Le Juif progressiste que le cheick Qaradawi ne supporte pas

"Nous n'allons pas permettre que les Juifs profanent nos universités, propagent leurs idéologie sioniste et lavent le cerveau de nos étudiants" (Gamal Zahran, député égyptien, 2007)

Elder of Ziyon rapporte que le très respecté cheick al-Qaradawi [Qui est le cheikh Qaradawi, interdit de séjour en France?] a refusé de participer à la 10e conférence de Doha pour le dialogue

interreligieux en raison de la présence de Juifs (un seul Juif?) qu'il accuse d'avoir "usurpé la Palestine". EoZ révèle que le Juif en question - apparemment le seul Juif à y avoir participé - est Reuven Firestone, un rabbin gauchiste, professeur d'études médiévales juives et islamiques à l'Hebrew Union College, et fondateur et co-directeur du Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement. Il a écrit des livres sur le judaïsme pour les musulmans et sur l'Islam pour les Juifs.  Comme le dit EoZ, Firestone est le plus pro-Islam possible qu'un non-musulman puisse être mais pour beaucoup de musulmans, comme pour le Cheick Qaradawi, du fait qu'il est juif, il représente une menace pour l'Islam.  M. Firestone a même écrit un article dans lequel il contextualise l'antisémitisme en islam... tout en admettant que l'antisémitisme est omniprésent en Egypte.  Reuven Firestone peut trouver toutes les excuses à cet antisémitisme qu'il veut mais il ne les fera pas changer d'avis.  A propos, le cheick rendra visite à ses fans à Gaza le 8 mai.

Extraits:  In 2007, Firestone was invited to give a lecture at Ain Shams University but he ended up causing an uproar when it was revealed that he was Jewish - and a rabbi, to boot. 

The furore has caused ripples beyond academia, with 20 parliamentary members quick to jump on the bandwagon and demand that the speaker of the People's Assembly summon members of the parliament's Educational Committee for an urgent meeting to determine who is responsible for the convening of such seminars.

They have also demanded that Hani Helal, the minister of higher education, be sacked.

"We are not going to allow Jews to desecrate our universities, spread their Zionist views and brainwash our students," railed independent MP Gamal Zahran.

A video tape and Arabic translation of the lecture are currently being studied by a committee formed by the university to investigate whether there is any substance to claims that the lecture was offensive to Islam.

His book about Judaism for Muslims (available online in Arabic for free) also came under withering attack in major Arab media, aghast that a different perspective is available where Muslims might accidentally read it. 

Firestone is as pro-Islam as it is possible for a non-Muslim to be, but his very existence is threatening to many Muslims - because he is a Jew.

He wrote a paper about "contextualizing" anti-semitism in Islam. I don't have access to the full text, although in the first page extract you can see that he admits that there is plenty of Jew-hatred in Egypt, where he lived for a time. I would love to know how this specific brand of hate can be "contextualized."

But no matter how he can find excuses for Islamic Jew-hatred, it will never make the haters like him one bit more.