Mireille Knoll, who was born on December 28, 1932 and survived the Holocaust as a Jew, was brutally slaughtered and burned in Paris on March 23, 2018. She was stabbed eleven times before her apartment was set on fire. Several times, she had reported a Muslim neighbor to the police, who threatened to have her „incinerated“. The word „holocaust“ comes from ancient Greek (ὁλόκαυστος / holókaustos) and means „completely burned“. Mireille Knoll survived the Holocaust, but she was burned in 2018 because she was Jewish.

On the night of April 4, 2017 also in Paris, 66-year-old Jewish Sarah Lucy Halimi was murdered while asleep in her bed by a 27-year-old man. She was repeatedly stabbed and then, as the killer shouted, „Allahu Akbar“, tossed from her apartment balcony on the third floor onto the street. During his interrogation, the perpetrator explained that the orders to kill came from the Koran.

During the attack on Charlie Hebdo in January 2015 -also in Paris – one of the terrorists took hostages at a Jewish supermarket and killed four people. He called the French broadcaster BFMTV to make his demands public. The station asked, „Why did you choose that particular store?“ The answer came promptly: „Because they’re Jews!“

On May 24, 2014, an Israeli couple and a French visitor were shot dead at the Jewish Museum in Brussels. The killer carried out the act in the name of Allah. On the same day, two Jews from a synagogue were brutally beaten up in France. The thugs did that to please the Prophet.

On March 19, 2012, four people were shot down in front of a Jewish school in Toulouse by a man who saw himself as an Islamic warrior. Three of the victims were children.

On January 21, 2006, Ilan Halimi was abducted in France by a group of Muslim immigrants and tortured for three weeks for simply being a Jew. He was stripped naked, tied up and stabbed. Cigarettes were put out on his face and body, and he was sprayed with flammable liquids and lit on fire. He had his ear and toe cut off. On February 13, 2006, Halimi was found near railroad tracks in a suburb of Paris. He was naked and handcuffed to a tree. Eighty percent of his skin was destroyed. Holocaust means „completely burned“.

On the way to the hospital, Halimi succumbed to his massive injuries. Ilan Halimi was tortured for three weeks. Neighbors, friends and acquaintances of the kidnappers knew about the barbarism. Some even came by, watched or participated in the torture. None of them informed the authorities. When Jews were being exterminated in Germany, the neighbours knew. They kept silent. Some even took part. Only a few Germans opposed Nazi hatred. The Scholl siblings did it. In their third flyer they wrote:

”But our present State is a dictatorship of Evil. “We’ve known that for a long time,” I can hear you say, “and it is not necessary for you to remind us of it once again.” So I ask you: If you are aware of this, why aren’t you uneased? (…) Has your spirit been so devastated by rape that you forget that it is not only your right, but your moral duty to put an end to this system?

If a person cannot even summon the strength to defend his rights, then there is nothing left for him but destruction. Then we will deserve to be scattered to all corners of the globe, as dust before the wind, if we do not pull ourselves together in this eleventh hour and finally summon the courage that we have been lacking till now. Do not hide your cowardice under a veil of cleverness! Because each day you delay, each day you do not resist this spawn of hell, your guilt increases exponentially.“

Hatred of Jews is everywhere. In the 20th century, however, this hatred was particularly evident among the Germans. Today, Islam has a problem with Jews. Just as many Germans under the Nazis believed that it was their duty as decent Germans to free the world from Judaism, almost all anti-Jewish murders of the 21st century in Europe were committed by people who carried out their deeds in the belief that they were acting on behalf of Islam as good Muslims. Of course, not all Germans at the time were evil. Even if the majority were good, they were silent in any case. That’s how it is today. The majority remains silent. And the murderers are among us.

Almost a year ago, a demonstration with the motto „Not with us! Muslims and friends against violence and terror“ was announced. More than 10,000 people were expected, but only a few hundred came. And not all of those were even Muslims.

The initiator, Lamya Kaddor, had planned the demonstration well in advance. There was widespread publicity through the major media. Yet hardly anyone showed up. Lamya Kaddor explained the lack of interest correctly: „Of course, terrorism, or Islamism, has something to do with Islam. That distinction must be emphasized even more.“

Unfortunately, on that day hardly a Muslim was interested in making any distinctions.

Among the few Muslims present in Cologne that day, the clear majority, namely over fifty percent, were supposed Muslims. I write „supposed“ because most Muslims worldwide do not recognize the Ahmadiyya as legitimate Muslims. On the other hand, the participant Ahmadiyya did make a distinction, but according to sex. That was indeed a distinction, but probably not in such a way as Lamya Kaddor had hoped for.

Because the silence is so deafening, I would like to address my Muslim neighbors:

Dear Muslims,

I apologize for addressing you collectively as members of a religious community. Reducing an individual to his faith is otherwise not to my taste. I don’t really care what people believe in. But I have a reason to address you as Muslims. I have a question for you: How can you tolerate what’s happening in the name of Islam? Albert Einstein once said:

„The world is not threatened by the people who are evil, but by those who allow evil.“

Muslims in Europe who murder, claim their actions are legitimized by the Koran. For those who believe Islam means peace, Muslims who hate and murder in the name of the Koran must be worse than those who burn the Koran. In 2011, when an American preacher used a copy of the Koran to ignite a fire, there were violent protests worldwide. Now, the Koran is being used to fuel violence and war! Where is the outrage when self-proclaimed Muslims burn Jews?

Every time someone somewhere in the world criticizes Islam, parodies Mohammed or makes a silly film about Muslims, the outcry in the Muslim world is usually immense. But where is the outrage when Islamists misuse Islam to justify their evil deeds? Why are you silent when fundamentalists preach hate in the name of your religion and the Koran?

It’s simply not enough to say that all those crimes have nothing to do with Islam. Of course they do! How can I ignore the fact that the killers call themselves Muslims; even true Muslims, who feel entitled to murder for an Islamic state. They cut off heads, stone women, hang homosexuals and burn Jews.

One may say that those Muslims are a minority. But even if they are, the majority of peace-loving Muslims make themselves irrelevant if they remain silent and let the dangerous minority have their say! A hundred years ago it was the Christian church that described Jews as well poisoners and child murderers. Thus, the way was paved for the Holocaust. The Christian majority was irrelevant. Today hatred of Jews is preached in the same words in mosques, but in a different language.

Dear Muslims,

Please don’t tell me what Islam means. And don’t waste your time explaining Islam to those who mourn the victims of Islamic terrorists. It’s not their job to defend or explain the virtues of the Islamic religion. Go to those Muslims who use religion to oppose enlightened and liberal values. Don’t force me or the victims of terrorism to attend courses on Islam. I just want to be left alone. I want to live in a world where it doesn’t matter what I think of the Koran.

So don’t talk to me! Talk to those who hate me in the name of the Koran, for today it is your faith, the Muslim faith, that is being used to sow hatred. Your problems are not the people who criticize Islam. Your problem is everyone who calls himself a Muslim and commits violence in the name of Islam. Just as the Nazis were once a German problem, today Islamists are Islam’s problem! The first flyer of the Scholl siblings says:

“Do not forget that every people deserves the government it is willing to endure!”

Dear Muslims,

Don’t tolerate the hatred preached in your religion’s name. Don’t tolerate the violence committed in the name of your faith. Please do something about it. Do not delay, because each day you do not resist this spawn of hell, your guilt increases exponentially.

***
Translation: William Wires
http://www.williamwires.com
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