Islam’s Ancient Hatred For The Jews
While Islam envisions the day when Christians and Jews will convert to Islam en masse, there is a distinction within Islam’s end time narrative between the final destiny of Christians and that of the Jews. In Islam’s version of the last-days, we see that all Christians will either accept Islam or be killed.
Certainly, when we look at this final picture, it is impossible to say that Islam has any real affinity for Christians or Christianity. But when analyzing Islamic teaching and traditions about the Jews, one gets a very cold feeling that the only destiny that Islam has marked out for the Jews is that of an absolute and total slaughter. We see in the Islamic traditions a dark and very persistent hatred for the Jews nearly identical to the ideology expressed through Naziism. This ideology of hatred is fully supported and nurtured throughout the Quran and the Islamic traditions. For instance, speaking of Jews, the Quran says:
Amongst them we (Allah) have placed enmity and hatred till the Day of Judgment. Every time they kindle the fire of war, Allah doth extinguish it; but they (ever) strive to do mischief on earth. And Allah loveth not those who do mischief. -Surah 5:64 (Yusuf Ali)
This verse makes it clear that there will be "enmity and hatred" against the Jews until the very end of the present age. So much for those who claim that the Quran’s scorn for Jews is limited only to specific historical incidences in Muhammad’s career. Not only does the Quran portray Jews as those who start wars and cause general mischief in the earth, but it also literally claims that Allah was so disgusted by the Jews, that he cursed them and literally transformed many of them into "apes and swine," assigning them the lowest "rank" among humankind:
When in their insolence they transgressed (all) prohibitions, We said to them: "Be ye apes, despised and rejected." -Surah 7:166 (Yususf Ali)
Those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped evil;- these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path! -Surah 5:60 (Yusuf Ali)
And well ye knew those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath: We said to them: "Be ye apes, despised and rejected." -Surah 2:65 (Yusuf Ali)
Among the more anti-Semitic and vocal Muslims, these verses have become absolute favorites. Walid Shoebat is a former Muslim who grew up in the Palestinian territories. Recalling being taken on a school trip to the Jerusalem zoo as a child, Walid relates, "The Islamic teacher would tell us, ‘this gorilla was originally a Jew.’ I look at this now and I think, this is what Naziism teaches – in its worst form. This is being taught throughout the entire Middle East."1 Just as the Nazis declared that Jews were subhuman "vermin" in order to their inhumane treatment of the Jews, so has the Muslim world followed the lead of the Quran in dehumanizing the Jewish race.
Now, at this point, the enterprising Muslim apologist will be quick to argue that while there are many verses in the Quran that speak of the Jews in such a negative manner, there are also other verses that speak of the Jews in a positive manner as well. While this is true it is also highly misleading. In his highly informative book, Islam and the Jews, Mark A. Gabriel, Ph. D, a former Muslim Imam and Professor of Islamic history at the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo, addresses this misunderstanding of Islam’s disposition toward the Jews. Gabriel explains that according to Islamic theology, those verses in the Quran that appear to be "nice" towards the Jews are understood to be cancelled out (mansookh) by the verses that were revealed to Muhammad later in his "prophetic" career. This is based on the idea of progressive revelation in Islam whereby if you have any verses that seem to contradict one another, the newer revelations given to Muhammad negate or cancel out the older revelations. This is an established and well-understood doctrine in Islam called nasik. 2 Many Qurans even include a chart in the back that lists which verses are older and which are newer in order to know which verses are cancelled out and which verses remain. Because the verses which are inflammatory and aggressive toward the Jews are newer verses, they cancel out any that might have a more conciliatory tone. This understanding is well-known throughout the Islamic world.
As we trace the growth and development of anti-Semitism in Islam, we see that unfortunately, it is not limited to the Quran, but rather seems to find an even fuller expression in the infamous Hadith about the final slaughter of the Jews. We have already quoted this tradition more than once, but shall quote it again here one last time:
(Muhammad said:) The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews. (emphasis mine) 3
This apocalyptic belief of a future battle against Israel and the murder of all Jews is a deeply held belief among many Muslims. And we must remember that these anti-Semitic traditions and verses from the Quran are over a thousand years old. These sacred Islamic traditions of a final slaughter of all Jews cannot be attributed to the present day conflict with the State of Israel. As much as many today try to blame Muslim enmity toward Jews solely on Zionism and its alleged "Nazi-like" abuse of the victimized and oppressed Palestinians, it simply cannot be done in an honest and informed manner. The enmity of Islam toward the Jews has existed since Islam’s inception. It is not a new phenomenon. And today Islam and the Muslim world is undeniably the single most anti-Semitic force on the earth. Palestinians in particular, use the anti-Semitic apocalyptic template as a basis for much of their actions toward Israel and the Jews today. Although this template is in fact one of the primary factors fueling the ongoing present conflict in Israel, it is also the most often overlooked factor by secular observers who attempt to judge the present conflict on the basis of a moral equivalency. The following quotes are all translated portions of sermons from recent years, delivered by Sheikh Ibrahim Madhi, the officially appointed Imam of the Palestinian Authority. Notice the overwhelming reliance upon the previously discussed verses and traditions that are used to and support the hatred against the Jews:
We the Palestinian nation, our fate from Allah is to be the vanguard in the war against the Jews until the resurrection of the dead, as the prophet Muhammad said: ‘The resurrection of the dead will not arrive until you will fight the Jews and kill them… ‘ We the Palestinians are the vanguard in this undertaking and in this campaign, whether or not we want this…
Oh, our Arab brethren… Oh, our Muslim brethren… Don’t leave the Palestinians alone in the war against the Jews…even if it has been decreed upon us to be the vanguard… Jerusalem, Palestine and Al Aksa (The Temple Mount), the land that Allah blessed and its surrounding areas will remain at the center of the struggle between Truth and Falsehood, between the Jews and the non-Jews on this sacred land, regardless of how many agreements are signed, regardless of how many treaties and covenants are ratified. For the Truth is in the Koran, as verified by the words of the prophet Muhammad, that the decisive battle will be in Jerusalem and its environs: ‘The resurrection of the dead will not occur until you make war on the Jews…’
The battle with the Jews will surely come… the decisive Muslim victory is coming without a doubt, and the prophet spoke about in more than one Hadith and the Day of Resurrection will not come without the victory of the believers [the Muslims] over the descendents of the monkeys and pigs [the Jews] and with their annihilation. 4
Oh Allah, accept our martyrs in the highest heavens…
Oh Allah, show the Jews a black day…
Oh Allah, annihilate the Jews and their supporters…
Oh Allah, raise the flag of Jihad across the land…5
Thus, as the world is eagerly awaiting and believing for the peaceful co-existence of the Jewish and the Palestinian people, the Imams, the religious authorities of the Palestinian people, with the full support and approval of the political leadership are ceaselessly beating the drums of "the final war," the final slaughter of the Jews.
Satan’s Ancient Hatred For The Jews
When we compare the spirit that we see in Islam with the spirit that we see manifest under the rule of the Antichrist and the False Prophet, it is the same ancient hatred against the Jewish people in both. It is an ancient hatred that originates with Satan himself. From the day that God Himself showed His favor to the Jewish people, Satan has likewise raged against them. Satan’s primary vehicles that he has used to do this have been several great world empires. These are the "beast" empires that we discussed in chapter ten. Throughout history, we can observe Satan’s attempts to exterminate or persecute the Jewish people:
- Through Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, when he ordered the slaughter of every male Hebrew child. (Exodus 1:5-22)
- Through Shalmaneser, the ruler of Assyria, when he conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and carried away and dispersed ten of the twelve tribes into exile. (2 Kings 17:5,6)
- Through Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of Babylon, when he attacked Jerusalem, the capital of the southern Kingdom of Judea, and carried the rest of the Jews off into exile. (2 Kings 24:10-16)
- Through Haman, the man appointed as second in command over the Medo/Persian Empire, when he attempted to have every Jew in the empire killed. (Esther 3:9)
- Through Antiochus Epiphanes, the Greek ruler of Syria, when he laid siege to Jerusalem in what the Jewish Historian Josephus describes as one of the bloodiest sieges in Israel’s history. (Daniel 8:23-25; 1 Maccabees 1-6) 6
- Through Titus, the Roman emperor, who attacked and captured Jerusalem, killing over 1.1 million Jews, and enslaving over 97,000. (Wars of the Jews, VI, ix, 3).
- Through various Islamic and Christian empires, which we cannot fail to mention. Even Christianity (albeit in a perverted form) has been far from innocent in the bloody history of the Jewish people.
- Through Adolf Hitler, who killed over six million Jews during World War II.
- And eventually through the Antichrist and the False Prophet and their future empire, which is prophesied very clearly by the Prophets Zechariah and Ezekiel to attack Jerusalem and kill two thirds of the inhabitants of the nation of Israel. (Zechariah 13:8,9; Ezekiel 38)
Any thinking person at this point must stop and ask: What else can explain such a consistantly bloody and painful history of one people other than an inhuman demonic hatred? Who could instigate such a black and persistent attack against one people who represent such a very small fraction of one percent of the earth’s population – no matter where they dwell? Who else if not the very Devil himself? The history of the Jewish people alone is proof to the open mind that Satan exists and that he hates those whom God loves and declares to be the very, "apple of His eye." (Zecheriah 2:8).
Conclusion
Throughout natural history we see willing vessels manifest Satan’s hatred for the Jewish people. And even more frightening, in the sacred texts of all three monotheistic religions, we see yet another future attack against the Jews, this one worse than all those that preceded it. In the Bible, it is specifically Satan’s pawns, the Antichrist, his False Prophet and all who follow them who carry out the final onslaught. In Islam it is the Mahdi, the Muslim Jesus and as the tradition says, "faithful Muslims" who are the ones who carry out such atrocities. Indeed, in this regard, Islam again fulfills one of the primary characteristics of the Antichrist spirit; that of an unquenchable anti-Semitic spirit.
Notes:
1. Walid Shoebat radio interview with Joseph Farah. www.shoebat.com
2. Mark A. Gabriel, Ph.D., Islam and the Jews, The Unfinished Battle (Lake Mary, Florida, Charisma House, 2003), pp. 46-49
3. Sahih Muslim Book 041, Number 6985
4.Palestinian Media Watch, Studies on Palestinian Culture and Society by Itamar Marcus www.pmw.org.il
5. Middle East Media Research, Friday Sermon on Palestinian Authority TV, April 17, 2002 Palestinian Authority Imam Sheikh Ibrahim Madhi at the Sheikh ‘Ijlin Mosque in Gaza City www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP37002
6. Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VI, Chapter V, Section 3
© 2009 – 2011, Matt. All rights reserved.
