Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Nappy Hanukah, obviously we had a. We had a great talk last week. I would like to think about what it looks like for a glorious future that we're know necessarily there. A kingdom, as the prophet Isaiah speaks about, where nations will beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hucks. Nation will not take up sword against nation. It will be a time of peace. They will not train for war. But unfortunately, as we discuss, we're not there yet, and God still has some work to do to settle the score. And by score, I mean removing death and sorrow and pain and injury and all of these things, because the world is still pretty messy.
[00:01:05] And as a matter of fact, ironically or not, it turns out that as we celebrate Hanukah in this season of 2023, Israel is currently battling once again an enemy intent on their total annihilation.
[00:01:23] And considering that one of the most prevalent themes of the story is this Maccabean struggle to overcome an enemy intent on their destruction, in other words, this is a holiday to a large degree, though it is not necessarily celebrated often this way. That recalls military miracles, war battles, winning a war against all odds, a people standing up for what is right, those in the minority standing up against an insidious enemy and then destroying said enemy with God's help. That's basically what Hanukkah is about. We have lights, we have oil, we have latkes, we have dreidels, we have all that. But that's the miracle. That's what's being celebrated. So I felt compelled this week to share a little bit more about the conflict. Now listen.
[00:02:20] Heavy sigh. I know that last week's Hanukah message was not exactly uplifting. And this one, if this is a holiday, also, if we're going to talk about Israel again, another thing about Israel, can we just celebrate? I mean, why? Well, apart from the fact that Israel matters to everyone in this room, and it's the apple of God's eye and it's the future for every disciple, it's a central component.
[00:02:55] What happens there is important. Today, I actually want to move outside of Israel. I want to talk about it, but I want to talk about the bigger implications for the entire world of this conflict. This is not going to be a commercial for Judaism. I'm not going to give you another message about anti semitism is on the rise. We need you to stand with us. You already know that some of those elements are inescapably in here. I won't talk much about the barbaric stuff in the south of Israel. This is actually a lot less today about Jews and Israelis and even less about Palestinians and Arabs, honestly.
[00:03:43] So if you're tired of hearing me talk about that, good news.
[00:03:49] This is about something, though, that we all really need to understand. It's about religion. It's about God, which means that I'm free to talk about it in the synagogue, right? That's what we do here.
[00:04:03] But the incredible thing, I'll just point out about what I am talking about in the synagogue is that much of what I want to share with you, in my words, and some of his is drawn from a guy named Sam Harris in a podcast that he did. I doubt if many of you know who Sam Harris is. He is a jewish guy and a devout atheist.
[00:04:22] And so, again, unavoidably, some of the things that he says will be tempered, tinted, stained by a total abhorrence of religion. But what Sam Harris said in a podcast that I listened to, you just absolutely have to know this. You just have to know.
[00:04:50] And so I guess it's ironic. Pierke Avot tells us, learn from all men, all men, whether it's what to do or what not to do. But you can learn. So the irony, I think, is this is about God and religion in some sense, drawn from content by a hardcore jewish atheist, delivered to you by a messianic jewish rabbi. So that's a twisty road to get where we are. But it's also about some of those Hanukkah themes. It's about genocide, it's about war, and primarily it's about apathy, because apathy was actually one of the main things that was going on during Hanukah. I told you, they went into Modain and they did these terrible things. And Matthias was like, no, listen, we've got to stand up. And so someone did.
[00:05:52] But this message is about something that moves far beyond the borders of Israel, Gaza, even the Middle east. What is this about? What is the buildup here, Rabbi, what's the thing about ready for the word jihad?
[00:06:08] Not again. Well, first of all, we as westerners don't really know exactly what jihad means.
[00:06:17] Jihad in Islam has more than one meaning. There is a greater jihad. Are you familiar with this and the lesser jihad? I know my friend from the United States army who has been deployed and is working in these arenas. I know he knows as he shakes his head, do you know what the greater jihad is in Islam?
[00:06:41] It is struggle against your own internal difficulties, your own sinful nature, and living out the best version of yourself according to Islam, that's the greater jihad. The lesser jihad is the one we all know.
[00:07:06] So I want to talk about this a little bit, because this is the thing. Jihad, struggle, striving that after two months of war since Israel, two months of Gaza, Lebanon, all those events from October 7, I don't know how many articles I've read, how many videos I've watched, how many hours of listening and reading. I've been to at least two presentations, one at a church, one at a college. I've been to a rally in Atlanta. I mean, I've been immersed. But this is the thing. What I'm telling you today, I have come to realize, is maybe the most important thing for you to understand, for you to get after all of this time, that you really need to know. It's not that the other messages that I've given you were not incredibly valuable. They were, you need to internalize those things I told you about Israel and all of that. I'm not moving past it. I'm not suggesting that what's happening has lost its importance. But what the animals of Hamas did on that day and what has continued since then with the protests and the hatred toward Israel, directly, indirectly toward the Jews, we can't avoid that.
[00:08:31] And the elevation, the edification of Hamas reflects a level of ignorance that must be addressed. And ignorance, that word has a lot of meanings.
[00:08:49] Ignorance. First of all, I'm not sure how much of this ignorance is textbook ignorance, which literally means, I don't know the facts. I am ignorant of the facts. Or it could be ignorance, that is stupidity, the kind that you insult people by saying, because those are the people who do know the facts, and they still act like idiots.
[00:09:14] And then there's just hatred, which is almost always informed also by ignorance.
[00:09:24] But I recently had the unpleasurable experience of seeing all three kinds of ignorance on display at a local college campus called Mercer University funded. I heard from a few of the Jews who were in attendance there. One, anyway, that Mercer was founded on jewish money.
[00:09:41] Jews were a central part of funding Mercer's establishment as a baptist college, I think is how it started. But this particular evening, I attended what was called a conversation on the Israel palestinian conflict. Or I don't remember a conversation. Rabbi Rubenstein, a friend of mine who is the rabbi at Sheree, Israel in Macon, Georgia, was there to represent the jewish people, along with a professor of New Testament studies, a white guy. We had a palestinian professor from Mercer and a pakistani professor from Mercer. The moderator was also palestinian, so I believed the name. A conversation I thought, wow.
[00:10:31] I am not a closed minded, hardcore right or left winger. I'm not that I want to hear the stories. I want to understand. So I went to engage in a conversation to hear. We should have some good discussion. It should be a civil discussion about the conflict. So we went from the opening minutes of the event, even the New Testament pastor or the New Testament professor, I knew it was going to be extremely difficult to sit through it. From the opening conversations, conversations. This was the most despicably one sided, pro palestinian, anti Israel conversation I could have witnessed. Aaron is, as I said, a friend of mine, he called me the next day. He said, wow, tough crowd. I said, tough crowd. Yeah. It was from the dishonest presentation of the facts from the panelists to the disrespectful palestinian students who verbally accosted Rabbi Aaron. But the biggest issue, I told him was this.
[00:11:37] The damage done in that room last night is irreparable. They were expecting 30 to 40 people. They were in a room half this size. 250 plus people arrived, most of them students who were also there, like me, many of them, to have a conversation and to learn. And I told Aaron, what happened there last night is that those students were irreplaceably indoctrinated against Israel and the jewish people.
[00:12:11] And in that conversation, not one time was the word jihad used, even addressed. And yet, actually, this is the root of all of it. We translate it, as I said, as holy war.
[00:12:27] That's not what it means. It means struggle or striving. And here we need to be very, very clear. A number of. I don't have facts and figures. A number of Muslims, moderate Muslims, dismiss the idea of the lesser jihad as being absolutely unacceptable, that is holy war. And subscribe and promote to this idea of greater jihad. It could be compared, I guess, if we're making comparisons to the jewish idea of the evil and the good inclination, that's an internal jihad. Okay?
[00:13:06] One of the comments at Mercer was actually from one of the local imam, Sheikh Adam. He was the most peaceful voice in the room, actually.
[00:13:22] But there is a jihad which is holy war.
[00:13:28] And what happened in southern Israel to those men, women and children was exactly that jihad, a holy war. And it is a fundamental component of the islamic belief system.
[00:13:44] Now, before we go further, stop. Just stop and listen to me. If you're concerned that I'm about to go on a radical right wing terror against every muslim in the world, I am not going to do that and stereotype them as the devil spawn. I am not going to do that. I'm not. I don't get to be anyone's judge. Am I an islamophobic madman?
[00:14:08] No, I'm not. But since you mentioned that word. I mentioned that word? Islamophobia. Let's start right there.
[00:14:17] Islam is a system of ideas.
[00:14:23] People of every race and ethnicity subscribe to Islam in that Christianity is not that much different.
[00:14:33] All races, all ethnicities, and both of those, unlike traditional Judaism, are proselytizing religions. They are designed to make converts.
[00:14:47] They have that in common.
[00:14:49] They are evangelistic. But people criticize the doctrines, the ideas of Christianity all the time, and yet that is not considered bigotry or racism. There's no such thing as Christophobia.
[00:15:05] You don't hear that.
[00:15:09] The connection that I'm making is obvious. Because you criticize Islam and its ideas does not make you a racist or a bigot or an Islamophobe.
[00:15:22] That sounds very familiar. Right? You've heard this. It's not that I dislike jews. I just dislike Israel. Okay, that argument works for them. It works here, too.
[00:15:38] That's oftentimes not true. And even in what I'm saying, if you push this criticism of Islam or any set of beliefs all the way to the people who believe it, then you become a bigot and a hater and a racist. But the idea of being able to criticize, question a system of beliefs does not make you a racist. So, no, I am not an Islamophobe.
[00:16:09] We need to put that idea actually to death.
[00:16:14] That making a derogatory comment about something that Islam holds to be true is therefore directed at every muslim human being in the world. But an undeniable component of Islam is the idea of jihad, holy war. Most people in the west still don't understand the problem of it, or are living in denial of it, or both.
[00:16:42] Many people believe, listen, everyone just wants to be happy.
[00:16:49] They just want safety, food, shelter, happy homes, good schools, a fat bank account.
[00:16:57] And the extension then is that if somehow otherwise normal people would then engage in extraordinarily destructive acts, suicidal terrorism, burning, killing non combatants, that they must have been pushed into this extreme by other people.
[00:17:21] How could otherwise good and balanced humans who just want a good life, how could they become suicide bombers and have their neighbors celebrate them in this as martyrs? How could that happen?
[00:17:38] A common answer you'll hear is, well, it could only be that their entire society is oppressed and mean. What would you expect them to do? Right? They're oppressed by some country or agency.
[00:17:57] You've heard this argument. I'm sure if Israel weren't so terrible, so unjust, such an apartheid, demonic, racist, nazi country holding these people down, none of this would happen. Palestinian terrorism simply indicates the profound horror that Israel has inflicted upon these people.
[00:18:21] Let's be honest.
[00:18:24] Israel is not perfect.
[00:18:27] It is not. And I am open always. I would sit down and listen to someone criticize the actions and behavior of Israel. And you know what? Some of the things I would agree with, and we would have a discussion about it, because Israel is not perfect by any stretch. Smart, rational people have suggested other ways that Israel might be going about this battle, but this is a big point.
[00:18:59] Israel's behavior is not what explains the suicidal and genocidal inclinations of a group like Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, ISIS, al Shaba, Bokaharam, the Pakistani Taliban.
[00:19:20] The islamic doctrines of martyrdom and jihad do.
[00:19:28] There have been nearly 50,000 acts of islamic terrorism in the last 40 years.
[00:19:36] They are documented by a french agency. If you want that link, I can give it to you.
[00:19:42] 90% of them have occurred in muslim countries that have nothing to do with Israel or the Jews.
[00:19:53] These are religious beliefs, sincerely held. These beliefs are how you get normal people to commit unspeakable acts of violence against innocent men, women and children intentionally. Those people did not walk into a military battle in the middle of crossfire and bombs.
[00:20:16] They sought them out.
[00:20:19] And in the enlightened west, academia and the diluted idealists, not that academia are all diluted idealists by any stretch, but they have it figured out. These experts tell us this.
[00:20:32] You can't take the jihadis at their word.
[00:20:37] They don't really mean that. None of their declarations about God or paradise or martyrdom and all the evils of the apostates and all the. Don't worry about that. You can't take that. Well, why do they do what they do, you ask? Well, the experts tell us they just want what everyone else wants, economic, political, security. They want to be part of a free and productive world, society and economy. But the west won't give them a chance. Doggone it, they're held down. Same argument. It's a weak argument.
[00:21:08] A suicide bomber could record a video before going in and blowing up a bus, explaining everything about why he wants to do it or is going to do it, and it's dismissed.
[00:21:23] He didn't really mean that.
[00:21:27] You don't understand. Well, the problem, and it affects Muslims and non Muslims alike, is that the doctrines that directly support this kind of behavior, jihadist violence, are very easy to find. In the Quran there, are offsetting things in the Quran as well. But in the Quran, in the hadith, in the biography of Muhammad, for Muslims, Muhammad is the greatest person who ever lived. Unfortunately, he did not behave like Jesus or even Buddha.
[00:22:02] It is relevant that Muhammad tortured people, cut their heads off and had sex slaves. That's relevant because he is a model for behavior.
[00:22:16] He's meant to inspire others.
[00:22:20] There are many, many verses in the Quran that urge Muslims to wage jihad. In the Quran, there is no Jesus giving a sermon on the mount about loving your enemies and turning the other cheeks. All the decapitations we see being practiced by jihadists are not accidents.
[00:22:40] It's in the Quran and in the life of the prophet.
[00:22:46] One might argue you don't know how to interpret these texts.
[00:22:52] Your jewish texts are barbaric as well. I mean, for goodness sakes, I read in your Torah an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I mean, it's pretty violent.
[00:23:05] Well, listen, to be very clear, I understand more than most the difficulty of interpreting ancient text from ancient cultures in modern times. But listen to me.
[00:23:16] I have searched far and wide and have not found one rabbi over the last 20 years who has gouged out anyone's eye or knocked out their teeth. But I have found a lot of decapitations and acts of terror that have happened.
[00:23:33] Those things are happening.
[00:23:39] There's a difference.
[00:23:43] And the difference is the reward. The reward of martyrdom and paradise. Martyrdom leads to paradise. And listen, innocent Muslims, I don't know if you know this, innocent Muslims who die as bystanders in terrorist attacks.
[00:24:03] Do you know that they've done them a favor by doing that for them?
[00:24:09] The terrorists who commit the acts, it is said that they've done them a favor because as martyrs, they immediately enter into paradise. So you wonder why human shields are not a problem. They're doing them a favor.
[00:24:30] And listen, if you're not part of it, if you're not a sold out jihadist and you're an unbeliever and you happen to get killed, well, guess what? That's good, too, because you're going to hell, right where you belong. So win win, right?
[00:24:50] However many lives you destroy, it's good in this economy. Listen, in 2014, six jihadis affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban attacked a school in Peshawar. They murdered 145 people. 132 of them were children. They burned a teacher alive in front of her students and then killed as many kids as they could get their hands on.
[00:25:12] When later asked about this, one of the Pakistani Taliban supporters said, all children have pure farts. Excuse me. All children have pure hearts. They have not sinned yet. They have not yet been corrupted by their parents. We did not end their lives. We gave them new ones in paradise, where they will be loved more than you can ever imagine.
[00:25:36] Now, we don't understand how this behavior could be possible. We don't understand how someone could think that way. Only an insane psychopath would think that way. Right? Like Antiochus Epiphanes, who went in killing people randomly because they didn't believe what he wanted them to believe, and he wanted to wipe out their way of thinking. So he cut babies out of people's wombs and hung them by their umbilical cord around their mother's neck and read Hannah and her sons in the apocrypha about the brutalities that were occurring during. But he's a madman.
[00:26:13] That's Antiochus. But that's the horror of it. He was a madman. But you don't have to be a madman to be a jihadi. You know what? You have to be a true believer.
[00:26:26] You just have to believe.
[00:26:29] You don't even have to be a bad person.
[00:26:32] You just have to know for sure that you and all the good people will get everything that's coming to them, and all the bad people will get everything that's coming to them. And God wants nothing more than for you to go in and kill people because it's good.
[00:26:51] We can't understand that.
[00:26:53] Kill unbelievers. Those Israelis in the south, they were liberals. These are the people who would drive Palestinians to the hospital and who believed in a one state or two state or utopia, who were all tripped out on acid at this concert. These were the friends, the people who would do good.
[00:27:18] But from the jihadist point, there is no mistake here. There's no basis for remorse. Please absorb this fact. All of this sadism, the torture, the murder of helpless, terrified people is an act of worship.
[00:27:34] This is the sacrament.
[00:27:40] This is not some nauseating departure from the path of God or some reckless, horrendous sin. This is what you do for the glory of God. This is what Muhammad himself did.
[00:27:52] And I know for some people hearing this, they're squirming in their seat and saying, gosh, he's talking so badly about these people, the Muslims. This is inspiring hate. This is not our calling of disciples, of Jesus. No. Please understand the difference between what I'm actually doing. I'm talking about a fundamental idea, a doctrine, a set of beliefs within Islam that informs and approves of behavior, that allows atrocity and barbaric acts of hate.
[00:28:22] They were shouting, Allahu Akbar. Glory to God. As they committed these acts.
[00:28:31] Imagine that, this recorded conversation, I'm sure you heard it, of a Hamas terrorists phoning home, hi, dad. Open my Whatsapp now.
[00:28:43] This is in Israel. Hi, dad. Open my Whatsapp now, and you'll see. All those I killed. Look how many I killed with my own hands. Your son killed Jews, and his dad says, may God protect you.
[00:29:00] Dad, I'm talking to you from a jewish woman's phone. I killed her, and I killed her husband. I killed ten with my own hands, dad. Ten with my own hands. Dad, open Whatsapp. See how many I killed. Dad, open the phone. Dad. I'm calling you on WhatsApp. Open the phone. Dad. I killed 1010 with my own hands. Their blood is on their hands. Put mom on.
[00:29:24] And the father says, oh, my son, God bless you. Even if we set the parents aside, even if we set that aside. Listen to the caller's words in his mind.
[00:29:39] This is a good thing.
[00:29:47] And I hate to say this, you know it, but in this world, over the last three, two months, these people have been celebrated all over the world, and many of them celebrators, the college kids, other demonstrators, they're just ignorant or just plain stupid. I don't know which one.
[00:30:13] But in parts of the muslim community, and that includes London, Sydney, where they were chanting, gas the Jews. In Brooklyn, the home of Chabad, Hamas is being celebrated by people who understand exactly what motivates them. This is not about hate. What I'm telling you, this is not about hate. Or intending to fire you up and go out and beat the crap out of a Muslim. That's for idiots.
[00:30:40] Ignorant idiots who live on the extremes of any spectrum, that is not us. That will never be us.
[00:30:49] But, my goodness, friends, denial, apathy, heads in the sand.
[00:30:58] If we don't educate ourselves and others, that will be immeasurably destructive if we don't educate with factual information. I understand. I approached jihad with ignorance. If I didn't research it, I never would have even known that. Jihad doesn't mean holy war and go kill everybody. There's some positive component of it which I've already shared.
[00:31:25] But I'm talking to you about the thing that you really need to know. You're not muslim. Your struggle is not. You don't have an internal personal struggle, jihad, but you do have a struggle against this kind of jihad.
[00:31:42] And when you hear something, read something, and someone says, oh, well, that's not true, you say, oh, no, it is true. And you need to understand why this problem is much bigger than the ongoing crisis between Israel and the palestinians. But I promise you, I wouldn't go so far into Israel. But I mean, even with christians now who are sort of turning their backs on Israel, thank God for places like Rock Springs Church and Pastor Benny Tate and all the support all over the world.
[00:32:19] But I want to tell you something.
[00:32:24] There are over 20 countries in which Islam is the official state religion and over 50 in which Muslims are the majority. There is exactly one jewish state.
[00:32:39] Given the history of genocidal antisemitism, which persists even now and is growing mostly in the muslim world. Given that the Jews have been run out of every other country in the Middle east and North Africa where they lived for centuries, if anyone, any people deserve a state of their own, organized on any premise they want, it's the Jews.
[00:33:05] Even in the immediate aftermath of 911, Jews were targeted five times more, I think is the number than Muslims.
[00:33:17] According to the FBI, Jews are 2% of the population that receive over half the hate in America, five times the level that Muslims do.
[00:33:28] That was before all this.
[00:33:31] Another major argument, and I know I'm going to talk because it's important.
[00:33:38] Another major argument is you don't have a clue if you don't understand the historical context, if you don't understand the context of the land and how wrongly the Arabs were treated.
[00:33:54] Again, same argument. Israel brought this on themselves, right, with their colonization.
[00:34:04] Israel caused this. That was the major theme at the mercerry event I attended. I don't feel bad for them. Israel did it to.
[00:34:13] Okay. But the purpose of really understanding this conflict and why it's so intractable, historical context is actually a distraction. And every time that enters into the room, in any major sense, the moral sanity is evaporating from the room. At that point.
[00:34:33] The British were colonialists. We had 13 american colonies when we started America. Colonialists have somewhere to go back to. Where do the Jews get to go?
[00:34:49] Nowhere.
[00:34:53] There has been a continuous presence of Jews in what is now Israel for thousands of years. Most of the recent immigrants to Israel from Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, other muslim majority countries. They were driven from their homes in response to Israel declaring its statehood in 1948.
[00:35:15] Where's their right of return?
[00:35:20] But only the Palestinians have been turned into a global fetish for their right of return.
[00:35:26] We won't get too political. It's imbalanced. Okay, let's just leave it right there.
[00:35:33] Such an important point to hear right here.
[00:35:37] If having your land taken away and being managed by an oppressive force were the grounds for genocidal terrorism.
[00:35:48] Where are the navajo suicide bombers?
[00:35:53] Where are the cherokee terrorists?
[00:35:56] Well, there were massive conflicts back, I know, in the 18th century. Where are they now?
[00:36:06] Where are the tibetan monk buddhist suicide bombers? Do you know how much they have suffered at the hands of the Chinese? Where are the palestinian christian suicide bombers?
[00:36:20] Aware of only one why does Israel control the water, the fuel, the ports, the fences in Gaza and the West bank? One word. You might guess it. Jihad.
[00:36:38] A commitment to the death of people, the justified killing of innocent human beings for the glory of God, and the colonization of the global caliphate. Regardless of historical, political, economic considerations regarding Israel palestine, it is essential to recognize the tangible threat of jihadism. Its intentions are not just to me and my family. It is to the apostates.
[00:37:04] It is to the infidels. And I guarantee you, you, every one of you, fall into one of those categories.
[00:37:13] It's a global issue.
[00:37:15] Its intentions are inherently genocidal. It is not a minor blip on the screen of Islam. It has support across the muslim world. And strikingly, unbelievably, it is gaining support worldwide from non Muslims.
[00:37:37] Imagine it.
[00:37:40] But you're stereotyping. You said you wouldn't do that. This is not every muslim. Of course I know that. But guess what? One is too many.
[00:37:49] One person who straps a bomb on their back and goes into a bus station, or one person who cuts through a fence and goes and mows down ten people. That is too many.
[00:38:04] We can't underestimate the level of sympathy that exists for the jihadist project among Muslims who are not actively involved.
[00:38:15] Listen, when 100,000 people gather in the center of London to support Hamas, that's an issue. That's a problem. Now, we had 100,000 people in America supporting Israel and the jewish people. That's also an issue, a good one.
[00:38:33] But many seemingly ordinary Gazins participated in the torture and murder of innocent Israelis, including taking hostages.
[00:38:43] The extent of their involvement, we can't really know. It is concerning, though, that the elementary schools funded by the UN in these areas teach jew hatred. That's a problem.
[00:39:00] We can't know how many among the muslim community support radical jihad, but it is a mistake to assume that only a few do.
[00:39:14] And the challenge lies not in winning a physical war, but winning a war of ideas. And that's very, very difficult to do.
[00:39:23] For a tolerable future, the majority of Muslims must disavow jihadism and join us and all nonmuslims in opposing it. It's not that difficult.
[00:39:36] And yet, sadly, it's, like, probable we will see some other terrible act of jihad terror, God forbid.
[00:39:45] And you know what progress will be if you see another terrible jihad event anywhere in the world, you know what progress will look like? 100,000 Muslims gathering in the city streets and shouting, no, this is wrong. This cannot happen. This is not us. This is not our people. This is not our belief. That is progress that we must see. Will we? I don't know.
[00:40:19] When millions of muslim rally, Muslims rally against the actions of their own religious extremists. We are getting somewhere. You believe that civilized people, muslim, non Muslim, we have to deal with this issue because the problem is bigger than Israel. It's a worldwide problem for all of us. So my message is not a cry of hate for the destruction of a people or even, for goodness sakes, disliking a person because they're a Muslim. I received a very, like, a heart wrenching email, actually, from an Arab who watches Shalom Macon and sent me an email asking me questions.
[00:41:09] I'm so confused by some of what you're saying.
[00:41:16] I'm going to meet with them on Zoom next week and talk because I care about them. They're believers. Even if they were non jihadi Muslims and wanted to ask me questions, I would get on the zoom and I would hope to God that we would have a friendship that developed out of that, because that's possible.
[00:41:39] But this is a worldwide problem. So my message is not a cry for destruction. It's a cry for action, a stand against apathy. That's what this is.
[00:41:51] And sadly, it's this tragic set of circumstances that aligns perfectly with the story of Hanukah, which is why you're being subjected to the most depressing Hanukah message you've ever heard in your life.
[00:42:11] Antiochus Epiphanes was a madman, and I'm closing.
[00:42:18] But the purpose of his madness was the same that drives jihadis, eradicate a people, destroy this section of the human race, and it's all of us.
[00:42:41] Through whatever means necessary, the apostates must die. And I have no idea, actually what reward Antiochus thought was waiting for him. Maybe naked virgins in the field of Elysium. I don't know what he thought was waiting for him, but he was committed, and no one else was saying a thing.
[00:43:09] Were they ignorant? Were they apathetic, deluded? Blinded, stupid? No. They were probably afraid. And a lot of Muslims are afraid too, because it's undeniable that they get killed if they stand against which is why this becomes our problem as well, a global problem to stand, even with Muslims. Moderate, sensible, loving people. They exist, I promise you.
[00:43:40] But they can't hide in the shadows, and neither can we.
[00:43:47] You see, a small group of men and women said to Antiochus and his army, this is not happening.
[00:43:55] We will stand up at the cost of our lives. We believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We will fight for that. We will give our lives if needed.
[00:44:09] I went to the Mercer University event because I was open to a conversation.
[00:44:15] And from the panel to the student questions, which were really just hateful attacks on Israel and the Jews, there was no conversation to be had. It was, as I said, an evening of indoctrination.
[00:44:27] And that's how jihad works.
[00:44:31] Not that that was holy war, but that's how jihad works. Indoctrination. This is what we must believe at all costs. Logic, humanity, compassion, mercy be damned.
[00:44:45] The end justifies the means.
[00:44:48] And the problem, my friends, is that somehow, inexplicably, this way of thinking has captured the minds of what would otherwise be normal people. I cannot explain it to you, sane and rational people. And listen, it's not you. It's probably not your friends or your relatives, but I guarantee you, if you get out there and you stand up and you start having some conversations, you will find them.
[00:45:19] And that's why I'm giving you a message like this, because I want you to be prepared, not spouting out ignorance and hatred about Muslims. I want you to be prepared to speak intelligently, not ignorantly, and make a difference in the world. My Hanukkah message to you is this, know your enemy.
[00:45:42] The enemy is not Muslims or Palestinians.
[00:45:49] It is those who've bought into the ideology that rewards mass murder and torture as an act of serving God, it is ignorance and adherence to a system of belief that encourages behavior we cannot comprehend. And sadly, these ideas are found in Islam that cannot be wiped away.
[00:46:16] And you need to understand that it's real and that part isn't fixable.
[00:46:21] Understanding what holy war means and what ends it justifies and combating every excuse about settler colonialism and the like with a return to this and what it means.
[00:46:34] I'm calling on moderate, peaceful Muslims to stand with us because apathy will not fix this. Inaction will not fix this. Germans are. Were not bad people.
[00:46:48] And yet 6 million of my people and millions of others died because they did not stand.
[00:47:00] And as the darkness of ignorance and hatred and stupidity, and as it attempts this darkness to shroud the earth and blind good people. You must be prepared, as they were against Antiochus to fill your lamps with oil and light them up and shine the light.
[00:47:27] Happy Hanukkah.
[00:47:29] Shabbat shalom.
