After ‘Palestinian Virgin Mary’ Comes ‘Moses-the-Islamic-Zionist’

Every day on the internet is another gift, though perhaps not one from the divine.

Today, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I came across a public post by Oksana Stenberg featuring two photos from the Swedish city of Malmö, known for reasons that are far from flattering.

At first, there was little surprising about them: a tent inviting people to convert to Islam. Quite a normal occurrence in Western Europe these days, especially in Malmö, given its substantial Muslim and Islam-friendly community.

But then something else caught my attention: the line “Moses var en Muslim.”

I did not need a translation, so I thought: Wait a second. Are these people claiming that Moses…

was a Muslim?

I mean, by today’s standards, when Zohran Mamdani’s wife claims that the Virgin Mary was a Palestinian woman giving birth under occupation, nothing is entirely impossible. Still, I thought this was a tad too much.

Not only because the claim itself is outrageous—much like my fictional husband, Mahmoud Al-Jihad Hezbollah, who wears a burqa and is, of course, an ardent Zionist—but because this claim, unlike mine, is not satire.

So what am I to make of that statement? That Moses was a Muslim with a Zionist agenda who led the Jews out of Egypt and into the Promised Land?

I mean, I do not know. I am really not sure, and I am glad I did not have the chance to ask the organizers for further details because I am sure they have some in line with Islam’s appropriation of the prophets. I am simply not prepared to further undermine my already fragile nervous system.

And yet, just when I thought the worst was behind me, I came across an article by my colleague Maya Golubova, who, alongside her Ukrainian and Polish colleagues, authored an investigative piece titled “A Russian Esoteric Sect Goes West—With a Putinist Running Its Hub in Poland.”

Promising—and with good reason.

The sect, called the Anastasians, turned out to contain all the components of the average Harlan Coben novel: weird people, an inspirational blonde, blue-eyed woman named Anastasia, its creator Vladimir Megre, gated communities, dubious sexual rituals, plants and, of course, the blessing of the Russian tsar.

Even the claim that Anastasia taught Megre how to talk to squirrels did not put me off that much. A friend once called me at 6 a.m. on a Saturday, claiming that the trees in a forest outside Kyiv were talking to her. She had had a long and prolific night.

But five minutes into the long read, I finally stumbled upon what I had been anticipating from the outset:

“In Anastasia’s prophecies, all-powerful Jews possess immense wealth and influence over governments around the world. A return to nature is framed as a return to racial purity. One passage from the Cedars series, devoted to Jews, states:

‘They try to take at least something from someone who is not very rich, and they strive for the complete ruin of the rich. This is confirmed by the fact that many Jews are rich and can even influence the government’ (Anastasia, vol. 6, p. 174).”

So, an inverted version of Robin Hood. Noted.

Then again, I did not expect much from Russians, whose demonization of Jews and Israel over the past few years has gone from bizarre to unhinged.

Oh, and did I mention that “Hamas is fighting for humanity”?

Well, I will save that profound internet insight for the next blog. Luckily, there is no shortage of material.