Day: June 15, 2017

 

 

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:

This “dialogue” event between evangelical minister James White and
jihadi imam Yasir Qadhi took place in the appropriately named Olive
Branch, Mississippi last January, and while we don’t ordinarily write
about archival material, this is such a spectacular example of the
pitfalls of “interfaith dialogue,” and of going into discussions with
Muslim spokesmen without being sufficiently educated about Islamic
teaching, that it warrants particular attention.

The event purported to highlight and discuss “agreements and differences” between Christians and Muslims:

 

 White starts out by praising Qadhi effusively, calling him a “kindred spirit” in pursuit of the truth:

White not only makes the risible argument that Qadhi never called him
“filthy,” and therefore must not think that Christians are filthy, but
in the longer segment he also attempts moral equivalence. He says that
Qadhi’s calling Christians filthy is essentially the same as
Christianity saying that no one is righteous before God, and that the
righteousness of human beings is as filthy rags. This ignores the fact
that Christianity considers such statements to apply to everyone,
Christian and non-Christian, while Islamic statements about the
uncleanness of unbelievers (cf. Qur’an 9:28) apply to unbelievers only,
for there is in all of Islam a sharp and massive dichotomy between
believers and unbelievers: “Muhammad is the apostle of Allah. Those who
follow him are merciful to one another, ruthless to unbelievers” (Qur’an
48:29).

White also claims that Jews, Christians, and Muslims would all agree
that idolaters are filthy in God’s sight, and shows no awareness of the
fact that the idea that unbelievers are unclean is a live concept among
some Muslims, notably Shi’ites. The renowned Ayatollah Sistani classifies unbelievers as unclean, along with pigs, dogs, dead bodies, etc. What Jews or Christians do that?

Regarding Qadhi’s statements about jihad, White notes that Qadhi
argues that only a legitimate caliph can declare jihad, and that most
Muslims reject the Islamic State’s caliphate. White shows no awareness
whatsoever of the fact that in Islamic law, jihad is fard kifaya, a communal obligation from which one individual is free if it is being discharged by others, but it becomes fard ayn, obligatory upon every believer, when a Muslim land is attacked (cf. Umdat al-Salik o9.1-o9.3).

Nor does White appear particularly disturbed by the fact that Qadhi
even allows in principle for the seizure of the property of non-Muslims,
and the killing of non-Muslims, under some circumstances. White is much
more exercised about my supposedly misrepresenting Qadhi by reporting
on his words. Apparently, it’s all my fault: in this video (starting at
7:27), White sits next to Qadhi as Qadhi says that “the far right
targeted” him, “you know, Spencer and Pamela Geller.” He claims that
Geller and I produced a “fabricated audio clip,” referring to the one
above of his remarks on jihad; he says that we selectively edited his
remarks to — you guessed it — take him “out of context” and make it
appear as if he is endorsing jihad against non-Muslims (this is not the
same as the audio above, it just has the same cover photo):

White shakes his head when Qadhi mentions our names, clearly in
sympathy with Qadhi being victimized by us dastardly Islamophobes. There
are just a few problems with this: neither Pamela Geller nor I had
anything to do with the production or publication of that audio file.
Nor did we, as Qadhi further claims in that video, sic lawyers on him
when he tried to get it taken down from YouTube. As anyone can see and
as James White could have and should have verified, that audio file was
put on YouTube by Americans for Peace and Tolerance, a group I admire
but with which I have no affiliation. Nor is Qadhi truthful when he says
that the audio was selectively edited so as to give a false impression
of his words: in its note on that audio file, APT gives a link to
Qadhi’s entire lecture, and notes the time stamps of when he discusses
relevant topics. That’s odd behavior if the group really wanted to
conceal what Qadhi actually said.

It’s ironic: White, in this lengthy video,
scolds people for supposedly not being fair to Qadhi, falsely claims
that my intention was to portray Qadhi’s words inaccurately, and
self-righteously admonishes Christians that they have to be fair to
Muslims even in disagreement. Then he sits by sympathetically as Qadhi
lies about Pamela Geller and me, as well as about his own words. I wrote
White about this several months ago; he responded contemptuously and
refused to correct the record.

In light of White’s manifest credulity in the face of Qadhi’s
distortions and outright lies, it is no surprise that he is led around
by the nose in Olive Branch, Mississippi. White praises himself, saying
that Muslims have come up to him and thanked him for attempting to
portray their faith accurately:

That’s wonderful. It is indeed of cardinal importance, if one is
writing about Islam or anything else, to portray it accurately. But
White’s naivete is touching: are Muslims thanking him for portraying
their faith accurately really evidence that he has actually done so? In
Islam, it is considered a good thing to conceal the faults of a fellow
Muslim, as Muhammad is depicted as saying: “The servant who conceals the
faults of others in this world, Allah would conceal his faults on the
Day of Resurrection” (Sahih Muslim 6267). The ordinary understanding of
slander in the West is that it involves making false charges that defame
another person. But in Islamic law, the definition of slander doesn’t
involve falsehood. The Shafi’i manual of Islamic law Umdat al-Salik
defines “slander” as “to mention anything concerning a person that he
would dislike.” Nothing is said about whether or not what is said is
true — only that the person would dislike it. Is it possible that the
Muslims who thanked White were happy with him because he didn’t slander
Islam, i.e., he didn’t reveal what they didn’t want known?

Let’s see. In this segment, Qadhi claims that the Islamic State
(ISIS) is a wholly new thing, a phenomenon never before seen in the
history of Islam: “I mean, burning people alive in cages?”

“I mean, burning people alive in cages?” He is claiming that was
never known before in Islam? What about the followers of Tulayha ibn
Khuwaylid ibn Nawfal al-Asad, who left Islam and proclaimed himself a
prophet? They were burned alive during the Wars of Apostasy in the early
630s. What about the eleven Catholic monks who were burned alive for
proselytizing among Muslims in North Africa in 1272? In the 1590s, the
English traveler Fynes Moryson noted that Muslims burned apostates and
blasphemers alive: “A Turke forsaking his Fayth and a Christian speaking
or doing anything against the law of Mahomett are burnt with fyer.” A
later traveler, John Braithwaite, wrote in the 1720s that apostates were
burned alive: “Those that can be proved after Circumcision to have
revolted, are stripped quite naked, then anointed with Tallow, and with a
Chain about the Body, brought to the Place of Execution, where they are
burnt.” In Morocco in 1792, 50 Jews were burned alive for refusing to
convert to Islam. And on and on and on. There are so many examples of
this as to place the Islamic State’s burnings squarely within Islamic
tradition. But White just sits there and lets Qadhi lie. Yes, it’s a
discussion, not a debate, but does this mean that Qadhi is just allowed
to lie with impunity?

The lies continue in this segment:

Qadhi here claims that al-Qaeda and ISIS “are not primarily using
this one verse” and “barely use this verse,” that is, Qur’an 9:5, and he
falsely claims that “90 percent” of jihadi rhetoric is political, not
religious. They certainly discuss political issues, especially in order
to justify defensive jihad, but they also couch all of their arguments
in Islamic theological concepts. And it’s false that al-Qaeda doesn’t
use this verse: Osama bin Laden made clear the importance of this verse
in a sermon broadcast by Al-Jazeera on the first day of the Muslim holy
day Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice. The sermon began,
“Praise be to Allah who revealed the verse of the Sword to his servant
and messenger, in order to establish truth and abolish falsehood.” The
“verse of the sword” is the name in Islamic tradition for Qur’an 9:5.
Al-Qaeda cofounder Abdullah Azzam, in his Defence of the Muslim Lands,
quotes Ibn Abidin, a nineteenth-century Islamic jurist, explaining the
Qur’an’s stages of development in jihad teaching, and then adds: “Then,
they were ordered to fight with conditions, when the sacred months had
passed: ‘Then when the sacred months (the 1st, 7th, 11th, and 12th
months of the Islamic calendar) have past, then kill the Mushrikun wherever you find them.’” This is a quote from 9:5.

Qadhi also claims that no non-Muslim has ever been killed for trying to enter Mecca. In fact, as recently as 2007, some French non-Muslims were killed on the way to Mecca.

Finally, in this video,
White claims that there are powerful forces trying to make sure that
Muslims and Christians don’t talk to each other. These nameless
nefarious forces, according to White, have no regard for the truth, and
are using someone White considers an adversary, someone who called him a
“Useful Idiot.” These forces supposedly, according to White, supplied
this man with his talking points against White and his noble endeavors
at Muslim/Christian dialogue. These forces, White says, have political
and financial motives — he echoes Islamic supremacists in suggesting
that critics of Islam are just in this wonderful life-threatening,
reputation-ruining business for the money (what money?). How he
professes to know the motives of these unnamed people, he does not
bother to explain.

Whoever White has in mind as these nefarious forces (and I think I
know, and I think you do, too), they are absolutely right: White is a
Useful Idiot par excellence, in his credulity, naivete, and ignorance of
Islamic theology, law and history allowing himself to be used by the
deceptive jihadist Qadhi. I am all for genuine discussion between
Christians and Muslims, but that means that the Christians are informed
participants, not gullible fools having their pockets picked by jihadist
sharpies. James White is a living, walking object lesson in the dangers
of Muslim/Christian “dialogue” when pursued by uninformed and naive
Christians, and particularly when pursued by uninformed and naive
Christians with a fatuous confidence in their own knowledge and
righteousness.

(Thanks to Worldview Weekend.)
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SEE ALSO:
https://counterjihadreport.com/2017/06/15/utt-throwback-thursday-are-you-still-listening-to-the-imam/ 
EXCERPTS:
“The second example comes to us from evangelical minister James White who publicly states
he learned everything he knows about Islam from Muslim Brother Sheikh
Yasir Qadhi, leader of the Memphis (TN) Islamic Center.  The New York
Times calls Qadhi  “one of the most influential conservative clerics in
American Islam.”  By “conservative” they must mean “jihadi-like.””

“Qadhi is a sharia scholar and works inside the Muslim Brotherhood’s
Movement calling for the implementation of sharia and an Islamic state
here in America.

Specifically, Qadhi is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Assembly
of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA).  Qadhi is also the Dean of Academic
Affairs and an instructor at the al Maghrib Institute, which has
produced a large number of jihadis over the years including Tarek
Mehanna, Ramy Zam Zam – the leader of the “Virginia 5,” Daniel
Maldonado, Nuradin Abdi (founder of the Al Maghrib’s Ohio Chapter), and
others.

Yasir Qadhi has been the keynote speaker at numerous prominent Muslim
Brotherhood organizations (eg ICNA), works closely with terrorist
organizations like Hamas and its leaders and has a long track record of
publicly defending known terrorists such as:  convicted terrorist leader
Sami al Aria, convicted terrorist Ali al-Timimi, American Taliban
fighter John Walker Lindh, convicted Al Qaeda terrorist Aafia Siddiqui,
Tarek Mehanna, and others.

Yasir Qadhi was a trustee at the Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas’ Islamic
Society of Boston founded by Al Qaeda financier Abdurahman Alamoudi.
 This is the same ISB which nurtured the Boston Marathon bombers.

Yet, James White publicly stands with Qadhi and lashes out at anyone
who brings these facts to light.  It appears Mr. White has not read MB
doctrine…”
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1)
White has allowed a Muslim Shariah-loving Imam named Yasir Qadhi to
preach error to a church unchallenged thereby misleading the saints.
2) White claims it is an error to say Islam is a religion of terror and offensive jihad even though that is not an error.
3) White defends Muhammad’s paedophilic rape of the 9 year old child Aisha.