Shi'ite Islam and the Jews -- & -- Arab Murders Friend of the Arabs in Jerusalem

A great misconception has long pervaded thinking about how Muslims have thought about Jews and treated Jews over the centuries since Islam's inception in the seventh century. Muslims and Islam have been wrongly thought to have been especially tolerant and benign towards Jews. These misconceptions have too long pervaded Jewish thinking too. This is most important because we Jews disregard the history of consistent Muslim hostility at our own peril.

Muhammad's persecution of Jews goes back to his struggles in Medinah, according to the Muslim traditions [called the Hadith]. After his death, his third successor, Caliph`Uthman, was attacked by Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, `Ali, who was considered more legitimate a successor [or replacement = khalif] than `Uthman. The faction of `Ali [Shi`ites] and the majority faction of Muslims, the Sunnis, emerged from this struggle over the succession, producing the principal split among Muslims. And now the Jewish angle. Carlo Panella explains:

According to the Sunni tradition. . . [especially in al-Tabari's collection], the cause of this age-old breach is the plot of a falsely converted Yemenite Jew, `Abdallah ibn Saba, who supposedly urged `Ali to kill the third caliph `Uthman bin Affan and especially to believe in his own quasi-divine descent.

Bene, secondo la tradizione sunnita . . . [sopratutto per al-Tabari], causa di questa frattura epocale e` il complotto di un ebreo yemenita falsamenta convertito, `Abdallah ibn Saba, che avrebbe spinto `Ali a uccidere il terzo califfo Othman bin Haffan e sopratutto a credere in una propia ascendenza quasi divina. [Carlo Panella, Il 'Complotto Ebraico': L'antisemitismo islamico da Maometto a Bin Laden (Torino: Lindau 2005), p 65]

So the Shi`ite-Sunni split is blamed on a Jew. However, far from sympathizing with Jews, the dominant sect of Shi`ites, the Twelvers, believe that the split between themselves and the Seveners [or Isma`ilis] was also caused by a Jew.

Naturally, the Ismai`ili schism too is attributed by the Twelvers to a Jew, `Abdallah ibn Maymuna al-Qaddah, a falsely converted Jew.

Naturalmente, anche lo scisma ismailita e` attribuito dai duodecimani a un ebreo, `Abdallah ibn Maymun al-Qaddah, ebreo falsamente convertito.[Panella, p 66]

In case anyone was wondering, the Twelver sect of Shi`ism is now the state religion of Iran. Ayatollah Khomeini was a Twelver Shi`ite. Throughout Muslim history, both Sunnis and Shi`ites have oppressed, persecuted and exploited Jews. We need only mention the forced conversion of the Jews of Mash'had in Iran. Now, as we pointed out in the previous post, the Hizbullah [or Hizbollah, Hezbollah] is an instrument of the Iranian mullahs and ayatollahs. Of course, the fake cease fire voted in the UN Security Council did not condemn the Hizbullah for being unlawful combatants in violation of international law [for one things, they go into combat without uniforms, enabling them to pretend to be civilians, whereas in fact they wore their uniforms when marching in goosestep through the al-Dahiya neighborhood of south Beirut.
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AN ARAB MURDERS A FRIEND OF THE ARABS in Jerusalem [the text below includes part of the previous post plus new material. That part had been uploaded without appearing in the title of the previous post]

Arab Fanatic Murders a Friend of the Arabs Once Again
Last night, Thursday, 10 August 2006, an Italian volunteer, Angelo Frammartino, who had come to Israel precisely to help the Arabs, the Arab nationalists in fact, was stabbed to death just outside the Old City wall near the Flower Gate [שער הפרחים] [called Herod's Gate in English]. He was in fact a Communist [following in his father's footsteps]. And one of those whom he pitied murdered him.

He was connected with the Rifondazione Comunista, an especially hard-line offshoot of the old Communist Party. The RC publishes Il Manifesto, a virulently anti-Israel paper. To show that these people are slow learners, a female reporter for Il Manifesto was taken hostage in Iraq last year [Giuliana Sgrena]. In fact, he favored violence, of course, if it was employed by the politically correct: "We must recognize that non-violence is a luxury for many corners of the world. We indeed do not seek to abrogate legitimate defense" [only Israel's legitimate defense-Eliyahu]. He was in love with the slingshots of the Arab boys of the "first intifada." He was a victim of the lies of his own movement. He sympathized with the Arabs in the Land of Israel, one of the "colonized peoples." But he couldn't recall how the Arabs had helped Rome suppress the ancient Jewish revolts, and how Arabs oppressed, humiliated and exploited Jews in Israel after the Arab conquest [see earlier posts on this blog site]. The Arabs usurped the Land of Israel and oppressed Jews in the Land for more than a thousand years. But he learned nothing of this, it seems, in school or in the Party. He came here on August 1st after weeks of fighting between Israel and Hizbullah. But he did not come to help Israelis living in bomb shelters in Qiryat Shmonah or Nahariyah. He wanted to help Arab children in the Gaza Strip and the "occupied territories." He "was not an extremist," we are told, "He was a pacifist." And those whom he pitied murdered him.

La politica era la passione di Angelo. Ereditata dal padre Michelangelo, conosciuto in Comune per aver collaborato con alcune delle giunte di centrosinistra che negli anni si sono passate il testimone da queste parti. E il figlio aveva seguito le sue orme. Come testimonia una lettera inviata pochi mesi fa al giornale locale di Rifondazione: «Dobbiamo riconoscere che non violenza è un lusso per molti angoli del mondo, noi infatti non chiediamo di abrogare la legittima difesa. Mai (!) – aveva scritto il giovane volontario – Mai mi sognerei di condannare la Resistenza, il sangue del pueblo vietnamita, la riscossa dei popoli colonizzati e le fionde dei ragazzi palestinesi della prima intifada».
E proprio ai bambini della striscia di Gaza e dei territori occupati aveva deciso di dedicarsi nel corso di queste vacanze. Angelo ne aveva parlato a lungo con gli amici della sezione di Rifondazione e del circolo Arci. E la scelta alla fine era caduta sul campo lavoro organizzato appunto dall’Arci in collaborazione con la Cgil. Era partito il primo agosto, con altri undici ragazzi. «Era un entusiasta, credeva in quello che faceva ed era sempre pronto ad aiutare gli altri», raccontano davanti alla sede di Rifondazione.
«Ripeteva sempre che non si poteva assistere impotenti a quello che stava accadendo in Medio Oriente, diceva che bisognava andare a portare soccorso ai bambini del posto, alle vittime innocenti della guerra». I genitori – raccontano i vicini - erano preoccupati per questa «vacanza diversa» del figlio piccolo. Ma erano anche orgogliosi. E non si erano voluti opporre... dice una vicina. E poi scoppia in lacrime: «... Faceva politica ma non era un estremista. Era un pacifista.».
Paolo Foschi -- Corriere della Sera
11 agosto 2006

And here's what an Italian blogger from Rome, Oltreuomo, had to say about Angelo Frammartino.

Era un pacifista comunista. Sosteneva la possibilità di costruire un mondo con la pace dei cortei e delle buone intenzioni.
In più, era un militante comunista. La posizione più distante dalla mia. Ma era un italiano. Accoltellato vigliaccamente alla gola da un palestinese. Il popolo per cui era andato lì a fare l'animatore per bambini. Era un italiano. Come Quattrocchi e i ragazzi in divisa di Nassirya. Era un italiano. E ha pagato le sue stesse utopie. Era un italiano. E questo mi basta per onorarne la memoria.

Oltreuomo points out that Frammartino was stabbed in the throat in a cowardly manner by one of the people whom he had come to help by serving as camp counselor for Arab children in a project sponsored by his hard-line Communist party. Oltreuomo also mentions Quattrocchi, a guard who came to work in Iraq who was murdered by his captors, as well as the Italian soldiers slaughtered in Nassirya in 2003. "And he [Frammartino] paid for his own utopias." Indeed, I add again that Frammartino's pacifism was a bizarre and contradictory creature. On one hand, he supported the Arab war, including mass murder, against Israel [in the guise of a war by ostensibly oppressed and innocent "Palestinians"]. On the other, the Communist true believer considered himself a "pacifist," although he supported war by the historically aggressive, traditionally Judeophobic Arabs against Jews.
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Coming: The UN as a danger to peace, Jews in 19th century Jerusalem, etc.