Chapter One
Egypt Sues Jews From Time of Moses

A Law Suit going back to ancient times reflects modern hatred of Jews and a currently distorted Islam

Unfortunately, modern Islamic polemics are all too often characterized by anti-Semitism, irrational thinking and irrational hate. The following story is an example of just that, so ludicrous it can only be true: Nabil Halimin, Law School Dean and respected lawyer and cleric in Egypt , along with fifteen other lawyers, has set up a legal suit based on happenings that began in ancient Egypt . Their intent is to bring a suit before the International Court, claiming that every Jew in the world is guilty of the theft of 1125 trillion tons of ancient Egyptian gold, supposedly taken on their way out of slavery and bondage. The payment, they acquiesce, can be paid off over the next thousand years. (This information became known to us through MEMRI www.memri.org , an organization that works diligently in translating and making available information in Arabic media.) No, this Egyptian lawsuit is not a Purim joke; it is being pursued quite seriously.
In addition to its obvious absurdity, and its anti-Semitic character, it is very important to recognize that in this lawsuit we are given an example of how far modern Islam has strayed from original Islamic beliefs. The distortion of Islam here is multi-leveled. On a basic level, the shared accepted understandings of ancient Egyptian history are distorted by the lawsuits claims. As does the Judeo-Christian scripture, the Koran and the Hadith also refer to the biblical Pharaoh of Egypt as an evil person, and to the Egyptians of the time as slave masters and perpetrators of cruel and evil conduct toward the Jews. “Cow,” in fact, the largest section of the Koran, is the section which deals with the Exodus from Egypt and concludes that the Jews were victims of an evil regime.
 
The Koran passively agrees with the biblical tradition saying that when the Jews first arrived in Egypt , they saved the Egyptians from death by horrible famine. Joseph’s plan and later the famine itself, ended with the blessings brought by the arrival of our father Jacob. The reward that the ungrateful Egyptians gave to the Jews was a lengthy and bitter enslavement. Eventually male Jewish children were systematically murdered, Jewish wealth was confiscated, and throughout the enslavement, Jews were forced into hard slave labor. Thus toward the end of the Israelis bondage in Egypt , the monies received by the Jews were given freely by the Egyptians, merely a payment given as an act of attempted compensation.
 
Here, we emphasize that the Bible – the primary source of the accounting of these happenings – testifies that the contributions of the Egyptians to the soon-to-be-freed slaves, were neither coerced, forced, nor taken by robbery. So here, Halimin and his friends are distorting Islam.
The above describes the first and primary flaw in the integrity of the lawsuit. Looked at from an additional perspective another crack in the case is revealed. Even if an unpaid debt had existed (which there hadn’t) the Egyptians of today are not exactly the same people of ancient Egypt . If monies were owed, it wouldn’t be to Halimin’s cohorts. Since biblical times there have been too many migrations, (including the forced moving of slave populations into Egypt ), in order for purity of ancestry to be assumed.
 
Further subtleties related to the time of the Exodus and teachings about this time, are also distorted by the lawsuit. According to the Koran, at that pre-exodus point in history, the Hebrews were the only banner holders for the belief in one G-d. Even where the Koran does criticize Jewish people for specific faults, it never says, nor implies, that God cancelled any of his promises to them. His admonishments are simple positive corrections, as given to a beloved child. According to the Koran, throughout the drama of the Hebrews in Egypt , the children of Israel were the good guys. According to some understandings, on a deeper level, G-d arranged this symbolic restitution as a kindness to the Egyptians who low on excuses and extenuating circumstances were in need of help to achieve any atonement for their cruel actions. The transfer of wealth was also of course an act of simple justice; the Egyptians had stolen wealth, time, lives, and of course, a brilliant work force that built their ancient metropolis. They were merely paying back a small portion of what they had brutally taken.
Christian, Muslim, Bahai; all sources agree that G-d had punished the Egyptians, not the Jews. This concept of punishment meted out to the Egyptians and not to the Jews, is another tenet of original Islam distorted by the radical Islam of Halimin’s lawsuit. The Exodus has long served as a classical paradigm, an example and source of inspiration through out history for groups, nations and religions who aspire to free themselves from tyrannical oppressive regimes. The Jewish bible wanted to proclaim for all time its opposition to tyrants and oppressors. Otherwise, God could have found a way to free the Jews without consequences for the tyrants and oppressors. (George Bush’s idea of regime replacement was the order of the day way back when in Egypt .)
 
On a lighter note, Bush Senior has declared a new world order, so it’s now appropriate to come up with some new world proverbs… Home is where you hang your @. The e-mail of the species is more deadly then the mail. The geek shall inherit the earth. Pentium wise, pen and paper foolish. There’s no place like homepage. And finally, a journey of a thousand sites begins with a single click. (Courtesy of Heather Borsdorf, Readers Digest.) Just like the Islamists lawsuit doesn’t reflect the Koran, likewise other Islamists activities are not reflective of the Koran, the Sunna, the Qiyis (logical analysis) and the Ijma (scholarly agreement). Ayatollah Khomeini’s institutionalized rape against the enemies captured women was also against all tenets of the Koran and doctrines of true Islam, and the Ayatollah was referred to as a father, the father of an Islamic revolution. Thousands of girls, and some boys, are kidnapped from Arab/Muslim countries, are brutalized and turned into work and sex slaves. Saudi Arabia and other so-called Muslim countries are also involved with this on an institutionalized basis, with absolutely no basis in the Koran. Muslims in the Sudan and Egypt absorbed the pagan rite of female mutilation. Thereafter, they spread this insanity through their missionary activity like malaria and Ebola. Therefore, Mohammed was shocked when he was questioned about this rite. Mohammed was shocked, but not shocked enough. Trying to do some damage control, knowing an outright prohibition would be ineffective, said,
“If you think you must, do it, but don’t cut too deep.”
Also important to recall are the tenets of law governing such situations as the one described above - where a lawsuit is brought to court by Muslims demanding restitutions (which as we have just explained are not deserved) in the name of earlier Muslims. Well, the ancient Egyptians weren’t Muslims! The ancient Egyptians were pagans who practiced human sacrifice. Deification of man was part of their theology (for instance they believed Pharaoh to be god-incarnate. All this directly contradicts all forms of Islam. Belief in a man-god or son-of-god is severely criticized in the Koran and lists are provided of horrible punishments that await Christians in hell as a consequence for deifying man.
 
There actually is a positive side to this judicial farce being conducted by top-notch Egyptian lawyers in the name of Islam. Since they intend to sue every single Jewish person in the entire world, they are ipso-facto acknowledging that the Jews of today are the legitimate descendents of the ancient Hebrews. This is in contradistinction to today’s mixture of Nazi propaganda and radical Islam; for the purpose of political arguments about (against!) the rights of modern Jewry to a Jewish state, groups like these often claim that the Jews of today are not the lineage of the original Jews. Again, this radical propaganda is a distortion of original Islam. In Sura 5 of the Koran, the descendants of Jacob are recognized as the owners and inheritors of the width and breadth of the entire biblically mapped out and delineated land of Israel .
 
From what kind of a legal system does this case originate anyway?
 
In addition to all of this, not only was the behavior of the Jews towards the Egyptians above reproach in ancient times, above reproach in times of recent history as well, but the Arab Egyptians, (and other Arabs of modern times) should take note that currently there is no place in the entire middle east, where an Arab Muslim can be treated with more respect and fairness by judicial systems, police and army forces, then in the State of Israel by the Israeli judicial system and by the Israeli police and army forces.

Civil Rights Not Civilized

Take for example, civil rights. Any Muslim in Israel enjoys full freedom of speech; he can protest against any regime practice, or policy, without fear of being tortured to death in consequence. This is in vast contradistinction to the Muslim states in the region, where freedom of speech is null and any show of arrogance can bring instant ands severe punishment – even possibly torture and death.
 
Take a glance at another example: the criminal-judicial system. In Israel , if an individual does become a criminal suspect and is accused of committing a crime, then there is no court system in the Middle East that would treat the (Arab or other) individual with the fairness, objectivity and justice of the Israeli Court system. Once again this is in sharp contrast to other Middle East countries wherein courts are corrupt. Issues of religion and/or party affiliation, as well as family and tribal prestige and honor, carry far more influence than legal facts and far more weight then evidence. In these countries, court rulings wave back and forth with the whims of political intrigue and subtle shifts of power. A couple of examples are as follows.
Famous Arab Historian Ibn Khaldun describes the widespread prevalence of terror and brutality in Arab fiefdoms. The above institutions forbidding free speech and promising quick and severe retribution to non-conformers, contain conditions which guarantee to lead to brutality and slaughter. Ibn Khaldun describes the Syrian regime that recently slaughtered the entire village of Hama , leaving 20,000 men, women and children dead in the space of three days, and also the Hussein family (the darlings of the left-wing) of the Palestinian Kingdom of Jordan , who slaughtered 30,000 men, women and children during Black September in 1970, over political rivalry.

Christians Persecuted

Egypt regularly terrorizes its own citizens and forced their Coptic Christians to live literally in the midst of garbage dumps; one can see these garbage-and-refuse constructed shacks from the street. Oil rich Qatar publicly blasts Egypt for their nest of terrorist-producing extremists. Egyptian terrorists for example recently planted a suicide car bomb that exploded at a theater catering to European audiences (The night that the theater was performing of all plays, Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”) These brutalities exist in plain sight because the dictatorships have no fear of even the smallest of protests. (Carl Joseph Kuschel, Abraham: Sign of Hope for Jews, Christians and Muslims, Continuum, 1995. And, The Ariel Center for Policy Research, Prof. Ezra Zohar, and Susan Rolef, Carter Violence as Reality: Assassination and Massacre in the Arab World, 1983. And, Alan and Helen Cutler, The Jew as an Ally of the Muslim: Medieval Roots of Anti-Semitism, Notre Dame Press. And Bassam Tibi, The Challenge of Fundamentalism: Political Islam and the New World Disorder, UCLA Press, 1998.)

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