I attended the event with Rabbi Firestone yesterday at the JCC Columbus Ohio.This was sponsored by the reformed synagogues in Columbus and the Jewish federation. Reuven Firestone is Professor of medieval Judaism and Islam at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles and Senior Fellow of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California. He is author of Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam and is President Elect of the International Qur’anic Studies Association. Quick highlights. The Rabbi wrote a column for the Jewish Daily Forward criticizing Pamela Gellar by saying that “No there isnt anti-Antisemitism in the Quran. That says it all. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch: The Qur’an says that Allah transformed the disobedient Jews into apes and pigs (2:63-65; 5:59-60; 7:166) and that unbelievers are like animals (8:55) and the most vile of created beings (98:6). There are no comparable statements about the unbelievers being vile in Jewish or Christian scriptures. It is hard to read such passages and not think that they inculcate -Anti-Semitism, Jew-hatred and racism, and when we see Islamic spokesmen referring to Jews as “apes and pigs” or “sons of apes and pigs” (including Egypt’s former Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi), it is clear that all too many Muslims today read them that way as well. Firestones speech, question and answer session contained the typical comments by a moral relativist. Paraphrasing: We must understand Islam and that it is just a few people that believe in the medieval version of it: He made the case that Judaism is tribal and that both have legitimate claims to what is now Israel. He referred to Palestine several times which is interesting since THERE IS NO COUNTRY OF PALESTINE, AND PALESTINE PRE 1947 WAS THE WORD FOR JEWS IN ISRAEL. This was a name given to the area by the Romans to punish the Jews who revolted against them. When I asked him about dhimmitude he waved it and me off and moved on saying that he would discuss it later. He never did. Being a dhimmi is central to my point. Even if there was some sort of a compromise with people who cannot compromise religiously with you the best that Jews and Christians can get is to be a dhimmi or permanent second class citizen. Being a dhimmi means that you also have to pay a tax Jzya” to the Islamic rulers. The yellow Jewish star which was so often seen during the holocaust came DIRECTLY from Muslim countries who made their Jews wear it to identify them as different from the first class Islamic citizens. Jews were made to ride donkeys, wear different type of shoes on each foot. Christians were made to wear blue as well. Why is this important ? Take the religious component out of the Israel Arab war and what do you have ? It is Israels fault, it is the Jews fault for antisemitism today. It excuses the Palestinian/Arab abhorrent behavior and blames it all on us. This is the self hating, liberal guilt narrative. Further evidence of this was when an audience member brought up that Jews accepted the partition and Arabs didnt Firestones answer was ... lets just say very telling. Yes Jews accepted it but they accepted it grudgingly. Jews then broke the cease fire that was made so that is another reason why the Arabs dont trust them. Really ? DOES IT MATTER IF THEY ACCEPTED IT GRUDGINGLY ? What matters is that they accepted it and then just a few years after the holocaust were attacked by 6 Arab armies who if they were able would have committed genocide with the remaining Jews of then Palestine . So what if the nascent Israeli state took advantage of a cease fire to expand borders that they considered to be indefensible. What is dangerous about someone like Reuven is that they do not froth at the mouth , they disguise their obfuscations with flowery prose, linguistic slight of hand to fit their own world narrative. Yes one should never give up on obtaining peace with your enemy however as Woody Allen said . someday the lamb will lay by the lion.... but it wont get much sleep.” https://soundcloud/user297715832/1-19-15-audio-only
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 20:47:28 +0000
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