The following video features the appearance of the Imam of Bologna on the Italian television talk show “Dritto e rovescio”. The remarks by the esteemed Islamic cleric reminded me of the line from William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: “The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose.”
Many thanks to HeHa for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
| 00:00 | I am asking the Imam of Bologna, not imam of Anzola, Zulfiqar Khan: | |
| 00:07 | What do you think of the reluctance of some imams to recognize | |
| 00:15 | that Hamas is a terrorist organization? | |
| 00:18 | First of all, we have seen that there are two sides: some people say that Israelis are terrorists, | |
| 00:25 | others say that Hamas is a terrorist organization. | |
| 00:28 | We know that… —Israel is a democratic state. | |
| 00:32 | You can say that. —No, the whole world says that. | |
| 00:36 | Not the whole world. —International organizations say that. | |
| 00:40 | Yes, since this conflict is religious, we need to see what the sacred books say about Israelites. | |
| 00:47 | For example, the Bible speaks about Israelites: the first thing it says is that they are terrorists. | |
| 00:54 | I will also provide with a reference. The second thing is that they are deceivers, | |
| 00:58 | because within the Jewish faith it’s written they need to deceive out of interest. | |
| 01:04 | For example if we see… —This is anti-Semitism, I don’t want to interrupt him, but… | |
| 01:09 | Paolo, you can already terminate this episode. Saying “Israelis are deceivers | |
| 01:12 | because the sacred texts says so” is anti-Semitism. | |
| 01:15 | How can we listen to “the sacred text says they are deceivers, they are terrorists”? | |
| 01:21 | I want to know where this is going. —Let me speak. | |
| 01:24 | Go ahead, I am very happy that you are here. | |
| 01:28 | In the first verse of the Old Testament which is found in 1 Kings chapter 19, | |
| 01:34 | verses 1 to 10, Elijah. whom Muslims know as Elias, peace and blessing be upon him, | |
| 01:41 | while escaping from Israelites, makes a proclamation, an invocation to the Lord, | |
| 01:46 | saying: ‘Lord, the Israelites have broken your covenant, they have demolished your altars, | |
| 01:52 | they have killed your prophets with the sword, | |
| 01:56 | and I am the only one left and they are trying to take my life away.’” | |
| 02:00 | This is not something said by a Muslim or a Christian. | |
| 02:03 | But this is a sentence that sows hatred towards the Jews; it is an anti-Semitic sentence. | |
| 02:08 | No, no. First of all, I don’t know if you know this: the first and the second book | |
| 02:15 | of Kings of the Old Testament were re-read by the Jewish community. | |
| 02:19 | There are scholars from the Biblical School of Jerusalem, | |
| 02:24 | scholars who have read them and have given an interpretation that is not the one you gave, | |
| 02:28 | and that is the one which is faithful to the texts and, so, I mean, what you said | |
| 02:33 | has zero value on that verse from 1 Kings. | |
| 02:36 | As for the rest, you take full responsibility for what you say. | |
| 02:42 | But there is also the New Testament. If you want, I can provide you | |
| 02:48 | with something they talked about recently. —Tell me about the New Testament, I’m interested. | |
| 02:53 | In the New Testament, in Mark chapter 6, verses 17-29… —Yes I know them. | |
| 03:00 | About John the Baptist, whom we know as Yahya, peace and blessing be upon him, | |
| 03:06 | who was killed only at the wish of Herod’s wife, | |
| 03:11 | who was the king at that time; they cut off his head and displayed it on a plate. | |
| 03:16 | Isn’t that terrorism? When Jesus Christ, who speaks in Matthew chapter 27, verses 46… | |
| 03:23 | And what does Christ have to do with John’s head? Yes, we are talking about terrorism: | |
| 03:27 | the Israelites have always accused Jesus Christ, | |
| 03:30 | I believe, I tell you with all sincerity, that you should review the Old and the New Testament. | |
| 03:37 | You are saying things out of this world. | |
| 03:41 | After the line is crossed, I don’t tolerate it. Since I have studied, you haven’t, | |
| 03:47 | you should revise a little bit, and then we can talk about it. | |
| 03:51 | You know better than I, and you ask me “What you are doing?” | |
| 03:56 | That, if someone opens the Bible and reviews it, what reviewing entails. | |
| 03:59 | Because I know how many times the Gospels have been changed. | |
| 04:03 | Not changed. Interpreted. | |
| 04:06 | Interpreted. | |
| 04:09 | It’s called biblical hermeneutical exegesis, you need to read a few books about that | |
| 04:13 | and then come back and we’ll talk about it. —Don’t focus on interpretations now. |
Not a good argument he made, for if he were to make a good argument it would cut right into Islam and Muslims as well…
The point is that ancient Israel was both good, ok, bad and evil – depending on the times and the generations that lived in different times.
There used to be times when ancient Israel was great, pleasant, and worthy of admiration…
just as there used to be times when the ancient Israelites turned away from God (good) and commited unspeakable atrocities.
That’s what “The Bible” is really about.
When you see a father chastising his child, does it mean the child is wholly evil terrorist? Or is there a demand to turn from your evil ways back to God again?
Ancient Israel is a type, an example, both good and bad example, so that we know what is good and what is evil, IMHO.
And – if we use the Bible to judge Israel, well, we can use the Bible to judge Muslims as well. The Imam should be careful, the Bible is a dangerous book.
i think the bible should not be cited this way, because taking out of context something can become anything. God punished the ancient hebrews at some points, but that does not apply to today people who call themselves the jews and have nothing to do with that other people, who are mostly atheists and formerly communists. i think this thing of taking short sentences out of the bible to claim whatever one pleases, is more a protestant behaviour.
God, according to the Bible, does not change. If he had punished ancient Israelites for something, he is going to punish modern day Israel for the same things. IMHO
“nothing to do with”? Judaism/Jewishness can be a faith, an ethnicity or both. Islam originated in Arabia, but only a minority of Muslims are Arabs.
actually i remember very well the establishment made mostly by pedo satanist antichristians, freemasons and atheists, who run this TV show, with the interviewers and the fake public (capable only to insult whoever is not aligned with the mainstream concept), tell me and all the people to vax, that the vax is good, that who did not want the vaxine should be put in jail or be degraded to 3rd class citizenship with an informatic system that controls whereever one goes.
the arrrogance of the interviewer is so strong (he also continue to just insult and says he knows better what is the bible that he probably never read) and i really regret to say, that i have to listen an imam to lecture on the subject (the catholic clergy would not be so explicit on this matter). the imam on contrary spoke very well in italian, which is not his mother language, in a very polite way, even if he could have left the show after the first insult.
The dangers of proof-texting here demonstrated: The Elijah quote occurs in the course of a narrative. It occurs after his successful ‘showdown’ with the prophets of the pagan god Baal, as he flees the wrath of the corrupt queen Jezebel, enraged at the defeat of her cadre of priests.
The Almighty’s response is to assure Elijah he is not alone, that yet there were one thousand men in Israel who had not ‘bowed the knee to Baal’, and then shelters his prophet for a period. Following this, the famous incident in which the Almighty reveals Himself as the ‘still small voice’ following the tempest.
The imam’s misuse of the passage reveals his profound ignorance of the source he quotes.
Get this straight,
Islam is NOT a religion. It is a political idealogy.
Their Koran is a bastardation of the Holy Bible. And their Issa/Jesus is the Anti-Christ.
Isam is devil worship, it is that coldly simple.