The Loopiest Way Yet to "Build Bridges" With Muslims--By Reciting the Shahada

From a traditional Islamic perspective, the State of Israel is an impossibility that flies in the face of what Islam teaches about Jewry, i.e. that they are a lowly, duplicitous people who balked at Islam's founder when he presented them with "the truth"; edited out all references to Islam's founder in the Torah (!); and were on three occasions transformed by the prophet into apes and pigs.

Such a people could never under any circumstances be permitted to have sovereignty over Jerusalem (Islam's third holiest city, after Mecca and Medina) and over land claimed in perpetuity for Islam. And yet, Jews and even some Muslims persist in trying to "build bridges" via interfaith endeavors, ones whose conviviality is predicated on glossing over their divisions over Arab/Muslim rejectionism (which, for more than a few Muslims, has veered into eliminationism) of Israel.

Despite those hurdles, the desire to feel safe in the world continues to spur Jews and Muslims to want to sit down and "pass the tasty samosas." One of the Jews who remains adamant that such efforts should continue is Rabbi Donniel Hartman, of the Israel-based Shalom Hartman Institute. And Rabbi Donniel has come up with a unique approach to bridge building, one which more that a few of us are likely to see as being hugely problematic. Here's a description of how it all went down at an event last month (my bolds):

The central message of the evening went further, urging Jews and Muslims to accept not just each other’s culture or lifestyle, but the authenticity of the other’s faith. Christians and Jews have been doing this in America at least since Vatican II in the early ’60s, Hartman reminded us. It’s time, he said, to extend the same gut-level acceptance to Islam. 

What does that mean? For those present, it meant listening to Rabbi Hartman stand in front of us reciting the shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith. And he did it in Arabic: La ilaha illa-llah, muhammadur rasulu-llah (There is no God but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God). 

“We Jews have to learn not just to recite the shahada, but accept it, as Jews,” he told the suddenly very quiet audience. The part about one God is easy, he said. But accepting that Muhammad is a prophet of God, that’s the hard part, and that’s what he insisted is required. “While there is one God, that God does not have to love one people best,” he said. (Interesting that the Arabic calls Muhammad the messenger, not a messenger, a detail Hartman glossed over, but hey, let’s call it a translation problem.)

Hey, let's not. Let's call it part and parcel of the real problem, which is that Islam is a supremacist, supersessionist religion--always has been, and likely always will be. For Islam, Muhammad is the last prophet, the "seal" of the prophets, and, the only people who are doing religion correctly--religion as Allah demands it be done--are those who submit to Islam and venerate Muhammad, the be-all-and-end-all of all prophets.

There isn't any wiggle room here. And Rabbi Hartman's resorting to the indefinite article "a" instead of the definite article "the" not only doesn't solve the problem, it points to the unbridgeable chasm between Jews and Muslims when it comes to how they view Islam's founder. (I suppose, in such company, it would be inappropriate to mention how the Jewish sage Maimonides, the Rambam, referred to Muhammad--as "hameshuga," that madman.)

As for reciting the shahada, that's a terrible idea if you're Jewish, for what you're doing is mouthing the avowal of faith which, when spoken in the company of three Muslim witnesses, ipso fact makes you Muslim.

Can Rabbi Donniel Hartman, having recited the shahada in a way that makes it official in Islamic eyes but obviously having no plans to stop being Jewish, now be considered a Muslim "apostate," and therefore in line for the sharia-decreed punishment of death for this crime against Islam?

Perhaps that's something he should have considered before reciting the thing.

Hannukah Lights Shine Bright in Paris--For Now

The Time of Israel shows the Chief Rabbi of Paris lighting a giant menorah at the Eiffel Tower.

In keeping with the miracle of the Hanukkah story, the spin here is a positive one--the Festival of Lights gets a public nod in the City of Lights, site of much terrorist-spawned bloodshed this year.

Given the critical mass of Jew-despising Muslims who now live in France, however, who knows how many years of public menorah-lighting and--and Jews choosing to stay there--remain.

Update: "...with celebrity guest Arnold Schwarzenegger"?!?

Obama Finally Admits That the Fort Hood Shooting (Which Occured in '09) Was Terrorism

No one ever accused old Baghdad Barry of a rush to judgment re episodes of violent jihad.

With him it's typically more of an amble, stroll or crawl to judgment.

Happy Hanukkah, Y'All!

"She Was So Modern. I Do Not Know What Had Happened to Her..."

San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik's paternal aunt is having a hard time coming to terms with her late niece's sudden transformation.

"Baghdad Barry" to Address the Nation Today From the Oval Office

Thereby trying to impart solidity to his pure wind re "terrorism" and "keeping Americans safe."

Palestinian-Style Stabbing Attack Comes to Londonistan, Occasioning a Very Un-American-Style Reaction

Sooner or later, as it goes for Israel, so it goes for the rest of the West:

A pool of blood near the ticket barriers at the Leytonstone Underground station, about six miles (10 km) east of central London, could be seen in footage posted on Twitter that also showed the suspect confronting police officers on Saturday evening.

Police said initial reports indicated the man, believed to be aged 29, had also threatened other bystanders. One 56-year-old man suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries. Two other people had minor injuries, police said.  

"We are treating this as a terrorist incident," Richard Walton, who leads the Counter Terrorism Command at London's Metropolitan Police, said in a statement... 

Senior government minister Iain Duncan Smith said whatever the circumstances, Britons must not let the Leytonstone incident affect their behavior. 

"We cannot let these sort of people, terrorists et cetera, actually dominate our space," he told the BBC. "The way we defeat them at the end of the day is with our values, our freedom of expression, our freedom of belief ... our ability to take our children, our families out at Christmas. None of that must be curtailed."

Whoa. Talk about a "rush to judgment." Don't they want to dither and dally for a few days until they can demonstrate conclusively that the incident conforms in every way to the government's extremely stringent definition of "terrorism"? And doesn't the British equivalent of Attorney General Loretta Lynch want to assure British Muslims that the government's first priority is ensuring they will face no "backlash" ? And shouldn't the prime minister go on the telly to proclaim that the solution to it all is more, um, "knife control"?
 
Writing it down like that, the Obama M.O. sounds even more off-the-charts insane that ever.

Update: George Orwell could have been writing about Barack H. Obama and his minions (shout out in particular to the otiose and duplicitous John Kerry) when he observed:

Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

Or, to put "pure wind" in today's politically correct "climate change" terminology, it gives an appearance of solidity to carbon-laden hot air.

Word of the Day: Adamantine

I came across it here:

If you want to witness an adamantine mind at work, you could do a whole lot worse that observe the 44th president of the United States. Barack Obama is the most rigidly ideological president of my lifetime, a man who has a nearly blind adherent to a particular ideology (progressivism). It’s a disturbing, if at times a psychologically fascinating, thing to witness.

Never Mind the "Good Works." Just Renounce the Jihad, 'Kay?

Muslims should step up good works after mass shooting, leaders say in Friday prayers

Today's Dueling Limericks

This one is in the NatPo:

The CBC says it's not right
That the stories it posts to its site
On indigenous folk
Will routinely evoke
In reply rather bigoted spite.

This one's mine:

While no one thinks racism's right.
This is more than a matter of "spite."
The Ceeb's fixation
With the country's First Nations
Is smarmy, excessive and trite.

The Next Time Obama or the New York Times Blithers On About the Need For More Gun Control in the Wake of a Jihadi Attack, Remind Them of Two Words

"Kevin Vickers."

He was the Sergeant-At-Arms of Canada's House of Commons in Ottawa, a largely ceremonial position, when a jihadi burst into the building bearing plenty of weapons and ammo. But because Vickers happened to have a pistol in his desk drawer and the military training that meant he could use it effectively, he was able to pick off the gunman before he could do any damage. (Any damage inside the building, that is; the jihadi had already murdered the Canadian soldier standing on guard at the Canadian War Memorial.)

Canada has "gun control" up the wazoo. And a fat lot of good it would have done us that day if Vickers hadn't had his gun at hand and the wherewithal to use it. Because he had both, he was able to prevent a bloodbath whose casualties would have likely included many MPs, and perhaps even the prime minister himself.