Palestinian Kids Write the Darndest Things

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from WorldNetDaily, June 4, 2003, with the headline: “Poison Pens: Kids Spew Toxic Venom: angriest hate letters by Palestinian school children win contest—‘My heart has turned into a sad block of pain. One day I will buy a weapon and I will blow away the fetters. I will propel my living, dead body into your arms, my father, and you will gather me into your hands.’ The rantings of a criminal psychopath or mid-East terrorist? No, it’s from a prize-winning letter by seventh grader, Mahmoud Naji Chalilah, entered in a national children’s letter-writing contest among Palestinians.

“As the world watches Palestinian, Israeli, and U.S. leaders trying to negotiate a difficult peace today after Arab nations reportedly agreed yesterday to condemn all terrorism for any reason, Palestinian authorities, meanwhile, are rewarding children for embracing violence and hate by honoring letters extolling those very things in a recent youth writing contest, according to Palestinian Media Watch, which monitors the Palestinian press. The Palestinian education ministry selected ten first place winners out of a National pool of submissions to its letter-writing contest. The winning letters focused on the conflict with Israel, expressing pain, hatred, and anger. ‘None promotes peace,’ Media Watch says.”

Tom: Dave, one of the shocking aspects of what’s going on in Israel with regard to the Palestinian problem and so on, and we’ve seen lots of footage of this off of Palestinian TV, and so on, is how they are taking children and turning them into hatemongers. And I don’t mean just a little bit here and a little bit there, through the education system. Absolutely, it’s a crime; it’s…-

Dave: Well, but Tom, now wait a minute—I’m going to challenge you. You can’t say it’s a crime—this is Islam! It’s a crime from our standpoint, but why shouldn’t you train a child to be a good Christian if you are a Christian? Then if you are a Muslim, why shouldn’t you train a child to be a good Muslim? And you remember what Muhammad said—we probably have quoted it at least once, maybe two or three times, on this program. Muhammad said, “The last day will not come until the Muslims confront the Jews and the Muslims destroy them. Even the rocks and the trees will cry out, Muslim there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him!”

Tom: Dave, what’s this “last day?”

Dave: Well, the last day is the Day of Judgment, when the good deeds are weighed against the bad. That’s what the Muslim looks for. We look forward to the return of Christ! The Rapture and the Millennium, and so forth, but the Muslim…

Tom: This is the culmination of all that they believe.

Dave: Absolutely, and they cannot reach their goal until every Jew on this earth has been killed. And by the way, whatever Christians have survived, they will be exchanged for Muslims who got into hell, and that’s how they are going to get out.

But anyway, Tom, look, this is what Muhammad said! They believe that Israel cannot possess one square yard of that land, because, as you were pointing out earlier, Ishmael was the promised seed—he’s the one that was offered on the altar, and his descendants own that land. And for Jews to be in possession of that land, that’s blasphemy! That says Islam is a false religion, Muhammad was a false prophet, Allah is not God, the Qur’an is not the Word of God.

Furthermore, it is unthinkable that the Muslim should ever give up territory which they once possessed. As I mentioned earlier, the Ottoman Empire held Jerusalem for 400 years. They didn’t do anything with it; they didn’t honor it. Nevertheless, they held that territory. They cannot possibly give that up.

Furthermore, for a non-Muslim, especially a Jew, to rule over a Muslim—that’s the worst…not only the worst heresy, it’s the worst travesty on truth! You cannot allow that! But Israel is in control of this land. Now they do allow Arabs, Muslims, in the Knesset.

Tom: Yeah, we mentioned this last week, which is a contradiction in terms because the whole purpose of the Arab Muslim is to overthrow the government.

Dave: Yeah, but so all I’m saying, Tom, on the one hand we read this—it’s horrible. I remember talking with a Palestinian—he told me from his earliest childhood he was taught to hate Jews. You’ve got to kill them. Israel has to be wiped out. And there is no Arab map in the world, as we have often mentioned, that even shows the existence of Israel. So, on the one hand, this sounds horrible. On the other hand, no, it’s not horrible—we can’t judge these people. They are just being taught to be good Muslims.

Now, that’s important to understand, Tom. We had better recognize that the enemy of America, of Israel, is Islam—not a few fanatics, okay? We’re not going to destroy the Muslims, we’re not going to try to persuade them to think differently or to become Christians, but we need to recognize what the problem is, and only then can you deal with it. But President Bush and the European Union and the UN and so forth, they are over there— “road map for peace”—they are going to make peace. And look, you can lie as a Muslim. In fact, it is good to lie in the furtherance of Islam and the religion of Allah, okay? So, they sign a peace agreement. What does it mean? It means nothing! We are going down the road to Armageddon.

But Bush is a Christian? He ought to recognize this. Maybe he has no other choice—politically correct, the pressure of the world, the UN—I don’t know. But, Tom, these kids are just being taught to be good Muslims.

Tom: Dave, we have about a minute left, but the question comes to mind, what about those who would refer to themselves as moderate Muslims, and this shocks them as much as anybody that there are children being taught to hate and to kill and so on. There are Muslims out there that we would consider moderate, who wouldn’t go along with this. What do you say to that?

Dave: Then they are not Muslims. You can’t make up your own Islam. We’ve talked about that before. You can’t make up your own Christianity. I mean there are people who call themselves Christians who don’t believe in the resurrection. They don’t obey Jesus.

Tom: We have a Lutheran pastor who was taken to task in Sweden because he didn’t believe in God.

Dave: Yeah. So, Tom, it’s a tough problem, but we need, first of all, to recognize this is Islam, this is what Islam teaches. Only then can you deal with it honestly and appropriately.