Special to WorldTribune.com
Muslims will never be able to deal with their internal problems until they can get over their “fixation on Jews,” a prominent German-Egyptian scholar said.
“The Jews have always been small in number, but they cause us some mental reaction and we cannot get them out of our mind,” Hamed Abdel-Samad said in a lecture posted on the web on March 21. “Today, we will talk about Islamic fascism and the Jews. We have had a fixation about the Jews since the inception of Islam, and this fixation refuses to come to an end.”
In the lecture, translated into English by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Abdel-Samad implored the Muslim community to choose humanity over hatred.
“I’m saying this because this hatred is poisoning us,” he said. “We have wasted vast efforts on this hatred. We have invested a lot in this hatred. This hatred prevents us from dealing with our problems in a serious way.
“You always need an enemy on which to pin all your catastrophes. Anything that happens to you is a conspiracy. Whenever something does not work your way, the Jews are the cause. It’s much easier this way.
“We should get rid of this hatred, not for the benefit of the Jews and Israelis, but for our own sake. Instead of poisoning one generation after another with this hatred, we should let them learn something from humanity. They should overcome the barrier of hatred and of fear of the other. We should view all human beings as human beings.”
Abdel-Samad noted that Muslim prayer includes curses against other religions – and that Muslims would storm international organizations and legislative bodies worldwide to condemn other religions in the event other religions cursed Islam.
“Ask all the interpreters, and they will tell you that “those who incur the wrath” are the Jews, and that “those who have gone astray” are the Christians,” he said.
“But, of course, ours is a religion of tolerance, and Islam accepts all the religions, right?
“This is hypocrisy.”
Abdel-Samad blasted the idea that the Middle East conflict is “Israeli-Palestinian” – not Arab-Jewish.
“The Prophet Muhammad vowed that Judgment Day would not come unless the Muslims fight the Jews,” he said. “Imagine that Israel came to you today and said: “Man, take Jerusalem. Take Haifa and Tel Aviv as well.’ Would that be the end of our enmity with them? In that case, we would miss out on Judgment Day.
“Our Lord linked Judgment Day with our conflict with the Jews. The story is not about land, occupation, and rights. The source of the crisis is that we do not view these people as humans.”
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