Noha Hashad not only escaped Egypt, but sought Jerusalem

...Looking out at the Mediterranean Sea from her Haifa balcony, far away from her family, Hashad is living in self-imposed exile. She fled Egypt by the skin of her teeth thanks to the Arab Spring and the subsequent fall of Mubarak. She has had to contend with constant threats from Islamic elements. "Israel is a jewel," she said, gently caressing her physical scars. "Israel is a diamond, and I'm lucky to be here."

Emily Amrousi..
Israel Hayom..
03 April '15..

The biblical proverb commands human beings of each generation to view themselves as if they had fled Egypt. Here, sitting right in front of me, is a real-life Egyptian refugee, a woman whose escape was very recent. Her wounds are still fresh, and hallmarks of the arduous journey could be visible on her face.

Not only did Noha Hashad flee Egypt, but she chose Jerusalem as her safe haven. Perhaps she is worthy of consideration for the title of Righteous Among the Nations. In championing for Israel's cause in her homeland, she paid (and is paying) a dear price. When she openly sided with Israel, she was arrested by the Hosni Mubarak regime, suffering beatings and torture at the hands of the authorities. As a result of her ordeal, she was left disabled.

Looking out at the Mediterranean Sea from her Haifa balcony, far away from her family, Hashad is living in self-imposed exile. She fled Egypt by the skin of her teeth thanks to the Arab Spring and the subsequent fall of Mubarak. She has had to contend with constant threats from Islamic elements.

"Israel is a jewel," she said, gently caressing her physical scars. "Israel is a diamond, and I'm lucky to be here."

"No fear gene"

Now 51 years of age, Hashad was born and raised in Muslim Cairo. As a young girl, she was sent to a private school in Saudi Arabia, where she underwent instruction on the Quran and Islam. On her mother's side, she is a direct descendant of Hussein Bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and the founder of Shia Islam. On her father's side, she is certain that there is a connection to Judaism. It is believed that her father is a descendant of the Baal Shem Tov.

"Apparently, my last name, Hashad, is derived from the Hebrew word Hassid," she said.

An educated woman, Hashad speaks fluent English. She declines the opportunity to discuss her family for fear that they could be subject to harm in Egypt. She took an interest in the Israeli-Arab conflict just as she was in the process of completing her doctorate in nuclear physics from Beni-Suef University. She also taught nuclear physics at both Beni-Suef and Cairo University. On top of that, she oversaw her own research laboratory.

From her new home in Haifa 500 kilometers away, Hashad is now in the process of founding a center to promote peace in the Middle East. She is currently working on translating Mahmoud Abbas' first book into English. Hashad must still face down threats to her life which are posted on Facebook and expressed in letters and phone calls.

"I'm not afraid," she said. "I don't know why. I don't have the gene of fear."

Her curiosity about Egypt's neighbor to the northeast began to percolate in 1999. This was when Hashad was hard at work on her master's thesis which focused on molecular physics. Her expertise was considered so vast that she was offered an opportunity to work for the Egyptian government in the area of radioactive safety.

Just Your Everyday "Rally for Justice in Palestine and the Oppressed Everywhere" (Except In Israel)

Daled Amos
06 September '10

The time has come that we must stir up our 'religious leaders' in this country to speak the truth about Israel. They must put their hands on the Quran and say that they do not recognize Israel as a legitimate entity. If they cannot do that, they must be branded as kaffirs [infidels]. It's as simple as that. Because the Quran says – drive them out from where they drove you out.
Kaukab Siddiqi

Here is the video--from the "Annual Al-Quds Day Rally for Justice in Palestine and the Oppressed Everywhere." The video automatically starts with Siddiqi:




When you have an associate professor of English haranguing a crowd about the Koran, you know it's not because of his knowledge of the Islam or Koran, but because he'll say anything to stir up a crowd.

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The Root of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Classic Islamic View of Jews, Part II

Hagai Mazuz
Hudson New York
01 September '10

In showing that the Arab-Israeli conflict is religious -- and not territorial -- based on texts from the book Kitāb al-Maghāzī ["The Book of Holy Raids"], which documents how the Muslim raids against the Jews in Medina and Khaybar in ancient Arabia were the source of inspiration for the Islamic terrorist organizations, questions arose as to whether we can generalize about Islam by examining just one book.

Kitāb al-Maghāzī, however, is just one of the many religious Islamic source books which contains anti-Jewish material. The most well known Muslim book is the Quran, which itself is filled with vehemently anti-Jewish material. Muslim sources explain that the Quran is a collection of revelations that Allah gave to Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel. When Muhammad encountered difficulties, Allah told him how to solve these problems via revelations; Uthman, the 3rd Caliph, collected all of them, and that is how the Quran was created.

The Quran is filled with a large amount of material regarding the Jews, most of which labels them as cold-hearted and evil. From this we learn that Muhammad had a lot of dealings with Jews, as Allah "provided" Muhammed with many verses which deal with them. There are also many verses which deal with biblical stories and the history of the Children of Israel (called Isrā'īlīyāt).

There is also a type of Islamic literature called "The Circumstances of Revelation" (in Arabic: Asbāb al-Nuzūl), that details the circumstances in which Allah revealed each and every verse in the Quran to Muhammad. It is clear from this literature that even in many of the verses in which the Jews and Christians are not mentioned, the Quranic scholars, in their explanation of these verses, tell us that this or that verse was "revealed" because of something the Jews or Christians did.

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The Significance of Passover for Contemporary Arab and Muslim History

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
29 March '10

One of the greatest little challenges of my life--at least in terms of needing to react instantly--came when I was sitting in a meeting with high-ranking Egyptian officials during Passover. One of them asked me if it was true that the Jews had a holiday about defeating the Egyptians. I realized I had about ten seconds maximum to come up with the best answer.

And it then came to me: "Ah, I replied, those were jahiliyya times."

In Islam, the time before the beginning of that religion is viewed as a time of not only paganism but barbarism. Pharoah is a villain in the Koran. So they instantly accepted my answer: celebrating a story which ends with the drowning of pharoah isn't an act against Egypt but against a hated tyrant.

We are in a similar situation today. Change for the better will only come when the ideas and individuals who dominate the Middle East today--and oppose modernization, women's equality, democracy, peace with Israel, and real friendship with the West--are seen not as heroic leaders embodying Arabism and Islam but as unrepresentative tyrants.

That is not going to happen any time soon. It will take decades. Coincidentally, I just read the following written by George Orwell in 1946:

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Al-Jazeera spoiler Prof. Mordechai Kedar: 'Why did Islam make Jerusalem it's number 3 holy city?'

DemoCast.TV

17 February '10

Bar-Ilan University's Arabic-studies expert, Dr. Mordechai Kedar, clarifies his al-Jazeera's interviewer's error - why was Jerusalem, if never mentioned in the Koran, made holy by Islam? Kedar explains how it was done for political advantage. He asserts that in Islam, politics and religion make up two sides of the same coin.