Anjem Choudary: Know Thy Enemy

This week, I debated Imam Anjem Choudary, one of the most dangerous and outspoken Islamic leaders in England on my radio show on Voice of Israel. While the world continues to define what “real Islam” is, this interview makes it quite clear that it’s not up to infidels like us to make assertions one way or the other. I don’t care what real Islam is, but I am interested in knowing what the people with the guns and bombs think real Islam is.

Click Here to Listen – Radical Islamic Cleric vs. IDF Reservist Rabbis

Click Here to Listen

I think what made the interview so unique was that we discussed penetrating religious, philosophical issues and not just politics. Arguably the oldest religion in the world, Judaism doesn’t seek out converts. On the contrary, the path to Jewish conversion is filled with obstacles and challenges. My co-host Ari Abramowitz asked whether Islam’s penchant for violent and brutal coercion as opposed to relying on the merits of the religion exposes a deep insecurity that Muslims have in their faith. Judging by his response, or lack there of, I don’t think he had ever heard a question like that before.

It’s hard to imagine that a highly educated lawyer living in a free democratic society like England wants to stone unfaithful women to death and kill all apostates and homosexuals but it’s true and it’s alarming. He wants to impose Sharia law on every country in the world, and believes that if you die in battle fighting to impose Sharia law (Jihad) you will enjoy an afterlife with 70 virgins. I asked why he believes that a seemingly spiritual afterlife would only promise physical and hedonistic pleasure? I don’t think he had ever heard that question before either.

This was an interview with a sophisticated Muslim from London. You can just imagine what Muslims living in the sand dunes of Afghanistan or the mountains of Syria believe. And there are hundreds of millions of them.

The world is slowly waking up to the reality that Israel deals with daily. Only when Jews are stabbed in Tel-Aviv you don’t see any “Ju Sui Tel-Aviv” bumper stickers in Europe. It’s just a matter of time. Very soon, the free world will feel the threat.

It’s already happening. In response to president Obama’s State of the Union speech, Senator Ted Cruz criticized the president, “We cannot win a war on radical Islamic terrorism with a president unwilling to even say the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism’.”

Israel is not embroiled in a political conflict with the Palestinians, we are in a religious conflict with extreme Islam. The real problem is that most people in the West, political leaders included, have never read the Koran and have no real of sense of what the radical religious leaders of Islam are preaching.

For us to win this war, two things must happen. First, we have to recognize who the enemy is. Second, we have to know what they believe and what they want.

This interview is a first step. I would encourage everyone to listen carefully.

Click Here to Listen – Radical Islamic Cleric vs. IDF Reservist Rabbis