Jew Hatred in Islamic Doctrine

The following is from IslamicJewHatred.com.

The Koran on the Jews:

“Strongest among men in enmity to the believers wilt thou find the Jews…” (5:82).

“Curses were pronounced on those among the Children of Israel who rejected Faith, by the tongue of David and of Jesus the son of Mary: because they disobeyed and persisted in excesses.” (5:78).

“Is it ever so that when they make a covenant a party of them set it aside? The truth is, most of them believe not. And when there came to them a messenger from Allah [Muhammad], confirming what was with them [the Torah], a party of the people of the Book threw away the Book of Allah behind their backs, as if (it had been something) they did not know!” (2:100-101).

“The People of the Book know well that that is the truth from their Lord. Nor is Allah unmindful of what they do” (2:143-144).

“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued” (9:29).

“And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who disbelieved of old. Allah (Himself) fighteth against them. How perverse are they!” (9:30)

The Jews killed their prophets (2:61; 2:87; 2:91; 3:21; 3:112; 3:181; 3:183; 4:155; 5:70), and boast “we killed the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary” (4:157).

“Allah hath heard the taunt of those who say: ‘Truly, Allah is indigent and we are rich!’ We shall certainly record their word and (their act) of slaying the prophets in defiance of right, and We shall say: ‘Taste ye the penalty of the Scorching Fire!’” (3:181)

“Why do not the rabbis and the doctors of Law forbid them from their (habit of) uttering sinful words and eating things forbidden? Evil indeed are their works.” (5:63)

“The Jews say: ‘Allah’s hand is tied up.’ Be their hands tied up and be they accursed for the (blasphemy) they utter. Nay, both His hands are widely outstretched: He giveth and spendeth (of His bounty) as He pleaseth. But the revelation that cometh to thee from Allah increaseth in most of them their obstinate rebellion and blasphemy. Amongst them we 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” (5:64).

The Jews “strive to do mischief on earth” – that is, fasaad, for which the punishment is specified in 5:33: “they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land.”

“Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah. If only the People of the Book had faith, it were best for them: among them are some who have faith, but most of them are perverted transgressors. They will do you no harm, barring a trifling annoyance; if they come out to fight you, they will show you their backs, and no help shall they get. Shame is pitched over them (like a tent) wherever they are found, except when under a covenant (of protection) from Allah and from men; they draw on themselves wrath from Allah, and pitched over them is (the tent of) destitution. This because they rejected the Signs of Allah, and slew the prophets in defiance of right; this because they rebelled and transgressed beyond bounds.” (3:110-112)

“And because of their breaking their covenant, We have cursed them and made hard their hearts. They change words from their context and forget a part of that whereof they were admonished. Thou wilt not cease to discover treachery from all save a few of them. But bear with them and pardon them. Lo! Allah loveth the kindly (5:13).

“Among the People of the Book are some who, if entrusted with a hoard of gold, will (readily) pay it back; others, who, if entrusted with a single silver coin, will not repay it unless thou constantly stoodest demanding, because, they say, ‘there is no call on us (to keep faith) with these ignorant (Pagans).’ but they tell a lie against Allah, and (well) they know it.” (3:75)

“O Messenger! let not those grieve thee, who race each other into unbelief: (whether it be) among those who say ‘We believe’ with their lips but whose hearts have no faith; or it be among the Jews — men who will listen to any lie — will listen even to others who have never so much as come to thee. They change the words from their (right) times and places: they say, ‘If ye are given this, take it, but if not, beware!’ If any one’s trial is intended by Allah, thou hast no authority in the least for him against Allah. For such – it is not Allah’s will to purify their hearts. For them there is disgrace in this world, and in the Hereafter a heavy punishment.” (5:41)

“There is a party of them who distort the Scripture with their tongues, that ye may think that what they say is from the Scripture, when it is not from the Scripture. And they say: It is from Allah, when it is not from Allah; and they speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly” (3:78).

“Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands, and then say: ‘This is from Allah,’ to traffic with it for miserable price! Woe to them for what their hands do write, and for the gain they make thereby.” (2:79)

“But because of their breach of their covenant, We cursed them, and made their hearts grow hard; they change the words from their (right) places and forget a good part of the message that was sent them, nor wilt thou cease to find them- barring a few – ever bent on (new) deceits: but forgive them, and overlook (their misdeeds): for Allah loveth those who are kind.” (5:13)

“Many of the People of the Scripture long to make you disbelievers after your belief, through envy on their own account, after the truth hath become manifest unto them’” (2:109).

“And when there comes to them a Book from Allah, confirming what is with them, although from of old they had prayed for victory against those without Faith, when there comes to them that which they (should) have recognised, they refuse to believe in it but the curse of Allah is on those without Faith. “ (2:89)

“For the iniquity of the Jews We made unlawful for them certain (foods) good and wholesome which had been lawful for them; in that they hindered many from Allah’s Way; that they took usury, though they were forbidden; and that they devoured men’s substance wrongfully; we have prepared for those among them who reject faith a grievous punishment.” (4:160-161)

“Thou wilt indeed find them, of all people, most greedy of life,-even more than the idolaters: Each one of them wishes He could be given a life of a thousand years: But the grant of such life will not save him from (due) punishment. For Allah sees well all that they do.” (2:96)

From Robert Spencer’s book, “The Religion of Peace”:

The Koran puts forward a clear, consistent image of the Jews: they are scheming, treacherous liars and the most dangerous enemies of the Muslims. This theological tenet provides a basis for Islam’s deeply-rooted anti-Semitism. Regardless of the actions of Jewish individuals today, and regardless of what policies the State of Israel follows, the Koran justifies an unrelenting form of anti-Semitism that will be extremely difficult to root out from the Muslim world.

And this is by no means confined to an “extremist” fringe. The Koranic impulse toward anti-Semitism is evident in the attacks on Jews emanating from Islamic preachers and scholars worldwide. Take, for example, “Jews as Depicted in the Qur’an,”an article posted in 2004 on the website Islam Online. The website’s founders include the prominent Islamic theologian Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is hailed as a moderate reformist by Western Islamic apologistsThe article, written by Sheikh ‘Atiyyah Saqr, formerly of Al-Azhar University, copiously cites the Koran in depicting the Jews as a gang of corrupt, deceitful cut-throats.

The Jews, he says, “used to fabricate things and falsely ascribe them to Allah.” Supporting this, he quotes the verse condemning Jews for claiming Allah’s hand was fettered (5:64) and another asserting that some People of the Book say “we have no duty to the Gentiles” and in doing so, “speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly” (3:75). He adds a third verse in which some Jews, asked for money, scoff that “Allah, forsooth, is poor, and we are rich!” (3:181)

The Jews, continues Saqr, “love to listen to lies.” This is essentially a straight rendering of the Koran’s claim that the Jews are “men who will listen to any lie” (5:41). They also spread them: “There is a party of them who distort the Scripture with their tongues, that ye may think that what they say is from the Scripture, when it is not from the Scripture. And they say: It is from Allah, when it is not from Allah; and they speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly” (3:78). They dare to distort “Divine Revelation and Allah’s Sacred Books. Allah says in this regard: ‘Therefore woe be unto those who write the Scripture with their hands and then say, ‘This is from Allah,’ that they may purchase a small gain therewith. Woe unto them for that their hands have written, and woe unto them for that they earn thereby’” (2:79).

Saqr also notes that in the Koran Allah says the Jews have broken “their covenant,” and consequently he has “cursed them and made hard their hearts” (5:13). Indeed, says Saqr, “they never keep their promises or fulfill their words” – to demonstrate this, he quotes this Koranic passage: “Is it ever so that when ye make a covenant a party of you set it aside? The truth is, most of them believe not.” (2:100).

The Jews also refuse to believe in the prophets Allah has sent them, even Moses, telling him: “O Moses! We will not believe in thee till we see Allah plainly” (2:55). They are hypocrites (2:14; 2:44) who “grow arrogant” before the messengers of Allah, refusing to believe in some and killing others (2:87). They are so arrogant and haughty that they “claimed to be the sons and of Allah and His beloved ones” – a fault they share with the Christians: “The Jews and Christians say: We are sons of Allah and His loved ones” (5:18).

All that represents damage the Jews do to their own souls, but Saqr — and the Koran itself – doesn’t stop there. The Jews also wish “evil for people” and try to “mislead” them. “This is clear,” says Saqr, “in the verse that reads: ‘Many of the People of the Scripture long to make you disbelievers after your belief, through envy on their own account, after the truth hath become manifest unto them’” (2:109). They “feel pain to see others in happiness and are gleeful when others are afflicted with a calamity,” as is demonstrated, according to Saqr, by this verse: “If a lucky chance befall you, it is evil unto them, and if disaster strike you they rejoice thereat” (3:120). The Koran, Saqr points out, accuses them of “taking usury when they were forbidden it, and of their devouring people’s wealth by false pretences” (4:161).

Even worse, “it is easy for them to slay people and kill innocents,” for “nothing in the world is dear to their hearts than shedding blood and murdering human beings.” Saqr grounds this on the Koran’s assertion that the Jews “slew the prophets wrongfully” (2:61). The Jews are characterized, says Saqr, by “cowardice. . . . To this, the Qur’an refers when saying: ‘Ye are more awful as a fear in their bosoms than Allah. That is because they are a folk who understand not. They will not fight against you in a body save in fortified villages or from behind walls” (59:14). Saqr also excoriates the Jews for their “love for this worldly life” – as does the Koran: “And thou wilt find them greediest of mankind for life and (greedier) than the idolaters” (2:96).

Saqr concludes on an optimistic note, voicing hopes that some day Muslims will be able to mete out punishment to their enemies; “Almighty Allah told us that He’d send to them people who’d pour on them rain of severe punishment that would last till the Day of Resurrection. All this gives us glad tidings of the coming victory of Muslims over them once Muslims stick to strong faith and belief in Allah and adopt the modern means of technology.”

One should consider Saqr’s interpretation in light of Iran’s feverish attempts to acquire a nuclear bomb, alongside the repeated vows by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to wipe Israel off the map. For Ahmadinejad and his ilk, eliminating the Jewish state is not just a foreign policy goal; it is a religious imperative.

Oddly, Saqr is silent about the famous Koranic passages in which Allah transforms disobedient Jews into apes and pigs (2:63-66; 5:59-60; 7:166). The practice of calling the Jews of today “apes and pigs” has become a staple of jihadist discourse. Although Saudi authorities promised after 9/11 to revise textbooks that taught hatred against Jews and Christians, as late as 2006 Saudi texts still referred to Jews as “apes” and Christians as “swine.”

And in April 2008 a British employment tribunal awarded 70,000 pounds to a teacher who had been fired from a Saudi-funded Islamic school for exposing the fact that the school used textbooks that spoke of “the repugnant characteristics of the Jews” and asserted: “Those whom God has cursed and with whom he is angry, he has turned into monkeys and pigs. They worship Satan.”

In March 2004 Sheikh Ibrahim Mudayris, speaking on official Palestinian Authority television, railed against “the Jews today taking revenge for their grandfathers and ancestors, the sons of apes and pigs.”

And during the swine flu scare in May 2009, Sheikh Ahmad ‘Ali ‘Othman, the superintendent of da’wa [Islamic proselytizing] affairs at the Egyptian Ministry of Religious Endowments, declared, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, that “all pigs are descended from the Jews whom Allah transformed into apes, swine and worshippers of Satan, and must therefore be slaughtered.” Othman based his argument on Koran 5:60, one of the notorious “apes and pigs” passages of the Koran.

An Egyptian imam, Muhammad Hussein Ya’qoub, in January 2009 delivered a televised sermon in which he insisted that Muslim hatred of Jews had nothing to do with Israel, and everything to do with the Koran: “If the Jews left Palestine to us, would we start loving them? Of course not. We will never love them. Absolutely not. The Jews are infidels – not because I say so, and not because they are killing Muslims, but because Allah said: ‘The Jews say that Uzair is the son of Allah, and the Christians say that Christ is the son of Allah. These are the words from their mouths. They imitate the sayings of the disbelievers before. May Allah fight them. How deluded they are.’ [9:30]

It is Allah who said that they are infidels.” He also quoted Koran 5:82, the verse that says that the Jews are the Muslims’ worst enemies. His peroration: “As for you Jews – the curse of Allah upon you. The curse of Allah upon you, whose ancestors were apes and pigs…. Allah, we pray that you transform them again, and make the Muslims rejoice again in seeing them as apes and pigs. You pigs of the earth! You pigs of the earth! You kill the Muslims with that cold pig [blood] of yours.”

Saqr, for his part, asserted that because Jews “revolted against the Divine ordinances … they found no warm reception in all countries where they tried to reside. Rather, they would either be driven out or live in isolation.” Moreover, “Almighty Allah told us that He’d send to them people who’d pour on them rain of severe punishment that would last till the Day of Resurrection.”

Those people would be, by Saqr’s own account and that of other Islamic clerics, the Muslims.

Read the rest at IslamicJewHatred.com.

Why did Muhammad have such vindictiveness against the Jews? Find out the story behind it: Islamic Hatred For the Jews and How it Got That Way.

Citizen Warrior is the author of the book, Getting Through: How to Talk to Non-Muslims About the Disturbing Nature of Islam and also writes for Inquiry Into Islam, History is Fascinating, and Foundation for Coexistence. Subscribe to Citizen Warrior updates here. You can send an email to CW here.