Mick Hartley

No prizes for guessing which breed of people.

Dr. Moustafa Kamel, the imam and director of the Alansar Mosque in Anaheim, California:

A best-of selection from two videos, posted on the same day.

"The Prophet Muhammad told us in the hadith that the Muslims would fight Jews at the End of Times, and that they would defeat them before Judgement Day. '[The Jews] will be defeated, and they will hide behind stones, but the stones will say: "Oh Muslim, there is a Jew behind me, kill him."' This can either be literally true or it could be a metaphor.

"It is possible that Allah will enable the stones and the trees to speak, and they will say: 'There is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him!'"

This is what we need religious scholars for: to elucidate those tricky passages from the scriptures. "…but the stones will say: "Oh Muslim, there is a Jew behind me, kill him."" Could it be a metaphor, or could the stones really speak? Perhaps wisely, the imam here leaves both options open.

All living creatures are opposed to this bigoted and arrogant breed of people who occupied Muslim lands and humiliated our brothers in Palestine. We pray for Allah to humiliate them in this world, and the Hereafter, to kindle zeal in the hearts of the Muslims to support their religion, and to humiliate those [Jews] soon. Amen, oh Allah….

"At the Battle of Badr, when our dear Prophet Muhammad was giving instructions to his Companions and arranging them in battle lines, he said to them: 'When they get close to you, within the range of your arrows, shoot your arrows at them.' What [the Prophet] meant is that when [the enemy] gets within range of the [Muslims'] arrows, then [the Muslims] must shoot their arrows. This hadith encourages shooting, using any available means – be it using arrows, like in ancient times, or bullets, rockets, grenades, like in modern times, or any other means, because shooting is one of the elements of force that Allah ordered. [Allah] said: 'Prepare for them whatever force and steeds of war you can.'

More informative exegesis. When Muhammad said 'When they get close to you, within the range of your arrows, shoot your arrows at them', what he meant was that when they (the enemy) get within range of the arrows, then they (the Muslims) should shoot their arrows at them.

Brilliant. That's cleared that up.

Though of course it's the shooting that really matters, not the arrows. Nowadays it could be bullets, rockets, grenades….

And people say that Islam is stuck in the past and doesn't move with the times!