While Jews around the world commemorate the inability of an ancient villain to make good on his threat to wipe out the Jews of Persia with the holiday of Purim, some in the Arab world are preparing to celebrate one such effort that did not fail. In the seventh century, the large Jewish community in the Arabian Peninsula fell victim to the influence of the newborn Muslim movement. The result was that after a futile effort to defend themselves, the three Jewish tribes of the region–the Banu Nadir, the Banu Qainuqa and the Banu Qurayza–were all forced into exile after the battle of Khaiber. The Prophet Mohammed’s followers mercilessly slaughtered the bulk of the latter tribe. This sad chapter of history is little known in the West even among Jews but it is familiar to Muslims who, even today, use the phrase “Khaiber” as a battle cry to rally opposition to Israel and as an indication of their desired fate for the Jews who live in the Middle East today.
But as the Anti-Defamation League’s blog reports, a Qatar-based production company is slated to start filming next month of a multi-millionaire dollar television series focused on the events of Khaiber. The author of the script is Yusri Al-Jindy, whose work has previously depicted Jews and Israelis as bloodthirsty villains.
Arab countries, including Morocco, Egypt and Jordan, and will apparently feature several well-known Arab actors. Echo Media Qatar has reportedly started building sets with structures similar to the ones inhabited by Jews 1,400 years ago.
A report on Al Jazeera in Arabic yesterday described “Khaiber” as “the most important feature of the Islamic-Jewish fight. Muslims always raise its name in their rallies against Israel because it constitutes a memory of a harsh defeat for the Jews who lived in the Arabian Peninsula during the time of prophet.”
The story of “Khaiber,” according to most Islamic sources, ends with the execution of thousands of Jews, including women and children. Protesters at anti-Israel rallies around the world, including the U.S., often evoke this battle in their chants to galvanize supporters.
According to Al Jazeera, Al-Jindy said he wrote the script because “the Zionist movement is currently passing through a turning point as a result of the changes in the Arab world.”
The filming of “Khaiber” is just the latest instance of major TV productions in the Arab world (which are often broadcast in prime time during Ramadan) being used to promote anti-Semitic themes. Egyptian TV’s “Knight Without a Horse” blockbuster centered on the forged “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” canard. Echo Media Qatar has previously produced a film blaming the Jews for the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
But the “Khaiber” film is especially significant because it blends ancient hatreds with contemporary hopes for a similar destruction of the Jews. The goal of such a film is to dehumanize the Jewish people and to delegitimize their rights, especially to self-defense.
The genocide of the Jews of Arabia is a historical fact that speaks to the intolerance of early Islam that need not inform contemporary relations between Jews and Muslims. But the glorification of the slaughter of Arabian Jews more than 1,300 years ago is a not-so-subtle signal that justifies the efforts of those who intend a similar fate for the 6 million Jews of Israel. The embrace of these ideas by a popular Muslim audience is an ominous sign that the sea change in Arab culture that will be required to create a genuine peace in the Middle East is nowhere in sight.
Will the State Department help fund it? The UN? n nExpect to see glowing reviews in the Guardian and the New York Times once the film is released. n nThen again, the NYT will probably just ignore it since their official policy is to ignore all Jew-hate emanating from anywhere in the world.
Jew-hating news is just not fit to print.
This is actually a good thing, in the sense that seeing the way things are is always better than pretending they are something that they are not. n nI think it is a dumb move for the Arab world, however, in that it will make clear to the West how they really feel about Jews, and how it has nothing to do a fictitious 'people' they call the 'Palestinians'. n nBut perhaps the Arab world knows better that the West will avert its eyes from any inconvenient realities.
While it's always better to see things as they are and to stop pretending otherwise, it's not as if many Muslims haven't been making it clear for quite some time that what they really want is to create the conditions for another genocide of the Jewish people (then again, many apparently believe this would be the first genocide since Holocaust denial is also rampant in that society). n nIt isn't that many in the "West" are ignorant of this genocidal compulsion. n nIt is that many in the West, but especially among the intelligentsia and the Left in Europe and the UK, have zero interest in combating the eliminationist antisemitic rhetoric which is rife among many Muslims. Indeed, quite the opposite is the case since genocidal antisemitism is, if not actively promoted in the books, classrooms, lectures, newspapers, and journals of the intelligentsia and the Left, then it is tolerated to the point that anti-antisemitism is no longer considered a viable moral position.
Exactly my point. n nAt the end of the day, the most important western audience for this arab eliminationist crap are Jews – European, American, and Israeli, particularly and especially those on the left. n nFor it is those whose ideas and actions risk Israel and the well being of Jews worldwide. n nIf Jews were unified, there would be no problem. Jewish political unity plus military capability and preparedness = safety, if not invincibility.
yes
"But perhaps the Arab world knows better that the West will avert its eyes from any inconvenient realities." nExactly. Nothing to see – move along. One IDF soldier tweets something silly and all of Israel is somehow implicated. Nothing that happens in the Arab and/or Muslim world can be allowed to taint Islam. n"I think it is a dumb move for the Arab world…" Only if the rest of the statement is true. n"…in that it will make clear to the West how they really feel about Jews…" Unfortunately, no. Or, rather, it will, once again, make clear how little the West cares about how they really feel about Jews. n"At the end of the day, the most important western audience for this arab eliminationist crap are Jews – European, American, and Israeli, particularly and especially those on the left. " The problem is, it seems to me, that these people are more defined by "left" than "Jew", which means it is unlikely they will see through this "crap".
This was the pinnacle of Muslim Arab society and it's all been an inexorable downhill slide from that. That's really what's at the root of Islamism – a harkening back to the only time in Arab Muslim history they weren't the hopeless worthless laughingstocks of the world.
The way I heard it, the Jewish areas in Arabia when Mohamed lived were islands of wealth in a sea of poverty. Islands of literacy and learning in a sea of ignorance. Islands of monotheism and animal sacrifice (and consumption) in a sea of star and stone worship and child sacrifice. n nThe way I heard it, Mohamed was attracted to Judaism, especially by Yom Kippur. The way I heard it, Mohamed's followers originally faced East in prayer because in that direction lay Jerusalem, not Mecca. The way I heard it, the illiterate Arab Prophet wanted to join the learned and cultured Jews if only they would make him their leader and let him share in their wealth. The Jews responded with a great big horselaugh. They didn't know they were being made an offer they couldn't refuse. The rest is history. n nThe way I heard it, Mohamed would have been a footnote in history and Islam unknown were it not for the immense treasure Mohamed and his followers looted from the Jews. And the material goods were the least of what was stolen. n nChristianity and Islam were created of Judaism. That knowledge and the certainty of Judaism's primal authenticity arouses shame and jealousy among its imitators and fuels hatred of Jews and Judaism.
That knowledge and the certainty of Judaism's primal authenticity arouses shame and jealousy among its imitators and fuels hatred of Jews and Judaism. n nand n n needs to delegitimize Jews and Judaiasm… n none denies the Jewish Holy Book as corrupt, the other denies the Jewish exegesis as invalid and both insist their version superceeds the Holy Jewish Bible. n nthe existance of living successful Jews is intolerable to these people who teach that wretchedness is the fate of Jews who will not believe their new and/or improved version. n nWretchedness or death.. they all need dead Jews n n
An Arab film celebrating the slaughter of Jews? Well, if I were an Arab living in a Western nation with a Jewish population I'd be preparing for violence against my person and/or property. We all know the dangers of religious zealots. By tomorrow morning I expect to see the flags of Islamic nations burning on the streets of Jerusalem, London, and NYC. And, er, wait. Wrong religion. Never mind. nI suppose, rather, we can expect to see Roger Cohen rationalize the production. Clearly this is an outreach effort, which should be met by Israel withdrawing from pretty much everywhere while simultaneously sharing their nukes with whomever.
And I'm sure that the White House and its proxies will condemn this film just as vigorously as they condemned that silly internet trailer for a non-existent movie about Mohammed. And I'm sure that if anyone in the US has anything to do with producing or distriibuting this celebration of genocide, the White House and its proxies will see that he too is locked up (not that I am advocating the latter). n nJust as sure as I am that the sun will come up tomorrow in the West.
We live in a mad, mad world.
So on release we'll see hundreds of Jews demanding Muslim heads? n nOr maybe they'll storm some Muslim embassy and kill an ambassador and his minders? n nThen what will Obama do? Blame the film makers? n n
No, the Islamists will take this film as a call for more violence, and the Obamas of the world will excuse it, apologize for it, laud it.
"Then what will Obama do? Blame the film makers? " nNo, he'll blame people who insulted the prophet of Islam, and who accordingly have no right to a future.
Let's keep some perspective. I'm sure that the usual gang of apologists will tell us that Khaiber was just a spontaneous protest by oppressed people against Netanyahu's future policies, US Islamaphobia, and the Greater Banu Qainuqa goals of the extremist right wing ultra-Orthodox fanatics. And GOM and BillPat will applaud that neither side used US-furnished weapons.
The West and the Muslims are jealous about the Jews and one half of Jews (Lt) feels guilty that after being obliged to become proficient in a number of human activities, these same Jews mastered these human activities and even more. In toto, the jealous and the guilty want to submit the other half of the Jews. Are these Jews stupid!
I hear George Galloway is playing the Prophet (PBUH).
Is there no fear that in response to this film enraged Jews will take to the streets and wreak mayhem on non-Jews, demanding that the film-makers be put to death and all copies of the film destroyed? (Oops, didn't see that logdon said something very similar hours ago.)