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Sunday, June 12, 2011

Dhimmitude and Ibn Ajibah on the Death of the Non-Muslim Soul

This post has been moved. It can be read here.

2 comments:

  1. Mark, you say: “I am painfully aware that one can find unpleasant, indeed evil, statements in the writings of theologians regarded as great by Christian tradition. One's mind turns to Martin Luther…”

    Some of Luther’s statements might seem harsh to the modern ear but you could not call them “evil” since they are simply calling a spade a spade, and they were also made at a time and place where straightforward and earthy language was the norm. And sometimes, to be heard above the rabble, one had to turn it up even more, as can be seen in some of Luther’s writings.

    It is also commonly but mistakenly assumed from some of his statements that Luther hated all Jews, but he was actually speaking out against Judaism and the Jewish religious hierarchy in general, which has always demonstrated and taught great disrespect towards Jesus Christ (as can be seen from their book, the Talmud). That he never hated all Jews can be shown in one of his strongest attacks on Judaism in ‘The Jews and Their Lies’:

    “Fourthly, that you prohibit their Rabbis to teach. For they have forfeited the right to such an office, because they keep the poor Jews captive with the passage of Moses 7:11, 12 [Deuteronomy 7:11, 12] who there commands them to obey their teachers under threat of losing body and soul.”

    It should also be noted that Luther equally blasted anyone or any institution that willfully distorted the Scriptures and Christ’s teachings (e.g. the pope and the papacy, Judaism and Islam), and rightly so, since they were distorting and blocking the true knowledge of salvation.

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    Replies
    1. Anon, your comments significantly underestimate Luther's attacks on the Jews. His criticism was not just theological. E.g. he called for their synagogues and schools to be set on fire, and their teachers to be silenced with the threat of death or mutilation. Such statements were indeed evil. I am absolutely shocked that you would characterize 'the Jews and their lies' which contains this incitement as evidence that he 'never hated Jews'. Luther had Jewish blood on his hands.


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