Such was the case recently, as I read through some of the commentary of Amman (Jordan) based cleric Abdullah el-Alawneh. In short, he stated that all Jews are terrible, horrible animals that should die, but he went about it in a funny way.
For instance:
The jihad against the Jews is a mandatory jihad, incumbent upon any Muslim country and upon any Muslim who accepts Allah as the Lord and Islam as his religion, but it cannot be done through such an emotional thrust and with such excitement that only serves to harm us.As I read that, I was reminded of how often I have been told that Muslims are part of a peaceful religion, who seek only to better themselves and the world around them. Unless, of course, you happen to be in a part of the world that has Jews. Then you should murder all of them in the most horrific way possible. Also anyone who might tacitly or overtly support the Jewish state. Just to be safe, anyone who has ever talked to a Jewish person should probably be murdered, too. Also, innocents (non-Jews, non-Muslims, also known as "Infidels") sometimes need to be slaughtered, just because. Apparently it helps with the recruitment message. A religion of peace, though. That's the main point.
Then in response to the question "Sheikh, is it true that (the Jews) do not attack you if you do not attack them?":
I haven’t lived in Palestine but this is what the brothers tell me. Our brothers in Palestine tell us that the Jews do not attack anyone who does not attack them.So (as has been stated by most right-thinking persons, myself included), Israelis do not attack Palestinians, except as a matter of self-defense. It's odd to me that I never see this in the *mainstream* press. Always (or nearly always) they are portrayed as the aggressors, looking to wipe out the peace-loving, simple people that they allegedly *oppress*. Very peculiar indeed.
Abdullah el-Alawneh went further, stating:
Nobody should think that by saying this I am defending the accursed Jews. But this is the reality. If they killed any Muslim they saw, nobody would be left in Palestine. All the people would leave Palestine. They would flee to other countries. But all the people there stay put — in the 1967 territories, the 1948 territories, and Jerusalem. They remain there, with the Jews around them with their weapons. (emphasis added.)So el-Alawneh, while not attempting to defend Israelis, does exactly that. He admits that if the so chose, they could clear the area of all Palestinians, and likely do so with very little loss of life. Yet, the Palestinians remain where they were, through the graciousness of the Jewish people (It is so very important to point out that in the history of the world, there has never been a Palestinian state. Ever, at any point. People who self-identify as such most often were parts of other nations that declared {and lost} wars with Israel, e.g., Egypt, Jordan, Syria. It is also important to note that "Palestinians" were not part of the vernacular until 1964, when the Russians created the modern use of the term during the drafting of the PLO charter.)
el-Alawneh would continue:
You see (the Palestinians) killing (the Jews), who only kill (Palestinians) when attacked, but like I said before (the Jews) only do this out of wickedness and heresy. They have principles. They want to be able to say: ‘We are better than the Muslims, who kill us unprovoked. We don’t do that'."They have principles". Principles like respecting human life, defending their people, not attacking their enemies in an unprovoked manner. Such terrible manners, these Israelis have. It would apparently be much better if only they would engage in open, unprovoked hostilities. Then the Muslims would be able to take the moral high ground for the first time and 'defend' themselves. In defense of those that would seek to destroy Israel, it has been 15 whole days (as of this writing) since there has been a rocket attack against their State. Of course, that does not mean that terrorist attacks have not occurred, as they have, on a near-daily basis. Yet Israel continues to allow Palestinians to exist, and live within the Jewish state. Because they have *principles*.
If only the Palestinians could develop such *principles*, we may not have any problems to discuss. What a day that would be.
