Israel Matzav

Eid al-Adha: Yet another theft of someone else's narrative

Today's Boston Globe has an article on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha (the holiday of the sacrifice) which is today on the Muslim calendar. (Hat Tip: Memeorandum) The article makes some progress by admitting that there is a killing problem associating with the Muslim community. Unfortunately, the problem is attributed as "we" - not just Muslims - are responsible for terrorism. Read what he says closely:

This year-end killing spree - whose victims were nearly all Muslim - has again revealed a profound failure to stop violent extremism across the Muslim world. The international community, increasingly numb to a steady tide of slaughter in Muslim lands, has little to say. Muslim leaders offer a ritual disclaimer that the radicals don't represent Islam - a "religion of peace" - and then retreat into silence.

We have failed to offer a robust response to the brutal wave of human sacrifice. This failure has allowed extremists to garner headlines and define the agenda without meeting an equally passionate response from the moderate center. It is long past time to mount a vigorous campaign against the cult of death and reaffirm a culture of life.

An essential first step is admitting we have a problem. The terrible attacks of recent days occurred during the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam's most solemn act of atonement. The introspection and self-criticism of this sacred time offer an ideal moment to acknowledge the sacrilege of terrorism and the sin of being a passive bystander.

We must also avoid the temptation to rationalize murder. "The attack is wrong," goes a common refrain, "but we must understand the root causes." There can be no "buts" - no qualifications or justifications that indulge the political grievances and religious sanction claimed by extremists.

Please note that this is Nasser Weddady, the "civil rights outreach director" of the American Islamic Congress talking. That's a 'moderate' organization. And yet he states that the victims are all Muslims, but fails to mention that the terrorists are too, and blames the 'international community' for having 'little to say' when it's up to the Muslim community to speak out first against its own terrorists - something most Muslims won't do. He is right about the silence of Muslim leaders, but he is wrong that "we" have a problem as if "we" are to blame. "We" are not to blame. Islam is to blame because it teaches its adherents to react violently to non-Muslims, to treat them as dhimmis and to treat anyplace in which Muslims have ever lived as permanent Islamic territory.

Most importantly, Weddady is right that we cannot rationalize murder by saying we have to "understand the root causes." Let's start with not rationalizing murder in 'Palestine' by 'understanding its root causes.' Are there any Muslims courageous to say they won't rationalize murder in 'Palestine' by 'understanding its root causes'? I didn't think so.

But the biggest problem with Eid al-Adha is in fact the root cause for all Islamic violence: It steals someone else's narrative. The entire religion of Islam is based on taking other religions' symbols, rituals, narratives and property and turning them into Islam's. What is Eid al-Adha?

Eid Al-Adha - the "Festival of the Sacrifice" - ... commemorates Abraham's near-sacrifice of Ismael. In the Koran, it is Abraham's first-born son, not Isaac, whom God demands as a sacrifice. Bound to the altar, Ismael is spared at the last second, as Abraham's knife falls on a lamb instead.

That's funny. Judaism and Christianity - both of which existed hundreds of years before Islam - both have that as Abraham sacrificing Isaac. In other words, this entire 'holiday' is a fraud that was made up to expropriate another religion's narrative. This fraud and theft of another religion's sanctified objects is typical of Islam and is the root cause for much of its violent nature: See, for example, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Basilica in Nazareth and many other sites that are holy to Judaism and Christianity in Israel, to Hinduism in India and so on for which Islam commits acts of violence against Nazareth.

My feelings about Eid al-Adha are summed up well by Julia Gorin commenting on President Bush's Eid al-Adha greetings (Hat Tip: Storemanager):

When did the sacrifice of Isaac become the sacrifice of Ishmael? Notice that Bush refrains from naming which son it was; he simply uses the word “son”. Because apparently, Muslims decided it was Ishmael whom Abraham was told to sacrifice.

If only!

However, I’m inclined to agree that it was Ishmael whom God commanded Abraham to sacrifice, and the whole reason God stopped Abraham is that he brought the wrong son. To fix the mistake, the Muslims have been sacrificing their sons ever since.

Julia's version of the story has a grain of truth in the Medrash because we are told that Abraham told God he did not know which son God had in mind. It never went further than that in reality. But somehow, the Muslims never got that part.

Shabbat Shalom.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:45 PM