Free Republic

My presentation today will introduce evidence—adduced to considerably greater extent in The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism—which elucidates how the uniquely Islamic institution of jihad war, its corollary institution, dhimmitude, and specific Antisemitic motifs in Islamic theology, including Islamic eschatology—operate in tandem with regard to global jihadist aspirations, and the annihilationist Muslim Jew-hatred directed at the Jews of Israel. In April 1948, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Muhammad Mahawif, issued a fatwa declaring jihad in Palestine obligatory for all Muslims. The Jews, he maintained, intended “to take over ... all the lands of Islam..” Eight years later, a fatwa written...

Last year, nearing completion of the final manuscript version of The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, I took a brief hiatus and posed the following two questions, based upon my research, to a cadre of academics, independent scholars, theologians, journalists, and activists who opine, in writing and speech, about Antisemitism, generally, and/or within the Muslim world, specifically. I asked (via e-mail correspondence), "In your opinion, would this quote (below) exemplify racial, or at least ethnic Antisemitism? Moreover would you please hazard a guess as to where and when it was written, based upon the contents?" Here is the quote: Our people [the Muslims] observing thus...

The structure of Lewis's and Bostom's arguments are also quite different. Employing a genetic approach, Bostom shows that Islam's holy books, the Koran, the hadith and the sira all have sharply negative things to say about Jews, that these have been emphasized and reinforced by Moslem thinkers, jurists and preachers throughout the history of Islam, and that the attitudes and ideas engendered by them have directly influenced the actions of Moslem rulers, clergy and mobs both in their oppression of Jews as dhimmis and their aggressive excesses against Jews which have included pogroms, forced conversion, pillage and expulsion. The status...

Lewis’s Claim (1): What we are seeing now in much of the Islamic world could only be described as a monstrous perversion of Islam. The things that are now being done in the name of Islam are totally anti-Islamic. Take suicide, for example. The whole Islamic theology and law is totally opposed to suicide. Even if one has led a totally virtuous life, if he dies by his own hand he forfeits paradise and is condemned to eternal damnation. The eternal punishment for suicide is the endless repetition of the act of suicide. That’s what it says in the books....

Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig framed by shadow of Adam Gadahn Last month, American al-Qaeda operative Adam Gadahn issued a “convert-to-Islam-or-die message to U.S. President George W. Bush, Daniel Pipes, Michael Scheuer, Steve Emerson and Robert Spencer. This attempt at forced conversion to Islam followed the “conversion” at gunpoint of the two kidnapped Fox News reporters Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig. What exactly was the significance of these events? On the one hand, these attempts at forced conversion were in clear continuity with Islam’s long history of calling people to convert before waging war on them. But how exactly...

Columnist, novelist, and retired United States Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters has earned a reputation as an often insightful and provocative analyst of military affairs and geopolitics. But of late, he has taken to villifying those who examine the theology and practice of Jihad in Islam. Writing what can only be characterized as an unhinged column in the September 7, 2006 New York Post, military analyst Ralph Peters lashed out at those he labeled “Islam haters”. In a breathless series of vicious calumnies (summarized here), Peters claimed that those he lacked the courage to name, were: “an enemy within”, represent...

On April 29th, 2006, America's Truth Forum presented a symposium titled, The Underlying Roots Of Terrorism: Terrorism's Threat to World Peace & National Security at the Doubletree Hotel Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia. These are notes taken at the event by Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler. Jeff Epstein, President of America’s Truth Forum, began by thanking the veterans in the room and noting the work of Frank Salvato, editor of The New Media Journal, who runs America’s Truth Forum web site and produces the group’s Terrorism Update Newsletter. Epstein said that the Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir has interviewed Osama Bin...