CAIR Wants Rid of a Troublesome Priest

My eye happened to fall on this little story by Detroit News Muslim Affairs Correspondent, Gregg Krupa in the back of Section A this morning. (“Broadcast angers Muslims/Leaders want radio station to stop airing comments by priest they say defame Muhammad.”).

By the way, just for fun I Googled “angers” and “Muslims” together last night to see how many hits I’d get. When it stops counting I’ll let you all know.

But I digress. Krupa’s article describes how:

Muslims and interfaith leaders in Metro Detroit are asking a local radio station owner to discontinue broadcasts in which, they say, a Coptic priest has repeatedly defamed the Prophet Muhammad over the past
year.

In an Arabic-language broadcast Wednesday on WNZK 680/690 AM,the Rev. Zakariah Boutros said the Muslim prophet Muhammad had engaged in necrophilia and gay sex, according to the Council on American Islamic Relations.

(Oh, who else but CAIR?). The priest is Father Zakaria Botros, a Coptic (an ancient Egyptian Christian church). CAIR's Dawud Walid says the claim about Mohammed is false. But then Amani Mostafa, the host of the program that aired the discussion, “Questions About Faith,” responded this way:

. . .Boutros was "reading from an Islamic text" when he said, over the air, that the Prophet Muhammad slept in the grave of a dead woman and allowed a man to kiss and caress his chest.

“I am a former Muslim,” said Mostafa, who is now Christian. “I know exactly what I am talking about. These are the things we were taught as children. We are quoting the Quran and the Hadiths, and if the Muslims have a problem with that then they have a problem with their own book.”

I have to confess to being unfamiliar with Fr. Botros before today. I checked him out and he turns out to be quite a guy. He broadcasts in Arabic on the Arabic channel al-Hayat (i.e., “Life TV”). He knows his Islamic sources backwards and forwards, and has managed to earn the title “Public Enemy #1” by Arabic newspaper, al-Insan al-Jadid. Plus, CAIR wants him off the air.

World Magazine gave Fr. Botros their “Daniel” award in 2008. Last March Raymond Ibrahim, editor of The Al-Qaeda Reader had this to say about Fr. Botros:

Botros is an unusual figure onscreen: robed, with a huge cross around his neck, he sits with both the Koran and the Bible in easy reach. Egypt’s Copts — members of one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East — have in many respects come to personify the demeaning Islamic institution of “dhimmitude” (which demands submissiveness from non-Muslims, in accordance with Koran 9:29). But the fiery Botros does not submit, and minces no words. He has famously made of Islam “ten demands” whose radical nature he uses to highlight Islam’s own radical demands on non-Muslims.

The result? Mass conversions to Christianity — if clandestine ones. The very public conversion of high-profile Italian journalist Magdi Allam — who was baptized by Pope Benedict in Rome on Saturday — is only the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, Islamic cleric Ahmad al-Qatani stated on al-Jazeera TV a while back that some six million Muslims convert to Christianity annually, many of them persuaded by Botros’s public ministry. More recently, al-Jazeera noted Life TV’s “unprecedented evangelical raid” on the Muslim world. (“Islam’s ‘Public Enemy #1’/Coptic priest Zakaria Botros fights fire with fire.”)

Fr. Botros challenges his listeners by presenting an Islamic teaching in the form of a question, which he then establishes by citations to the Koran and hadiths: (e.g., “Is jihad an obligation for all Muslims?”; “Are women inferior to men in Islam?”; “Did Mohammed say that adulterous female monkeys should be stoned?” “Is drinking the urine of prophets salutary according to sharia?”).

Ibrahim describes how the priest spent three years “bringing to broad public attention a scandalous — and authentic — hadith stating that women should “breastfeed” strange men with whom they must spend any amount of time. . . . by being ‘breastfed,’ the men become like ‘sons’ to the women and therefore can no longer have sexual designs on them”.

Fr. Botros then leaves the questions open for his Muslim audience, inviting anyone who cares to to call in and point out where his understanding of the sources is incorrect.

He does demand, however, that their response be based on “al-dalil we al-burhan,” — "evidence and proof,” one of his frequent refrains — not shout-downs or sophistry.

More often than not, the response from the ulema is deafening silence — which has only made Botros and Life TV more enticing to Muslim viewers. The ulema who have publicly addressed Botros’s conclusions often find themselves forced to agree with him — which has led to some amusing (and embarrassing) moments on live Arabic TV.

Which is kind of funny, in view of how this current story turns out. Krupa reports that “in an interview with The Detroit News last summer Birach promised to end the broadcasts, upon the request of interfaith Muslim, Jewish and Christian groups in Metro Detroit.” A promise made during an interview? But who makes promises to reporters during an interview? Sounds more like a negotiation.

This is where it gets funny, on several levels, though I don’t think Krupa meant it that way. The italics are mine:

Birach went so far as to put people associated with Boutros's broadcasts on conference calls with this reporter, while he berated them for allowing what some consider hate speech. "It's not right," Birach said at the time. "It's not fair to use some fake or stupid books to accuse someone's religion. Do you hear me?" But on Thursday, Birach said he had since heard from "several prominent people in the community," that what Boutros stated in the broadcasts is true. "Maybe we need to have more meetings," Birach said, referring to members of the Muslim and interfaith communities.

Maybe so. Krupa will be happy to arrange them. Better bring a radio.