Arab Officials Lie to the Western Media about Islamic Traditions
"In the past, we used to mention the tradition attributed to the Prophet of Islam about the [final] battle between good and evil prior to Judgment Day. [According to this tradition,] the stone and the tree will talk in this battle, and call to the Muslim: 'O Muslim, a Jew is [hiding] behind me, come and kill him. Except for the gharqad tree, which is the tree of the Jews.
"This tradition is studied by the pupils of the great Arab state [Saudi Arabia] in the Al-Tawhid [school] curriculum, and the [curriculum] author adds, in his well-known wisdom, that today the Jews frequently plant their tree, the gharqad, in Israel, so that it will not give them away to the Muslims on the day of the great battle.
"Television broadcaster Barbara Walters raised this subject to the foreign minister of this great Arab country, and read him the text of the tradition. The minister's response was most surprising. First, he expressed great amazement, as if he were hearing about this tradition for the first time. Then, he vehemently denied that such a prophetic tradition existed, and stressed that the statements are incorrect from the point of view of Islam, and that there is some confusion in this matter – doubtless stemming from a mistake in the school textbooks…
"[With his response,] the minister denied a tradition that appears in virtually every book of reliable [Islamic] traditions. Thus, he denies something that is known with certainty in the religion … and there is a penalty for this set out in the Koran, and sanctions set out in the religious law – which the vile sheikhs, ministers, and rulers implement upon us whenever and wherever they please. [2]
"So we cannot accept the minister's amazement on this issue at face value… [The amazement he demonstrated] is a denying, affected amazement that rejects [the fact] that there is a tradition, in [precisely] these words and this content, about an ancient and historic hostility that must continue almost to Judgment Day…
"The honorable minister's [denial of this] indicates two things: First, a position of contempt for Islam because of this tradition – and this is an accusation for which we [the progressive Muslims] have been banned and put on trial for a long time … [and second,] embarrassment about the religion that he abandoned when he concealed himself in the garb of affected amazement.
"[The minister] presented himself to us as one who knows the proper religion, and [claimed] that this tradition does not belong to this proper Islam which he knows. In this matter, we have an ongoing problem without a solution, as everyone is talking about the proper Islam without us truly knowing what this proper Islam is, that is compatible with the characteristics of the era in which we live and its ways of thought…" |
