Does the Qur’an Depict Jews as Monkeys and Pigs? (Judean Rose)

"Moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem." May 5, 2018

We’ve all heard or read about references in the Qur’an to Jews as monkeys and pigs and sometimes apes. Elder wrote only a few days ago about a Qur’anic verse comparing Jews to donkeys. The representation of Jews as animals is meant to dehumanize them, making it acceptable to treat them cruelly, and even kill them, without guilt or compunction. The Nazis did this, depicting the Jews as rats and vermin in their political cartoons and pamphlets.

Knowing that the Qur’an refers to Jews as monkeys, pigs, apes, and donkeys makes it difficult for most Jews to develop warm and fuzzy feelings about Islam. These verses sound like pure antisemitism—as pure a form of Jew-hatred as you will ever find. Add in Muslim terror and dang—it becomes real hard to like these people. They’ve killed too many of my friends and loved ones. They’ve sent my granddaughter running into the safe room to the tune of a siren, shaking and crying and frightened.

As a result, I won’t claim to have a lot of Muslim friends and particularly not Arab friends. But Robert Werdine was one such friend. He came out of nowhere, and stuck up for me at personal risk to himself, in a hostile virtual environment, the bloggers section of the Times of Israel. This was a place not friendly to someone like me on the Israeli right: someone who lived in Judea.

A Rhodes Scholar from Michigan City, Indiana, Robert was an historian but also a serious student of Islam who taught the young people in his mosque on a volunteer basis. He read my columns to those kids, giving them a different view of the Jewish people and of Israel.

Robert was unapologetically pro-Israel, and offended by the antisemitism and anti-Israelism so pervasive in the Muslim world. He believed, unlike the broader Muslim world, that Jews are indigenous to Israel, and had a right to self-determination in their own land. His Zionist beliefs were, according to him, informed by his understanding of the Qur’an.

There was a dichotomy here that anyone could see. You have what seems like the entire Muslim world hating on Israel, but here’s this one guy who is telling me it’s a distortion. Was it Taqiya*? A way to blindside me? I was never going to trust Robert completely, but I was definitely interested in hearing what he had to say.

So one day I asked him about those offensive references to Jews as monkeys and pigs—references that get tossed around fairly often by Muslim clerics in the mosques. Are these clerics misinterpreting the meaning of these verses?

Robert died some years ago due to complications from diabetes. But I remembered our correspondence on this subject after being accused, earlier today, of being a Muslim apologist. I dug up this note from June 12, 2015 and thought to share it here:

[Regarding] your question about clerics misinterpreting the Qur’an, he would be a strange cleric who did this, as true clerics are supposed to be read in the science of tafsir (exegesis of the Qur'an) and Hadith. The question is not so much as to misinterpretation by clerics, but that of distortion, manipulation, and misrepresentation by many of the more unscrupulous or bigoted among them. Radical Islamists and Muslim Anti-Semites frequently emphasize scripture that serves their purposes, and ignore what doesn’t. Thus, last October, when the lovely Imam Mohammed al-Khaled Samha of Denmark said that the Qur’an curses all Jews as monkeys and pigs he, like every other bigoted cleric who has repeated this canard, was deliberately misstating what the Qur’an says. There are three such direct references, in verses 2:65, 5:60, and 7:166. Verses 2:63-66 are criticism of the Bani Israil of Moses’ time, specifically those who sinned, broke the commandments, and violated the Sabbath, as an example for the Muslims to observe and learn from (my emphasis added):

“[2:63] We made a covenant with you, as we raised Mount Sinai above you: "You shall uphold what we have given you strongly, and remember its contents, that you may be saved." [2:64] But you turned away thereafter, and if it were not for GOD's grace towards you and His mercy, you would have been doomed. [2:65] You have known about those among you who desecrated the Sabbath. We said to them, "Be you as despicable as apes." [2:66] We set them up as an example for their generation, as well as subsequent generations, and an enlightenment for the righteous.”

Same is true of the other two “apes (and pig)” references in 7:166 and 5:60. The “monkeys and pigs” in verse 5:60 refers only to those Christians/Jews of Muhammad's time who mock and ridicule the Muslims' religion:

[5:57-60] [5:57] O you who believe, do not befriend those among the recipients of previous scripture who mock and ridicule your religion, nor shall you befriend the disbelievers. You shall reverence GOD, if you are really believers. [5:58] When you call to the Contact Prayers (Salat), they mock and ridicule it. This is because they are people who do not understand. [5:59] Say, "O people of the scripture, do you not hate us because we believe in GOD, and in what was revealed to us, and in what was revealed before us, and because most of you are not righteous?" [5:60] Say, "Let me tell you who are worse in the sight of GOD: those who are condemned by GOD after incurring His wrath until He made them (as despicable as) monkeys and pigs, and the idol worshipers. These are far worse, and farther from the right path."

Muhammad Asad, probably one of the foremost Islamic scholars of the 20th century, has written of Verse 5:60:

“As is evident from the following verses, the sinners who are even worse than the mockers are the hypocrites, and particularly those among them who claim to be followers of the Bible: for the obvious reason that, having been enlightened through revelation, they have no excuse for their behavior. Although in verse 64 the Jews are specifically mentioned, the reference to the Gospel in verse 66 makes it clear that the Christians, too, cannot be exempted from this blame.”

As can be seen, the reference in verse 2:65 is content specific only TO SOME of the Jews of Moses’ time, “those among you who desecrated the Sabbath,” and, in verse 5:60 "those among" the Christians and Jews of the Prophets' time who "mock and ridicule" the Muslims' religion. Same is true of 7:166 when viewed in context:

“[7:164] Recall that a group of them said, "Why should you preach to people whom GOD will surely annihilate or punish severely?" They answered, "Apologize to your Lord," that they might be saved. [7:165] When they disregarded what they were reminded of, we saved those who prohibited evil, and afflicted the wrongdoers with a terrible retribution for their wickedness. [7:166] When they continued to defy the commandments, we said to them, "Be you despicable apes."

Thus, as can be seen, the “apes” reference in 7:166, is, like verse 2:65, only in reference to those Jews of Moses' time who “continued to defy the commandments,” i.e. the “group of them” referenced in 7:164. Thus, the Qur’an, whatever its polemics or censures against Jews, whether it be of the Bani Israil of Moses’ time or the Jews of Medina in the Prophet’s time, does NOT curse all Jews for all time, as many have claimed. It only criticizes certain groups of them, usually by means of an implied partitive, i.e., “among them,” “those who,” etc. This is, in fact, a fundamental tenet of the Qur’an: that no person shall bear the curse or burden of another, and God never curses or punishes people for the sins of others as expounded in verses 2:286, 6:164, 17:15, 35:18, 39:7, and 53:38-42.

The good Imam Samha, however, does teach us an important lesson: how polemics in the Qur’an excoriating Jews and other groups have been, are, and can be manipulated in the service of Anti-Semitism, and how any scripture will always speak through the heart and mind of the person reading it. Of course, Muslim Jew-haters have been doing this for centuries. But they lie; the text does not. To acknowledge the very real phenomenon of Anti-Semitism among Muslims today, and especially throughout the Muslim world where it is an epidemic, is not the same as saying the Muslim Holy Book justifies this hate. It does not.

*I asked Robert about Taqiya. He explained it as a Shiite concept. Robert was Sunni.

 

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My Friend Robert and Islamic Reform (Judean Rose)

Islamic reform. Is it possible? Can Islam be the “religion of peace” some tell us it is, or is meant to be?

This idea is repugnant to many on the right. Small wonder what with radical Islam’s hold on the world, the rampant terror, terror that is too ugly to read, speak, or even think about much of the time.

Not to mention, terror, when it occurs, is almost invariably committed by Muslims.

None of this, however, precludes the possibility that a different Islam exists and can take hold, as long as we don’t squelch it with preconceived notions.

I had a dear friend, Robert Werdine, who was a devout Muslim, who saw me as the big sister he always wanted. He believed in Islamic reform. He was a brilliant scholar of history and of Islam and could have done great things with his life. Alas, he was not blessed with good health and died much too young of complications due to diabetes.

Whenever he landed in the hospital, and this was often, he’d insist his mother let me know he was okay, so I wouldn't worry. I was not surprised when his nephew, someone I’d never met, took the trouble to inform me, by private message, that Robert had died. He was thoughtful that way, always taking time to wish his Jewish friends a happy holiday before each and every Jewish festival.

I thank God/Allah for having met Robert, who defended me against the worst haters, who explained the other Islam to me—the one no one believes can exist—and who believed in Muslim coexistence with the Jews.

Robert not only believed this, but actively worked to spread these views, giving lessons to children in his local mosque, helping them to use their critical thinking skills and apply them toward the question of how Islam sees the Jews.

Robert told me that his great grandfather had been a sheikh in Lebanon who worked for coexistence with the local Jewish community. He also explained to me that Arabs were late to become literate, and that when they could finally read, the only religious tracts available for purchase were those commentaries written by awful, violent clerics. That is how this awful, violent form of Islam took hold.

Robert explained to me that where Islam speaks of Jews as “pigs and monkeys,” it is speaking only of those Jews who scorn their own religious tenets. Jews who turn away from the Torah.

The Jews are the People of the Book, and the Bani Isra’il, the Children of Israel. They have a right to their land. This is enshrined in Islamic religious texts, in the Quran. Islam, in this light, is pro-Israel. 

As was Robert. To the bone.

Robert was well aware of the scam of the Arab “refugees” accusing Israel of occupation. He saw straight through Linda Sarsour and termed her “dreadful.” He hated the New York Times piece, Linda Sarsour Is a Brooklyn Homegirl in a Hijab, and called it “a fluff piece masquerading as an in depth profile.”

When Robert felt well, he’d send me brilliant pieces he’d written (apparently just for me), all footnoted and sourced, explaining Islam from its kinder, more peaceful perspective.

Here is what I learned: just as Judaism has different arbiters of the law, so does Islam (l'havdil).

And people can choose to follow a harsh taskmaster or a kind and merciful one.

There is no contradiction here.

The long pieces Robert wrote for my benefit were the reason we took our correspondence from Facebook private messaging to email correspondence. And that's when our friendship really bloomed and my understanding of Islam grew.

Yes. I have read the history books by Bat Ye’or. I am not ignorant of how Muslims treated the Jews in the past—making them wear bells, walk in the gutter, and wear two different shoes; making them pay tribute; raping them; kidnapping them; and stealing their homes, their land.

Yes. I know that Haj Amin El Husseini was in cahoots with Hitler. I know of the slaughter, prejudice, and maltreatment. Do you think that I and my family have been immune from first hand knowledge of such things?

But I also know that it doesn’t have to be this way. That Islam can coexist with Judaism. I know that because of Robert. I know that because of my work with Rabbi Avi Feld. I know it because of other friendships I have had with Muslims.

I know it because of clips like this that come out once in a blue moon.

I don’t care how many people tell me there is only this one, horrid Islam. I know otherwise. Because of my friend Robert.

And I don’t know why God didn’t bless him with good health, so that he might have amplified his views and his work. I don't know why he suffered so much, though he was such a thoroughly good person. 

But I do know there is a bigger picture.

Perhaps the world wasn’t ready to believe what I believe: that there can be a different, kinder Islam. And so Robert died, his work unfinished, undone.

But whenever I despair, I think of Robert Werdine, of blessed memory, whose Arabic name was Sharif, and I believe, no I know, that things can and will be better.

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Marc Shneier's blind spot on Muslim condemnations of terror (update)

Writing in The Washington Post, Rabbi Marc Schneier says:

Why don’t Muslim leaders speak out?

That question comes up every time terrorists purporting to be deeply religious Muslims carry out armed attacks that kill innocent people. Where, commentators ask, are the moderate Muslim leaders and why aren’t they decrying the horrors perpetuated by fellow Muslims?

In fact, mainstream Muslims are speaking out, clearly and consistently. Leaders around the world, many of whom I know personally through my work at the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, have issued strong and unambiguous statements virtually every time a violent attack has occurred, condemning such acts as immoral and counter to the fundamental precepts of Islam.

Yet somehow their responses are not being heard, barely registering in the public consciousness.

He gives examples of widespread condemnations by Muslim leaders, for example of the hostage taking in Australia and the massacre in Peshawar.

Schneier even says that Muslim leaders are condemning European antisemitism:

For example, after riots by a predominantly Muslim crowd in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles attacked a synagogue and Jewish businesses, the local Muslim Association sent a letter of solidarity and support to the vice president of the synagogue. National Muslim leaders took part in an interfaith ceremony that denounced the violence and called for reconciliation. French Council of the Muslim Faith head Dalil Boubakeur, who attended the ceremony, affirmed that the vast majority of French Muslims are not anti-Semitic. How could they be, he asked, when they themselves are battling racism?

To praise Muslim leaders for condemning a massacre of 130 children is faint praise indeed.

There is no political cost for a Muslim to denounce a massacre of children. There is no political cost for a Muslim leader outside ISIS-controlled areas to denounce ISIS. There is little downside for Western Muslim leaders to send letters of solidarity to Jewish victims of terror.

The question is how many Muslim leaders are willing to denounce Islamic-inspired terror, publicly and to their own confregations, when there is a political cost.

Some do. A wonderful example is Sheikh Samir Aasi, Imam of the main mosque in Akko (Acre), whose condemnation of the Har Nof synagogue attack resulted in one of his flock attacking his car with acid.

However, the emphasis on condemnations misses the point.

The fact is that the percentage of Muslims who support terror is not tiny. A significant number of Muslims in Muslim-majority countries think that suicide terrorism is sometimes or often justified.

This adds up to hundreds of millions of Muslims who justify terrorism.

When Westerners want to see Muslims condemn terror, it isn't "Islamophobic" as Max Fisher claims. They aren't demanding a mea culpa to Western audiences to demean Muslims. The desire to see Muslim leaders condemning terror is a response to the disconnect between how Muslims portray themselves to the West as being against extremism and the fact that hundreds of millions of Muslims don't have a big problem with terrorism.

The point isn't soliciting condemnations. The point is the solve the problem of Islamic terror. 

The question that needs answering is how can so many Muslims openly admit extreme positions worldwide without fear of being shamed by their own Muslim leadership.

If terrorism was as widely and thoroughly condemned in Islam as Rabbi Schneieir claims, then the Pew poll would show low single-digit numbers for each country's citizens supporting terror. The relatively high numbers indicate that there is a serious disconnect between what we are being told and the reality. Schneier is adding to that disconnect.

No one cares about the condemnations per se; what the world cares about is that the terror stops. Since the vast majority of terror attacks (and, now, antisemitism) are done in the name of Islam, it is reasonable to expect Muslim leaders to be in the forefront of fighting terrorism - not just condemning it but addressing it within their own communities and mosques, finding our root causes of how extremism makes it into their own communities and coming up with Islamic-centered solutions that can both convince the youth that terror is not acceptable and that can effectively defeat the ideological roots of Islamic terror.

If moderate Islam is the choice of the vast majority of Muslims, then that majority does have the responsibility to fix the problem with their extremist Muslim brothers. Condemnations are only a small, visible component of what needs to be a major, soul-searching effort. 

That is what the world is not seeing. 

I don't doubt that most Muslim leaders detest ISIS. But the fact is that ISIS emerged from their own belief system. And extremist ideologies like that of ISIS is offering something compelling for young people to want to join it. Perhaps it is the perception that extremism is aligned with piety, perhaps it is from years of being indoctrinated with the idea that Muslims are under attack and it is time for them to take revenge, perhaps something else. But this is not a problem that can be solved by non-Muslims. The responsibility lies with Muslim leaders, both in the first and third worlds. and like it or not, the rest of the world is not seeing the excruciating soul-searching and strategy that is a necessary component of solving this problem that is clearly in the heart of the Islamic world today, not peripheral to it. 

(h/t EBoZ)

UPDATE: After I wrote this, I saw his article showing that Egypt's president gets it:

In a speech on New Year’s day, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called for a “religious revolution” in Islam that would displace violent jihad from the center of Muslim discourse.

“Is it possible that 1.6 billion people (Muslims worldwide) should want to kill the rest of the world’s population—that is, 7 billion people—so that they themselves may live?” he asked. “Impossible.”

Speaking to an audience of religious scholars celebrating the birth of Islam’s prophet, Mohammed, he called on the religious establishment to lead the fight for moderation in the Muslim world. “You imams (prayer leaders) are responsible before Allah. The entire world—I say it again, the entire world—is waiting for your next move because this umma (a word that can refer either to the Egyptian nation or the entire Muslim world) is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost—and it is being lost by our own hands.”

He was speaking in Al-Azhar University in Cairo, widely regarded as the leading world center for Islamic learning.

“The corpus of texts and ideas that we have made sacred over the years, to the point that departing from them has become almost impossible, is antagonizing the entire world. You cannot feel it if you remain trapped within this mindset. You must step outside yourselves and reflect on it from a more enlightened perspective.”

Here's part of the speech. (h/t Effect)

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