Saladin’s men

Six miles from where I sit a school is teaching Arabic-speaking children to sing the following song, hand motions and all:

“We will sacrifice our souls without hesitation. We will chop off heads. … Those who accept humiliation—what is the point of their existence? Those who reject oppression are the ones who assert their existence and they eliminate injustice from the land of the Arabs. Rebels! Rebels! Rebels! Glorious steeds call us and lead us onto paths leading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The blood of martyrs protects us. Paradise needs real men! The land of the Prophet Muhammad’s night journey is calling us. Our Palestine must return to us. Oh Saladin, your men are among us. …”

When the recitation surfaced on Facebook the second week of May, here is how The Philadelphia Inquirer headlined it, in an article buried in “The Region” section of the paper: “Muslim Leaders Report Threats.”

Huh?

Two related editorials bore these titles: “Security Alert Follows Posting of Video of Children Reciting Violent Poems, Songs”; and “What’s on the Video Is Wrong, But Don’t Use It to Smear All Muslims.”

I was reminded of a tongue-in-cheek Australian headline from two years ago: “Muslims Fear Backlash After Tomorrow’s Terrorist Attack.” How would they write up a burglary, one wonders: “Beleaguered burglar files lawsuit after injuring his ankle tripping over child’s monster truck while exiting burgled house with stolen heirlooms.” (Except it’s not a good analogy, come to think of it, because that craziness is a real thing too.)

The Muslim American Society Islamic Center, site of the chilling school performance, issued a press release the next day: “Not all songs were properly vetted. This was an unintended mistake and an oversight.” Pardon me but what was a “mistake” and “oversight”? The exposure of an agenda? Don’t ask. The non-apology apology is supposed to be enough to satisfy us—as it did evidently satisfy the Inquirer, which has never revisited the topic in subsequent issues. Nothing to see here.

Sometimes when I’m not busy wondering why glue doesn’t stick to the inside of the bottle, I ponder: Why are the good guys always so naïve? Virtue should be made of sterner stuff. If you returned from a business trip early and walked in on your wife with another man in your bed, would you buy the tale that he’s a tired cousin on a long journey? Fine, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Many Muslims say the Quranic concept of taqiya sanctions lying to infidels in self-defense. Some extend that to lying in the goal of world domination. It is the reason Yasser Arafat in 1993 could sign his name to the Oslo Accords declaring the Palestinians’ peaceful intentions.

Continuing its poor-beleaguered-Muslims slant on the decapitation video revelation, the Inquirer writes that fear of reprisals “prompted the Philadelphia branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to issue an advisory Monday to all Islamic institutions to increase security precautions throughout the month,” adding that “the CAIR office in Center City was itself threatened by a caller.” It chases down juicy Islamic statements, including this money quote from one Amir Qasim Rashad of the United Muslim Masjid in South Philadelphia, who laments that “places of worship used to be sacred, but now they are the target.”

By the end of the article you’re hopping mad—not at the Muslim video but at people who have the nerve to react negatively to it.

Meanwhile, back in realville, absent from the news piece is that CAIR was founded by two men with ties also to the Muslim Brotherhood, which funnels cash to Hamas and is dedicated to the annihilation of Israel. And that CAIR, which presents itself as a reputable civil rights group and has infiltrated American government social programs and agencies, was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial. The Holy Land Foundation in turn was the solution cooked up at a three-day meeting in Philadelphia in October, 1993, to discuss, after the Oslo Accords, how to continue supporting Hamas while avoiding being viewed as terrorists.

And the children down the road sing on.