I Am Not a Jew-Hater

Word has finally percolated up to the management of VisionTV. They have belatedly discovered that Canadians in general, and their viewers in particular, do not approve of exhortations to jihad, nor anti-Semitism, nor calls for the Jews to be exterminated.

You can’t blame VisionTV for taking so long. After all, given today’s climate — especially in the progressive bastions of the media and the academy — the urge to exterminate the Jews is no big deal.

Not only that, the network’s mission statement says that it “celebrates diversity and promotes understanding among people of different faiths and cultures.” It doesn’t say anything about not killing Jews. So what’s the beef?

But VisionTV has decided to accede to the inexplicable and eccentric whims of its audience, and has taken “Doctor” Israr Ahmad off the air. For his part, Ahmad insists that he is not an anti-Semite, despite his assertions that the Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves.

Dr. Ahmad the Philo-Semite has also said that the Jews are:

• Parasites
  
• Vengeful
  
• Malicious
  
• Diabolical
  
• Conspirators
  
• Inferior to Muslims
  
• Being punished by Allah
  
• Facing extermination at the hands of Allah
  
• Controlling the United States through the banking system

But he’s not a Jew-hater. He’s just stating plain, simple, self-evident facts.

Here’s the story from today’s National Post:

I’m not an anti-Semite, TV preacher insists
Repeats Holocaust Belief

A fundamentalist Pakistani preacher, taken off the air by VisionTV this week in response to complaints, defended his beliefs about Jews yesterday but denied he was a hatemonger.

Asked to respond to VisionTV’s decision to ban him from the multi-faith religious channel, Israr Ahmad “strongly refuted the impression that he hated the Jews or he held anti-Semitic views.”

But the written statement, issued by his personal secretary in Lahore, went on to explain Mr. Ahmad’s belief that the Holocaust was “Divine punishment” and that Jews would one day be “exterminated.”

The Canadian channel is to begin airing an apology today for repeatedly broadcasting lectures by Mr. Ahmad, whose writings are filled with derogatory comments about Jews.

- - - - - - - - - -

While VisionTV did not broadcast Mr. Ahmad’s theories of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy, it has been airing his Koranic readings for several years, including a recent episode in which he said Muslims were required to either fight jihad on the battlefield or finance it.

[…]

In his books, he compares Jews to “parasites,” calls them “revengeful,” “malicious,” and “diabolical,” and says they have a “deeply ingrained tendency to conspire.” A sample of his writings: — “It is gratifying to learn that we Muslims enjoy two-fold superiority over the Jews.” — “It is apparent to any careful observer that the Jews have continued to suffer the floggings of Divine punishment in the present century — the Holocaust during the Second World War being a case in point.” — “Moreover, as mentioned before, the conflict between the Jews and Muslims is going to result, ultimately, in the total extermination of the former, according to the Divine law of ‘annihilation of the worse.’ “ — “The ‘Supreme Power’ of our time — the United States of America — is practically in the tight grip of a small Jewish minority, who is able to exert an immense amount of control over its international policies.” — “More importantly, the global financial system is virtually in the hands of Jewish bankers, who, through the institution of usury, have become powerful enough to command the obedience of entire governments.”

He also has unkind words for what he calls the “prejudice and intolerance” of Hindus. And he dismisses Christianity, saying “there is hardly any thing in this religion that can be described as ‘Christian.’“

Previous posts on “Doctor” Ahmad:

Jihad TV in Canada
Jihad TV in Canada, Part 2

Hat tip: RES.