"I'm Muslim and hate Jews"

Now why would a Muslim say such a thing? It's all about Israel, right? Wrong. Note, for example, this exposition of Qur'anic antisemitism from IslamOnline. In it, Sheikh 'Atiyyah Saqr, the former Head of the Fatwa Committee at Cairo's Al-Azhar (which the New York Times praised after 9/11 as a beacon of moderation), invokes Qur'an verses to claim that the Jews "used to fabricate things and falsely ascribe them to Allah" and "love to listen to lies." He accuses Jews of "disobeying Almighty Allah and never observing His commands (invoking Qur'an 5:13 to show that Allah has cursed them); "hiding the truth"; "giving preference to their own interests over the rulings of religion and the dictates of truth"; "wishing evil for people and trying to mislead them"; and more. He says that Jews "feel pain to see others in happiness and are gleeful when others are afflicted with a calamity," and that "their impoliteness and indecent way of speech is beyond description." He says that "it is easy for them to slay people and kill innocents. Nothing in the world is dear to their hearts than shedding blood and murdering human beings." For "they are merciless and heartless"; "they never keep their promises or fulfill their words"; "they rush hurriedly to sins and compete in transgression." And much more.

Note that he found all that in the Qur'an, not in some analysis of the contemporary political situation, or some later religious polemic. Click on the link above and you'll find Qur'anic texts supporting each of the above assertions. So is it any wonder that Mustafa Taj, or any Muslim, might hate Jews? Hatred of Jews is justified by numerous Qur'an verses, and we can see from this article also that at least some contemporary Muslims understand them as being valid for all time and applicable to the Jews of today.

What all this means, of course, is that while Mustafa Taj is indeed a Jew-hater, by his own words, convicting him of a hate crime will not end his Jew-hatred. (Hate crime laws are always wrongheaded, always ill-advised, even when the person accused of hate really is a hater and not a truth-teller who is telling truths that are inconvenient to those in power. But there will be more people like Mustafa Taj, and more incidents like this, unless and until the Canadian authorities, and Western authorities in general, begin to act: above all by ending Muslim immigration into their countries and by requiring Muslims who are already in their countries to institute transparent and inspectable programs teaching against Qur'anic antisemitism and antisemitism in general.

Each one of these incidents should not be seen as a separate, discrete, never-to-be-repeated crime, but as an indication of a pattern that we are going to see more and more in America and the West. Unless we recover the will to act.

"Muslim man jailed for hate crime," by Kevin Martin for the Calgary Sun, July 24 (thanks to Twostellas):

Attacking a Jewish girl and the friends who came to her rescue has landed a Muslim man a one-year jail sentence.

Mustafa Taj must also serve a year of probation following his release for what provincial court Judge Bill Cummings ruled was a racially motivated assault....

Taj, 21, was convicted in May of attacking four teenagers the night of Nov. 3, 2006, while they waited for a C-Train at the Sunnyside LRT station.

Taj approached the group around 10:45 p.m. and asked "who's Jewish." Nichola Cordato, then 16, stated "me" and Taj grabbed her and said, "I'm Muslim and hate Jews."

He then slapped her in the face and pulled her hair before her friends, Jessica Motta, Kayla Hungle and Daniel Ball attempted to intervene.

Hungle attempted to prevent Taj from further attacking Cordato and was punched in the face by him.

Motta then intervened and was punched in the face, pulled to the ground by her hair and kicked in the stomach and ribs.

When Ball tried to stop the assaults, he was thrown onto the C-Train tracks where he fell onto his back and was spat upon by Taj.

During the melee, Taj called Cordato a "Jewish piece of (crap)."...

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