According to Fox News, Mohammed Ali Hamadi, mastermind of the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 where he killed US Navy diver Robert Dean Stetham, has rejoined Hezbollah as an active operative. Germany released Hamadi in December 2005, in spite of pleas from US officials to not parole him.
Just days after Hamadi’s return to Lebanon, kidnappers in Iraq* released a German prisoner. US officials aren’t ruling out that the two are connected.
I’ll post more information as soon as I find it.
*I changed the phrase “Iraqi hostage takers” to “kidnappers in Iraq” for clarity. I don’t know if those who kidnapped the German man were actually Iraqi.
Good to know that we’re sending a crystal clear message:
If you kidnap one of our citizens, we will reward you with a prisoner swap.
These negotiators must be absolutely terrible parents. “Now Billy, don’t misbehave or I’ll give you exactly what you want!”
I wonder if the Germans care.
This piece of sxxx should have been silenced 20 years ago.
This should not surprise anyone. The Germans have been doing this since Munich.
At least he’s fair game now.
Why didn’t we have people waiting for this piece of garbage as he walked out the prison door?
Muhammad’s life, theology and attitude all changed like a Jekyll and Hyde when he left Mecca for Medina. Since all the prophets before Muhammad were stoned or killed by Jews—or so he said—why did he lack the faith and perseverance to endure the same at their hands? I note that Muhammad fled Mecca; he literally ran out of town in fear of his life. For Muslims to use the word “migration” in English is only one of their purposeful and skillful uses of the language. Migration connotes a choice, a peaceful, deliberate move from one place to another for the benefits thereof. Muhammad had offended their gods and had divided people in Mecca he was a source of strife, and everyone wanted him gone. Migration does not clearly cover this aspect of his departure. The second stage of Muhammad’s life started during 622 A.D., when he “migrated” to Medina, which was called Yathrib, and which is called in our modern times as Al-Madina Al-Monawara, or the illuminated city. In this second stage, after Muhammad gave up on converting the masses by the free exchange of ideas, violent Jihad became the call to all Muslims, according to the Koran. Keep in mind, the Koran is the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and thus, in every age, for all eternity, if the non-believer will not convert, he is to be killed. The much-touted “doctrinal agreement with the Jews and Christians” morphed into extreme doctrinal differences when Muhammad came out of the war of Uhud [1] that the Muslims lost to the people of Mecca. Immediately upon losing this war, Allah revealed to Muhammad that the God of the Jews and Christians IS NOT the same as Allah! Now the theological bases were set in place for all non-believers to be de-humanized and conquered through violent Jihads. Did Allah change His mind? NO, but perhaps Muhammad did. The Eternal God does not change His mind, since He is immutable. Muhammad must have had a change of heart and mind as he was defeated, disgraced, and badly wounded in his war with Mecca. He had lost many brave men, some of who were his relatives, as was Hamza. Muhammad’s shift in attitude and discourse is simply brushed aside by Muslims by stating that “Allah abrogates [nullifies, or changes] whatever He pleases.” This is true for human but not true for God because he is immutable. Even if we agree that God can change His mind, this does not explain Muhammad’s shift in attitude from reconciliation to violence and beheading of his enemies. The texts that were revealed in Mecca were never abrogated, as we read in Koran 3:151. “Soon shall we cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers, for that they joined companions [said Jesus was Divine] with Allah, for which he had sent no authority: their abode will be the fire: And evil is the home of the wrong-doers!” Here, Muhammad places Christians directly in the Muslims’ lines of sight for terror. This shift of attitude is based on Muhammad’s relations with the “people of the book,” but such shift did not include the pagan Arabs themselves. Muhammad was more than ready to acknowledge their gods; he promoted them. It is true that Muhammad was persecuted in Mecca, and Muslims claim these persecutions reached a level of threats on his life. But it is also true to Arab nature that he did not like being humiliated. Is it possible that Muhammad’s own personality problems caused him to run away and to shift to violence? There was no other prophet before him with such a pattern. Though many of his followers came from the slave class or were poor, uneducated Arabs, Muhammad took pride in the fact that his uncle, Abu Talib, and many other strong figures had become Muslims. Followers like Hamza, Ali Ibn Abu Talib, Abu Bakr, Uthman Bin Afan, Omer Ibn- Katab, who were all public figures and highly respected, heartened him. Muhammad was also encouraged by support from both of his clans, the Hashim and the Al-Mutallib. The support of his blood relatives, even if they did not agree with every thing Muhammad did, provided him with the loyalty and honor of the clans, which took precedence over all their theological differences. During his stay in Mecca, Muhammad masterfully turned the lives of the rich people to misery. He offended everyone in his bitter rages. He managed to undermine their sacred practices by pointing out their hypocrisies. He preached about the plight of their slaves, fully angering the rich in Mecca, the virtual Grand Central station for the slave trade. Muhammad remained married to his first wife, Khadeja, until her death. After her death, he began to take on multiple wives. Upon the death of two of the most important people in his life, his wife, Khadeja, and his uncle, Abu-Talib, in or around 619 A. D., he was finished in Mecca. His uncle had been his main source of emotional support and his main protector. Abu-Talib, although never having embraced the prophet’s message, had nonetheless used the solidarity of the Hashim clan to defend Muhammad. When Muhammad’s attempt to win the conversions of his clan did not work, he was openly mocked. The public’s suspicion of his message’s Divine authenticity hardened. Muhammad answered by a scathing attack on the gods of Mecca. First, he had told them their gods were ok; now he was fiercely opposing those gods as idols. The Arabs of Mecca chose to approach Muhammad’s uncle, Abu-Talib, in an effort to calm down his nephew. After all, he was insulting their gods, disturbing their way of life, and generally freaking out the established gentry by his outrageous claims. In one more attempt to turn Muhammad from his mission to destroy their way of life, they implored his respected uncle to convince Muhammad to stop ridiculing their gods and all that was sacred to them. In return, the people of Mecca offered to make him the richest in town, and if Muhammad agreed to calm down, they offered to install him as their chief. Muhammad’s response was, “If they give me the sun on my right hand and the moon on the other hand, just to leave what I am doing, I will not.” Muhammad’s resistance gave the gentry of Mecca no obvious alternative but to eliminate him. But how could they kill Muhammad and risk a war with Muhammad’s clan? Not a single tribe by itself could afford such a war. They had already attempted unsuccessfully to cut all ties of marriage and trade with Muhammad’s clan, to no avail. What the leaders decided upon was a brilliant plan to kill Muhammad. They chose one young strong man from each of their allied clans to attack Muhammad in his bed while he slept. With one strike, in which all these young warriors would participate, they could scatter the responsibility for the blood of Muhammad among more clans than his tribe could handle. According to the Muslim historian Al-Tabare, “The angel Gabriel came to Muhammad and told him, ‘do not stay this evening in your bed.’” [2] Muhammad took off from the town with his closest friend, Abu-Bakr, and this is purported to be the reason for his “migration” to Yathrib [Medina] in 622 A.D. in the third month of the lunar calendar. He had already sent his followers ahead to Medina and commanded his followers who fled to Ethiopia to return to Medina, for Allah provided for them in Medina a shelter. His wife, Khadeja, had secured a refuge for him in Medina shortly before her death. Islamic scholars assert that when Muhammad arrived in Medina, the city was torn apart by quarrels and skirmishes between two of the major Bedouin tribes, the Aws and the Khazraj. Though this may have been the case, we can surmise that Muhammad offered to bring them together. However, knowing Muhammad’s cunning, he most likely used their differences to his advantage where possible, as well. Both classic and contemporary Muslim historians say that he brought peace, but we have only their side of the story. “It was only about the time when the prophet announced his mission at Mecca that these tribes, after long years of continuous warfare, entered on a period of comparative peace.” [3] He announced that he was leaving to go to Medina, using the pretext that he was asked to come to Medina as a mediator. He announced this to the people in Mecca so that it would not appear that he was fleeing Mecca, but we note that he departed Mecca under cover of darkness. . Quarrels existed in Medina not only before the arrival of Muhammad, but new quarrels took place because Muhammad came to town. As Muhammad arrived, Medina was smoldering with rivalries. There were the two quarrelling main Arab tribes, the Muhajirun (“immigrants,” i.e., the believers who had immigrated to Medina from Mecca or elsewhere) and the Ansar (“helpers,” i.e., Muhammad’s first followers in Medina). These squabbling tribes had invited Muhammad, with his followers, to take refuge with them. There was also strife between some of Medina’s Jews and the new Muslim believers (sic.”) [4] Two tribes are recorded to have asked Muhammad to mediate between them. Yet we have only ten people who were called Ansar. These were those who supported Muhammad and had become Muslims while on their annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Is it possible that these two “tribes” were a majority of the people in Medina? Most likely the two tribes were smaller ones, but some claim today that a majority of inhabitants of Medina were already Muslim when Muhammad arrived. It is doubtful. These questions may seem obscure and irrelevant to the Christian who wants to share his faith with a Muslim. However, it is important to understand that Muhammad changed not only his theology and tactics, but he shifted his location to suit his agenda. Readers will see clearly the shift of his theology when I deal with the chapters on the Holy Spirit and God. Muhammad, when he was in Mecca, reached out with a tone of reconciliation and peace. He even addressed the Christians as having the same God as he did. Once he had the upper hand, however, along with some manpower in Medina, everything changed. He became violent. He demanded submission; he waged wars (Jihads) and exhibited a completely different nature than what he had in Mecca. This is very important for Muslims to know, and for Christians to highly emphasize. Christendom offered a choice between conversion, or exile, apostasy and death to Jews and Muslims in Catholic Spain. Some quasi-intellectuals wrongly state that Jews under Islam fared better through the centuries than they have in recent modern Europe, saying that they were not generally called to martyrdom for their faith. However, this view is intellectually dishonest at best. The view that Jews fared better under Islam than under Christendom proves the adherent either ignorant of, or unwilling to concede the bloody history of Islam. The purpose of this book is not to explore in great depth this bloody history, but it is rather to expose the theological tenets that permanently sanction the use of fear as a weapon to spread Islam. The unique contribution of Muhammad to the history of forced conversions is that he gave his new religion Divine dimensions of violence and repression, claiming that Allah himself wills the Jihad. The world today sees the violent results of such a belief. The Muslims bring up the Crusades whenever the subject of Jihad is raised. The Crusades were a reaction to the Muslims’ actions in overrunning the Holy Land. As I stated earlier, we should not confuse the theology with the practice. As we look at Islam, we see in its very theology a prescription for violence and killing. Their holy books claim it is the word of Allah that all Jews and Christians convert, or be killed. The religion ascribes to Allah the desire to kill off every non-believer makes Islam unique among religions. The angel Gabriel is said to have recited to Muhammad, “When you are in doubt in what we have revealed unto you, then ask the people of the book.” Muhammad failed to do so. Convenient to Muhammad’s growing ambitions, Gabriel is further said to recite, “Kill the non-believers.” Amazingly, to my mind, the angel was there just in the knick of time, ready to justify Muhammad’s shift of attitude and doctrines! As I continued to study Islam, I read more of Muhammad’s blatant insults, fanatical patterns and expedient tactics. I was astonished to see that the angel Gabriel was right behind, revealing new proclamations on what Muhammad did the day before. This same Gabriel had not been in any rush to justify other prophets before. Rather, the Jewish prophets suffered for delivering prophecy and in many cases were condemned for speaking God’s Word. I continued to give Islam the benefit of the doubt, thinking that I may have read the wrong scholar. To my dismay, I found that all the scholars thought alike, and the pages of the Koran attested to my conclusions. All of this caused me serious doubt about the claim the Koran was the word of Allah. Islam was more a cult of Muhammad than anything else. To prove the claim that the Koran is the word-for-word dictation of Allah, the Koran should be consistent and of the same theology throughout, no matter the location of the prophet. The reality of Muhammad’s life is anything but consistent, and his theology and morals changed drastically from place to place. Muhammad’s life itself brings into question for the intellectual Muslim, whether the Koran is of Divine origin or not. Indeed, many Muslims doubt it and even say so, but they are prohibited from finding another faith. To return to our subject, the truth is that not every one in Medina was comfortable with Muhammad’s presence or his new theology, which he claimed was the faith of Abraham. Abraham is said to be the first Muslim [5]…Well, where does this leave Noah, Elijah, and Adam? By now, Muhammad’s presence in Medina had begun to instill fear in the community. Muhammad’s own admission and various texts in the Koran convey the idea. There were those in Medina called Munafeqeen (hypocrites) by Muhammad; these converted to Islam out of fear rather than faith. Muslim scholars insist that the converts in Medina were in the minority. [6] If they were a minority, their conversions would have gone relatively unnoticed. But the Muslims insist that these conversions were publicly well known. Perhaps the Muslims who claim the converts were in the minority are counting only the ones who were “true” converts to the faith; masses of others must have converted publicly out of fear, I would assert. Muhammad proceeded with a tactic to divide and conquer in Medina. Certainly the attraction of a superior status as Arabs, coupled with the “Divine” mandate to steal, kill and destroy the non-Muslim made many Arabs convert for self-serving motives. No one had to turn the other cheek or love one’s enemies. No one was called to sacrifice oneself for others. Quite the reverse was now available, and it was a new and final religion! You could do away with your enemies and not go to confession afterward! In fact, you would gain “entry to Paradise” by killing the non-Muslim. The first two years that Muhammad was in Medina, he still prayed towards Jerusalem. But once he took on the Jews and raided their caravans in Jihad, he switched the direction of prayer towards Mecca. This was a radical shift, because no longer was the Allah of Muhammad the same as the God of Israel. Muhammad claimed that Abraham and Ishmael had built Mecca. He added this prestige for Mecca, praying towards it as the holiest of cities! The Bedouins saw now, that they would be written forever into the Divine code of Islam. It would give Bedouin Mecca, rather than Jerusalem, a dignity above all others. Everything was in place to persuade the Arabs. The Ansar (partisans) were familiar with the concept of one God, since they lived amongst the Jews in Medina, who composed the majority of the city. The Christian populations living there also believed in one God. The Ansar supporters eventually brought 75 men to follow Muhammad, and they entered into a treaty with the prophet called Baye’aht Al-Aqaba. These 75 men came from the same locale as the relatives of Muhammad’s wife, Khadeja, lived. Her tribe had converted, so it is fair to assume that they may have been members of Khadeja’s clan. In the treaty of Aqaba, the Ansar (partisans, or supporters) accepted Muhammad as a prophet and took an oath to defend him if he were attacked. They pledged to provide refuge for the other followers, as well as a pledge to allow the Jews to practice their faith freely, though the Jews had not entered into the treaty of Aqaba. Soon after his arrival in Medina, Muhammad ordered a series of raids (Jihads) on the merchant caravans coming north from Mecca along the busy trade route. Medina was a strategic and economic trade center between Syria and Mecca, and Muhammad used it to his full advantage. The Muhajareen (who had followed Muhammad to Medina) joined in the earliest Jihads of Muhammad. They needed income to gain independence from the Ansar (supporters who were their hosts in Medina,) and to replace whatever they had lost in Mecca before they fled. Muhammad was gradually building his base, primarily through the material gains that were to be had by those who joined him in his Jihads. Eventually, Mecca itself had to fight Muhammad; his stranglehold was now in place along the trade route that they needed for their livelihood. Muhammad launched raid after raid against their caravans, seizing valuable booty and hostages, disrupting the commercial lifeblood of Mecca. [7] The Muslims fought three major wars against Mecca: at Badr (624 A.D.), and again at Uhud (625 A.D.), and again at Khandaq (627 A.D.). There were no less than 22 assault raids according to Ibn-Al-Tabari, not counting the Jihads that were carried out by other Muslim commanders during Muhammad’s eight years in Medina. These raids were no less than terrorist attacks, and they caused many to be willing to do anything to bring peace with the prophet Muhammad. Muhammad’s approach towards the Jews of Medina was no less a cause of fright than he had been in Mecca. His hostile tactics were well calculated, and what he demanded did not please the Jews at all. Now, in Medina, he was in no mood to be peaceful with the Jews. The Jews were a major power in Medina, comprising one third to one half of the population. They had two of the most powerful tribes in Medina, Banu-Nadir and Banu-Qunayqa. Unfortunately, both of these Jewish tribes were robbed of their possessions, and the few survivors were expelled from Arabia. They had their property and valuables distributed among the Muslims, including their wives and children, who became slaves to their new Muslim masters. Some Jewish thinkers today would rather say they had it easier under Islam than under Christendom, but this is only because they are ignorant of a long history of facts. Muhammad began by lying about the Jews. He envied their goods, coveted their wives, stole their property, bore false witness against them, blasphemed their God, and killed them outright. The Jews could not have accepted Muhammad’s claim to be a prophet to the Jews, since he was breaking every one of the Ten Commandments. What other prophet truly sent by God would have chosen to do so? Numerous totalitarian states in history have begun exactly as Muhammad did. Fanatical leaders turned the people’s eyes toward anti-Semitism, and their hearts toward extermination of the Jews. Today is no different, as we do not need to remind the reader. Once he had the upper hand and the manpower, Muhammad became the arch-tyrant. He extorted treaties from various tribes, forcing them to convert to Islam or face death. Finally, he would have his way, and people would have to acknowledge he was the final prophet! No sooner had he achieved a bloody foothold, he turned his ambitions and vision to other lands, and he never looked back on his early peaceful methods. Muhammad decided Islam would be spread through violent Jihads, and he found victory ONLY at the end of a sword. How can anyone say that he morally surpasses all the other prophets, including the sinless Jesus in the Koran? Since fanatical Muslims believe that Muhammad is the moral apex of all prophets, and they follow his later bloody example, they have no qualms about the death, torture, and beheading of the infidel. Muhammad’s disciples did not have to give up their possessions to follow him. Nor did they give up their lives. This is quite opposite from Jesus’ exhortation to His followers, to renounce worldly possessions, to sell them and give the money to the poor, to pick up their cross and follow Him. He who will not pick up his cross and follow Him, Jesus said is unworthy to be His disciple. But Muhammad’s followers had (and still have) no such calling. They lived as filthy rich masters and overlords. They were free to rob and steal from the non-Muslim in the name of Allah. And thus they did. When we examine and compare the example of Muhammad with that of Jesus, we see opposite ends of the spectrum. Was this Muhammad, once in Medina, the same man who earlier placed God first in his life? Did Muhammad lose his way from all the humiliation and rejection he elicited in Mecca? What would turn him into such a violent fanatic? We need to examine this, since so many millions follow his example on the earth today. In looking at the theology of Islam, we see that it differs in a crucial way from other religions and does not stand on its merits as the ultimate moral religion. We could say that other world religions seek peace through promoting respect for non-believers. The later stages of Muhammad’s life example do not promote respect for non-believers, but rather the elimination of the non-believer. Muhammad’s evangelistic slogans are in use on college campuses, in high schools, and mosques across America today, in an effort to confuse both Western Christians and Jews. Islam is said to be a religion of “peace.” They recite, “Our God and your God are one and unto him we surrender.” But they do not believe that the non-believer and the Muslim worship the same Allah. If we, the non-believers worship the same God, why do Muslims make the effort to convert us? The Muslims consider it their duty to “migrate” and spread Islam wherever they go. When Muslims are in the minority, they follow one set of rules to change the society around them and to keep from causing alarm about their real agenda. They participate in college religious debates and attempt to win converts in a peaceful way. But once they have immigrated enough to form more than 10% of a non-Muslim nation, their tactics change. In Europe, for example, the immigrant Muslim community has reached the 10% threshold. We hear of Muslim gangs of young men riding in cars in France, shooting at police stations. In the Netherlands, Muslims have committed crimes against the politicians and prominent persons who dare to speak out against Islam. In England, the call is for the legal system to be changed to Sharia, or Islamic law, and now the Muslims did not hide the fact that they demand England become a Muslim state. Never underestimate what Muslims say is their agenda. They mean it. We have 9/11 in the USA, 7/7 in Britain, and 3/11 in Spain, as reminders. Violent Jihad becomes the norm for radicals once the Muslim community establishes its numbers. The radicals seek to activate the Muslim population living peacefully in their adopted lands. It is easy to see the examples of this in so many Western nations today. Muhammad is the pattern to be imitated, and thus, they argue, all true Muslims should be following his ways by furthering the cause of Jihad. Mosques and Universities in the West are often recruiting grounds for young warriors in the spread of Islam. Because radicals are determined to set the agenda for all Muslims, moderates in the West are expected to participate in Jihad materially and otherwise. Many Muslim businesses have money extorted from them by those who expect them to support the “cause of Islam.” One Jihad that women are expected to join is to have many Muslim children. The birth rates in the West have declined among traditional groups, but Muslims who have “migrated” around the world today are not slowing in their birth rates whatsoever. To return to our examination of Muhammad’s life in Medina, we see he made numerous changes to the theology of Islam. For example, now, the direction of prayers was to be toward Mecca, facing the city where Muhammad began to preach. He began to adopt and incorporate and alter rituals and traditions within Judaism and Christianity. He worked now to form a unique religion, rather than present himself as a prophet to the established religions. Muslims were required to commemorate the Koran by fasting during Ramadan. He knew that the Jews fasted to commemorate specific miracles of God, as Al-Tabri in his book, The History of the Nations and Kings attests. Muhammad copied wholesale from the people of the book. He adopted what he saw as “religious practice” from the Jews, introducing rituals to Islam similar to those he had heard from rabbis. The very concept of praying towards a holy city was taken from the Jews. He instituted precise ritualistic washings before prayer. Muslims could not eat pork, just as the Jews had always treated pork as unclean. And Muhammad adopted many theological concepts from Christianity in order to claim superiority and finality of revelation. He was intent upon forming a completely new religion that would override the previous ones. With this new religion came entirely new sets of rules, a new world vision, and a new command to wipe out anyone who would not convert. THIS EXAMPLE OF MUHAMMAD CANNOT BE, NOR EVER WILL BE A BENEFICIAL MORAL EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW; only Jesus Christ is the greatest in the Koran, and it is HE Who is said, by the Koran to be the One coming back to judge the world. The Shiites would love to deny this, saying it is an Imam, but they are ignoring what the Koran itself says. The Sunnis have no choice but to see that it is ONLY Jesus Who Is the Truth, the Way and the Life, just as he said, and ever lives to prove to those of us who seek.