Isis and Islam

Bernard Lewis, a leading American authority of Islam, notes: 'it is surely presumptuous for those who are not Muslims to say what is orthodox and what is heretical in Islam' (That Obama was born and raised a Muslim has no relevance here, for he left the faith and cannot pronounce on it.)" ('ISIS Is Not Islamic?,' Daniel Pipes.org, September 10, 2014).

ZOA National President Morton Klein said, "President Obama is making the absurd, untenable claim that all terrorism, carried out by avowedly Muslim groups, acting explicitly in the name of their religion, and citing Islamic scripture and sources, are somehow not Muslim.

"Has President Obama not noticed that Hamas, a U.S.- and E.U.-listed terrorist organization, calls in its Charter for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews? Does he not know that Hamas is an avowedly Muslim organization, indeed, part of the Muslim Brotherhood? That it cites in support of its program authoritative Islamic sources, like the hadith which says, 'The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.'

"Has he not noticed that other radical Muslim groups call for terrorism and murdering non-believers? Does not Al-Qaeda call for murdering civilians, even Muslims who oppose it? Did Al-Qaeda not carry out attacks on Muslims in Jordan in 2005, for example? Is Al-Qaeda not an avowedly Muslim organization?

"Did not Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the avowedly Shia Muslim terrorist group Hizballah, not say in 2002: "if they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide"? 

"This statement by President Obama is shockingly inaccurate but not surprising. The Obama Administration has a long record of denying any Islamic connection between jihadist terrorism and the religion of Islam.