Order Robert Spencer’s new book, Holy Hell: Islam’s Abuse of Women and the Infidels Who Enable It: HERE.
In his New York Times interview, Tucker Carlson purports to view the war in Gaza through the lens of an outraged moralist:
I think what we’re seeing is evil. Are you allowed to kill people who’ve committed no crime? No. Super simple. You’re not allowed to do that. Under no moral standard is that allowable. All of a sudden it’s allowable in Gaza, and our leaders are like, Yeah, it’s totally fine. It’s not fine. It’s repugnant to the Christian understanding of the world and the human soul. Every person has a soul. That’s the Christian view, and not just the Christian view, it’s the Islamic view, too. And it’s my view.
Tucker’s words will resonate with those who are undereducated, miseducated, misinformed and propagandized, because he appears to be breaking the Gaza conflict down to the essential principles that are guiding each side. And yet what he is actually doing is far more insidious, demonizing Israel, Judaism, and Jews as a whole, ignoring the reality of Islamic jihad, and presenting a picture of Islam that is as rosy and unrealistic as his portrayal of Judaism is hateful, inaccurate, and unfair.
The first problem with his statement is that he is taking for granted the idea that Israeli and American authorities are aware that innocent people are being killed in Gaza, and have no problem with that. The reality is that Israel took scrupulous care to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, and was successful in doing so, but has been the victim of a massive and highly effective propaganda campaign to plant in the popular mind the idea that it is guilty of genocide.
Carlson is, however, not just accusing Israel of the wanton killing of civilians. He is accusing Jews of believing that non-Jews do not have souls, and consequently that killing them wholesale is permissible. This is a malicious perversion of the idea within Jewish tradition that Jews and non-Jews have different souls, based on the responsibilities Jews have before God, but this does not involve or lead to the idea that therefore, non-Jews can be killed without a second thought.
Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin states that “Jewish law and tradition are thoroughly opposed to the murder of innocent non-Jews,” and provides several references from mainstream Jewish sources to establish the principle that “the Murder of Non-Jews is Murder”: “Entziklopedia Talmudit, Vol. 5, cols. 355-358, s.v. Goy; Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur, Torat Hamelekh, Samaria, 2000, pp. 17-27; Rabbi M. M. Kasher, Torah Sheleimah, Vol. 17, pp. 77-78, paragraphs 263-264; Rabbi J. D. Eisenstien, Otzar Yisrael, Vol. 10, New York, 1913, pp. 12-14, s.v.Retzihah.”
Tucker Carlson, on the other hand, appears to be basing his statements on antisemitic blood libels that claim that Jews secretly teach that non-Jews are subhuman and can and should be killed. There is a religion that teaches such a thing, but it is not Judaism. It is the religion that Tucker claims teaches, along with Christianity and opposed (in his view) to Judaism, that “every person has a soul.”
It is true. Islam does teach that “every person has a soul.” But Tucker doesn’t mention the fact that the Qur’an says that non-Muslims are “like cattle, no, they are worse.” (7:179) The Muslim book calls non-Muslims “the most vile of created beings” (98:6) and “the worst of animals” (8:55). These aren’t merely disparaging words, either. The Qur’an directs Muslims to “kill them wherever you find them” (2:191, 4:89, 4:91) and, just in case that wasn’t clear enough, adds “kill the idolators wherever you find them” (9:5). In the Qur’anic view, virtually every non-Muslim is an idolater.
The Qur’an also states: “Muhammad is the apostle of Allah. Those who follow him are ruthless to unbelievers, merciful to one another.” (48:29) The people whom Tucker Carlson is lumping together with Christians actually revere a book that teaches exactly what he implies that Judaism teaches, while stating how deplorable it is that Jews supposedly believe this.
The worst aspect of Tucker Carlson’s lies and moral inversion is that people will believe it. He still commands a huge following, and is a leading spokesman for the new resurgence of Jew-hatred. The damage that could be done as a result to innocent human beings could be incalculable.
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