The Jerusalem Synagogue Massacre - a Reckoning for Islam

It is time for a reckoning, for Islam to declare itself. The two Palestinian cousins armed with meat cleavers, knives and a gun who stormed into a Jerusalem synagogue during morning prayers Tuesday, killing four rabbis - 3 of them Americans and 1 British - carried out Jerusalem's bloodiest attack in years. Perhaps the most repulsive attack ever if you look at the video of the slaughter scene being shown on CNN -- pools and trails of blood, bits of human flesh and hair and bone that had been hacked from the victims -- who were at prayer, wrapped in prayer shawls, praying in a synagogue. It is a scene of horror. Every person who sees or considers this massacre should be enraged. If as a modern agnostic or atheist you shrug this horror off as part of today's world, if as a Christian you do not feel your stomach and soul recoil when you see the images, if you are a Moslem who feels in any sense that this slaughter is justifiable or in some measure take satisfaction from the murderous crime - you are not fully human. ~~~~~ Yet, Hamas, the jihadist terrorist Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip, praised the attack. In Gaza, dozens of Palestinians took to the streets to celebrate, with some offering trays full of candy. And in the coming hours posters bearing the faces of the terrorist criminals will surely go up, and, true to his past actions, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will send letters of condolence to the killers' families. US Secretary of State John Kerry blamed the attack on Palestinian calls for "days of rage" and said Palestinian leaders must take serious steps to refrain from such incitement. He also urged Palestinian leaders to condemn the attack "in the most powerful terms." It was only after Kerry spoke to Netanyahu following the attack and then publicly denounced it as an "act of pure terror and senseless brutality and violence" that Palestinian President Abbas condemned it, too, the first time he has done so since a recent spike in deadly violence against Israelis began - a spike that has left 6 Israelis dead, including a 3-month-old baby. But Abbas also called for an end to Israeli "provocations" surrounding the sacred shrine holy to both Jews and Moslems -- the Temple Mount that is the most sacred place in Judaism, referred to by Moslems as the Noble Sanctuary, Islam's third holiest site, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. The site is so holy that Jews have traditionally refrained from going there, instead praying at the adjacent Western Wall. Israel's chief rabbis have urged people not to ascend to the area, but in recent years, a small but growing number of Jews, including ultranationalist lawmakers, have started to go to the Temple Mount to pray, seen by Palestinians as a provocation, although the Jews are only doing what Israel allows Moslem residents of Jerusalem to do daily, and which Prime Minister Netanyahu has promised the Palestinians that Israel will preserve. ~~~~~ The two terrorists were killed in a battle with Jerusalem police, whose spokeswoman Luba Samri identified the assailants as Ghassan and Oday Abu Jamal, residents of east Jerusalem, the section of the city captured by Israel in 1967 and claimed by the Palestinians as their capital. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small militant group, said the cousins were among its members, though it did not say whether it had instructed them to carry out the attack. Clashes later broke out outside the assailants' home, where dozens of people hurled stones at police, who responded using riot dispersal weapons. Neighborhood residents, speaking on condition of anonymity for fears for their own safety, said 14 members of the Abu Jamal family were arrested. Mohammed Zahaikeh, a cousin of the family. said the brothers had been released in a 2011 prisoner swap and re-arrested recently by Israeli police. He did not say why. Israel has been on high alert with a spate of attacks by Palestinians against Israelis. The violence has created a security challenge for Israel, since most of the attackers come from east Jerusalem. More than 200,000 Arab residents there hold residency rights that, in contrast to Palestinians in the neighboring West Bank, allow them to move freely throughout Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to "respond harshly," describing the attack as a "cruel murder of Jews who came to pray and were killed by despicable murderers." And, according to the Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu has ordered the demolition of the homes of the two terrorists who carried out Tuesday's attack. The directive came at an emergency security consultation Netanyahu convened in his office with Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Israel Security Agency head Yoram Cohen Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and other top security officials. In addition to ordering the demolition of the homes of the two terrorists, Netanyahu also gave orders to move forward with the demolition of the homes of terrorists who carried out other recent attacks. Netanyahu also ordered significantly ratcheting up of law enforcement against those guilty of incitement. ~~~~~ It is impossble not to compare Prime Minister Netanyahu's forceful response to terrorist attacks on Israelis and their guests with the comments of President Obama as he was returning from his trip to Asia and reacted to the beheading of US aid worker Peter Kassig by ISIS terrorists. Kassig, a convert to Islam, took the name Abdul-Rahman and was captured and held hostage by members of ISIS a year ago. President Obama said : “ISIL's actions represent no faith, least of all the Moslem faith which Abdul-Rahman adopted as his own." ~~~~~ But, dear readers, although we know that these monsters don't represent Islam, that the ISIS and al-Qaida beheaders and axe murderers are not true sons of Islam -- yet we must ask what the true followers are thinking, feeling, fearing that has frozen them into submission and silence, that makes them meekly follow leaders who celebrate terrorism and death, who go out onto the streets to celebrate with them. When will Islam find the strength to free itself of this cancer that is eating at its soul, that wants to make Islam an outcast from civilization.