Shariah’s Assault on Free Speech

Last night I had the privilege of attending an event in Stoughton, Massachusetts, at the Ahavath Torah Congregation. I am posting the video of the event (which is almost two hours long, but well worth watching) below, but I will also share my notes from the event.

The event was called “Shariah’s Assault on Free Speech.” The event was moderated by Michael Graham. The four speakers, who are all too familiar with the consequences of Sharia Law, were Lars Hedegaard, President of the Danish Free Press Society, a historian and a journalist; Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch, a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and the author of twelve books, including two New York Times bestsellers; Tiffany Gabbay, Assistant Editor and Foreign Affairs Editor for TheBlaze; and Andrew G. Bostom, (MD, MS), author and Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University Medical School. He is also well known for his writings on Islam as the author of The Legacy of Jihad (2005).

One of the topics discussed during the event was the fact that in America we have reached the point where speech is considered offensive based on who is offended by it not by what is said–you can hurl pretty much any insult or slander at Christians and Jews, but if you say something against Islam, you are engaging in hate speech.

Andy Bostom pointed out that the Assembly of Muslim Jurists in America, a Muslim lawyers group, has issued a fatwa demanding execution for insulting the prophet. A recent unscientific survey of 600 successful Muslims, done through trade magazines, showed that 58 percent of the Muslims surveyed felt that anyone who criticized either Islam or Mohammad should receive the death penalty. It is chilling to me that when President Obama addressed the United Nations, he included in his remarks the statement, “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” Does he understand that under the Islamic definition of slander, declaring that Jesus is God is slander (because it states that Mohammad is not God)? The Islamic definition of slander is not related to truth–slander is any negative comment about Islam or the prophet whether or not it is true.

Part of the problem is America’s educational system. Somehow in an effort not to offend anyone, we have declared all cultures equal. All cultures are not equal. One of the attributes of Western Culture is the problem solving process based on open debate. Western Culture embraces the scientific method; Islamic culture does not. Because of this, progress is stifled. In Islamic countries there is a very small or non-existent middle class, and little chance of upward mobility for the average person. We need to go back to teaching our children to cherish America–even though we have faults, we are one of the best countries in the world to live in. Our children need to know that.

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The Roots Of Islamic Antisemitism

Andrew G. Bostom spoke tonight in Stoughton, Massachusetts, on the roots of Islamic Antisemitism. He described his developing interest in the subject after the events on September 11, 2001. He then chronicled the history of Islamic Antisemitism going back to the beginnings of the Muslim religion. In his book, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, Mr. Bostom gives a detailed account of the roots and development of Antisemitism within Islam.

Mr. Bostom’s lecture was summed up in a story he told about an experiment he did which showed the misconceptions most scholars, theologians, and journalists have about Antisemitism. He sent e-mails to a variety of academics, scholars, journalists, etc., asking the following question:

“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 occupations of the Jews and the Christians concluded that the religion of the Jews must compare unfavorably as do their professions, and that their unbelief must be the foulest of all, since they are the filthiest of all nations. Why the Christians, ugly as they are, are physically less repulsive than the Jews may be explained by the fact that the Jews, by not intermarrying, have intensified the offensiveness of their features. Exotic elements have not mingled with them; neither have males of alien races had intercourse with their women, nor have their men cohabited with females of a foreign stock. The Jewish race therefore has been denied high mental qualities, sound physique, and superior lactation. The same results obtain when horses, camels, donkeys, and pigeons are inbred.
 
He read some of the answers he got back:
 
“Of course it’s Antisemitism of the most vile racist stripe-which leads me to think it likely dates from the 19th century, at the earliest.  It also sounds like the sort of thing one would read in the  Antisemitic popular literature of the Edwardian period.  So, my guess would be somewhere between 1830 and the 1920s.”  
“I imagine this was written under the influence of modern theories of racial inferiority.”
“If I had to hazard a guess, I would say this is from a sermon in a Gaza mosque this past Friday..”
“Could be any mosque in the Muslim world, or Nazi Germany if it weren’t for the first line. Definitely racial…”
“How about current Wahhabi establishment?”
“I have no idea who said it but I’ll hazard a guess just for sport: the Mufti of Jerusalem, circa 1940?”
“Probably last week from one of the mullahs in the UK.”
“Yes, racist to the point of being Nazi-like. I would say, the Mufti of Jerusalem or some other Islamofascist, or maybe contemporary Wahhabi.”
“…it’s the usual (modern) boiler plate from the Middle East.”
 
Unfortunately, the quote represents much more history than the responders gave it credit for.
 
Mr. Bostom wrote an article for the American Thinker in May 2008 in which he explains:
 
The quote in fact derives from a remarkable essay by the polymath Arabic writer al-Jahiz (d. 869), illustrating the anti-Jewish attitudes prevalent within an important early Islamic society, and composed over a millennium earlier than suspected by these interlocutors. It is also worth noting that al-Jahiz (described as a “skeptic,” who harbored “indifferent views toward religion in general”) included sociological observations-the quote cited above-which reveal the interface between indigenous ethnic/racial discriminatory, and Islamic religious (i.e., the essay’s major emphasis, described below) attitudes towards Jews, expressed a thousand years before any secular Western European Antisemitic ideologies would be exported to the Muslim Near East
 
The bottom line in the information tonight was that Antisemitism among Muslims is not a new thing. It goes back to the roots of Islam and is taught to the children as part of the Koran. The only way to end Antisemitism in Islam is to stop teaching the Koran to Muslim children, and I don’t think that is likely to happen.
 
 
 
 
 

 

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Tonight In Stoughton, Massachusetts

AN EVENING WITH ANDREW BOSTOM

“Understanding the Islam in Muslim Jew Hatred”

 February 14th at

7:30 PM

 Ahavath Torah Congregation

1179 Central Street

Stoughton, MA 02072

 Suggested Donation: $5

 Dr. Bostom will demonstrate Anti-Semitism in the Muslim world—from the 7th century advent of Islam, through the contemporary era—is rooted in the foundational texts of Islam itself.

 Dr. Andrew G. Bostom is the author of the highly acclaimed books The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims, and The Legacy of Islamic Anti-Semitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History.

 Dr. Bostom has published numerous articles and commentaries on Islam in The New York Post, The Daily News, Washington Times, National Review Online, Pajamas Media, American Thinker, FrontPage Magazine.com, Big Peace, and other print and online publications.

 Dr. Bostom speaks on topics related to jihad, the threat of Shariah Law’s encroachment on Western societies, Islam’s treatment of non-Muslim minorities in general, and Islamic Jew-hatred in particular.

    For information email office@atorah.org

Co-sponsored by Christians and Jews United for Israel, ACT Boston, ACT Framingham, Rabbis and Ministers for Israel

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In Case You Missed The New Coming Events Link

AN EVENING WITH ANDREW BOSTOM

“Understanding the Islam in Muslim Jew Hatred”

 February 14th at

7:30 PM

 Ahavath Torah Congregation

1179 Central Street

Stoughton, MA 02072

 Suggested Donation: $5

 Dr. Bostom will demonstrate Anti-Semitism in the Muslim world—from the 7th century advent of Islam, through the contemporary era—is rooted in the foundational texts of Islam itself.

 Dr. Andrew G. Bostom is the author of the highly acclaimed books The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims, and The Legacy of Islamic Anti-Semitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History.

 Dr. Bostom has published numerous articles and commentaries on Islam in The New York Post, The Daily News, Washington Times, National Review Online, Pajamas Media, American Thinker, FrontPage Magazine.com, Big Peace, and other print and online publications.

 Dr. Bostom speaks on topics related to jihad, the threat of Shariah Law’s encroachment on Western societies, Islam’s treatment of non-Muslim minorities in general, and Islamic Jew-hatred in particular.

    For information email office@atorah.org

Co-sponsored by Christians and Jews United for Israel, ACT Boston, ACT Framingham, Rabbis and Ministers for Israel

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