The real reason Islamist terrorists attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo

Following the attacks in Paris against the journal 'Charlie Hebdo' on 7 January 2015 Christian evangelist Jay Smith decided to display and discuss the controversial covers of the journal which provoked the violence.

So on 11 January in the most public of settings, and that bastion of 'Freedom of Speech' - the world famous Speaker's Corner in London - he showed covers which mocked not only Muhammad, but Jesus Christ as well and asked the (many) Muslims in the crowd whether they were offended.

One of these covers mocking Christianity is I think the most blasphemous illustration I have ever seen.

Not surprisingly the Muslims in the crowd were offended, as Jay himself was, but he used the opportunity to make the point that whilst the covers were also grossly offensive to Christians, Christ’s own response to mockery and derision was not violence but rather to pray for his persecutors.

The video is well worth viewing in its entirety – but  I was particularly struck by the section in which Jay explains what he considers to be the real motivation behind the attack.

The real reason, he argues, was not the magazine covers per se, but rather a series of comic books on the life of Muhammad by Stephane Charbonnier, the editor of the Charlie Hebdo journal, who was killed on 7 January. These comics are pictured on the video from 7m 40s and reproduced in the pictures on this blogpost..

Apparently these are no longer available to buy and are likely to become collectors’ items in the future.

As Jay illustrates they are titled 'The Life of Mohammed' and depict episodes from the real life of Muhammad.

What Charbonnier essentially did was to take the most 'juicy' stories from the Islamic traditions. In fact 

he claimed in January 2013 (see also numbered references below) that his work is 'a properly researched and educational worked prepared by an (unnamed) Franco-Tunisian sociologist'.   

It appears he used a variety of sources and may well have used Zakaria Botros as his inspiration.

Botros is a Coptic priest from Egypt who is best known for his critiques of the Qur'an and other books of Islam. 

According to Wikipedia (see links there) World Magazine gave Father Botros the ‘Daniel of the Year’ award in 2008 and he has been named ‘Islam's public enemy No. 1’ by Arabic newspaper al Insan al Jadeed.Al-Qaeda has apparently put a $60 million bounty on his head.

In an interview with Aljazeera TV, Islamic cleric Ahmad al-Qatani stated that some six million Muslims convert to Christianity annually, many of them persuaded by Botros's public ministry.

According to Botros, his analysis of Islamic scriptures is designed to give Muslims a ‘short, sharp shock’, intended to make them ask questions and examine their faith.

However, he contends that he is not attacking Islam, but merely searching for the truth; ‘The truth is not restricted to someone, but it belongs to everybody, and it is the right of everybody to search for the truth and to embrace it without fear of authorities or the terrorism of bigots.’

On 16 September 2012, the Los Angeles Times reported that Botros was an ideological influence on the film Innocence of Muslims, whose portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad set off protests and attacks on Western embassies across the Middle East. 

But Botros has denied this on his own website.

Regardless, as Jay points out, every story in Charbonnier’s comics is footnoted and sourced to Muslim tradition – that is, every one actually appears in Islam’s own sacred texts. In other words, Charbonnier was simply illustrating what the Hadith already teaches about the prophet. 

But the key point is this – most Muslims do not know their own religious texts well enough to know that. And perhaps if they did they would be asking the same questions as the six million per year allegedly influenced by Botros.

So there it is. Take it or leave it (but if you doubt me look at the references below).

I don’t imagine that many newspapers will be reproducing these comics and I certainly do not own copies myself. 

Other articles on the Charlie Hebdo comic books

1. French paper to publish comic book life of Muhammad 

2. French weekly publishes 'Life of Mohammed' cartoons 

3. Charlie Hebdo publishes 'Halal' Prophet Mohammed comic book biography 

4. French magazine prints comic book life of Prophet Muhammad

5. How Charlie Hebdo became a top terrorist target 

Theresa May needs to look beyond al-Mihajiroun for the real cause of the Woolwich murder

The search for what radicalised Michael Adebolajo (pictured) and Michael Adebowale to kill soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich last week is leading increasingly to the influence of al-Muhajiroun leaders like Anjem Choudary and Omar Bakri Mohammed.

Al-Muhajiroun is an Islamist group fronted by the radical Luton-based cleric Anjem Choudary, which has been rebadged under a multitude of brands since being proscribed by the previous government.

Its founder, Omar Bakri Mohammed, a Lebanon-based preacher, who was banned from Britain and once ran courses in fighting jihad at a disused nunnery in Sussex, claimed last week that he had converted Adebolajo.

If Theresa May is to stop thousands being radicalised in Britain however she needs to look beyond al-Mihajiroun to the text that is radicalising that movement, the Qur’an itself.

As Jay Smith points out in a Pfander Films video published this week, Adebolajo and Adebowale were in fact just taking the Qur’an literally (See also Answering Islam here which makes the same point).

Smith asks why these two men killed this soldier, attempted to decapitate him, pulled him into the street and then, without attacking anyone else, waited around for the police to arrive before running into their guns.

It’s all in the Qur’an, he says.

Sura 5:32, which was ironically quoted this week by Nick Clegg in support of peace, was the very verse that Adebolajo quoted to the cameras to justify his action:

‘whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely’

Rigby was a British soldier in Afghanistan and some British soldiers have killed Muslims. But killing one Muslim is like killing all Muslims. It was British soldiers who killed Muslims so a British soldier and not British civilians had to pay the price.

So what should a Muslim fighting jihad do with such people? The answer in is Sura 47:4:

‘So when you meet those who disbelieve [in battle], strike [their] necks until, when you have inflicted slaughter upon them’

And the reward for losing one’s life in carrying out such activity? Well, it’s Paradise, as explained in Sura 47:4, 5 & 6:

‘And those who are killed in the cause of Allah - never will He waste their deeds… He will guide them and amend their condition. And admit them to Paradise, which He has made known to them.’

By shooting them without killing them the police denied these two Muslims their actual aim, promotion to Paradise under the sight of the world’s media cameras.

Theresa May and Nick Clegg cannot of course ban the Qur’an, which is why they must seek instead to reinterpret it to claim that it is not saying what these men believed it was actually saying.

But if we don’t like what happened on the streets of Woolwich, it is perhaps the Qur’an itself, and not just al-Mihajiroun, that we should be calling into question.

Adebolajo justified his actions as ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’.

By contrast Jesus, when one his disciples (Peter) took up the sword urged him to place it back in its sheath:

‘Put your sword back in its place,’ Jesus said to him, ‘for all who draw the sword will die by the sword’ (Matthew 26:52)

And he urged them not to follow the ‘eye for an eye’ directive but rather to ‘turn the other cheek’:

‘You have heard that it was said, “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.”But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.’ (Matthew 5:38, 39) 

The history of Islam began with bloody military conquest by Muhammad and his followers.

But Christianity began with the death of Jesus (on our behalf) and of his twelve disciples eleven gave their lives as martyrs in his service because they preached the word of God rather than taking up the sword. It was a peaceful revolution that conquered the Roman Empire through spreading love and the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection.

This is the same love and good news that Christians are called to spread today to all people whatever their age, sex, race, ideology or creed. And it is for this reason that I join many in condemning without reservation not only the Woolwich atrocity itself but also any violent reprisals against Muslims by any British citizens. 

It is true that since the first century others have taken up arms in the name of Christ. But this was never part of Jesus’ teaching. It was however, according to the Qur'an, part of Muhammad’s.