Anti-Semitic Hatred Passed on by Parents

The flames of hatred will never die down when they are fanned by the most trusted individuals in our lives:  our own mother and father.  That, according to his brother Abdelkader, is exactly what French gunman Mohamed Merah fell victim to, as explained in the excerpt from a recent article by AP below:

The radicalization of the French gunman who killed seven people on an eight-day shooting spree this spring began at home, his brother recounts in a new book and documentary, according to media reports.

Mohamed Merah killed three Jewish children, a rabbi and three paratroopers in and around the southern city of Toulouse in March before dying in a standoff with police. Merah claimed links to al-Qaida and said he had received training at an Islamist paramilitary camp in Pakistan.  One of his brothers, Abdelkader, also faces preliminary charges in the case and is in police custody.

The attacks raised painful questions about whether France was failing to integrate the children of Muslim immigrants, like the Merahs, who are of Algerian origin. Many blamed the poverty of the neighborhoods many immigrants and their children live in for driving them to radical Islam.

But a new book by another of Merah brother, Abdelghani, says his parents, particularly his mother, are responsible for Mohamed’s radicalization.  In an excerpt publish in Belgian media, Abdelghani remembers how his mother drove home a message of anti-Semitism.

“My mother always said, ‘We, the Arabs, we were born to hate Jews.’ This speech, I heard it all throughout my childhood,” Abdelghani says in the documentary, according to the RTL.be website.

Those well versed in the Word of God know that if what Abdelkader claimed is true it is  no wonder that Mohamed responded the way he did.   Proverbs 10:12a tells us, “Hatred stirs up strife.”  That, perhaps, is the very worst aspect of the passing on of Anti-Semitism from generation to generation – - it stirs up strife!  That is why it is imperative that we continue to pray per Psalm 122:6 – - that we pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

To read the AP article in its entirety, go to The Washington Post website.