Islamic Society of North America Called Out for Fomenting Violence Against Jews

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) is one of the largest and most respected Muslim organizations on the continent. Politicians routinely fawn all over it. But it is also easily one of the most sinister Islamic organizations in the West ISNA manifested its truly evil agenda once again recently, when it issued a statement denouncing “Israeli violence against Palestinian worshipers” without, not surprisingly, bothering to notice that those “worshipers” were actually Islamic jihadis who were stockpiling stones and other material to use as weapons in attacks against Israeli civilians.

The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV)....called on ISNA to “retract its statement issued April 16 entitled, ‘ISNA Condemns Israeli Violence Against Palestinian Worshipers.’ CJV pointed to numerous factual errors in the statement which, taken together, could easily be characterized as promoting a false narrative, encouraging antisemitism and even fomenting violence.”ISNA’s encouragement of antisemitism and fomenting of violence was no surprise. According to Discover the Networks [which monitors terrorist groups], “ISNA leaders view Islam as being superior to all other faiths and destined to replace them. Taha J. Alwani, a leading official of the Fiqh Council of North America, which is run under ISNA, writes: ‘In considering the earth as an arena for Islam, Allah has promised its inheritance to His righteous people, and He has promised that Islam will prevail over other religions.’…In July 2008, ISNA’s lawyers conceded that their organization, through its affiliate NAIT, had given financial support to Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook. Their defense was that documentary evidence of those ties dated back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, before the U.S. government had officially designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.”

CJV President Rabbi Pesach Lerner declared that ISNA’s " statement makes outlandish claims that invert those who came to cause violence with those who responded to quell it. As written, it appears to demonize Israeli police for stopping a violent riot. The police foiled attempts to murder Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall, and restored calm so that peaceful Islamic prayers could occur at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Both Muslims and Jews should commend Israeli police for preventing an intended massacre and permitting the faithful of both religions to worship safely."

CJV added in a press release that “the ISNA statement erroneously claims that ‘Israeli forces stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque,’ with ‘unprovoked and violent Israeli attacks’ on ‘Palestinian worshippers.’ In reality, both Arab scholars and Israeli commentators have pointed to the desecration of the mosque by rioters that occurred in the morning, prior to prayers, as was documented on camera. The Israeli police enabled prayers to take place by stopping the riot.”

ISNA, however, is never going to admit that the Israeli police acted properly; to do so would be tantamount to rejecting the words of the Qur’an itself. The Jews in the Qur’an are called the strongest of all people in enmity toward the Muslims (5:82)….never keeping their promises or fulfilling their words (2:100); being unrestrained in committing sins (5:79); being cowardly (59:13-14); being miserly (4:53); being transformed into apes and pigs for breaking the Sabbath (2:63-65; 5:59-60; 7:166); and more. They are under Allah’s curse (9:30), and Muslims should wage war against them and subjugate them under Islamic hegemony (9:29).