Jackie Mason Turns Serious (Don Feder On The Comedian's Expose Of The Religion Of Peace Alert)

I thought of comedian Jackie Mason last week, when two leaders of an Albany, New York, mosque were arrested and charged with trying to buy a shoulder-launched missile to assassinate Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S.

What better way for disciples of a Religion of Peace to celebrate harmony and coexistence than with a Stinger missile?

Two weeks ago, Mason got in hot water (a place where he seems quite comfortable) by telling a radio audience that "the whole Muslim religion" is a "murderous organization" that instructs its followers in "hate, terrorism and murder."

Filling in for syndicated talk show host Jim Bohannon, Mason said terrorists are "following the orders of the religion directly from the Koran." Also: "The Koran…is 50 versions of hate, venom, hostility and murder…dedicated to terrorism. I don’t know how we can call it a religion in the traditional sense. It should be called a murderous organization that’s out to kill people."

This provoked the predictable self-righteous demands for an apology (and, possibly, castration?) by the Council on American- Islamic Relations (CAIR), which fancies itself a Muslim Anti-Defamation League.

In a letter to Westwood One, which syndicates Bohannon’s show, CAIR decried Mason’s "Islamophobic smears." (Jackie has an unreasonable fear of shoulder-launched missiles?) "It is this type of hate-filled propaganda that was used by the Nazis as justification for their persecution of the Jewish community in Germany," CAIR claimed.

Say something critical of Islam, and in CAIR’s eyes you’re a Nazi preparing to push innocents into gas chambers – just like the Kosovar Muslims recruited by the S.S. to help carry out the Holocaust.

A 20th century politician made comments far more damning of Islam than Jackie Mason. This world leader said Islam "above all others was founded and propagated on the sword." Moreover, it provided "incentives to slaughter, and in three continents has produced fighting breeds of men – filled with a wild and merciless fanaticism." By CAIR's logic, that makes Winston Churchill a "Nazi." Winnie and Jackie Mason: odd Nazis, indeed.

But seriously, folks – as standup comics like Mason say – I don’t know of anyone, including Islam’s most trenchant critics, who’s advocating the mass murder of Muslims. Most of us would be content if zealous Muslims would stop killing – or trying to kill – us.

The accused are two immigrants from Jihadistan – Yassin Aref, imam of Albany’s Masjid As-Salam Mosque (ironically, it means, "House of Peace" mosque) and Mohammed Hossain, owner of a pizzeria.

Fresh from confronting the malicious Mason, CAIR expressed concern that the accused are victims of racial profiling and entrapment.

"There’s always a concern that people may be targeted for a sting operation like this solely because they are Moslems," declared Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s indefatigable spokesman. "It’s a perplexing case, and the question we have is whether the government got these men to do something they otherwise wouldn’t have done."

Just picture it: The innocent imam and pure pizza man are walking down a street in Albany one day, when suddenly a sly undercover agent approaches the pair and entices them into buying a shoulder-launched missile.

Agent: "Like to buy a Stinger? Great for taking out Pakistani ambassadors or killing infidels."

Mohammed and Yassin: "Gosh, we’d never thought of that! Hmmm, that might not be a bad idea. Say, it could come in handy, if the Zionist entity ever invades America."

That CAIR should be skeptical of allegations of terrorist activities is understandable. The organization is an offshoot of the Islamic Association for Palestine – identified as a Hamas front by two former heads of the FBI’s counter-terrorism section.

In April, Randall Todd (Ismail) Royer, a staffer in CAIR’s national headquarters, pleaded guilty to conspiring to train Americans for jihad. Yep, just think of CAIR as part ADL – and part Stern Gang.

Jackie Mason seems only to be observing the evidence all around him. Curiously, two men are arrested in a sting operation trying to buy the type of weapon used to take down airplanes, and – Guess what? They’re not Baptists! Gunmen burst into a church in Pakistan and fire round after round into the prostrate bodies of women and children. The perps aren’t Scientologists or Latter-Day Saints. A Jewish kid is stabbed outside a yeshiva in Brussels, and the gang of youths believed responsible don’t belong to the local Buddhist temple. Churches and monasteries are torched in Kosovo; not the work of Hindus.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam – all have had a profound impact on Western civilization. One faith was founded by a lawgiver who led his people out of tyranny. One religion was established by a man of peace, who wouldn’t even resist his own execution and asked God to forgive his executioners. The last was started by a man who personally led his adherents into battle. The faith did not spread from the Pyrenees to the Philippines within 100 years of Mohammed’s death, by peaceful proselytizing. There are over 120 chapters (suras) in the Koran calling on believers to fight Jews and Christians, subjugate them, murder them, break treaties that are made with them, cut off their heads, lips and the tips of fingers, crucify them – and other acts of conciliation. A review of the actual history of Islam for past 1,400 years shows the religion has interpreted these texts just as today's "radicals" do.

In his opus, The Clash of Civilizations And Remaking of World Order (1996) Samuel Huntington spoke of Islam’s "bloody borders" – meaning that wherever a significant Muslim population comes into contact with others, violence ensues. Wherever Muslims are living in proximity with Christians, Jews or Hindus – someone is getting shot, bombed, burned alive, stoned to death, forcibly converted, ethnically cleansed, uprooted, jailed or otherwise persecuted. Where Muslims are in the majority, other faiths are proscribed (Saudi Arabia), severely circumscribed (Egypt) or subjected to relentless persecution (Pakistan, Indonesia, the Sudan and Northern Nigeria). Where Moslems are a substantial minority (Serbia, Macedonia, The Kashmir, Israel, Chechnya) there’s intifada – terrorism in pursuit of succession.

The rationalization usually offered for the above is that a small but energetic group of fanatics have grossly distorted the tenets of their benign religion to wreck bloody mayhem.

But many of the most renowned Muslim religious authorities enthusiastically endorse holy war (jihad) and terrorism – including Grand Mufti (supreme religious authority) of Egypt Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayyeb, the imam of Mecca’s main mosque and the scholars of Al-Azhar University. These are hardly fringe figures in Islam. If their views are a corruption, there is indeed corruption in high places.

If these views are so atypical, why do some American converts to Islam try to destroy the society that nurtured them? One thinks of the Beltway sniper, John Allen Muhammed, who killed 10 people at random in 2002, or American Taliban John Walker Lindh. Why on September 11, 2001, did Moslems from Brooklyn to Ramallah, and Dar es Salaam to Jakarta, take to the streets to celebrate the deaths of 3,000 Americans and extol Osama bin Laden's death squads?

In her book The Rage And The Pride, Oriana Fallaci mentions seeing a member of one of these mobs interviewed by a reporter who asks him "Who is, for you, Osama bin Laden?" The old man replies "A hero, our hero!" Why not, he overcame 3,000 infidels in the course of a holy war.

Someone should tell CAIR if they sue for libel, Mason may have more than enough evidence to persuade a jury of his opinion by a preponderance of evidence.

I have no inherent animus against Islam. All other things being equal, it makes no difference to me that close to one billion inhabitants of planet Earth Mohammed was the "seal of the prophets." But it does concern me when the bulk of them are taught that 72 olive-eyed virgins await them in Paradise if they kill me. (What do Muslim women get – 72 sexually inexperienced men?)

I don’t agree with the central tenet of Christianity. Nevertheless, if I mention that to a Christian, he’ll tell me Jesus still loves me and that Christian will say a prayer for me. There is no equivalent imperative to bloodshed in Christianity.

Hinduism, Buddhism and The Book of Mormon are all alien to my faith tradition. But did you ever hear of a Hindu hijacker, a Buddhist suicide bomber, or a Mormon elder issuing a fatwah (putting out a hit on someone for insulting Joseph Smith)?

Try as we might, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to deny that this extreme view of Islam represents a major portion – or perhaps even most? – of the world's Muslims.

An August 8th New York Times story on fighting in Najaf, Iraq (where more than 300 have died) is headlined – "Marines Pushing Deeper Into City Held by Shiites." Strange that all of those currently killing Americans (including hostages Nick Berg and Paul Johnson) in Iraq and Afghanistan seem not to be Rotarians, 33rd degree Masons or members of a Salvation Army, but Muslims. It hardly seems coincidental that this is the case.

It’s takes a strenuous act of will to suppress an awareness of the religious dimension of terrorism’s war on the West.

just like the Kosovar Muslims recruited by the S.S. to help carry out the Holocaust.

Some more info on Muslims in the Waffen SS:

Background:

When the Independent State of Croatia proclaimed its independence on April 10th 1941, during the German invasion of Yugoslavia, part of the land it claimed was the former Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The province was an ethnic and religious mix, with a portion of the population being Catholic Croatian, a portion being Orthodox Serbian, and a portion being Croatians of the Muslim faith. It was these Muslim inhabitants of Bosnia that Himmler and the SS would target in their recruitment of a Croatian SS Division.

The reasons for the recruitment in particular of Croatian Muslims by the SS were many-fold. For one, Himmler was fascinated by the Islamic faith, and thought Muslims to be fearless soldiers willing to kill for their religion. Himmler also subscribed to the propaganda theory that Croatians (and therefore the Croatian Muslims) were not, in fact, Slavic people, but actually of Aryan (Gothic) descent, and thereby acceptable to the racially "pure" SS. The fact that this ludicrous theory would not hold up to any kind of serious scrutiny was conveniently ignored. Finally, the Germans were hoping to rally the World's 350 million Muslims to their side, in a struggle against the British Empire. The creation of a Muslim, albeit European Muslim Division, was considered a stepping stone to this greater end.

Adolf Hitler approved of Himmler's idea on February 13th 1943. Prior to the formation of the division, however, approval also had to be granted by the Croatian government, as their citizens were to be recruited, and on Croatian territory. The Croatian Poglavnik, Ante Pavelic, and his ministers had many problems with the idea, but eventually agreed to the division's creation on March 5th 1943. The divisional strength reached the required 26,000 men by mid 1943.

The new division was assigned the number "13", and originally named the "13 SS Frei.Gebirgs Division (kroatien). The full name "13 Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS 'Handschar' (kroatische Nr. 1)" was not given until May, 1944. A "Handschar" (or Handzar in Croatian) is curved Turkish sword - the Scimitar. This sword has historically been the symbol of Bosnia. The Division was to have 2 Infantry Regiments (Waffen-Gebirgs-Jager Regiments der SS 27 & 28 - kroatisches Nrs. 1 & 2), an Artillery Regiment (SS-Gebirgs-Artillerie Regiment 13), a Reconnaissance Company, a Panzerjager Company, a Flak Company, a Pioneer Battalion, and other support units; and was designated an SS "mountain" division. The first commander (from March 9, 1943 till August 1, 1943) was SS Standartenfuhrer Herbert von Obwurzer. Oberfuhrer (later Brigadefuhrer) Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig took over till June 1st 1944, when Desiderius Hampel (Oberfuhrer, later Brigadefuhrer) replaced him. Hampel commanded the remnants of the division until its surrender on May 8th 1945.

The uniform worn by the division was regular SS issue, with a divisional collar patch showing an arm, holding a Scimitar, over a Swastika. On the left arm was a Croatian armshield (red-white chessboard). Headgear was the Muslim Fez, in field grey (normal service) or red ("walking out"), with the SS eagle and death's head emblazoned. Non-Muslim members could opt to wear the normal SS mountain cap. The oval mountain troop Edelweiss patch was worn on the right arm.

Muslim Clerics and the Nazis:

During the Second World War in Yugoslavia many Muslim clerics in Bosnia and Kosovo were willing accomplices in the genocide of the nations Serbian, Jewish and Roma population. From 1941 until 1945, the Nazi-installed regime of Ante Pavelic in Croatia carried out some of the most horrific crimes of the Holocaust (known as the Porajmos by the Roma), killing over 800,000 Yugoslav citizens - 750,000 Serbs, 60,000 Jews and 26,000 Roma. In these crimes, they were helped by Muslim fundamentalists in Bosnia and Kosovo who were openly supported by the Palestinian Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. A notorious anti-Semite, he openly encouraged Muslims to join Nazi units that would be later implicated in genocide and crimes against humanity - the infamous Hanjar (or Handschar) 13th Waffen SS division. One of these crimes was The Massacre at Koritska Jama Gorge, in Bosnia during 1941.

Many of the victims of the Holocaust/Porajmos were murdered in the Second World War's third largest death camp - Jasenovac, where over 200,000 people - mainly Orthodox Serbs met their deaths.

The most senior Muslim cleric to be involved in the Holocaust/Porajmos was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, who according to the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (Edition 1990, Volume 2, Pages 706 and 707), made a substantial contribution to the Axis war effort by organizing "in record time" recruitment to Muslim SS units in Croatia that would be involved in some of the worse atrocities of the Second World War.

Altogether, it is estimated that some 20,000 Muslims fought in the Hanjar (Sword) SS Division, which fought against Yugoslav partisans led by General Tito, and carried out police and security details in fascist Hungary. The Nazi's recruited two SS divisions from Yugoslavia's Muslim population: the infamous Bosnian 13th Waffen Hanjar (or Handschar) SS division, and the Albanian Skanderbeg 21st Waffen SS division. SS conscription in Yugoslavia during the war produced 42,000 Waffen SS and police troops

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem:

Once in Berlin, the Mufti received an enthusiastic reception by the "Islamische Zentralinstitut" and the whole Islamic community of Germany, which welcomed him as the "Führer of the Arabic world." In an introductory speech, he called the Jews the "most fierce enemies of the Muslims" and an "ever corruptive element" in the world. Husseini soon became an honored guest of the Nazi leadership and met on several occasions with Hitler. He personally lobbied the Führer against the plan to let Jews leave Hungary, fearing they would immigrate to Palestine. He also strongly intervened when Adolf Eichman tried to cut a deal with the British government to exchange German POWs for 5000 Jewish children who also could have fled to Palestine. The Mufti's protests with the SS were successful, as the children were sent to death camps in Poland instead. One German officer noted in his journals that the Mufti would liked to have seen the Jews "preferably all killed." On a visit to Auschwitz, he reportedly admonished the guards running the gas chambers to work more diligently. Throughout the war, he appeared regularly on German radio broadcasts to the Middle East, preaching his pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic message to the Arab masses back home.

To show gratitude towards his hosts, in 1943 the Mufti traveled several times to Bosnia, where on orders of the SS he recruited the notorious "Hanjar troopers," a special Bosnian Waffen SS company which slaughtered 90% of Bosnia's Jews and burned countless Serbian churches and villages. These Bosnian Muslim recruits rapidly found favor with SS chief Heinrich Himmler, who established a special Mullah Military school in Dresden.

The only condition the Mufti set for his help was that after Hitler won the war, the entire Jewish population in Palestine should be liquidated. After the war, Husseini fled to Switzerland and from there escaped via France to Cairo, were he was warmly received.

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