The family suddenly notices the cameras, and immediately, the expression on their faces changes. “We have no food,” they say in Arabic, as one of the youngsters suggests we interview him in English about their plight. Givati troops are extremely concerned about being portrayed as abusing innocent civilians. Perry points to a stack of canned goods, water bottles and other provisions. “We provided some of that and they cook and eat quite well,” said Perry. The Palestinians seem to understand him and one of them smiles. It’s a war — they had to try….” — from this article

Anyone who has bargained with someone in an Arab souk knows the way in which the owner of, say, a carpet store will smile, and tell you to come in and please have tea, and perhaps take a look at his marvellous carpets. But don’t misunderstand, he has absolutely no intention of trying to sell you something, it’s just his family’s store, and he wants you to meet his father and his brothers, and they are all so proud of their interesting rugs, and hope you will have tea with them. And you, innocent that you are, enter, and have the tea, and then the soft sell starts, and quickly becomes a hard sell, and then you stupidly ask the price of a rug, and you are told that “for you effendi, a special price, because effendi, I love you more than I love my father, I love you more than I love my mother, effendi,” so for you the price is — and then a figure is given that is absurdly high, twenty times what the rug should be selling for. And you demur.

And suddenly, right away, the price is cut so that now it is down to only ten times what it should be, and then you demur again, and the price is now swiftly cut again, to only five times what it should be. And this is accompanied by protestations of “this is only for you” and “only because I regard you as my friend” and “I have never given such a price to anyone in my life” and “my brother is telling me he can’t believe I am doing this, he thinks I have gone crazy, he is begging me to stop, he says we will die of starvation if we sell rugs at this price.” And you demur again, and so he cuts again, and sells you the rug for only three times what it should sell for, which is about ten times its actual worth, and you leave the store with your rug, and feel proud of yourself, for having made such a bargain.

Yes, these Arabs sweetly try to blacken the name of Israel by claiming that they are starving — but in this case, oops, they’d forgotten to hide the canned goods, and the bottled water, and the other provisions provided by the Israelis, and pointed out by Perry. Well, so they smiled. They did their best. They lied as best they could. Come back tomorrow, cameramen, and this time they’ll have the same lies ready, but with the canned goods, and the bottles of water, and the other provisions all carefully hidden.

Yes, do come back, won’t you, please?

Taqiyya and kitman are religiously sanctioned doctrines of dissimulation about Islam, and about one’s owns beliefs. One is encouraged to lie to protect the faith and the position of Muslims.

Muslims have shown what non-Muslims would find to be a remarkable ability to speak and behave one way. And then, when they believe they are among their own, or when they think that the temporary danger from Infidels reacting to an outrage has died down, or proven not to be so dangerous, they reveal their true beliefs.

There have been many examples of imams and Muslim spokesmen showing up after 9/11 for assorted “interfaith” vigils, who made all the right noises, and who later on were picked up for their demonstrated support for, or other connection to, terrorism. There have been those celebrated clerics in the Middle East, Australia, and elsewhere who have, for Infidel audiences, stoutly denounced “suicide-bombers” — and then, for audiences of fellow Muslims, insisted on defending suicide bombers.

There have been those who expressed astonishment, horror, at various bombings and then, when they thought the coast was clear (i.e., the Infidels were not going to do anything) revealed their support for such attacks. One thinks here of the outwardly pleasing uncle of one of the London bombers, who at first (fearing Infidel reaction) expressed shock, amazement, absolute horror — and then, when it was clear that the Infidels were not going to behave as Muslims would naturally have behaved had positions been reversed (with mass killings of Infidels that would not stop), decided to announce his true feelings: his sympathetic understanding of the London bombings that, not two weeks before, he had had such apparent difficulty even in comprehending.

Muslims have a fantastic ability to turn on and off their “deeply sincere” beliefs when it comes to fooling non-Muslims, whether selling in a souk (that metalwork zarf-and-finjan set in Morocco, the hubble-bubble pipe in Egypt, the carpet in Damascus), or outside the souk, selling Infidels a bill of goods. Not everyone gets with the program, of course — some hotheads always insist on telling the truth. And we can learn the truth from those “hotheads.”