September 17, 2009, - 4:02 am
Et Tu, Dennis Prager?: Talk Show Host Observes Yom Kippur w/ Whining Muslim Extremist; UPDATE: Prager “Responds”
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
You’d think that a man who made such a big deal about a Muslim Congressman getting sworn into Congress using a Koran would be the last person to spend Judaism’s most important holiday with an extremist Muslim–the last person to use the day as an exercise in moral equivalency and interfaith multi-culti crap.
On Yom Kippur, Dennis Prager Does Interfaith BS w/ Muslim Levent Akbarut
But you would be wrong. Because that’s exactly what Salem Radio talk show host Dennis Prager plans to do on Yom Kippur in less than two weeks. And, because you might ask, the answer is, no, Prager is not a rabbi. Not even close. But he sure makes it sound like that, since he’s hosting his own “alternative” Yom Kippur “services.” I used to like and respect Dennis Prager, but with this development, that’s no longer the case.
Here’s the e-mail he’s been sending out about his event with Islamic victimhood whiner Levent Akbarut, who was an active part of an extremist mosque, where polygamy and Jew-hatred was encouraged. Note how Prager claims he’s against using Yom Kippur as “a forum for political advocacy” and then announces his interfaith moral equivalency event. That’s not “political advocacy”? Only in an ignoramus’ fantasy.
Dear Friends,
For those of you who have signed up (or are still planning to sign up) for my High Holidays Services, I have news I want to share with you.
Those of you who have been with me in the past know that I remain at services all day on Yom Kippur. In the past, in the afternoon during the two-three hour break I would talk with you and answer questions about God, faith, religion, Judaism, life – anything except politics. (I feel strongly that the High Holy Days not be used as a forum for political advocacy.)
This year, however, I have asked three major religious figures – a Protestant Christian, a Roman Catholic, and a Muslim — to join me during that break on the afternoon of Yom Kippur. For those of you who recall my first radio work – ten years as host of “Religion on the Line” – this will be like that, except in person, not on radio. Obviously, this will not be available to the general public, but I think those of you attending will find it interesting and meaningful.
The Christian is Greg Koukl, one the best known evangelical Christians in the nation, founder of Stand To Reason and host of his own national radio talk show on Christianity.
The Roman Catholic is a Capuchin Franciscan friar, Father Gregory Coiro, whom I regard so highly that I am flying him in from San Francisco for this event. For years he was the spokesman for Cardinal Roger Mahoney and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
The Muslim representative, Levent Akbarut, is the spokesman for the Islamic Congregation of La Canada Flintridge. He has worked and studied with some of the leading Muslims in America.
I look forward to seeing you.
With warmest wishes,
Dennis Prager
Along with Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur is the most important holiday on the Jewish calendar, since these days mark the beginning and end of the Ten Days of Repentance–when Jews repent for their sins and beg G-d for forgiveness and a good year to come. And when Yom Kippur ends, that fate is sealed.
I suppose Prager believes that the best way to “repent” to his apparent new god, allah, is to show Jews the “goodness” of Islam–you know, to supplement the real “goodness” of Islam that Jews have known for centuries: from the Al-Mohad Muslim crusades (which some scholars say wiped out a higher percentage of Jews at the time than the Holocaust) to the pogroms of 1929 to the Muslim SS divisions and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem’s urging Hitler to hasten the Final Solution and export it to the Mid-East, to the Siege of Hebron, to the Munich Olympic Massacre, to the Maalot massacre, to the Hezbollah bombing of the Jewish Community Center of Buenos Aires, to the Passover massacre, the bombings of Sbarro’s Pizza and Mikes Bar, to the massacre of the Mumbai Chabad Lubavitch Jewish Center.
Let me tell you a little about Mr. Akbarut, Dennis the Interfaith Menace’s new friend. He signed a whining “Islamophobia” petition denouncing David Horowitz’s Terrorism Awareness Project, attacking scholar Robert Spencer, Horowitz, and Ann Coulter, among others. Even worse, the petition was the work of the deceptively-named “Jewish Voice for Peace”–an extremist, anti-Israel group that marches in pro-HAMAS and anti-Israel demonstrations and regularly sides with anti-Semitic groups. At the time I write this, one of Akbarut’s Facebook friends, Muhammad Adaya, uses as his Facebook icon, a photo of a terrorist wrapped in a keffiyeh with only the eyes visible.
Akbarut, an aerospace software engineer, is the typical Muslim taqiyyah (Islam’s prescribed deception of non-Muslims) guy. He says some of the right things and signs some of the right petitions. Sort of.
For instance, he signed a petition, which claims that Islam does not condemn apostates and those who convert away from the religion. But we know that’s false. There is no such thing as “Islam’s unambiguous affirmation of freedom of faith,” contrary to the peition’s claim. It’s disinformation. The site bearing the petition features links to the work of Tariq Ramadan (who isn’t allowed in America and whose grandfather founded the Muslim Brotherhood) and Hasan Turabi, the Islamist, sharia-imposing religious leader in Sudan and a top ally of Osama Bind Laden. And not far above Akbarut’s name on the petition is that of Dr. Layla Al-Marayati, whose KinderUSA “charity,” had to shut down, after she admitted it was funding Palestinian “martyrs.”
Before associating with his current mosque, Akbarut was an active member in the Islamic Center of Southern California, a mosque whose elders and two most prominent members were the Jew-hating Hassan Hathout and Dr. Maher Hathout (who was senior advisor of Al-Marayati’s anti-Semitic hubby’s Muslim Public Affairs Council). Both Hathout brothers were close friends with Muslim Brotherhood founder, Hassan Al-Banna.
The recently-deceased Hassan Hathout encouraged Muslims to have multiple wives but hide it from Americans:
We American Muslims are subject to American law and we have the right of objection only if the law forces us to do something against Islam. . . . When an American Muslim takes a second wife . . . , the second wife is denied her “legal” proof of marriage, and will essentially be kept as a hidden or secret wife.
Maher Hathout, the still-living elder of Akbarut’s former mosque, repeatedly praised Sudan’s sharia-spreading Turabi. And he’s a fan of Islamic terrorism and Hezbollah:
Hezbollah is fighting for freedom, an organized army, limiting its operations against military people, this is a legitimate target against occupation. … this is legitimate, this is an American value — freedom and liberty.
Remember, these are the people who led Akbarut’s longtime mosque, where he continued to worship for years.
Akbarut regurgitated the usual baloney victimhood lines about 9/11 in a 2006 column on his mosque’s website, equivocating the terrorist attacks with “the backlash of anti-Muslim sentiments and hate crimes.”
As an American Muslim, I was deeply disturbed and offended that a group of extremists despicably committed this criminal act of violence, hijacking the name of Islam.
During the tumultuous days after Sept. 11, 2001, American Muslims not only mourned this tragic event, but also had to deal with the backlash of anti-Muslim sentiments and hate crimes.
We found ourselves having to explain that Islam in fact condemns such acts of violence, as any other major religion would, that the actions of a few fanatics should not malign an entire faith, and that American Muslims are just as patriotic as their fellow citizens.
Sorry, I’m not buying. And I don’t believe this fertilizer belongs anywhere near any Jewish religious observances, whether it’s on Yom Kippur or any other day.
So, you’ll excuse me if, as a Jew, I advise other Jews (and non-Jews) not to take any religious advice from a Jew who offers “interfaith” legitimization of a Muslim extremist and victimhood merchant on Judiasm’s most serious and stern day.
At the beginning of the Yom Kippur holiday, the cantor recites the prayer, “Kol Nidre,” which cancels all oaths and promises from the year before. (And, no, contrary to the rantings of anti-Semites, we don’t believe this gets us out of contracts, mortgages, and other such obligations.)
Let’s hope that Dennis Prager has the good sense to take that seriously and cancel his promise to his fellow congregants to host Levent Akbarut on the Jewish Day of Atonement.
**** UPDATE: Dennis Prager “responds” in the comments section, below. Sort of. He doesn’t actually respond to his hosting of a Muslim extremist on Yom Kippur, but instead blames us for exposing him and says that’s the reason the Jewish Temples and Jewish state were destroyed. Incredible. Incredibly obnoxious. Read my response to him, within his comment.
Tags: 911, Ann Coulter, David Horowitz, Dennis Prager, Hasan Al-Turabi, Hasan Turabi, Hassan Al-Banna, Hassan El Banna, Hassan Hathout, interfaith, interfaith dialogue, Islam, Islamic Congregation of La Canada Flintridge, Islamic Society of Southern California, Jewish, Jewish Witness for Peace, Judaism, KinderUSA, Kol Nidre, Layla Al-Marayati, Levent Akbarut, Maher Hathout, MPAC, multi-culti, multi-culti crap, multi-cultural, Muslim Brotherhood, Muslim Public Affairs Council, Muslims, Rabbi, radio host, radio talk show host, Robert Spencer, Salem, Salem Radio, Salem Radio Network, services, sharia, Sudan, taqiyyah, Tariq Ramadan, Terrorism Awareness Project, Yom Kippur
Dennis Prager seems to be getting soft in the head. Also, bringing on a former spokeman for Cardinal Mahoney is not very encouraging. Cardinal Mahoney openly advocated violating U.S. immigration laws in the past. Dennis might still have a mouth, but he has lost his soul.
sorrow01 on September 17, 2009 at 4:33 am