That is the unavoidable conclusion anyone examining Andrew Bostom's striking compendium of sacred Muslim texts and authoritative scholars must reach. As Martin Peretz notes,"it is a subject that forgiving hearts would prefer to ignore." I do not know about you but I am not particularly happy to discover that Muslims have hated me as much as Christians did with the exception that they did not go as far as to burn my relatives in ovens.

On the other hand, unlike the Christians, they have yet to learn to feel ashamed of hating me so. Hence, their Antisemitism like cancer continues to grow. That is the reason this medical doctor turned meticulous scholar refuses to let us ignore the unpleasant reality. For doctors know, no cure is possible before a disease is properly diagnosed.

But why do they so hate us? The painting on the cover explains it best. We say no. We will not give up our Judaism come what may.

The name of the woman in the painting is Sol Hachuel. She was 17 when she was executed in Tangier for apostasy. A woman she thought a friend accused her of reverting to Judaism after converting to Islam. Sol denied the charge saying:

"A Jewess I was born, a Jewess I wish to die."

You will find her detailed story in Bostom's Cover note. The Muslim rulers were determined to break her but to no avail. Eugenio Maria Romero, a near contemporary reporter, describes her last moments thus:

Compassion, mildness, grief, and every sentiment that could move the heart, were depicted on the countenance of the lovely victim; but pity is a feeling little known in Fez: the streets were crowded with Moors of all ages and sexes, who made the air resound with their discordant cries."here comes", said they,"she who blasphemed the Prophet--death! death! to the impious wretch!" 33

These men [the executioners], hardened by cruelty, gave the order to march [Sol] to [her] death; they tied a strong rope round her neck, and commenced dragging her as if she were a beast. 34

[Sol] then raising her streaming eyes to heaven, she repeated with the utmost devotion, the Shema, which having concluded; kneeling and casting her eyes to the ground, she said to the executioner--"I have finished, dispose of my life!" 35

One of the executioners seizing the arms of the victim, bound them tightly behind her; then brandishing his scimitar in the air, holding her beautiful tresses, he slightly wounded her; in an instant, her bosom and clothes were covered with blood--"There is yet time", said he,"to become Mahometan, and save your life!" But turning toward him, she said,"Do not make me linger--behead me at once--for dying as I do, innocent of any crime, the God of Abraham will avenge my death!" These were her last words--the executioner raised his arm--it fell--the scimitar separated the head from the trunk--in an instant, the most constant of her sex, fell a bleeding, lifeless corpse--she ceased to exist.--Horrid spectacle! 36

The Jews had engaged some Moors to take up the corpse, and gather the earth that was spotted with her innocent blood, the moment the execution was over. They faithfully performed the charge, wrapping her mortal remains in a fine linen cloth, [and] delivered it to the Jews assembled in their cemetery, where they were digging a deep grave for her, adjoining to one in which reposed the ashes of a Sage of great reputation. The same day the Jewish martyr was interred amidst the tears and sobs of a numerous concourse of people who attended her obsequies...37

Remember Daniel Pearl who said"I am a Jew and my father was a Jew" before his throat was cut?! Plus ca change . . . Jews are not for breaking. Christians finally got it. Muslims have not and the faster we face that fact, the lower the price we will pay for forcing them to get it.

Also see, Rafael Israeli, Bostom's Legacy, Raymond Ibrahim, Islam's history of anti-Semitism and Robert Kaplan, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: A review essay