PA daily op-ed criticizes Imams’ visit to Auschwitz, comparing them to terrorist stabber
Article by Fuad Abu Hajla:
Headline: “They are enemies”
“Two rousing events were reported together in the last two days… The first… said that two young Muslims butchered a British policeman [sic] in a London neighborhood. One of the criminals – while holding a bloody cleaver – announced that he will continue killing British people wherever he comes across them.
The British press circulated the criminal’s picture with the cleaver in his hand, and took advantage of this crime to incite against Muslims, picturing all of them as terrorists, murderers, and bloodthirsty people who roam the world carrying cleavers so as to butcher innocents!
The newspapers disclosed that the criminal, who took pride in the slaughter, is a Nigerian Christian who converted to Islam a short time ago. They quoted a sheikh of a British mosque who said that this young man … used to come to the mosque some time ago, and no one knows who he met at the mosque and who convinced him to carry out the crime that resulted in the murder of one British policeman, and the butchering of the reputation of millions of Muslims in Europe. I don’t know the details, but I am almost certain that they were Al-Qaida and terrorist organizations that falsely use the maxim of ‘Jihad,’ that murder, butcher, and mutilate upon this earth. It could be that the British investigations will uncover shocking facts about this crime, and will reveal – if they so choose – the criminal’s motives and the intentions of those who incited him. Even though I do not doubt that the British security forces are capable of obtaining the most accurate information and details of this case, I do doubt that the British media will publish them. That is because the media, those who own it, and those who set its agendas, gain something from defaming Islam and Muslims, and because the British state – that protects Abu Hamza Al-Masri (Mustafa Kamel Mustafa) and other extremists – refuses to grant entry visas to open-minded Arabs and Muslims with enlightened views of the world.
The second news item that I read in an Egyptian newspaper talks of sixteen Muslim Imams who visited the Nazi camp at Auschwitz that the Jews see as a symbol of their massacre in Europe. The newspaper published a photograph of the Imams at prayer in the camp yard. One cannot, of course, condemn religious co-existence, just as no sensible person can avoid identifying with the victims of a massacre, no matter what their religion or origin. But what draws one’s attention was the eagerness of these Imams – among them a Palestinian Imam – to visit Auschwitz just now, and the fact that for the past few years they did not care to visit Sabra and Shatila, Tel Al-Zaatar, or what remains of Deir Yassin so that they could pray for the souls of the victims of those massacres, in which Palestinian blood flowed and Martyrs’ (Shahids’) bodies were burned.
This was an official mission [to Auschwitz], for which they were paid in advance with worldly rewards (i.e., money). Its price in the world to come will be determined by Allah.
Both these pictures (i.e., the picture of the murderer with the butcher’s knife, and the picture the Imams at Auschwitz) are harmful. They are all enemies, and we put our trust in Allah.”
Headline: “They are enemies”
“Two rousing events were reported together in the last two days… The first… said that two young Muslims butchered a British policeman [sic] in a London neighborhood. One of the criminals – while holding a bloody cleaver – announced that he will continue killing British people wherever he comes across them.
The British press circulated the criminal’s picture with the cleaver in his hand, and took advantage of this crime to incite against Muslims, picturing all of them as terrorists, murderers, and bloodthirsty people who roam the world carrying cleavers so as to butcher innocents!
The newspapers disclosed that the criminal, who took pride in the slaughter, is a Nigerian Christian who converted to Islam a short time ago. They quoted a sheikh of a British mosque who said that this young man … used to come to the mosque some time ago, and no one knows who he met at the mosque and who convinced him to carry out the crime that resulted in the murder of one British policeman, and the butchering of the reputation of millions of Muslims in Europe. I don’t know the details, but I am almost certain that they were Al-Qaida and terrorist organizations that falsely use the maxim of ‘Jihad,’ that murder, butcher, and mutilate upon this earth. It could be that the British investigations will uncover shocking facts about this crime, and will reveal – if they so choose – the criminal’s motives and the intentions of those who incited him. Even though I do not doubt that the British security forces are capable of obtaining the most accurate information and details of this case, I do doubt that the British media will publish them. That is because the media, those who own it, and those who set its agendas, gain something from defaming Islam and Muslims, and because the British state – that protects Abu Hamza Al-Masri (Mustafa Kamel Mustafa) and other extremists – refuses to grant entry visas to open-minded Arabs and Muslims with enlightened views of the world.
The second news item that I read in an Egyptian newspaper talks of sixteen Muslim Imams who visited the Nazi camp at Auschwitz that the Jews see as a symbol of their massacre in Europe. The newspaper published a photograph of the Imams at prayer in the camp yard. One cannot, of course, condemn religious co-existence, just as no sensible person can avoid identifying with the victims of a massacre, no matter what their religion or origin. But what draws one’s attention was the eagerness of these Imams – among them a Palestinian Imam – to visit Auschwitz just now, and the fact that for the past few years they did not care to visit Sabra and Shatila, Tel Al-Zaatar, or what remains of Deir Yassin so that they could pray for the souls of the victims of those massacres, in which Palestinian blood flowed and Martyrs’ (Shahids’) bodies were burned.
This was an official mission [to Auschwitz], for which they were paid in advance with worldly rewards (i.e., money). Its price in the world to come will be determined by Allah.
Both these pictures (i.e., the picture of the murderer with the butcher’s knife, and the picture the Imams at Auschwitz) are harmful. They are all enemies, and we put our trust in Allah.”