Saturday, March 22, 2008

Free speech-no such thing in Islam

Qaradawi: Wafa Sultan "had the audacity to publicly curse Allah, His Prophet, the Koran, the history of Islam, and the Islamic nation" Poor, fragile Qaradawi: "She said unbearable, ghastly things that made my hair stand on end." He is referring, of course, to Wafa Sultan's most recent appearance on Al-Jazeera, and he frames his frenzied denunciation here in terms that his jihadist minions will understand as meaning that she must be killed.

The American government should be rushing to protect her. Is that happening?

"Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi Accuses Arab-American Psychiatrist Wafa Sultan of 'Cursing Allah' on Al-Jazeera TV," from MEMRI (thanks to all who sent this in):

In a program on Al-Jazeera TV, Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi accused Arab-American psychiatrist Wafa Sultan of "publicly curs[ing] Allah, His Prophet, the Koran, the history of Islam, and the Islamic nation."

The following are excerpts from the program, which aired on March 16, 2008:

To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit: http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1718.htm .

To view the MEMRI TV page for Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, visit: http://www.memritv.org/subject/en/589.htm.

To view the MEMRI TV page for Wafa Sultan, visit: http://www.memritv.org/subject/en/371.htm .

"She Said Unbearable, Ghastly Things That Made My Hair Stand On End"

Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: "Many brothers here and abroad – more from abroad than from here – have called to ask me about the 'Opposite Direction' [show on Al-Jazeera TV], and that woman [Wafa Sultan], who leveled accusations against Islam and the Muslims, and cursed Allah, His Prophet, the Islamic nation, the shari'a, and the Islamic faith and culture. She did not omit anything. She was insolent and stopped at nothing.

"I know that our colleague Dr. Faysal Al-Qassem apologized on the following show. I did not watch the [original] show, but I was given a recording. She said unbearable, ghastly things that made my hair stand on end. She had the audacity to publicly curse Allah, His Prophet, the Koran, the history of Islam, and the Islamic nation. She did not spare anything.

"It was all based on ignorance. If only she had some knowledge... But she doesn't have any knowledge. She doesn't know the Koran or the Sunna. When she cited a hadith to back up her statements, she used a hadith that scholars consider unreliable."

Ain't it always the way? I'll let you in on a little secret: any and every critic of Islamic jihad and Islamic supremacism is "ignorant." Any Hadith that someone like Wafa Sultan (or someone like me) quotes is ipso facto unreliable, just as any Qur'an quotation she might adduce would be ripped out of context.

In reality, a brief scan through the portion of the transcript that Marisol posted here on March 7 shows that Wafa referred to Qur'an 9:111 (which guarantees Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah) and Qur'an 5:33 (which directs Muslims to cut off the hands and feet on opposite sides of those who are enemies of Allah and Muhammad). Qaradawi doesn't mention this probably because he cannot dispute what she said about those verses.

"If She Had Read The Koran, She Would Have Known That It Forbids Killing People... She Should Read The Torah And Tell Us What It Says"

"The Prophet said: 'Allah has given me sustenance under the shadow of my sword.' This hadith is unreliable. The Prophet did not get sustenance by the sword. If she had read the Koran, she would have known that it forbids killing people: 'Anyone who kills another person for any reason other than manslaughter or spreading corruption in the land – it is as if he has killed all of mankind.' [...]

"Other than manslaughter or spreading corruption in the land [fasaad]." That's a big exception right there, particularly given the Islamic understanding of what constitutes fasaad. Qaradawi is quoting Qur'an 5:32, which, incidentally, immediately precedes the verse about amputation that Wafa quoted, 5:33.

And as for the unreliability of the Hadith about the shadow of Muhammad's sword, Qaradawi doesn't bother to tell us that the hadith in which Muhammad says "Know that Paradise is under the shades of swords" appears in Bukhari, the hadith collection that Muslims consider most reliable, and in which only a very few ahadith are considered unreliable by any Islamic scholars. Not only does it appear, but it appears in three different places in Bukhari and in two places in Sahih Muslim, the hadith collection considered second most reliable. This repetition is further attestation of its authenticity from a Muslim standpoint, since the multiple renderings are considered to have come from different narrators, indicating that many people heard Muhammad say this.

"In all the raids conducted by the Prophet Muhammad, he was the one attacked. If she knew anything about the Koran and the Sunna...

Actually, no. In my book The Truth About Muhammad, I show how the earliest Islamic sources about Muhammad have him participating in numerous battles, and almost all of them are offensive. I challenge Qaradawi or anyone else to show that I have misused this material.

"She should read the Torah and tell us what it says. With regard to distant cities, the Torah says: 'Slay all their males by the sword.' It does not exclude elderly men or children. As for the nearby cities of Palestine, which they call the Promised Land, the Torah says: 'When you enter them, annihilate everyone, and do not leave a breathing soul.' The concept of annihilation originated in the Torah. What does that woman have to say about this? This is the Torah in which Bush and the Christian Right believe.

Question for Qaradawi: where are the Jewish or Christian exegetes who take this passage, or have ever taken this passage, as being a command that believers should obey in other times and places? Where are the Jewish or Christian groups committing violence and justifying it by reference to this passage?

"This Woman Had The Audacity To Affront All That Is Sacred"

"What does that woman have to say about this? She defends the West and sanctions the killing of Muslims in Gaza and elsewhere, claiming that they deserve to be killed.

Here, he is simply lying. She didn't say anything like that, of course, but Qaradawi knows what will happen if Muslims believe that she did.

"I do not want to discuss this at length, but in my view, this woman had the audacity to affront all that is sacred – the entire Islamic nation, its past, its present, and its future. She had the audacity to affront the Prophet, the Koran, and Allah. She even said that Allah prattles in the Koran. She did not omit anything sacred....

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