Month: February 2011

Yusuf Qaradawi’s U.S. minion

The real aim of the Fiqh Council of North America

By Alyssa A. Lappen

Act for America special report | Feb. 25, 2011

Those who believe Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf Qaradawi doesn’t threaten Egypt — or the U.S. — should reconsider. The U.S. banned Qaradawi as a terror-sympathizer in late 1999, 1 yet his MB emissaries continue working to implement his brand of sharia in North America.

Since its 1963 inception within the Muslim Students of America religious committee 2 the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA), it has been key to MB plans for the U.S. Indeed, the MB so designated FCNA (by an earlier moniker) in an internal 1991 strategic memo. 3 FCNA focuses on implementing sharia: individually and collectively, FCNA advises and educates “members and officials on matters related to the application of sharia,” here. 4

For at least a decade, FCNA has also espoused an unique version of classical Islamic law. 5 Drawn largely from Qaradawi’s frequently odious rulings, this temporary “fiqh al aqalliyyat” 6 covers Muslim minorities in the West, according to sharia finance adviser and FCNA secretary Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, 7 a Dow Jones Islamic Indexes adviser to date. 8

Like classic sharia, fiqh al aqalliyyat is highly illiberal. Unlike classic law, it is only interim: It encourages Muslims to temporarily accept non-Muslim rule but heavily populate the West. 9 The thesis posits that Dar al-Islam exists wherever Muslims live. It prefers to call the Muslim world “dar-al ijaba,” land of response, and non-Muslim nations, “dar ad-dawah,” i.e., where Islam “has to be spread.” Traditional fatwas banning citizenship in the West block Muslims from fulfilling dawa requirements and calling non-Muslims “kufir” doesn’t persuade converts. Whether by conversion or war, the MB goal remains conquest of the West. 10

Sharia criminal law, for example, demands and routinely applies capital punishment for apostates from Islam, 11 directly contradicting U.S. constitutional rights to freedom of faith. In late Sept. 2009, Former Muslims United sent polite, respectful requests to several dozen U.S. Muslim leaders, that they sign its Freedom Pledge to protect lives, property and rights to freedom of faith for all former Muslims. Pledge recipients included FCNA chairman Muzammil Siddiqi, 12 vice chair Muhammad Nur Abdullah, executive director Zulfiqar Ali Shah, executive council members Mohamad A. El Sheikh, FCNA executive trustee Jamal Badawi, Abdur Rahman Khan and Zainab Alwani and member Ishan Bagby. 13 All falsely attest to moderation. None replied. None signed.

Apart from unindicted terror-financing co-conspirator Badawi, a onetime trustee of the U.S. arm of the global Muslim Brotherhood itself — and a decades-long trustee on ISNA’s 18-member board 14 — the FCNA executives and members include many figures whose troubling associations, rulings and deeds are equally difficult to digest:

  • Since his circa 1976 arrival in the U.S., to head religious affairs at the United Nations office of the terror-linked Muslim World League 15 (MWL), Siddiqi has maintained close ties to Islamic radicals both in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Siddiqi thus serves both the Supreme Islamic Council of Egypt and Mecca’s Supreme Council of Mosques, 16 plus the fatwa board at Islam Online, a website of Qatar-based MB spiritual mouthpiece Yusuf Qaradawi — who returned to Egypt on Feb. 17, 2011 after a 30-year exile to pray for Jerusalem’s conquest. 17 (Siddiqi’s class was first to graduate from the MB’s 1961-founded Islamic University of Medina, after King Saud bin Abdel Aziz welcomed a second wave of Egyptian exiles and funded their spread of orthodox Islam and jihad doctrine, particularly to foreign students.) 18


  • FCNA co-founder, former chairman and president Taha Jabir Alalwani — an unindicted co-conspirator in the case of admitted terror-financier Sami al-Arian 19 — on Oct. 13, 2007 signed “A Common Word,” a declaration of commonality purporting to tie Christians and Muslims more closely. Nevertheless, he supports Islamic law — including the death penalty for apostates. Very few website visitors pierce the facade 20 or recognize the MB goal — buying time to complete their North American conquest. That’s all it is.


  • In April 2006, Abdullah and Badawi co-authored a fatwa encouraging Muslim proselytizing to Christians and Jews, but finding gross sin in Muslim conversions outside Islam.21 When scholars distinguish apostasy “not punishable by death,” from “apostasy… accompanied by … high treason,” Badawi wrote, the death penalty is still administered — for high treason. The distinction would not comfort the murder victims, in either sort of fiqh ruling.


  • Alalwani also serves SAFA Group and its suspected terror-aiding and funding network. In 2003, the U.S. Customs and Treasury departments raided FCNA’s Virginia offices within their Operation Greenquest dragnet for terrorist ties and financing. 22 Homeland security’s senior special Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent David Kane, in Oct. 2003 reported strong evidence of al-Arian’s conspiracy with SAFA Group executives to fund and support HAMAS and PIJ. In a late 1988 (or so) fatwa also discovered, Alalwani invoked jihad, invested by Allah’s power in Muslims, as “the only way to liberate Palestine,” where “no person or authority” could give Jews any rights at all, much less let Jews settle or live.23


  • On Mar. 24, 2003 at Islam Online, Abdullah, Badawi and Siddiqi condoned “Seeking Martyrdom by Attacking US Military Bases in the Gulf,” a ruling of anonymous “muftis” mandating maiming and murder of U.S. troops in the Middle East. “[A]ttacking American soldiers who came to launch war against Muslims is an obligation and Jihad, as they are true invaders,” the fatwa commands. Such obligatory jihad, moreover, would deliver “the highest degree of martyrdom” to Muslims “killed” so doing: 24 Eternity with 72 virgins.


    • In 2008, a federal jury unanimously convicted five Holy Land Foundation officers of 108 counts of funding Hamas, money laundering and tax fraud. 25 Prosecutors also pronounced FCNA executive trustee Jamal Badawi and FCNA member, trustee and former Islamic Association of Palestine (IOP) director Muhammad al-Hanooti 26 unindicted co-conspirators (with many MB organizations). A circa 1978 immigrant 27 — and unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trace Center attack — Hanooti remains in Washington D.C. 28 A preponderance of publicly accessible evidence prompted the New Orleans 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Oct. 2010 to leave all HLF unindicted co-conspirator designations unsealed and in tact. 29

    Badawi, Hanooti et all remain highly suspect.


    —————————————————————
    Alysssa A. Lappen, an ACT for America contributing editor and investigative journalist, is a former senior fellow at American Center for Democracy (2005-2008); former senior editor of Institutional Investor (1993-1999), Working Woman (1991-1993) and Corporate Finance (1991), and writes for many print and internet publications. ACT for America commissioned this work.

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    NOTES:
    1 Steven Salinsky, “Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradawi and Qatar’s Education City — Hosting American University Students from Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Northwestern, Texas A&M, Virginia Commonwealth, Cornell & Others,” Middle East Media Research Institute, Feb. 19, 2010, http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/3984.htm and http://www.memri.org/image/IA_Qaradawi.pdf (viewed 2/5/2011).
    2 “History of the Fiqh Council,” FCNA, 11/22/2010, http://www.fiqhcouncil.org/node/6 (viewed 2/5/2011).
    3 Mohamed Akram, “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America, 5/22/1991,” www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/HLF/Akram_GeneralStrategicGoal.pdf (first viewed 9/18/2007).
    4 “Fiqh Council of North America responds to the question: What is the Islamic opinion on the terrorist attacks on the U.S. in September 2001,” reprinted at Islamopedia, undated, http://www.islamopediaonline.org/fatwa/fiqh-councilnorth-
    america-responds-question-what-islamic-opinion-terrorist-attacks-united-sta     (viewed 2/3/2011).
    5 Taha Jabir Alalwani, “Towards a Fiqh for minorities: some basic reflections,” occasional paper #10, (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2003), pp. 44; Abu Amal Hadhrami, “Muslim Americans need own outlook,” Islamic Horizons, Jan./Feb. 2000, pp. 48-53.
    6 Ralph Ghadban, “Tariq Ramadan’s Islamism: a lecturer of unfree thinking,” Frankfurter Allgemeine, Sept. 9, 2009,
    http://www.faz.net/s/RubC3FFBF288EDC421F93E22EFA74003C4D/Doc~E8D907A2243D44E1BB6F26A34B25FD7
    9E~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html     (viewed 2/3/2011); Alalwani, “Prolegominato (sic, intended “prolegomenon”) the
    Fiqh of the minorities: Some basic reflections,” undated, Islam Online,
    http://web.archive.org/web/20071212175822/www.fiqhcouncil.org/Default.aspx?tabid=60 (viewed 2/5/2011); Alalwani “Towards a Fiqh for minorities: some basic reflections,” occasional paper #10, (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2003), pp. 44; Hadhrami, “Muslim Americans need own outlook,” Islamic Horizons, Jan./Feb. 2000, pp. 48-53.
    7 Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, “Fiqh and the Fiqh Council of North America,” Islamicity, undated, http://www.islamicity.com/politics/shariah.htm (viewed 2/5/2011).
    8 Jeffrey Imm, “Dow Jones, Wall Street Journal and Islamist Financing,”Counterterrorismblog.org, Nov. 14, 2007,
    http://counterterrorismblog.org/2007/11/wsj_and_islamist_financing.php (last viewed 2/21/2011); see also Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes rulebook, Dec. 2009,
    http://www.djindexes.com/mdsidx/downloads/rulebooks/Dow_Jones_Islamic_Market_Indexes_Rulebook.pdf (viewed
    2/21/2011); http://www.djindexes.com/islamicmarket/?go=supervisory-board (viewed 2/21/2011); “Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, Chief Shariah Officer and Board Member,” Managing Team / Shariah Supervisory Board, Sharia Capital, undated, http://www.shariahcap.com/about-mt-delorenzo.php (viewed 2/21/2011).
    9 Ralph Ghadban, “Tariq Ramadan’s Islamism: a lecturer of unfree thinking,” Frankfurter Allgemeine, Sept. 9, 2009, http://www.faz.net/s/RubC3FFBF288EDC421F93E22EFA74003C4D/Doc~E8D907A2243D44E1BB6F26A34B25FD7
    9E~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.htm    l (viewed 2/3/2011); Taha Alalwani, “Prolegominato (sic, intended ‘prolegomenon’) the Fiqh of the minorities: Some basic reflections,” undated, Islam Online, http://web.archive.org/web/20071212175822/www.fiqhcouncil.org/Default.aspx?tabid=60 (viewed 2/5/2011), a preface; and Alalwani, “Towards a Fiqh for minorities: some basic reflections,” occasional paper #10, (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2003), pp. 44; Abu Amal Hadhrami, “Muslim Americans need own outlook,”Islamic Horizons, Jan./Feb. 2000, pp. 48-53.
    10 Hadhrami, “Muslim Americans need own outlook,” Islamic Horizons, Jan./Feb. 2000, pp. 48-53; see also abridged article, available at http://members.fortunecity.co.uk/waseem/fatwa.htm (last viewed 2/20/2011).
    11 Yusuf Qaradawi, European Council for Fatwa and Research, “Fatwa on apostasy: apostasy major and minor,” 2006, http://www.islamonline.net/English/contemporary/2006/04/article01c.shtml (dead link) see Apostasy fatwa and The Lawful and prohibited in Islam, 1960, reprinted 2006, http://www.amazon.com/Prohibited-translators-ElHelbawy-Moinuddin-al-
    Qardawi/dp/8171513735/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253238796&sr=8-1    ; Abul ala Mawdudi, “Punishment of the apostate according to Islamic law,” 1963, translated from Urdu 1994,http://answeringislam.
    org/Hahn/Mawdudi/#whya; Badawi    , “Apostasy from Islam: any change in the contemporary context?” Islam Online, 2006, http://www.islamonline.net/livedialogue/english/Browse.asp?hGuestID=Gz9HCK; Sano Koutoub Moustapha, “Lina Joy’s case and religious freedom,” International Islamic University, Malaysia, undated,
    http://www.islamonline.net/livedialogue/english/Browse.asp?hGuestID=yuha10 (link dead on 2/15/2011); Ahmad Shafaat, “Punishment of Apostasy in Islam, parts I and II,” Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, 2006 and 2007, http://www.islamicperspectives.com/Apostasy1.htm and http://islamicperspectives.com/PunishmentOfApostasy_Part2.html; “A Shiite opinion on apostasy,” Kayhan International, March 1986, http://formermuslimsunited.americancommunityexchange.org/apostasy-from-islam/a-shiiteopinion-on-apostasy/; “A Sunni Muslim pronouncement on apostasy from Lebanon,” http://formermuslimsunited.americancommunityexchange.org/apostasy-from-islam/pledge-fatwa-mufti-of-lebanon/; al-Azhr, the Egyptian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, “Fatwa on apostasy,” originally from German Wikipedia, as cited at http://www.atlasshrugs.com/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rechtsgutachten_betr_Apostasie_im_Islam.jpg
    as cited at http://formermuslimsunited.americancommunityexchange.org/apostasy-from-islam/al-azhar-fatwa/ (all fatwas first viewed 9/24/2009) as cited by and with thanks to Nonie Darwish, co-founder, Former Muslims United, http://formermuslimsunited.americancommunityexchange.org/.
    12 “Muzammil Siddiqi, past president,” ISNA, http://www.isna.net/ISNAHQ/pages/Muzammil-Siddiqi.aspx; “About us,” NAIT, http://www.nait.net/NAIT_about_ us.htm (all viewed 5/25/2010).
    13 Former Muslims United cover letter and Freedom Pledge, Sept. 22, 2009, http://formermuslimsunited.americancommunityexchange.org/the-pledge/cover-letter-pledge/ (first viewed 9/22/2009).
    14 “Dr. Jamal Badawi,” Fiqh Council of North America, undated,
    http://fiqhcouncil.org/AboutUs/tabid/175/ctl/Detail/mid/601/xmid/38/xmfid/4/Default.aspx (viewed 6/2/2010); “ISNA
    board of directors,” http://www.isna.net/ISNAHQ/pages/Board-of-Directors.aspx (viewed 6/10/2010).
    15 “Muzammil H. Siddiqi,” Islam Online, undated
    http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cid=1119503614805&pagename=IslamOnline-English-
    Ask_Scholar%2FFatwaCounselorE%2FFatwaCounselorE     (dead link) see Muzammil Siddiqi profile; Muslim World League, Saudi Arabia Market Information Resource, http://www.saudinf.com/main/k312.htm (viewed 5/20/2010); Lappen, “A secular market nightmare,” ibid.; “Muslim World League,” History Commons, http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=muslim_world_league (viewed 5/2/2010). Siddiqi remained U.S. MWL director until at least 2005. The FBI and Homeland Security raided MWL’s offices for possible terrorist ties in 2002 and again in July 2005, according to the investigative Pipeline News service. “Terror friendly organizations issue fatuous fatwa against terror,” Pipeline News, Jul. 28, 2005, http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:L_0IwlWft2wJ:www.pipelinenews.org/2007/Terror-Friendly-
    Organizations-Issue-Fatuous-Fatwa-Against.html     (viewed 6/1/2010).
    Siddiqi simultaneously headed the Muslim Student Association religious affairs department, and one recent report suggests that he may still. “Muzammil Siddiqi,” ProCon.org,
    http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.source.php?sourceID=004996 (viewed 6/1/2010).
    16 “Muzammil Siddiqi,” Islam Online, http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cid=1119503614805&pagename=IslamOnline-English-
    Ask_Scholar/FatwaCounselorE/FatwaCounselorE    , (viewed 5/25/2010).
    17 “Yusuf al-Qaradawi in Friday sermon at Cairo’s Tahrir Square: pray for conquest of al-Aqsa,” Feb. 18, 2011, http://www.memritv.org/report/en/5020.htm, as cited, Bostom, “For the De-Nile-ists, Qaradawi-Khomeini in Cairo,” Feb. 18, 2011, http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/2011/02/18/for-the-de-nile-ists%E2%80%94qaradawi-khomeini-incairo/ (both viewed 2/18/2011).
    18 Alyssa A. Lappen, “A secular market nightmare,” Front Page Magazine, May 9, 2008, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=C64342C1-C28F-4BED-8658-B69E78684D38 (viewed 4/12/2010)/
    19 “Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA),” Investigative Project, undated, http://www.investigativeproject.org/FCNA-CAIR.html (viewed 2/5/2011). Al-Arian funded Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a designated foreign terrorist organization. To avoid a new trial after a jury deadlocked on 9 of his 17 terror-funding charges in Dec. 2005, al-Arian accepted a 57-month prison sentence, to be followed by immediate subsequent deportation. However, in Oct. 2006, al-Arian defied a subpoena to testify before a U.S. grand jury. He served an added year for contempt and was released on bail, and under house arrest, in Apr. 2008. Meanwhile in Jan. 2008, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Apr. 2006 plea agreement contents did “not establish that the plea agreement immunized al-Arian from future grand jury subpoenas.” Despite that ruling, endless further court wrangling ensued over the terms of al-Arian’s Apr. 2006 plea deal. To date, al-Arian apparently remains under house arrest. “U.S. to deport Palestinian it failed to convict,” New York Times, Apr. 15, 2006, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE5D9163FF936A25757C0A9609C8B63 (first viewed 4/15/2006); “Judge cancels al-Arian hearing again,” IPT News, Oct. 29, 2010, http://www.investigativeproject.org/2286/hearing-may-determine-fate-of-al-arian-contempt (viewed 2/9/2011).
    20 “A common word,” Oct. 13, 2007, http://www.acommonword.com/index.php?lang=en&page=signatories; see also comments at http://www.acommonword.com/index.php?lang=en&page=comments (both viewed 6/2/2010).
    21 Abdullah, Jamal Badawi, “Freedom of Belief & Minority Rights in Muslim Countries,” Islam Online fatwa bank, Apr. 18, 2008, http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-
    Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaEAskTheScholar&cid=1119503547720     (viewed 6/10/2010); Freedom_of_Belief_&_Minoirity_Rights_In_Muslim_Countries_ISLAMONLIONE_4.18.2006.
    22 “Terror friendly organizations issue fatuous fatwa against terror,” Pipeline News, Jul. 28, 2005, ibid.
    23” Redacted affidavit in support of application, in the matter of searches involving 555 Grove Street, Herndon, Va., and related locations, (E.D. Va 02-114-MG.),” as cited in “Backgrounder on the Fiqh Council of North America and the
    Council of American-Islamic Relations,” Investigative Project, undated, http://www.investigativeproject.org/FCNACAIR.html (viewed 4/20/2010). (Now at
    http://web.archive.org/web/20050830160244/http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae/ArchivePress/OctoberPDFArchive/03/sa
    faaffid102003.pdf     (p. 36, now unsealed, viewed 2/16/2011).
    24 A group of muftis, “Seeking Martyrdom by Attacking US Military Bases in the Gulf,” Islam Online fatwa bank, Mar. 24, 2003, http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?pagename=IslamOnline-English-
    Ask_Scholar/FatwaE/FatwaE&cid=1119503546700     (dead link) see: Martyrdom fatwa (viewed 6/13/2010).
    25 Gretel Kovach, “Five convicted in terrorism financing trial,” New York Times, Nov. 25, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/us/25charity.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print (viewed 5/10/2010); Paul J. Weber,
    Los Angeles Times, Nov. 25, 2008, http://articles.latimes.com/2008/nov/25/nation/na-muslim-charity25 (viewed 5/20/2010); Convicted HLF officers included former HLF chairman Ghassan Elashi, former chief executive Shukri Abu Baker, Mufid Abdulqater, Abdulraham Odeh and Mohammed El-Mezain. Two more former HLF officers, Haitham Maghawri and Akram Mishal (cousin to Hamas chief Khaled Mishael) had fled and were not tried.
    26 Attachment A, in the U.S. District Court for the northern district of Texas, Dallas Division, U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation, http://www.pipelinenews.org/images/2007-05-29-US%20v%20HLF-ListCoConspirators.pdf (first viewed 6/1/2007); “History of the Fiqh Council,” FCNA, 11/22/2010, http://www.fiqhcouncil.org/node/6 (viewed 2/5/2011); Steven Emerson, “The American Islamic leaders’ fatwa is bogus,”Counterterrorism Blog, Jul. 28, 2005, ibid.
    27 “Muhammad al-Hanooti,” Islam Online, undated http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Satellite?cid=1119503615091&pagename=IslamOnline-English-Ask_Scholar%2FFatwaCounselorE%2FFatwaCounselorE (dead link), see Muhammad al-Hanooti profile
    28 Paul Sperry, “The great al-Qaeda patriot,” Front Page Magazine, Apr. 9, 2007, http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=26058 (viewed 5/2/2007).
    29 U.S. Plaintiff-Appellee v. Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, et al, Defendants North American Islamic Trust, Movant-Appellant, No. 09-10875, Before Garza and Benavides, Circuit Judges, and Crone, District Judge, 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Oct. 20, 2010, http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-5th-circuit/1541806.html (viewed 11/25/2010).


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    Zuhdi Jasser’s Predicament — And Ours

    By Andrew Bostom and Alyssa A. Lappen
    American Thinker | Feb. 13, 2011

    Dr. Zuhdi Jasser is a decent man conflicted by what he wishes to be mainstream Islamic reality, as manifested in doctrine and practice since the creed’s 7th century foundation, through the present.

    Dr. Jasser gave a one hour interview with Pamela Geller that aired on 5/22/2007, which must be heard in its entirety to understand his Weltanschauung, as well as his predicament — and ours.

    Although Dr. Jasser made some noble comments, and expressed views certainly worth championing, there were unsettling aspects of some of his statements and arguments. Dr. Jasser’s apologetics regarding Islamic Jew-hatred and misogyny were counterfactual. Such comments are delusive at best, perhaps out of Dr. Jasser’s apparent genuine embarrassment regarding the tenets of mainstream Islam as practiced since its advent.

    From minutes 20:00 through 27:30, Jasser’s discussion of Islamic Jew hatred is punctuated by ahistorical and doctrinally false apologetics (including “Golden Age” mythology; ridiculous claims about “bad Koranic translations”…etc.), possible taqiyya about what “allowing” a Muslim man to marry a Jewish woman actually means — it is not “ecumenical,” i.e., Jasser fails to acknowledge that a Jewish woman married to a Muslim man must allow the children to be raised as Muslims. Jasser then asserts that I share a “Wahhabist/Al Qaeda interpretation” of Koranic Jew hatred at 26:30-26:50. Specifically, Jasser objects stridently to what he claims are,

    …the [Koranic] passages that Mr. Bostom and others are insisting on taking the interpretations of the Wahhabists…I will not allow my faith to be interpreted by Al Qaeda or the Wahhabists [i.e., like Mr. Bostom does]

    Again at minutes 58:00 to 59:00 of the audio, Jasser asserts Islam has a “respect for Judasim” for Jews apparently self-evident “in the way we’re raised…on how we read our scripture”:

    Interviewer: “Islamic Antisemitism is irrefutable…”

    Jasser: “I will not accept that Antisemitism is part of Islam…the vast majority [emphasis added] of Muslims have a respect for Judaism that is ingrained in the way we’re raised…on how we read our scripture.”

    Interviewer: “That statement you made is opposite to reality.”

    In addition, Dr. Jasser offers an apologetic for Islamic misogyny at ~ minutes 44:00 to 47:00 of the interview. For a better grounded discussion of Islamic misogyny, see Ibn Warraq’s “Lifting the veil of tears,” and Reza Afshari‘s “Egalitarian Islam and Misogynist Islamic Tradition: A Critique of the Feminist Reinterpretation of Islamic History and Heritage.”

    Jasser’s claims about Islamic Jew hatred are thoroughly debunked in this lengthy presentation “Antisemitism in the Qur’an: Motifs and Historical Manifestations”, April 7, 2008 which demonstrates exactly how the greatest classical Koranic commentators in Islam — who antedated the “Wahhabi” movement by 500 to 1000 years — interpreted the Koranic verses on Jews discussed during the interview. And the late Grand Imam of Al Azhar — the Sunni Muslim Pope, Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, who was not a “Wahhabi” — wrote a 700 pp. treatise that concurred with these Jew-hating interpretations of the classical Koranic commentators.

    An abstract of this paper which derives from my The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, is provided below:

    The essential nature of the Qur’ranic “revelation,” as understood by Muslims, was elaborated in 1891 by Theodore Nöldeke (whose seminal 1860 Geschichte des Qorans remains a vital tool for Qur’ranic research): “To the faith of the Muslims…the Koran is the word of God, and such also is the claim which the book itself advances…”

    And to this day, as the contemporary Qur’anic scholar Ibn Warraq notes, for all believing Muslims, and not merely “fundamentalists, ” the Qur’an remains Allah’s “uncreated” words, “…valid for all times and places; its ideals are, according to all Muslims, absolutely true and beyond any criticism.”

    The Qur’anic depiction of the Jews — their traits as thus characterized being deemed both infallible and timeless-highlights, in verse 2:61 (repeated in verse 3:112), the centrality of the Jews “abasement and humiliation”, and being “laden with God’s anger,” as elaborated in the corpus of Muslim exegetic literature on Qur’an 2:61, including the hadith and Qur’anic commentaries. The terrifying rage decreed upon the Jews forever is connected in the hadith and exegeses to Qur’an 1:7, where Muslims ask Allah to guide them rightly, not in the path of those who provoke and must bear His wrath. This verse is in turn linked to Qur’anic verses 5:60, and 5:78, which describe the Jews transformation into apes and swine (5:60), having been “…cursed by the tongue of David, and Jesus, Mary’s son” (5:78). Moreover, forcing Jews, in particular, to pay the Qur’anic poll tax “tribute,” (as per verse 9:29) “readily,” while “being brought low,” is consistent with their overall humiliation and abasement in accord with Qur’an 2:61, and its directly related verses.

    An additional much larger array of anti-Jewish Qur’anic motifs build to a denouement (as if part of a theological indictment, conviction, and sentencing process) concluding with an elaboration of the “ultimate sin” committed by the Jews (they are among the devil’s minions [Qur’an 4:60], accursed by God [Qur’an 4:47]), and their appropriate punishment: If they do not accept the true faith (i.e., Islam), on the day of judgment, they will burn in the hellfire (Qur’an 4:55). As per, Qur’an 98:7: “The unbelievers among the People of the Book and the pagans shall burn forever in the fire of Hell. They are the vilest of all creatures”

    After presenting a full spectrum of the major anti-Jewish motifs in the Qur’an, additional illustrations demonstrating their persistent influence on Muslim attitudes (and resultant behaviors) towards Jews, are provided. Four themes are considered, and their historical application illustrated, across space and time, through the present: (I) the Jews being associated with Satan and consigned to Hell (Qur’an 4:60, 4:55, 58:14-19, and 98:6); (II) the imposition of the Qur’anic poll-tax (jizya; Qur’an 9:29) on Jews, specifically, and (III) the related enforcement of the Qur’anic (2:61) “curse” upon the Jews for killing the Prophets, and other transgressions against Allah’s will, meriting their permanent humiliation and abasement; and, last in connection to this curse, (IV) the Jews’ transformation into apes/swine, as punishment (Qur’an 2:65, 5:60, and 7:166).

    The contemporary case of Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, author of a 700 page scholarly treatise rationalizing Muslim Jew hatred, Banu Isra’il fi al-Qur’an wa al-Sunna [Jews in the Qur’an and the Traditions], and current [note: died in March 2010] Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University, demonstrates the prevalence and depth of sacralized, “normative” Jew hatred in the contemporary Muslim world. Even if all non-Muslim Judeophobic themes were to disappear miraculously overnight from the Islamic world, the living legacy of anti-Jewish hatred, and violence rooted in Islam’s sacred texts-Qur’an, hadith, and sira-would remain intact. The assessment and understanding of Islamic antisemitism must begin with an unapologetic analysis of the anti-Jewish motifs contained in these foundational texts of Islam.

    See also: American Islamists Find Common Cause with Pamela Geller


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