Friends introduced him to the Koran, the holiest scripture of Islam. Azzi was captivated by the translation by Muhammad Asad. Asad, himself a convert to Islam, was born Leopold Weiss to a Jewish family in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Asad’s rabbinical skills and the tradition of questioning in Jewish learning greatly influenced Asad’s translation of the Koran.
“It was beautiful and appealing to me in a way that other scriptures didn’t,” Azzi said.
By singling out Muhammad Asad’s translation of the Qur’an into English, and mentioning Asad’s “rabbinical skills” and the “tradition of questioning in Jewish learning” as contributing to his translation’s preeminence, Azzi reminds his listeners that Islam is open to all. Even Jews have converted to Islam, and not just converted, but contributed their “rabbinical skills” to translating the Qur’an, and thereby promoting Islam. It’s an oblique way to suggest a tolerance of Jews in Islam that does not, in fact, exist.
And that is all that was reported in an article on one of Azzi’s recent events. No doubt there were other questions, but these two were the ones that were the most memorable: why are there Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, and what led you, Mr. Azzi, to convert to Islam? This suggests the evening proved less than fascinating.
For those who may be within driving distance of one of Azzi’s events, I will repeat a request I made last fall. Do attend, if you can, and ideally go with at least one or two others, of similar persuasion, so that you do not appear to be a lone and hostile crank. Bring with you a list of questions that should stir things up, questions that will discomfit Robert Azzi, disturb his composure, and ideally cause his audience to begin to question his smooth and sanitized presentation of the faith.
Here are some of those questions, the answers he is likely to give, and a suggested response to his answer. Many have appeared at Jihad Watch last fall; they do not date.
1. “What are the duties of non-Muslims in a traditional Muslim society? In other words, what do dhimmis have to do to be allowed to both stay alive and to practice their religion?”
This will upset Robert Azzi, for he now knows he is dealing with someone who understands the dhimmi condition, and if he doesn’t answer more or less truthfully, he will be taken, rightly, to task.
He is likely to reply that dhimmis had mainly to pay the jizyah, which was only fair because they did not have to pay, as Muslims did, the zakat, and besides, they did receive protection from the Muslim government. Paying the jizyah, he may add, was a much better outcome for the Jews, who in medieval Christendom were often killed.
“Protection against whom?” you will now ask. Robert Azzi, can only respond: “Against anyone, Christians, Muslims, other Jews.”
“Isn’t it really meant as protection against attacks by Muslims themselves?”
Azzi: “Some people say that. I think the picture is a bit more complicated.”
You will then ask Azzi what, besides payment of the Jizyah, were the other onerous conditions placed on non-Muslims. He will be forced — but only because he suspects, rightly, that you already know — to detail them: the requirement that dhimmis ride donkeys but not horses; that they move out of the way of Muslims on roads and pathways, that they not be allowed to testify against Muslims in court, and so on. You will thus have gotten him to acknowledge that there was more to being a dhimmi than the payment of Jizyah, though that was hardship enough..
Most of his audience of unwary Infidels will until now not have have heard anything about the dhimmi condition in Muslim societies, or about the payment of the Jizyah. This new information will upset their equanimity.
2. “Mr. Azzi, I found in reading the Qur’an, one verse — 98:6 — that describes Unbelievers as ‘the most vile of created beings.’ And there’s another verse — 3:110 — describes Muslims are ‘the best of peoples.’ Can you tell me if Muslims really believe that, and if so, what can or should be done about it?”
Again, Azzi cannot deny the existence of these verses. He can only offer something along these lines:
“Well, I’m a Muslim, and I don’t think you are ‘the most vile of created beings.’ [Laughter.] Do you have Muslim coworkers, Muslim friends? Do your kids perhaps have Muslim school friends? Do you think, as the conspiratorial Islamophobes want you to believe, that all these Muslims are merely hiding a deep contempt for you, that they really consider all of you ‘vile’? Look, let’s be sensible. This is just the kind of verse the extremists like to focus on. They’ll quote it, but they won’t tell you that no one except people like them take it seriously. They’re in the business of distorting our religion for the sake of their own sense of power — they want to conquer the world, make no mistake about it, but it’s got nothing to do with authentic Islam, as Pope Francis likes to say, except in the sense that they want to exploit Islam for their own, un-Islamic ends. They want to be celebrities, the way bin Laden was. It’s not a good idea to give them the publicity they want. Sure, ISIS — thank god that horror is ended, what a nightmare for Muslims those psychopaths were — wants you to get all hot and bothered about these verses, wants you to think that not just ISIS, but the vast majority of moderate Muslims think that way. Take it from me. It’s utter nonsense.
“Let me repeat what we all know. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims, maybe millions, are desperate to move to Europe. Hundreds drown in the Mediterranean making the attempt. You’ve heard these stories. Well, for heaven’s sake, why would hundreds of thousands, even millions of Muslims, want to live among those very people whom they supposedly believe to be the ‘most vile of created beings’? [Laughter.] Why would they want their kids to go school with ‘the most vile of created beings’? [More laughter, and a sense of relief in the audience.] I rest my case.
“You know, I always like to tell people that while we believe that the Qur’an is the literal Word of God, that it is not meant to be read literally. So don’t take that verse literally. What does it really mean? It’s a negative statement, greatly exaggerated for effect, against those — the ‘Unbelievers’ — whom the Muslims were fighting at the time. It’s not meant to apply to all non-Muslims, but only to those with whom Muhammad was then in a state of war. Do you know the kinds of things that were written in this country during World War II about the Germans and the Japanese? About ‘Krauts and Japs’? It was a lot worse than being called ‘vile.’ And now Germany and Japan are two of our closest allies.
“In trying to understand the Qur’an, remember it’s a very difficult text in places, written in a classical Arabic quite different from modern Arabic, and the meaning is not always crystal clear. That shouldn’t surprise anyone — the text is 1400 years old. I always tell myself that when a verse goes against what, in its totality, Islam stands for, then I just don’t bother with that verse. If that verse says that Unbelievers are ‘vile,’ I just ignore it. I know it’s not meant to apply outside its 1400-year-old context. That’s got nothing to do with the Islam I converted to as a young man and that I’ve been happily practicing for a half-century, and I think if you ask any Muslims you meet, they’ll tell you the exact same thing. Next question.”