Pity the Children of the Islamic World

In April 2016, a video by Hamas was exposed showing "hysterical children in the company of exorcising preachers. It is a humiliating and invasive rite practiced at the Al-Nil School in Gaza City." It is, however, hardly a surprise for people who have followed this never-ending child abuse, as this video exhorts the children to become "warriors" in the jihad or holy war against Israel and the infidels. These children are taught to hate. Yet, when the French historian of Moroccan heritage, George Bensoussan, stated that "[i]t is a shame to deny this taboo, namely that in the Arab families in France, and everyone knows it but nobody wants to say it, anti-Semitism is sucked with mother's milk" he was put on trial for saying this."

As Khaled Abu Toameh explains "[Palestinian] children do not dream about becoming doctors, pilots or engineers; an entire generation of Palestinians, particularly those in the Gaza Strip, has been raised on the glorification of suicide bombers and anyone who kills a Jew." In fact, "what is happening to the Palestinian people, who have forever been led by leaders who care nothing for their well-being, is a tragedy of national proportions." And, of course, the first victims are the children. Since 1996, the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), under the direction of Itamar Marcus, has exposed the schoolbooks and propaganda material used to brainwash Palestinian children. In 2015 a report issued by PMW highlighted the Palestinian Authority's teaching its children to "reject Israel's right to exist, encourag[ing] them to view Jews as evil and direct[ing] them to embrace terrorist murderers as role models. This report exposes a world of demonization, incitement and hate that Palestinian children are urged to adopt." When shown the hateful material emanating from the PA, then Senator Hillary Clinton "condemned the PA's messages to children and stated that the official PA TV broadcasts were 'a clear example of child abuse.'" In fact, the textbooks "do not give Palestinian children an education; they give them an indoctrination. When viewed . . . in combination with other media that these children are exposed to, we see a larger picture that is disturbing… because it basically profoundly poisons the minds of these children." Common themes running through the hate-filled messages include: Israel has no right to exist.

Israel will disappear and be replaced by Palestine.

Violence -- “armed struggle” -- is legitimate to fight Israel.

Muslims must fight an eternal Islamic war against Israel.

Killers of Israelis are heroes and role models.

Martyrdom or death for Allah is the utmost honor.

Jews are “monkeys and pigs.”

Jews are “enemies of Allah.”

Jews are the “most evil of creations.” Schools are named after terrorists and Hitler is honored. On January 20, 2017, young children on a PA TV children's program recited a poem promoting the escalation of violence: and recited "my rock has turned into an AK-47." On January 8, 2017 a "young girl chants at a Fatah rally north of Nablus, that '[d]eath is insignificant… I love Palestine, blood is spilled for it." In February 2017, a UN Watch report titled "Poisoning Palestinian Children" highlights the endless teaching and incitement to jihadist terrorism and anti-Semitism that is the foundation of teaching to Palestinian children. The report's graphic pictures expose "more than 40 Facebook pages operated by school teachers, principals, and other employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) which incite terrorism and anti-Semitism. It includes UNRWA staffers in Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza, and Syria." The potent examples in the report show teachers and staffers "celebrating the terrorist kidnapping of Israeli teenagers, cheering rockets being fired at Israeli civilian centers, endorsing various forms of violence, erasing Israel from the map, praising Hitler and posting his photo and overtly anti-Semitic videos, caricatures and statements." Basically, the UNRWA is a terrorist training camp. The United States gave $380 million in 2015, the EU $136 million, the UK $100 million, and Canada $25 million. Even when UN Watch exposed similar cases last year, nothing was done and, in fact, a UNRWA spokesman "lashed out at UN Watch" for exposing the truth. Legal violations of the UNRWA, which are discussed in the report, the act of inciting terrorism, the public display of Facebook posts which celebrate radical Islamic terrorism, and the violation of internal United Nations policies are clear-cut reasons why UNRWA needs to be dismantled. Clearly, nothing short of this will make a difference. Not content with poisoning children's minds in school, the Islamic world countenances more and more children marriages. In Iran, where the marriage age is nine years old, "the rate of child marriage is increasing exponentially in the Islamic Republic of Iran, [as well as] Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and even some Muslim communities in the West. The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child has warned Iran over the rise in child marriages and for allowing sex and execution at age 9" according to Dr. Majid Rafizadeh. Further depravity is demonstrated with the news that in the United Kingdom "a six-year-old girl with learning difficulties was removed from school and taken to marry an older man in Pakistan." In Pakistan, "Pakistani lawmakers had to withdraw a bill aimed at curbing the practice of child marriage after a prominent religious body declared the legislation un-Islamic. The bill, which proposed raising the marriage age for females from 16 to 18, also called for harsher penalties for those who would arrange marriages involving children. Despite the laws in place, child marriages, particularly involving young female brides, are common in parts of the country. It's estimated that some 20 percent of the girls in the country are married before they turn 18." What we repeatedly see is child abuse of the highest order and religiously endorsed pedophilia. It is endemic in the Islamic world and it is now rearing its ugly head in the West with no sign of abating. If, as the Talmud states, "the world exists only because of the innocent breath of schoolchildren" then the world that the Islamists are creating and that the West appears to be ignoring, is a dire one, indeed. Mokher Sefarim Mendele, Yiddish storyteller, wrote that "children without childhood are a dark and fearsome spectacle." Children taught to be suicide bombers, young girls whose very bodies and souls are destroyed -- how can a society continue this ongoing assault on its young? Children "deserve to be brought up valuing peace, but Palestinian children are being deprived of a peaceful future and are victims of their own leaders." The entire Islamic landscape is sacrificing its young and this depressing scenario must be halted if we are ever to truly live in peace and harmony where children's nightmares are stilled. Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com