Daniel Pipes' Denial
Reader comment on article: Deadly Denial [of Muslim Anti-Semitism]

Submitted by Ibrahim Izak (United States), Oct 26, 2003 at 08:26

Daniel Pipes in his column Deadly Denial states that Condoleeza Rice incorrectly denies the widespread antisemitism in the Muslim world and then goes on to deny that the Koran says the Jews are apes and pigs. Perhaps Dr. Pipes has not read the following Koranic verse:

"...They are those whom Allah has cast aside and on whom His wrath has fallen and of whom He has made some as apes and swine..." (5:60)
Most of the famous Koranic commentators believe this refers to the Jews. In his ninth-century treatise The Book of Animals, for example, the famous Koranic commentator, Al-Jahiz mentions that it is generally thought that the cheetah, eel, white ant, mouse, and lizard were originally Jews. He says that proof of this is that "the lizard's foot resembles the human hand."

Daniel Pipes in denying the Islamic roots of Muslim antisemitism, is as guilty of denial as Condoleeza Rice.

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Daniel Pipes replies:

As Robert Spencer pointed out to me, "Qur'an 9:30 says Jews and Christians are cursed, and 5:59-60 says that those who are cursed are apes and pigs. Muslims make this connection all the time, particularly for Jews, such that the 'apes and pigs' epithet is quite commonly applied to Jews by Muslims worldwide."

In reply, I wrote him that:

1. I lacked the space to explain all this.

2. The connection of the two verses is not traditional or standard Islam, and would indeed be considered "wrong" by most Muslims.