Muslims condemn censorship of hadiths seeking dead Jews

Muslim students on the campus of the University of Southern California have condemned a school decision to take down certain hadiths – or sayings of Muhammad – that called for dead Jews and had been posted on a student group's website.

"We are outraged at the censorship of a complete religious and classic text without consulting us or any religious authority first," the Muslim Student Union said in a prepared statement. "The 'compendium' is now incomplete. There are verses in many religious texts (be it the Torah or the New Testament) that when taken out of context can be taken as offensive."

The decision to order the hadiths taken down from a site run by the Muslim Student Association, a separate organization, was made by Provost C.L. Max Nikias, according to a report today in the student newspaper, the Daily Trojan.

He approved the deletion of the statements because they urged Muslims to kill Jews. The statements were in a collection of hadiths, or historical sayings attributed to Muhammad although not included in the Quran.

The call for the deaths of unbelievers has become an issue even for some Muslims. In the new book, "Why We Left Islam," authors Susan Crimp and Joel Richardson profiled those who now would be under their old religion's sentence of death for abandoning Muhammad's teachings.

One of those whose testimony is included in the book, Ali, wrote, "The Quran is full of verses that teach killing of unbelievers and how Allah would torture them after they die."

The offending student group hadith had been posted on a USC server as part of the MSA website, which now is defunct, the report said.

Concerns had been raised by Rabbi Aron Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who approached university trustee Alan Casden, the Daily Trojan said.

After a review by Nikias, he found the "passage cited is truly despicable … We did some investigations and have ordered the passage to be removed," the newspaper said.

The Muslim Student Union is the larger Muslim student group but is not associated with the MSA. Leaders declined Daily Trojan requests for an interview but issued a statement that Nikias' actions were unconscionable.

"USC, as a place of higher education, has prided itself on academic freedom and freedom of speech … The administration's actions have gone behind the backs of their students and we have been left in the dark," the student group stated.

The head of the David Horowitz Freedom Center told the newspaper similar statements permeate Muslim Student Association websites around the nation.

David Horowitz told the newspaper the MSA is "an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood."

The call to kill Jews, he said, "may be part of the religious canon, but that doesn't make them less hateful."

WND recently reported on a study that revealed one in three Muslims students in the United Kingdom approve killing for Islam.

Special offers:

THE PROBLEM WITH ISLAM: And What Americans Can Do About It

'Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West'

Once a Muslim always a Muslim? Not necessarily

"Everlasting Hatred: The Roots of Jihad"

Definitive work on Mideast - available only here!

"Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict"

"Judgment Day! Islam, Israel and the Nations"