No one should be blown up attending religious services with his children. Let’s just stipulate that up front. Regardless of the politics or religious sentiments involved, the mosque bombings in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on Friday, 20 March, were horrific. Many of the images I’ve seen are far too gruesome to post here: shocking to the eye and the heart, on a basic human level.
That said, here is a small emblem of why most Westerners have to talk themselves, using theoretical arguments, into believing that there are vast numbers of “moderate Muslims” who share that same eye and heart.
I write as one who does believe there are such Muslims, partly because I have known them — if also partly because of the argument from theory. Without getting into a big discussion here, I not only believe there are such Muslims, but think it’s important to recognize that, and to have a view that’s both positive and realistic of the tolerance and peace that are possible. (Everything starts, just to be clear, with the Judeo-Christian West affirming what we are, and the importance of living by our values.)
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
On to the small emblem. The Blaze highlighted this morning a video translation posted by MEMRI in which we see the worshipers at the Al-Hashoush mosque in Sanaa just before the explosion there. The Al-Hashoush mosque is a Houthi (Shia) mosque. Islamic State has claimed the attack, but regardless of whether it was Islamic State or not, we can assume the attackers were Sunni. Yemen features a rogue’s gallery of Sunni suspects; we might as well take IS’s word for it.
According to MEMRI’s transcript, the imam encouraged the congregation with this proclamation:
Our belief in Allah will increase after today. We will triumph over their deceit and their arrogance. Allah is with us…
Whereupon the worshipers responded:
Death to America.
Death to Israel.
Curse upon the Jews.
Victory to Islam.
Allah Akbar.
Death to America.
Death to Israel.
Curse upon the Jews.
The bomber came in and the bomb went off.
This chant bears no resemblance to anything Christians hear or say in church — or Jews in synagogue. The only potential analogy I can think of is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright shouting “God damn America! God damn America!” in the church attended by the Obamas in Chicago. But the average Christian or Jew doesn’t think of anything like that, when he thinks of worshiping or being taught, with his family and fellow believers, on the holy day each week. Chanting “death to” anyone looks like a vile abuse of the concept of worship: like pretending it’s worship when it’s nothing more than mob incitement.
Everything that matters about this has probably already been said. The hits just keep on coming.
[The MEMRI video clip is so new that it hasn’t been made available through MEMRI’s YouTube account yet. We will embed the video here when it becomes available. – J.E.]
