr. Arsenius Wadid died soon thereafter. Although the murderer was instantly apprehended by passersby -- the crime was committed on a crowded street -- Egyptian authorities initially tried to do what their Western counterparts often do: portray the murderer as “insane,” an aberration of society.
Due to a combination of public outcry (primarily from the Copts themselves), the testimonials of seventeen eyewitnesses, and even the murderer’s own coherent responses -- to say nothing of the fact that of all the people he could have “randomly” murdered he targeted the one openly professing his Christian faith by wearing a large crucifix around his neck -- prosecution finally confirmed that he would be tried as sane and cognizant of his actions .
Why both Westerners and non-Westerners constantly seek to portray Muslim murderers of non-Muslims as “insane” should be clear by now: the alternative -- that Islam somehow promotes such behavior -- would open a massive can of worms that no one wants to deal with.
But can one really say that Islam promotes even the unprovoked slaying of a Christian clergyman, Fr. Arsenius, who was peacefully engaged in a public charitable activity with the youth of his church when he was slaughtered?
Three Koran passages would seem to answer this question in the affirmative: 1. “Kill the polytheists wherever you find them (9:5); 2. “Fight the leaders of disbelief [kufr ] (9:12); 3. “When you meet the disbelievers, strike [with your blades at their] necks (47:4).
Consider how these three verses apply to the current case: A Muslim man comes across a “leader of disbelief” -- that is, a clergyman, a visible representative of Christianity, as demarcated by the cross around Fr. Arsenius’s neck. It did not matter that he came across him on an open and crowded street, since Allah also commands the believers to “kill the polytheists” -- and Islam categorizes Christians as polytheists due to the Trinity -- “wherever you find them.” Finally, the murderer took his deity’s advice by striking directly at the neck, the jugular, which he repeatedly stabbed with a knife.
Should this rather straightforward interpretation still seem farfetched or not “nuanced” enough, keep in mind that Muslims recite the aforementioned three and many more hate-filled and violent Koran verses every single day; these scriptures are highlighted, praised, and expounded in countless books, on countless televised programs, and all throughout the mosques of the world, especially Egypt’s. In other words, these verses are ingrained in the minds of pious, observant Muslims.
Even so, one may object that, if such verses are so influential, why aren’t there more such attacks? Such an observation can only be made by someone whose information is exclusively derived from “mainstream media” sources: random attacks on “infidels” are actually quite common -- not a few of them featuring knife stabs to the neck.
In Egypt alone -- where a Coptic clergyman once complained that attacks on Christians happen “every two or three days ” -- a murder nearly identical to that of Fr. Arsenius took place in 2017 : then, a Muslim man wielding a butcher’s knife was seen and videotaped chasing a Coptic bishop in broad daylight; when he finally cornered him, the Muslim repeatedly stabbed the Christian in his neck and head, murdering him. Finally, to underscore that his handiwork was religiously (Islamicly) motivated, the murderer used the bishop’s own blood to draw a cross on his forehead.
Further confirming that this killer was motivated by Koran verses such as those cited above, neighbors said that he had recently “begun praying in the street, shouting loudly and calling Christians infidels.” As for motive, one report explained that “he had decided to kill any Coptic priest, purchased a dagger, and lay in wait for one to pass by, in a street leading to the local church.”
“Lay in wait for one to pass by” sounds awfully similar to Koran 9:5, which counsels the faithful to “capture them, besiege them, and lie in wait for them on every way .”
There are other such examples. In 2013, Coptic priest Mina Cheroubim was shot dead as he left his church in al-Arish, Egypt. A botched attempt occurred in 2020: while traveling to his church in Alexandria, a Coptic priest was ambushed and “nearly murdered ” by a Muslim parolee. According to the report , “the parolee, nicknamed Kareem Madi, has a history of attacking Christians -- especially women and girls.”
Such murderous assaults are hardly limited to Coptic clergymen who, as the saying goes, wear their faith on their sleeves. Everyday Christians are also targeted and killed in what Egyptian media present as “random attacks” (with the only constant being the religion of the murderers, Islam, and the religion of their victims, Christianity).
As just two examples, in 2020 a Muslim man crept up behind a Christian woman walking home with groceries, grabbed her hair, pulled her head back, and slit her throat with a knife. Two days later, another Muslim man went for the jugular of a Christian man with a box-cutter; he only managed to sever an ear. On being questioned concerning his motive, this Muslim confessed that he did not know the Copt, but that he simply “hates Christians .” There are many more such examples from Egypt; see here , here , here , here , here , here , and here .
The reader may still protest: if the Koran teaches the outright butchery of infidels, “wherever you find them,” and if at least ten percent of Egypt’s population is Christian, shouldn’t there be many more -- indeed, daily -- murders? The answer to this seeming conundrum is simple enough. Though the Egyptian constitution is heavily based on Islamic sharia law, Egypt is still a modern state -- meaning that the random killing of an “infidel” is strictly prohibited. As such, it appears that only the most pious -- or as they are often portrayed, the most insane -- are willing to accept the negative consequences of literally enacting the hate-filled and violent verses of their holy book, which include long or even life prison sentences.
That said, such killings would certainly be much more frequent -- especially following Friday mosque prayers, when the believers are regularly riled against the hated “infidels” -- were they not outlawed and punished by the state.
Raymond Ibrahim, author of the new book, Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam , is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.
Why Do Muslim ‘Victims’ Celebrate the Victimization of Others? The disturbing tale of how Palestinians find “inspiration”.
Tue May 3, 2022
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
Speaking on the first day of Ramadan, April 1, 2022, Mahmoud al-Habbash, the Supreme Sharia Judge of the Palestinian Authority, extolled the jihads waged by the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, during Ramadan:
How was this month [of Ramadan] in the life of Prophet [Muhammad]? … Did the Prophet spend Ramadan in calmness, serenity, laziness, and sleepiness? Far be it from him… The Prophet entered the great Battle of Badr [624] during Ramadan... Also in the month of Ramadan, in the 8th year of the Hijra [629-630], the Prophet and the Muslims conquered Mecca.... Ramadan is … a month of Jihad, conquest, and victory.
This is hardly the first time leading Palestinians invoke the early history of jihad in connection to Ramadan. During last year’s Ramadan, on April 16, 2021, Al Jazeera published an article by ‘Adnan Abu ‘Amar , “head of the Political Science Department at the University of the Ummah in Gaza,” explaining how Palestinians find “inspiration” in various jihads throughout Islamic history, “prominent among them the raid of Badr, the conquest of Mecca, the conquest of al-Andalus [Spain], and the battle of the pavement of martyrs [the Battle of Tours].”
Those who understand the true nature and motivation of these battles and conquests must wonder: Why are Palestinians, who present themselves as victims of land-grabbing Israeli oppressors, praising and finding inspiration in the land-grabbing oppressors of history? After all, in all of these military engagements, the Muslims were the aggressors: they invaded non-Muslim territory, butchered and enslaved its inhabitants, and appropriated their lands—and for no other reason than that they were “infidels ,” non-Muslims.
The battle of Badr was occasioned by Muhammad’s raids on non-Muslim caravans; the conquest of Mecca was simply that, the conquest of a non-Muslim city; the conquest of al-Andalus is a reference to the years 711-716, when Muslims invaded and slaughtered countless thousands of Christians in Spain and torched their churches; and the battle of Tours is, of course, where the Muslim invasions into Western Europe were finally halted in 732.
That Palestinian elements are constantly praising the unjustified conquests of others is hardly uncommon. On May 29, Hizb al-Tahrir—the “Liberation Party”—often holds large, outdoor events near al-Aqsa mosque to commemorate the anniversary of the Islamic conquest of Constantinople (May 29, 1453). After all the takbirs (chants of “Allahu Akbar”) had subsided at one of these events , Palestinian cleric Nidhal Siam said:
Oh Muslims, the anniversary of the conquest of Constantinople brings tidings of things to come. It brings tidings that Rome will be conquered in the near future, Allah willing…. [Moreover,] Islam will throw its neighbors to the ground, and its reach will span across the east and the west of this Earth. This is Allah’s promise, and Allah does not renege on his promises.
The Palestinian cleric and assembled throng then repeatedly chanted, “By means of the Caliphate and the consolidation of power, Muhammad the Conqueror vanquished Constantinople!” and “Your conquest, oh Rome, is a matter of certainty!”
Again, the question must be emphasized: why are the Palestinians—who, when speaking to the international community, present themselves as an oppressed people whose land is unjustly occupied—finding inspiration in and seeking to emulate those who oppress and steal the lands of others?
If anything, shouldn’t the Palestinians be sympathizing with, say, the Christians of Spain, whose land was occupied, and they themselves brutalized by the occupiers, namely, the Muslim invaders from North Africa?
Similarly, if, as they claim, the Palestinians are an oppressed people whose land was stolen, shouldn’t they sympathize with the Christians of Constantinople, rather than Muhammad the Conqueror, an unsavory pedophile who invaded and conquered the ancient Christian city, while subjecting its indigenous inhabitants to all sorts of unspeakable atrocities ?
As for Rome, what does it have to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict that it, too, deserves to be conquered? Absolutely nothing—except that, since the conquest of Constantinople, Islam has seen Rome as the symbolic head of the Christian world, and therefore in urgent need of subjugating; or, to quote the Islamic State, “We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah… [We will cast] fear into the hearts of the cross-worshipers.”
Perhaps most telling is Palestinian cleric Siam’s claim (delivered to thundering applause) “that Islam will throw its neighbors to the ground, and that its reach will span across the east and the west of this Earth.” In other words, no non-Muslim is safe from the sword of jihad—including those who live countless leagues away from and have nothing to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Surely all this must seem surreal when placed in context? How can Palestinians present themselves as a conquered and oppressed people whose land was stolen—while, in the very same breath, praising former and hoping for future conquests, replete with oppression and land grabbing from other peoples, only because they were/are non-Muslim?
And that is the grand lesson: when all is said and done, Islamic notions of “justice” are based on a simple dichotomy: whenever Muslims conquer, slaughter, subjugate, and steal land—that is just; whenever they have to live under “infidel” authority, that is unjust. Hence the virulent hatred for Israel.
A Palestinian Imam’s Genocidal Prayer
Will there be any consequences for calling for "the extermination of the evil Jews?"
Tue May 3, 2022
The Palestinian Authority likes to present itself as the “moderate” face of the Palestinian “resistance.” Unlike Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the PA does not itself conduct terror attacks. But it does encourage terror attacks by others. First, it continues to spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually on its “Pay-For-Slay” program, whereby it provides generous stipends to imprisoned terrorists, and to the families of terrorists who were killed in carrying out their attacks. Congress in 2018 passed the Taylor Force Act, that requires the American government to cease to provide aid to the PA as long as the “Pay-For-Slay” program continues.
Second, the PA honors terrorists by naming schools, streets, plazas, sports competitions, and more, after them, thereby keeping them fresh in the collective memory of the Palestinians, presenting them as exemplars to be emulated by the young.
Now the PA has reminded us – and one hopes the Bidenites are paying close attention – that it is perfectly happy to promote those who call for the “extermination” of Jews. Christine Douglass-Williams wrote about this yesterday, and another report on this can be found here: “Palestinian Authority TV Airs Imam’s Call for ‘Extermination of the Evil Jews’: NGO,” Algemeiner , April 24, 2022:
As Jerusalem saw escalating clashes last week between Palestinian rioters and Israeli police, Palestinian Authority TV aired an imam’s call for the “extermination” of Jews, an Israeli media watchdog said Sunday.
The prayer led by a Palestinian imam was broadcast on PA television on April 17, according to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), as rioting continued on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“Grant us victory over the infidels,” the imam said, according to a PMW translation. “Allah, delight us with the conquest and liberation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Allah, make us among the first to enter, the conquerors, the worshippers, and those calling out ‘Allahu Akbar’ inside [the mosque] to You, Master of the Universe.”
“Allah, delight us with the extermination of the evil Jews, O Master of the Universe, and [the extermination] of their hypocritical supporters who have evil in their hearts,” he continued.
The Ramadan prayer was delivered at the Al-Ain Mosque in El-Bireh, near Ramallah.
PMW said it had notified the Israel Police of the footage for its “explicit incitement to murder,” and also called for the arrest of the head of PA TV and the Palestinian Broadcast Corporation.
Comment:
The Ramadan prayer of the imam at the Al-Ain Mosque, calling for the “extermination “ of the Jews, is blood-curdling, but even worse is the fact that the “moderate” PA then chose to broadcast it on the PA’s television. Thus it endorsed, and helped to spread, the annihilationist sentiment of the unidentified imam, who calls not for an end to Israel’s “occupation,” or even for “Israel to disappear,” but for all Jews, everywhere on earth, to be killed. Watch it here....
Such a prayer could not have been broadcast on Palestinian television, one suspects, without the knowledge, and approval, of those at the very highest level of the PA government –the PA’s Prime Minister, Muhammed Shtayyeh, and its President-for-Life Mahmoud Abbas.
The Biden Administration has been treating the PA with kid gloves. It had promised the PA that it would re-open the “consulate to the Palestinians” in Jerusalem, and the only reason it has not done so is that the Bidenites must have discovered, to their chagrin, that according to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (1963), the “receiving” state where the consulate is to be opened must give its permission, and both Prime Minister Bennett and Foreign Minister Lapid have made clear they will never provide that permission. Biden has als promised to permit the PLO office in Washington, that the Trump Administration had closed,tro re-open. And the Bidenites have, despite the Taylor Force Act, gone ahead and provided hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the PA that the Trump Administration had halted, even though the “Pay-For-Slay” program continues unchanged..
The Bidenites should read the transcript of the imam’s exterminationist prayer, as broadcast so enthusiastically on the PA’ TV. Better yet, a redoubtable member of Congress, appalled at the Bidenites’’ attempts to appease Mahmoud Abbas and the PA, should read out the imam’s prayer on the Senate or House floor,, and demand to know what consequences, if any, the PA will suffer from having allowed such a “prayer” for the mass murder of Jews to be spread far and wide on its own television station.
Here’s what one would like to hear from, say, a Senator – both Republican Ted Cruz, and Democrat Robert Menendez, come to mind as candidates:
“The Palestinian Authority now receives hundreds of millions of dollars annually from American taxpayers. This aid has been given, despite the fact that the PA continues its “Pay-For-Slay” program, that both rewards past, and incentivizes future, terrorism. Vast sums are spent by the PA through its “Pay-For-Slay” program on these terrorists and their families . The Taylor Force Act was passed by Congress in 2018 to end all American economic aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) until the PA ceases paying stipends through the Palestinian Authority Martyr’s Fund to individuals who commit acts of terrorism and to the families of deceased terrorists.
“But the infamous “Pay-For-Slay” program continues, and yet American aid has not stopped. We have a right to ask – “what gives”? What precisely is the rationale offered by the Biden Administration for ignoring both the letter and spirit of the Taylor Force Act? Does it believe that some kinds of aid are not prohibited underTaylor Force? If so, could the Administration tell us in detail what aid can still be given to the PA , while the “Pay-For-Slay” program continues,: and not violate Taylor Force?
“Furthermore, what is the Administration doing about the PA’s honoring of terrorists by naming schools, streets, plazas, and sports competitions after them? Such memorializing of terrorists is meant to keep them fresh in the collective memory, and induce young Palestinians to emulate them. Has the Administration raised this issue with the PA? If not, why not?
“And now we come to the latest outrage: the broadcasting on the PA television station, of the recorded sermon given by an imam at a mosque in El-Bireh, next to Ramallah, the capital of the Palestinian Authority. Here is part of what the imam said in his Ramadan prayer that the PA TV found so inspiring that it chose to broadcast to its audience:
“Allah delight us with the extermination of the evil Jews,” he prayed, and then called for the extermination of those he called “their[the Jews’] hypocritical supporters who have evil in their hearts.
“Grant us victory over the infidels..Allah, delight us with the conquest and liberation of the AlAqsa Mosque. Allah, make us among the first to enter, the conquerors, the worshippers, and those calling out ‘Allahu Akbar’ inside [the mosque] to You, Master of the Universe. Allah, delight us with the extermination of the evil Jews, O Master of the Universe, and [the extermination] of their hypocritical supporters who have evil in their hearts,” he beseeched God.
“The Palestinian Broadcast Corporation chose to broadcast this explicit incitement to murder Jews – not Israelis alone, but all Jews, the “evil Jews.” Will the Biden Administration demand tha the PA fire – or better still, arrest –the head of PA TV, Khaled Sukkar, and the head of the Palestinian Broadcast Corporation, Ahmad Assaf? Will it threaten to withhold aid if its demands are not met?
“Or does the Biden Administration think that such broadcasting of calls for genocide need not have consequences? We have a right to ask for answers."
There. That should do it. Let the flustered Bidenites scramble to formulate a suit
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