Yahya Hendi, a Muslim imam and chaplain at Georgetown University, will lead classes called “Learning About Islam.” The first class is Oct. 30, at Frederick Community College. Frederick Interfaith is sponsoring the classes.
Imam Yahya Hendi, the chaplain for Georgetown University,
the first American university to hire a full-time Muslim chaplain
President of Georgetown University welcomes
its first Muslim Chaplain:
"Imam Yayha Hendi is the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown University, the first American university to hire a full-time Muslim chaplain. As chaplain he leads Qiyamul-lail and Friday prayers, counsels students, and offers retreats for both Muslim and non-Muslim students. A consistent advocate for interfaith understanding, Hendi is the founder and president of Clergy Beyond Borders and Imams for Universe, Dignity, Human Rights and Dialogue. He has also written numerous publications ranging from women and gender relations in Islam to religion and Islam in the United States. Hendi is also the imam of the Islamic Society of Frederick, the Muslim chaplain at the National Naval Medical Center, and the spokesperson of the Islamic Jurisprudence Council of North America. He holds a master's degree in Comparative Religions from Hartford Seminary and is currently working on his Ph.D. in Comparative Religion at Georgetown."
YAHYA HENDI, OR, INTERFAITH HEALING WITH A GEORGETOWN IMAM (PART 1)
BY HUGH FITZGERALD
SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2019/11/yahya-hendi-or-interfaith-healing-with-a-georgetown-imam-part-1; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
The story is here:
Frederick [Maryland] Interfaith representatives are hoping a set of classes will help shine a positive light on Islam and the Muslim community.
Of course. The Interfaithers of Frederick, Maryland are not in the business of dispassionately studying the texts and teachings of Islam, but rather of “shining a positive light” on Islam and Muslims. Only an “islamophobe” or “racist” could find that worrisome.
Yahya Hendi, a Muslim imam and chaplain at Georgetown University, is leading a four-class series called “Learning About Islam.” The first class is set for Oct. 30 at Frederick Community College, with the remaining three set for other times throughout this year and next. The class is free, but contributions are welcome.
Todd Fineberg, a member of Frederick Interfaith, is part of what he called an “unofficial committee to improve relations with the Muslim community.” The committee includes Fineberg, who is Jewish; Asma Cheema, a Muslim; and Joey Hoffman, a Christian scientist.
“The three of us are working together to bring about the education program,” Fineburg said.
He added that the group hopes the classes will “improve understanding and knowledge and better relations.
Will these interfaithers be discussing the contents of the Qur’an and Hadith that are most disturbing, and most in need of examination, or will they, rather, be guided by Yahya Hendi to look only at those Qur’anic verses that he has selected, as is so often the case in these interfaith affairs where Muslims are in charge? We know the answer to that. I suspect that neither Fineburg nor Hoffman, nor the non-Muslims attending Hendi’s talks, will know about any of the more than one hundred Qur’anic verses that command Muslims to engage in violent Jihad. And Yahya Hendi is not about to bring them up.
What will they learn? These interfaith events inevitably follow the same script. First, Hendi will tell these trusting Infidels all about the Five Pillars of Islam: the Shehada (the Profession of Faith), Salat (the five daily prayers), Zakat (the obligatory charitable giving to other Muslims), Sawm (the fasting at Ramadan), and Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca that is required of all Muslims who can afford it, at least once in their lives). And what fun it is for those Interfaith Christians and Jews to learn those exotic words: Shehada, Salat, Zakat, Sawm, Hajj. Already you think you are learning something of value. And then you will be told by Hendi that the very word “Islam” means “peace.” He’ll ask a series of rhetorical questions: “Was Pope Francis wrong when he proclaimed that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Quran are opposed to every form of violence”? Was President Bush wrong when he said that “the face of terrorism is not the true face of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace”? Was President Obama wrong when he said that “For more than a thousand years, people have been drawn to Islam’s message of peace…Islam is rooted in a commitment to compassion and mercy and justice and charity?” That should impress the doubters.
Yahya Hendi will be sure to tell everyone that Jesus is “a revered prophet in Islam.” He won’t explain that the divinity of Jesus is denied. He’ll mention that one of the books of the Qur’an is named after “Mary” who is also “revered” in Islam but, he will leave out, not as the mother of the Son of God. Then he will bring up, as is de rigueur. In these interfaith events, Qur’an 2:256 – “There is no compulsion in religion.” Sounds good, and no one in the audience is likely to know enough to bring up the fact that apostates from Islam can be executed, which clearly constitutes “compulsion in religion.” A death penalty is the most convincing of compulsions. 2:256 sounds straightforward, and non-Muslims will be expected to take it at face value. But a little thought about the matter will lead to quite a different conclusion. Non-Muslims are not strictly “compelled” — this is the Muslim view – to give up their religions and convert to Islam. They have a “choice” — so supposedly no “compulsion” — either to convert to Islam, to be killed, or to live as dhimmis under Muslim rule. As dhimmis, they must pay the Jizyah (a capitation tax on non-Muslims) to the Muslim state, in order to prevent attacks on them by the Muslims themselves. They were also subject to a host of lesser disabilities, including: displaying identifying marks on both their dress and dwelling; riding donkeys rather than horses; stepping aside on footpaths so as always to yield the right of way to Muslims. Isn’t this seeming “choice” really a form of “compulsion”? In order to avoid either death, or being forced to pay the Jizyah and observe other conditions imposed on dhimmis, all of which were daily reminders of their well-deserved humiliation, the only way out was to convert to Islam. While some Christians and Jews paid the Jizyah, others, over time, in order to free themselves of this onerous tax, and all the other conditions, did indeed convert to Islam. Any fair-minded person would describe that as “compulsion.”
The other Qur’anic verse always quoted at these interfaith events is Qur’an 5:32, but in a carefully truncated version. Hendi will no doubt offer it as “If anyone slew a person… it would be as if he slew a whole people; and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of a whole people…” “See – we Muslims are against killing.” But the full verse actually reads quite differently: “if anyone slew a person – unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.” In other words, 5:32 is not against killing. It sets out the reasons when killing is justified – “for murder or for spreading mischief (fitna) in the land.” “Spreading mischief in the land” has been taken by Islamic scholars to mean among other things, “encouraging disbelief.” So 5:32 gives license to kill the Unbelievers. And the verse that immediately follows, 5:33, provides a description of the ways to inflict that punishment. How many, in that audience, will check up on the actual wording of 5:32, and how many are likely to uncritically take the version offered by the amiable Mr. Hendi?
If 2:256 and 5:32 are the verses Yahya Hendi will surely bring up, there are other verses that just as surely he will avoid. He will not mention Qur’an 4:34, which gives Muslim husbands the right to “beat” their wives if they even suspect them of disobedience. Nor will he mention that in Islam men must “manage the affairs of women” because they are “superior to them in status.” He won’t discuss polygyny, unless someone brings it up, and then he will offer the usual justification: It was “a way for the many widows, in those days of constant warfare in 7th century Arabia, to not be left alone, but to acquire a husband to protect them and manage their affairs.” Few will ask “well, then, why is there a need for polygyny today?” He won’t explain that a Muslim husband can get a divorce merely by uttering the triple talaq, while for a woman to obtain a divorce much more is required. He won’t mention that a Muslim daughter inherits only half that of a Muslim son. Nor will he explain that a woman’s testimony is worth half that of a man’s, and that the reason for that is given by Muhammad himself in a famous hadith: it is “because of the deficiency of woman’s intelligence.”
Hendi, who is a former member of Frederick Interfaith, said “the class idea is the sound of freedom.”
“The sound of freedom”? His classes will not offer the mental freedom necessary to truly learn about Islam but, rather, will be under his control, that is, the mendacious guidance offered by a well-prepared Defender of the Faith, Yahya Hendi.
“In our society, in America, in our beautiful country, we are always talking about or discussing what makes America great is diversity,” he said.“Conversations he hopes will happen during “Learning About Islam” will help with better conversations.“For more of America to be a better America, America needs to know about all of its citizens,” Hendi said. “It makes people much better when they talk about one another. We are empowered, we are strengthened as a nation, as a society, as a country, as a human family when we know about one another.”And knowing more about your neighbors and their faith and beliefs means being able “to interact with them more, work with them more and understand them more,” he said.Hendi’s belief is that “the more you know, the more you know that you need to know more” when it comes to Islam.“Because the more you learn about Islam, you are ‘wait a minute I didn’t know this.’ People will discover that they have been shaped by their misunderstandings, by some media outlets that don’t convey a true message of Islam or Muslims, so, therefore, people are shaped by ignorance,” he said. “And ignorance is our worst enemy. Ignorance is what divides us.”
Yes, everything bad you hear about Islam is only a misunderstanding, spread by media outlets – “ignorant” and “islamophobic” – whose effect, Yahya Hendi charges, is to “divide us.” It’s our “ignorance” of Islam that must be combated. But curiously, so many verses will need to be avoided if our “ignorance” is to be corrected in the right, non-misleading, Muslim-approved way. Such verses as 2:191-194, 3:151, 4:89, 8:12, 8:60, 9:5, 9:29, 47:4, and 98:6 won’t be brought up at all, nor will another 100 verses that command violent Jihad. Such verses would only upset and confuse people, at a time when we all have a duty – that’s what interfaith gatherings are for – to make people more aware of “authentic, peaceful Islam.” Trust Yahya Hendi. He wouldn’t deceive you, would he?
For all the Muslim variation on the Christian theme of bomfoggery – “brotherhood of man, fatherhood of God” – Hendi has no intention of letting his attendees know “more about [their Muslim] neighbors and their faith and beliefs.” He will necessarily offer a sanitized version of the faith, stressing the Five Pillars, the complimentary things prominent Westerners (the Pope and assorted Presidents) have said about Islam, and offering, along with 2:256 and 5:32, the handful of milder Qur’anic verses that seem to suggest the possibilities of co-existence but which, his attendees will not realize, have all been abrogated by the later, harsher verses of the Medinan period.
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Imam Yahya Hendi welcomed by His Emminence Cardinal McCarrick of the Washington D.C. Dioceses.
Imam Hendi speaks of the American Muslim "integration"
in US society: