UK: Knife-Wielding Muslim Attacks Jewish Man, Screaming ‘I Want to Kill My First Jew’
UK: Knife-Wielding Muslim Attacks Jewish Man, Screaming ‘I Want to Kill My First Jew’
David Horowitz and I warned you.
By Robert Spencer
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) on Thursday offered a £10,000 ($13,000) reward for information that could lead to the conviction of a knife-wielding man who attacked a Jewish man in London during Chanukah last December. Details of the attack strongly suggest that the attacker is a Muslim who is knowledgeable about Islamic theology and scripture, including the notorious hadith in which Muhammad is depicted as saying that the end times will not come until Muslims kill Jews. David Horowitz and I warned you about this tradition, and its impact upon Muslim behavior, years ago, and for our pains were denounced as “Islamophobes.” The London attack demonstrates what we were warning about.
CAA reported reported that the incident took place on 2nd December at around 19:20, when the victim was returning from work. He exited West Hampstead Underground Station and walked to the nearby Marks and Spencer supermarket located in West Hampstead Square.” On the way, he saw the man who was to attack him tearing down a public Chanukah display and stomping on it while screaming “antisemitic abuse.”
The attacker saw the man watching him and approached him, saying, “You look Jewish” and that he was “looking for a Jew to kill.” The victim, understanding that he was in danger, said he wasn’t. The attacker replied: “Good, I want to find a Jew to kill.” The victim then called the police, but despite the fact that the attacker had said that he was looking for someone to murder, the police didn’t think the case was serious enough for them to come quickly.
The attacker than began tearing down the Chanukah display again, as it had been repaired in the meantime. The victim confronted him, whereupon the attacker screamed: “I knew you were Jewish, you lied to me. You are Jewish. I am going to kill you.” Then he said something in Arabic and added: “I want to kill my first Jew.” He pushed the victim, repeating: “You are Jewish. I am going to kill you.” The attacker began punching the victim and ultimately grabbed a knife, saying, “I will kill you now, you Jew,” while gesturing across his throat.
Then, unaccountably, the attacker fled. The police, whose station was only half a mile away, only arrived after the whole thing had ended. Now CAA is offering a reward for information on the attacker, who is described as “black and possibly of Somali ethnicity, aged between 25 and 30 and between 6’0” and 6’1” in height. He had a slender build and bad teeth, and wore a dark green beanie hat, a dark puffer jacket with large pockets, dark trousers and no gloves. He wore a dark facemask when in the shop. He spoke in English, with a mixed East London and foreign accent, and spoke Arabic.”
Where did this fellow get the idea that he had to kill a Jew at all, and wanted to get on with it and kill his first one? A hadith (Islamic tradition’s reports about Muhammad’s words and deeds) depicts Muhammad saying: “The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.” (Sahih Muslim 6985)
This tradition is essentially saying that Muslims can help bring about “the last hour” by killing Jews. It has been quoted by Hamas and other jihadis. Years ago, around 2007 or 2008, the David Horowitz Freedom Center began a campaign asking Muslim organizations in the United States to repudiate this genocidal hadith in the interests of peace and harmony between Muslims and Jews. The principal Muslim organizations in the United States either refused to do so or ignored our request.
Meanwhile, David Horowitz and I were excoriated as “Islamophobes” for daring to suggest that this passage and others like it constituted genuine incitement that could lead to violence. The Leftist intelligentsia claimed that such passages were no less benign than forgotten sections of the Hebrew scriptures that spoke of violence done long ago to vanished peoples. But where did this London attacker get the idea that he had some kind of responsibility to kill Jews? Clearly this curious idea could only come from claims that there was some need to do this, and that those who did this would be behaving in a meritorious fashion. The genocidal hadith does that. Many other passages in Islamic sacred literature do as well. But there is no other belief system, outside of National Socialism, that promises rewards for killing Jews.
We were trying to alert the world to this risk nearly 15 years ago. And in the near future, there are certain to be many other examples of how right we were to call attention to this, and how short-sighted and ultimately suicidal for the West the Left’s approach has been and continues to be. But the suicide of the West may be what Leftists have wanted all along.
Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.