Smooth Stone

Muslims believe that destroying the Jewish Holy Temple Mount promotes and expedites the Islamic goal to ethnically cleanse Jews from the Middle East. By invalidating claims to the historic Jewish presence of the Holy Jewish Temple Mount and by destroying any trace or any artifacts of the Jewish Holy Temple Mount, Muslims can declare supremacy over Judaism. We hear that desire all the time. We consistently hear Muslims invoke, demand, command, preach and pray that Israel “should not exist”, “will not exist”, “never existed”, “does not exist”, “can’t exist”.

Let’s say Israel doesn’t exist in an imaginary scenario. Israel is not here, there are no Jews, the legitimate and sovereign nation of Israel is gone. Let’s explore what this imaginary non-existent Israel provides to Islam’s baseline of thought: what does Israel – this piece of land and its Jewish inhabitants therein – represent to Muslims that Muslims simply cannot tolerate? We have all heard the propaganda that Israel is a virus, Israel is a cancer, etc, but we have not heard what the actual threat is that Israel represents to Muslims.

A cause to rule out is Jews offend Muslims while proselytizing to them – but Jews don’t do that. They don’t ask others to convert to Judaism. Besides, if a Muslim’s faith in his god is anchored, there should be no logical basis to feel threatened, so if Israel does exist, then the existence of Judaism would not be a threat because Muslims would be secure in faith in Allah, so there would be no impetus to destroy Judaism. So, clearly the source of Muslim Israelphobia is not faith based.

Maybe the source of Muslim Israelphobia is racism. But since Jews come in every color and race, we have to reject attempts to legitimize racial causes for Muslims to eliminate Jews because of race. Besides, racism refers only to racial issues, not to views on culture, religion, or ideology.

So maybe the reason why Muslims want to eliminate Israel is because it is a territory. Let’s imagine, then that in this imaginary scenario of a Middle East without an Israel, Muslims would have more territory and therefore, Muslims would occupy what once was Israel. Perhaps this is all about land. Perhaps Muslim Israelphobia is just a case for a land grab. In political economics, lots of land is a good thing. The more land owned by Muslims allows for the spread of more Muslim supremacy. But is any of this true according to the Koran?

According to the Koran, no person, people or religious community can claim a permanent right of possession over a certain territory, since the earth belongs exclusively to God, Who is free to entrust sovereign right to everyone He likes and for as long as He likes:

Say: O God, King of the kingdom, Thou givest the kingdom to whom Thou pleasest, and Thou strippest off the kingdom from whom Thou pleasest. Thou endurest with honor whom Thou pleasest, and Thou bringest low whom Thou pleasest. All the best is in Thy hand. Verily, Thou hast power over all things. (Koran, Sura 3:26, “The Imrans”)

From this verse one can filter a basic principle of the monotheistic philosophy of Judaism and Christianity, both which preceded Islam: God can control relationships between people and countries. Sometimes God gives a land to a people, and sometime He takes land back and gives it to another people.

Maybe Muslims hate Jews simply because Muslims politically identify with others who look, act and behave like Muslims. It’s hard to ignore the parts of the Koran which asks Muslims to kill or abduct all those who refuse to become members of their belief. This is the precise and official text given by Mohammed:

“So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.” (Koran, surat IX, 5)

But then it’s just too difficult to ignore the racism one finds in the Koran. Islam officially encourages racism and discrimination which is contrary to Human Rights and democratic laws:

“O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.” (Koran, surat V, 51)

As Shaykh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi writes,

“The idea of Islam as a factor that prevents Arabs from recognizing any sovereign right of Jews over Palestine is quite recent and can by no means be found in Islamic classical sources. To see anti-Zionism as a direct consequence of Islam is a form of explicit misunderstanding which implies the transformation of Islam from a religion into a secularized ideology.”

So it does come down to ideology. Palazzi says the most common argument against Islamic acknowledgement of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem is that, since al-Quds is a holy place for Muslims, they cannot accept it being ruled by non-Muslims, because such acceptance would be a betrayal of Islam.

Yet, Muslims seek to convey to non-Muslims that Islam is a tolerant religion.

So how does one explain this intolerance when the Muslim Hamas terror organization is planning a radio broadcast Wednesday from the Temple Mount – Judaism’s holiest site –while the Israeli government has completely banned Jews and Christians from ascending the Mount that same day for fear of offending Muslims?

Wednesday marks the Muslim holiday of Ein ul-Adhaa, which commemorates the Islamic belief of Abraham’s willingness to sacrificehis son Ishmael for Allah. The Torah says Abraham nearly sacrificedhis son Isaac, not Ishmael.

Wednesday is also the Jewish fast day of the Tenth of Tevet, which commemorates the start of the siege of Jerusalem leading up to the destruction of the First Jewish Temple during the reign of the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar. The fast also was proclaimed to mourn the First Temple’s destruction.

The Islamic Jihad terror organization exclusively broadcast daily Ramadan prayers from the Mount on their official station, the Al Quds Network. The radio network regularly features Iranian and anti-Semitic propaganda and death threats against Jews.

This is not tolerance. This is a crapstorm.

Professor Moshe Sharon writes:

“There is no Fundamental Islam. Fundamentalism is a word that came from the heart of the Christian religion. It means faith that goes by the word of the Bible. Fundamental Christianity, or going with the Bible, does not mean going around and killing people. There is no fundamental Islam. There is only Islam full stop. The question is how the Koran is interpreted.”

Muslim Israelphobia is clearly a matter of how the Koran is interpreted. The more one studies the Koran, the more clear the idea becomes that by removing Israel, the whole Middle East world would become a Muslim world, and moreso, that the whole world would be subdued under the rule of Islam.

But the most dificult content to digest regarding Muslim hatred of Israel is the way in which it is to be fulfilled. The Koran teaches Muslims to give their lives in exchange for assurances of paradise. Suicide bombings is one example. Suicide bombings are condoned by major authoritative Muslim voices whereas suicide bombings are absolutley unacceptable in Judaism and Christianity.

The accounts of Muhammad’s actions and personal statements (hadith) elaborate on the Koran, providing specific dictations regarding treaties, pay, booty, prisoners, tactics, and much else. During his years in power, Mohammed engaged in an average of nine military campaigns a year, or one every five to six weeks.

Conquering and humiliating non-Muslims was a main feature of the Mohammed and his jihad. We can say for sure that Islam is not at all like Judaism and Christianity. Evidently there is more than one reason why Muslims share such pronounced Israelphobia and no, the Koranic texts were not taken out of context. The Koranic quotes mentioned in this post were made in context. Perhaps the answer is best described here:

“Jerusalem is a symbol for every Muslim in the world. The claim of the Jews to the right over it is false, and we recognize nothing but an entirely Islamic Jerusalem under Islamic supervision…” — PA Mufti Ikrama Sabri, Al-Bilad, July 31, 1997

Although the Koran never mentions Jerusalem once, and regardless of the fact that the Torah mentions Jerusalem over 600 times, these will just be more documented facts relegated to the back alley of Muslim ignorance and blood libel, to be used as a religious rationale for Muslim imperialism, supremacy and Jewicide.

President Bush, goddamit, what kind of myopic, ignorant madman are you? How DARE you force Israel to negotiate with terrorists! How DARE you!

From Hamas “to Step Up Attacks” After Annapolis:

Syrian-based Musa Abu Marzouk, the number-two man in Hamas, said the post-Annapolis period would witness a dramatic escalation in anti-Israel attacks.

“Resistance operations will be escalated in all forms and methods,” he said.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhr said the Arab League decision to send Arab foreign ministers to the Annapolis conference came as a shock to most Palestinians because it paved the way for normalization with Israel.

Muslims can have 21 theocracies but Israel, the legitimate and sovereign nation restored to her indigenous people, can not. Another example of Muslim intolerance and hubris. From Chief PLO Negotiator: Palestinians Will Not Accept Israel as “Jewish State” via Daily Alert:

Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization, rejected on Monday Israel’s demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Earlier Monday, Prime Minister Olmert said, “We won’t have an argument with anyone in the world over the fact that Israel is a state of the Jewish people. Whoever does not accept this cannot hold any negotiations with me,” Olmert said. “This will be a condition for our recognition of a Palestinian state.”

The widow of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl has withdrawn a lawsuit seeking damages against al-Qaida, a dozen reputed terrorists and Pakistan’s largest bank.

In a letter Tuesday to the federal judge presiding over the case, lawyers for Mariane Pearl noted that Habib Bank Limited and the other defendants in the case had not answered the lawsuit filed in July, but they otherwise did not explain their reason for dropping the action.

The lawsuit had sought unspecified damages against people and organizations that Mariane Pearl alleged were involved in the kidnapping, torture and murder of her husband in 2002.

Pearl, 38, The Wall Street Journal’s South Asia bureau chief, was abducted from Karachi, Pakistan, while researching a story on Islamic militancy in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Pearl’s execution and beheading were videotaped by his kidnappers and displayed on the Internet. His remains were found in a shallow grave on Karachi’s outskirts.

Among the defendants in Mariane Pearl’s lawsuit were al-Qaida; the al-Rashid Trust, an outlawed Islamic charity; and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the imprisoned al-Qaida No. 3 leader and mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The suit alleged Habib Bank knowingly provided financial services for al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.

Several men charged in the kidnapping and murder case have been convicted in Pakistan, including British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaikh.

He was sentenced to death in 2002, and three of his accomplices were given life prison terms. Their appeals are pending.

Mohammed, caught in Pakistan, is being held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He claimed he personally beheaded Pearl, according to a partial Pentagon transcript of his testimony at a military tribunal.

Mariane Pearl was represented by Motley Rice, a law firm based in Mount Pleasant, S.C. The firm has brought other suits against Middle Eastern banks and companies on behalf of Sept. 11 victims.

Despite a series of initiatives aimed at generating foreign tourism, the Saudi Arabian government continues to bar Jews and Christians from bringing items such as Bibles, crucifixes and Stars of David into the country and is threatening to confiscate them on sight, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

After informing would-be visitors that items such as narcotics, firearms and pornography may not be transported into the country, the web site adds:

“Items and articles belonging to religions other than Islam are also prohibited. These may include Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings, items with religious symbols such as the Star of David, and others.”

Our greatest fear – for those of us who love, who deeply love our families, who deeply love our spouses, who deeply love our children, for those of us who believe in life, in goodness, and in God, and spring flowers, mountains and rivers, for those of us who yearn for Yom Kippur so that we can atone for our sins, for those of us who anxiously wait for the day we can make aliyah to live in the Jewish Holy City of Jerusalem, our greatest fear might come to pass; we are being warned by terrorism specialists that Muslim terrorists could strike the American homeland — possibly with a weapon of mass destruction — this summer or early fall.

Fmr. CIA Director Warns Terror Threat Real; Iran Strikes Are Option

Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey tells NewsMax in an exclusive interview that terrorists could strike the American homeland — possibly with a weapon of mass destruction — this summer or early fall. He also warns that if Iran fails to comply with international efforts to stop its nuclear weapons program, the U.S. will have no other option than to bomb it.

Read Kenneth Timmerman’s Full Story — Go Here Now.

24 Koranic verses that command the believers (Muslims) to fight against followers of other faiths. From USC-Muslim Student Association Compendium of Muslim Texts, Pickthall Translation:

(9:5) Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.;

(9:28) O ye who believe! The idolaters only are unclean. So let them not come near the Inviolable Place of Worship after this their year. If ye fear poverty (from the loss of their merchandise) Allah shall preserve you of His bounty if He will. Lo! Allah is Knower, Wise.;

(4:101) And when ye go forth in the land, it is no sin for you to curtail (your) worship if ye fear that those who disbelieve may attack you. In truth the disbelievers are an open enemy to you.;

(9:123) O ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty (unto Him).;

(4:56) Lo! Those who disbelieve Our revelations, We shall expose them to the Fire. As often as their skins are consumed We shall exchange them for fresh skins that they may taste the torment. Lo! Allah is ever Mighty, Wise.;

(9:23) O ye who believe! Choose not your fathers nor your brethren for friends if they take pleasure in disbelief rather than faith. Whoso of you taketh them for friends, such are wrong-doers.;

(9:37) Postponement (of a sacred month) is only an excess of disbelief whereby those who disbelieve are misled; they allow it one year and forbid it (another) year, that they may make up the number of the months which Allah hath hallowed, so that they allow that which Allah hath forbidden. The evil of their deeds is made fairseeming unto them. Allah guideth not the disbelieving folk;

(5:57) O Ye who believe! Choose not for guardians such of those who received the Scripture before you, and of the disbelievers, as make a jest and sport of your religion. But keep your duty to Allah if ye are true believers.;

(33:61) Accursed, they will be seized wherever found and slain with a (fierce) slaughter.;

(21:98) Lo! ye (idolaters) and that which ye worship beside Allah are fuel of hell. Thereunto ye will come.;

(32:22) And who doth greater wrong than he who is reminded of the revelations of his Lord, then turneth from them. Lo! We shall requite the guilty.;

(48:20) Allah promiseth you much booty that ye will capture, and hath given you this in advance, and hath withheld men’s hands from you, that it may be a token for the believers, and that He may guide you on a right path.;

(8:69) Now enjoy what ye have won [in war], as lawful and good, and keep your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.;

(66:9) O Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern with them. Hell will be their home, a hapless journey’s end.;

(41:27) But verily We shall cause those who disbelieve to taste an awful doom, and verily We shall requite them the worst of what they used to do.;

(41:28) That is the reward of Allah’s enemies: the Fire. Therein is their immortal home, payment for as much as they denied Our revelations.;

(9:111) Lo! Allah hath bought from the believers their lives and their wealth because the Garden will be theirs: they shall fight in the way of Allah and shall slay and be slain. It is a promise which is binding on Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an. Who fulfilleth His covenant better than Allah? Rejoice then in your bargain that ye have made, for that is the supreme triumph.;

(9:68) Allah promiseth the hypocrites, both men and women, and the disbelievers fire of hell for their abode. It will suffice them. Allah curseth them, and theirs is lasting torment.;

(8:65) O Prophet! Exhort the believers to fight. If there be of you twenty steadfast they shall overcome two hundred, and if there be of you a hundred (steadfast) they shall overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve, because they (the disbelievers) are a folk without intelligence.;

(5:51) O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.;

(9:29) Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.;

(5:14) And with those who say: “Lo! we are Christians,” We made a covenant, but they forgot a part of that whereof they were admonished. Therefore We have stirred up enmity and hatred among them till the Day of Resurrection, when Allah will inform them of their handiwork.;

(4:89) They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level (with them). So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back (to enmity) then take them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them;

(9:14) Fight them! Allah will chastise them at your hands, and He will lay them low and give you victory over them, and He will heal the breasts of folk who are believers.

From Muslim World Inflamed by Rushdie Knighthood:

Eighteen years after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill author Salman Rushdie, he is once again the subject of death threats across the Islamic world. Muhammad Ali Hosseini, Iran’s foreign affairs spokesman, said on Sunday that Rushdie’s recent knighthood “will definitely put the British officials in confrontation with Islamic societies.”

From Gaza’s Christians Fear for Their Lives: Latin Church Torched:

Christians living in Gaza City on Monday appealed to the international community to protect them against increased attacks by Muslim extremists. Many Christians said they were prepared to leave Gaza as soon as the border crossings are reopened. The appeal came following a series of attacks on a Christian school and church in Gaza City over the past few days. Father Manuel Musalam, leader of the small Latin community in Gaza, said masked gunmen torched and looted the Rosary Sisters School and the Latin Church. “The masked gunmen used rocket-propelled grenades to storm the main entrances of the school and church,” he said. “Then they destroyed almost everything inside, including the Cross, the Holy Book, computers and other equipment.” Musalam expressed outrage over the burning of copies of the Bible, noting that the gunmen destroyed all the Crosses inside the church and school. “Those who did these awful things have no respect for Christian-Muslim relations,” he said.

From Christians Must Accept Islamic Rule:

Christians can only continue living safely in Gaza if they accept Islamic law, including a ban on alcohol and on women roaming publicly without proper head coverings, an Islamist militant leader in Gaza said in an interview. Christians in Gaza who engage in “missionary activity” will be “dealt with harshly,” he said. The threats come two days after a church and Christian school in Gaza were attacked following the seizure of power by the Hamas terror group. “I expect our Christian neighbors to understand the new Hamas rule means real changes. They must be ready for Islamic rule if they want to live in peace in Gaza,” said Sheik Abu Saqer, leader of Jihadia Salafiya, an Islamic outreach movement that recently announced the opening of a “military wing” to enforce Muslim law in Gaza.

From Two Palestinian Women Suicide Bombers from Gaza Caught on Way to Attack:

The Shin Bet security service announced Wednesday that it had successfully foiled a double suicide attack on Tel Aviv and Netanya, planned by Islamic Jihad. Two women from Gaza, both mothers to young children, were arrested at the Erez crossing on May 20 as they tried to enter Israel. The two had requested permission to travel to Ramallah for medical reasons. The Shin Bet said the two were due to meet with an Islamic Jihad militant in Ramallah to receive explosive belts and be taken to the locations of the planned attacks.