refused offers for high profile Italian TV appearances because “I don’t want to encourage anti-Semitic exploitation of my research.”
Too late, unfortunately. Egyptian researcher Muhammad Al-Buheiri appeared on Nile Culture TV last week to offer some thoughts:
Muhammad Al-Buheiri: “Let’s not forget that the West in its entirety globally celebrated Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. So why shouldn’t we do the same? I called for a Nobel Prize to be awarded to the Israeli Jewish historian, the son of the chief rabbi of Rome…”
Interviewer: “He’s the son of the chief rabbi of Italy…”
Muhammad Al-Buheiri: “He’s the son of the chief rabbi of Rome, who is still alive at 90 years of age.”
Interviewer: “He wrote Bloody Passover, the book we are discussing.”
Muhammad Al-Buheiri: “This man proved scientifically and objectively… He’s an academic, who heads the department of Jewish history at the Israeli Bar-Ilan University. We are not talking about an amateur, a fraud, or someone looking to get famous. We are talking about an academic, who follows scientific and objective principles. He reached the conclusion that there was indeed a group of extremist Jews, who used to slaughter Christian children, and to collect their blood in order to make the Passover matza. It had to be a child who had not reached puberty. They would abduct him, and put him into a barrel designed for this purpose, which had holes in the sides at the place of the arteries. They would insert iron skewers through the barrel, and make the boy’s blood flow that way. Then they would collect the blood, and use it for Passover. Some sources in Jewish halacha say that preparing a single matza on Passover this way is sufficient for all the Jews. Others believe that such matzos should be prepared in each country separately.”
Interviewer: “They sacrifice Christian children… When was it? In what century?”
Muhammad Al-Buheiri: “It has been substantiated since the Middle Ages.”
Interviewer: “Since then?”
Muhammad Al-Buheiri: “Yes.”
Interviewer: “My question is: Until when did it happen?”
Muhammad Al-Buheiri: “That is the question we must ask. Have the Jews, with all their extremists, especially in Israel, given up… Have they given up these customs and religious rituals, which are important to them? There were very many cases. There were similar cases in Syria. There were similar cases in 1700 and 1800. Such children were abducted.”
Interviewer: “I have another question. Who are the people who prepare these matzos? Are they Jewish extremists or moderates? As a researcher specializing in inter-faith dialogue, do you believe this still occurs in Israel? I’m rephrasing the question.”
Muhammad Al-Buheiri: “I believe it does, because these are religious rituals.”
Leave a Reply