Morocco: Muslim YouTuber quotes Qur’an to claim Allah transformed disobedient Jews into apes and pigs
MAY 16, 2020 5:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER
Anas Arex says: “This is why the Jews were said to be ‘the brothers of apes and pigs’ and not ‘the offspring of apes and pigs.’ This is because they are not their offspring, but only resemble them, and are their siblings in their conduct and traits.”
Others differ. When the British adventurer Sir Richard F. Burton posed as a Muslim and made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1852, in Arabia his group spotted some monkeys, which the Muslims immediately declared were Jews.
In any case, this idea comes from the Qur’an, which three times recounts that Allah transformed disobedient Jews into apes and pigs (2:62-65; 5:59-60; 7:166). “When in their insolence they transgressed (all) prohibitions, We said to them: ‘Be apes, despicable and rejected’” (7:166).
Did YouTube suspend Anas Arex’s account for this ugly display of antisemitism? Of course not. To have done so would have been “Islamophobic.”
“Moroccan YouTuber Anas Arex: The Jews Are the Brothers – Not the Offspring – of Apes and Pigs; Because They Resemble Them in “Conduct and Traits” but Do Not Actually Descend from Them,” MEMRI, April 28, 2020:
Moroccan YouTuber Anas Arex said in a video that he uploaded to his YouTube channel on April 28, 2020 that Allah once tested a certain tribe of Jews whose livelihood was fishing by causing the fish to come only on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. Arex said that the Jews schemed to fish indirectly on the Sabbath by digging trenches that would trap the fish so that they could be collected on Sunday, and he said that as punishment for their disobedience, Allah transformed these Jews into apes. Arex clarified that since these apes did not have any offspring, today’s Jews are the brothers of apes and pigs, because they resemble them in “conduct and traits”, rather than the descendants of apes and pigs, as Jews have been sometimes referred.
Anas Arex: “After [the Jews] were prohibited from working on the Sabbath, and since all they did was fish, Allah did as He usually does with His creations and decided to test them in order to examine their perseverance in the face of disaster. This test was meant to teach them to obey and to not be greedy. Allah made the fish – the Jews’ source of livelihood – come only on the Sabbath.
[…]
“As is the custom of the Jews, their resolve collapsed and they started to concoct schemes. They started fishing on the Sabbath, but in an indirect manner. They dug trenches so that when the fish came, they were trapped on the Sabbath, and [the Jews] would collect them on Sunday.
[…]
“Allah inflicted upon them a strange punishment. He transformed them from humans to animals. Allah says in the Quran:”
Quran reciter: “So when in their insolence they transgressed all prohibitions, We said to them ‘Be despised apes.'”
Anas Arex: “Allah transformed them into apes, but ones that do not breed. After a while, they died, and they didn’t leave any offspring. None of the apes we have today are offspring of those disobedient [Jews] whom Allah transformed into apes as punishment.
[…]
“This is why the Jews were said to be ‘the brothers of apes and pigs’ and not ‘the offspring of apes and pigs.’ This is because they are not their offspring, but only resemble them, and are their siblings in their conduct and traits.” |
