"Murdered, Because They Were Jews"--Yes, By Jihadis Inspired by the Ways and Words of Islam's Founder

While condemning the savages who shouted "Allahu Akbar" as they went about their butchery in a Jerusalem synagogue yesterday, Tarek Fatah is insistent that it is a mistake to link it to the actions of Islam's founder:

The biography of Prophet Muhammad, “the Sira” is considered the authentic story of his life and is part of the Islamic faith, together with the Qur’an and Hadith. 

According to the Sira, in the year 627CE, after a Jewish tribe surrendered to the Islamic army in the city of Medina, Prophet Muhammad personally beheaded 600 to 800 Jewish adult male prisoners of war, thus laying the template of dealing with Jews caught in battle for all times. 

In my book, The Jew is Not My Enemy my research suggests the story is a creation of later Muslim kings, 200 years after the incident. 

These were men who crafted a backdated precedent to justify their own murderous acts. 

But my view is almost universally rejected.

One appreciates Fatah's courage in condemning these two Palestinian jihadis. However, it would have been far more helpful if, instead of trying to sanitize ProMu's actions, Fatah were to say something along these lines: "You know, Islam's founder did a lot of things that were, shall we say, problematic, and that should definitely not be emulated." As a practicing Muslim, though, Fatah believes that Islam's founder is flawless and therefore unassailable. The same, alas, cannot be said of Fatah's "views," which are shot through with flaws, and which serve to whitewash some of the worst aspects of Islam.