New in PJ Media:
An 18-year-old from Maine, along with two unnamed teens, have been arrested for plotting to bomb a Chicago mosque. These teens must be MAGA-hatted “Islamophobes” driven to violence by Donald J. Trump, right? That’s the clear impression that many of the news reports convey, and it’s what the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) would have you believe. CAIR’s deputy director, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, declared, “This disturbing case highlights the real threat posed by anti-Muslim bigotry, antisemitism and other forms of hate.” Actually, it doesn’t do any such thing, and highlights a quite different phenomenon. As is generally true when it comes to establishment media spin, the facts are otherwise.
The Waterville, Maine Morning Sentinel says “Waterville man, 18, planned to use explosives for ‘mass murder’ at Chicago mosque.” Chicago’s WLS reports “Maine teen recruited 2 others to help commit ‘mass murder’ at Chicago area mosque: feds.” CNN has the same slant: “Maine teen accused of plotting to attack a Chicago area mosque.” But the real story is that the chief perpetrator, Xavier Pelkey, and his fellow plotters are Sunni Muslims who were planning a jihad massacre at a Shi’ite mosque.
On March 2, I wrote about a Sunni-Shi’ite dispute at the University of Connecticut, noting that “open-door immigration policies can lead to the introduction of ancient enmities into places where they have never been seen before.” I also said, “The Sunni-Shi’ite relationship has been characterized by 1,400 years of violence. We can be grateful that the UConn controversy didn’t involve any violence. But the smart money would be on that violence also arriving here eventually.”
Well, I hate to say I told you so, but not that much. According to Fox News, Pelkey “and an unnamed 17-year-old and 15-year-old from Kentucky and the Chicago area communicated through Instagram and other chat applications and planned an attack on a specific mosque in late March during ‘spring break.’” The mosque in question was Shi’ite, and what these young men had in mind was positively chilling:
One of the teens ‘explained that they would enter the Shia mosque and separate the adults from the children, then murder the adults,’ the court documents said. ‘If they had not encountered law enforcement at that point, they would continue on to another Shia mosque or Jewish synagogue and execute the same plan. They did not have a plan to escape but rather their plan ended with them being shot by law enforcement.’
All this can be understood by recourse to Islamic texts and teachings that American law enforcement and intelligence officials resolutely ignore, because to study them would be “Islamophobic.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
Reporter Robert Spencer tantalizingly writes, “All this can be understood by recourse to Islamic texts and teachings”, but does not cite any of them. Okay, let’s see a listing of a few such texts or teachings that urge Sunnis to attack Shiites. Are there any such texts or teachings that urge Shiites to attack Sunnis?
gravenimage says
Mark, Robert Spencer never claimed that Islamic texts specifically cite the Shia, which did not exist until after the Qur’an and Hadith were written.
This is a reference to the plotted attack on the Synagogue, as well as the Muslim imperative to die in Jihad. This, from the linked article you did not bother to read:
All this can be understood by recourse to Islamic texts and teachings that American law enforcement and intelligence officials resolutely ignore, because to study them would be “Islamophobic.” The enmity and violence between Sunnis and Shi’ites goes back practically to the beginning of Islam; the hatred toward Jews is based on the Qur’an, which states that they are the worst enemies of the Muslims (5:82). The idea of not escaping, but rather being shot by law enforcement, stems from the Qur’an’s promise of a place in paradise to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah (9:111).
…
As for the Shia and other Islamic sects, orthodox Muslims have always considered it Islamic to murder “apostates” and “heretics”, and this is indeed how orthodox Sunni regard Shia. The Sunni/Shia split has existed for over 1300 years now.
The Hadith quote the “Prophet” Muhammed as saying, “whoever changes his religion, kill him” or in another formulation, “whoever willingly disbelieves in God after he has believed, kill him”:
Narrated `Ikrima:
Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to `Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn `Abbas who said, “If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah’s Messenger forbade it, saying, ‘Do not punish anybody with Allah’s punishment (fire).’ I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah’s Messenger, ‘Whoever changed his [Islamic] religion, then kill him.'”
Sahih al-Bukhari 6922
Book 88, Hadith 5
Vol. 9, Book 84, Hadith 57
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
Hi, G.I. Thanks for your remarks. I have long puzzled over Muhammad’s dictum, “Whoever changes his religion, kill him.”
So Mo (phuh) is dead-set against apostasy of any kind. I am doing my best to follow his advice, “If you are kafir, don’t change your religion to Islam.”
gravenimage says
Of course, for Mo this only applied to anyone who dared to leave Islam.
Geo says
You might want to look at the history of conflict between the Shi’ia and Sunni that began with the assassination of Muhammad’s cousin/son-in-law, Ali. It still seems to be going strong.
gravenimage says
Did Anti-Muslim Bigots Really Plot to Blow Up a Chicago Mosque?
…………………….
Nope–of course, this was other pious Muslims.