ix442@sdcc6.UUCP (Nidhal Guessoum) (01/30/86)
In this posting, I would like to correct a few mistakes made
by some of those who answered my previous article regarding Islamic
tolerance, and I also would like to produce some references I was
asked ( sometimes challenged ) to exhibit.
I know that some of you are tired of reading about "Islamic
tolerance," especially since it deviated to the subject of the
alledged sales of arms by Israel to Iran. But I think some of the
information I want to convey here is important, and I hope this
posting will not be too long. I will only answer the most important
comments and questions.
First of all, if there is persecution of Jews in Iran, it
cannot possibly be for such "crimes" as "receiving letters from
relatives in Israel ," or "importing honey from Israel." Persecution
due to " cooperation with Zionism and the state of Israel " could be
considered as `cooperation with the enemy' by the Iranians, and
would then take a political dimension rather than a religious one.
But there is a world between such an accusation and "receiving
letters from relatives in Israel;" and to lump the two under the
same category for the purpose of denigrating Islamic tolerance is an
insult to our intelligence.
Second, Sam Cramer challenged me to produce "evidence of
killing and torture by the Israeli police almost on an everyday
basis." I cannot produce "evidence," but I can quote people who
testified about it. Here are a few of them :
1) "With my own eyes I have seen marks of torture on the
faces and the bodies of suspects and accused persons. I say it
here and now, and challenge anyone to contradict it."
Felicia Langer ( Israeli Lawyer )
in a public address at the Conway Hall, London
May 15, 1974
2) "Torture of Arab prisoners is so widespread and
systematic that it cannot be dismissed as "rogue cops" exceeding
orders. It appears to be sanctioned as deliberate policy."
The Sunday Times- June 19, 1977
Don't call someone a liar before you make sure he is lying.
Third, Sam Cramer quoted this :
" A Jew will not be found alone with a Muslim without plotting to
kill him," and refered to it as an " Eighth Century Hadith."
Obviously, he doesn't know exactly what a Hadith is since a Hadith
is a saying of the Prophet Muhammad, and he died in 632 A.D. So
there can be no " eighth century Hadith." Since I have never heard
of such a hadith, I would like Mr. Cramer to cite the book and the
page in which he found it .
Regarding the verse Sam Cramer quotes from the Qur'an :
" Thou wilt surely find the strongest in enmity against those who
believe [ Muslims ] are the Jews and the idolators," I want to
remark first that, in the verse, the Muslims are not set to be the
enemies of the Jews, it is only prophecised that the Jews will set
themselves as the strongest enemies of Muslims.
Quite a significant difference.
Morover, the following quote by Ben Gurion entirely fulfills the
prophecy of the verse :
"The Achilles heel of the Arab coalition is Lebanon. MUSLIM
SUPREMACY IN THIS COUNTRY IS ARTIFICIAL AND CAN EASILY BE
OVERTHROWN. A Christian state ought to be set up there, with
its southern frontier on the river Litani. We would sign a
treaty of alliance with this state. Thus when have broken
the strength of the Arab Legion and bombed Amman, we could wipe
out Transjordan; after that Syria would fall. And if Egypt
still dared to make war on us, we would bomb Port Said,
Alexandria and Cairo. We should thus end the war and would have
but paid to Egypt, Assyria and Chaldea on behalf of our
ancestors ."
Ben Gurion's Diary, May 21, 1948
( quoted by Michael Bar Zohar in
The Armed Prophet )
Are you satisfied ?
Finally, I would like to applaud the intellectual approach
Martin Minow and Matt Rosenblatt took to subject. I did have a few
( minor ) points to comment on , regarding Matt's posting, but I
promised to keep this article short...
I should especially thank Don Steiny for a wonderful
article. I'd like to point out his the scientific reasoning, and his
open-mindedness with regard to other cultures, religions, and
civilizations.
Are you listening, out there ?...
If all our postings were of that nature, we would understand each
other much better.
And isn't it interesting that not one single person
responded to any of the three most interesting postings regarding
Islamic tolerance, especially to Don's.
Respectfully,
Nidhal Guessoum
cramer@sun.uucp (Sam Cramer) (02/03/86)
Nidhal continues to mislead us concerning the situation of Iranian Jews under the Khomeini regime. He assures us > First of all, if there is persecution of Jews in Iran, it > cannot possibly be for such "crimes" as "receiving letters from > relatives in Israel ," or "importing honey from Israel." Why can it not possibly be for such "crimes"? Many things take place to Khomeini's Iran that seem quite incredible in the West. Who would believe that the madman of Quom would have 14 year old martyrs marching through minefields to clear the way for aging Iranian tanks? Who would believe that an Iranian judge would start a fist fight in the World Court in the Hague? Given the state of affairs in Iran today, Nidhal's assertion that there is no persecution of Jews in Iran on spurious grounds is somewhat less than credible. Nidhal does state that > Persecution > due to " cooperation with Zionism and the state of Israel " could > be considered as `cooperation with the enemy' by the Iranians, > and would then take a political dimension rather than a religious > one. However, the Ayatollah himself states that the conflict between Islam and Israel is religious and not political in nature (this gibes with the oft-made statement that Islam is an all-embracing system which subsumes political and economic life). Khomeini stated in his book "Confronting Israel": "Oh brothers! Let us not regard this holy and sacrificial war as a war between Arabs and Israel. Let us regard it as a war of all Moslems together against Jews and their leaders." Nihdal's hollow and unsubstantiated statements aside, this is a war which Khomeini and his followers are prosecuting most viciously. Sam Cramer sun!cramer