What did we do to deserve this?

The 'Why do the Hate us?' club has a new member. Rabbi Menachem Froman, chief rabbi of Tekoa, explains that since Hamas is a religious movement, rabbis can use their status to negotiate with them. You heard correctly. The basis of this claim is that Hamas hates secular Israel but will respect fellow religious leaders of another Abrahamitic faith. This claim has been repeated many times before. Dinesh D'Souza, in his book 'The Enemy At Home', he argues that "the cultural left in this country is responsible for causing 9/11 … the cultural left and its allies in Congress, the media, Hollywood, the non-profit sector and the universities are the primary cause of the volcano of anger toward America that is erupting from the Islamic world." The Islamic world views the West as a land of debauchery, immorality and sin and for that reason they must impose Islam's purity.

This is ludicrous. Islam does not hate the West because of its abortion on demand, MTV or premarital sex. Islam wants to subjugate the West because of its Judeo-Christian foundation. The Qur'an mandates Muslims to conquer non-Muslims not because they are immoral but because they are non-Muslims. Jihadist ired is focused equally on G-dless Hollywood, church-going Poland, Bible-thumping Texas or morally relativist Sweden. Rabbi Froman's argument misses the point. Hamas is not committed to Israel's destruction because its Jews break shabbat or eat pork. Islamic fundamentalists cannot accept an independent Infidel, especially Jewish Infidel, state in the heart of the Arab world. The Hamas charter relates the words of Muhammad as recorded by the Sahi Bukhari: "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." Nowhere in this verse does it say that religious Jews will be spared this longed-for genocide. As evident by the targets of terrorist attacks, Hamas and other terrorist groups attack secular and religious Jews. Teenagers studying in a yeshiva and worshippers in a Meah Shearim synagogue have been attacked just as teenagers in a discotheque erev shabbat. Islam's anger will not abate as long as we insist on being proud and free and refuse to submit to dhimmitude.

It is frequently said that Islam is a fellow Abrahamitic religion with Judaism and Christianity. That is really a misnomer. According to Islam, it is the only Abrahamitic religion. Abraham was a Muslim, thereby making Judaism and Christianity illegitimate. "Ibrahim was not a Jew nor a Christian but he was (an) upright (man), a Muslim, and he was not one of the polytheists. Most surely the nearest of people to Ibrahim are those who followed him and this Prophet and those who believe and Allah is the guardian of the believers." (Qur'an 3:66-67) All of these calls for universal love and brotherhood are completely silly. Islam has no such pretensions. It believes itself to be the only religion of Abraham and that all others are deviant. It does not view itself as one of three brother religions which share beliefs and values but rather as a ruler and conqueror over these false faiths. We cannot expect Hamas or al-Qaeda to accord a rabbi any sort of respect since he is following a corruption of Allah's original message. Islam holds that the Torah originally contained references to Muhammad's coming but that the Jews conspired to "extinguish the lights of Allah".

Rabbi Froman's suggestion is not only idiotic but dangerous. Think about the horror that the Jewish world felt as it saw Neturai Karta members clad in chassidic garb shaking hands with Iran's president at his Holocaust-denial hate-fest. Neturai Karta is a fringe group with several hundred supporters. Imagine the incredible amount of legitimacy that would be bestowed upon Hamas if well-respected rabbis met and discussed with them. It would be tantamount to negotiating with murderers. This suggestion perpetuates the theme of Western or Israeli guilt in terrorist attacks. Islam is responsible for terrorism, not its victims. Even if Israel became the most observant and moral country (speedily in our days, amen!), Arab and Muslim hatred would not be reduced one iota. It is not our secularism or immorality that is to blame but the very text of the Qur'an. Once they tear out the offending passages, I'm sure my rabbi would happy to give their imams a call.

Cross-posted to Goat's Barnyard