Mahmoud Abbas was elected President of the Palestinian Authority (PA) on January 9, 2005.1 Although his four-year term expired on January 8, 2009, 2 he is still serving as President. Not only has he usurped democracy by suspending elections, but he recently endorsed acts of terror against Israeli citizens. The West views Abbas as a moderate,3 but in reality, he is a radical Muslim.
On February 3, 2016, Abbas met with 11 families of Palestinian terrorists who carried out attacks against Israel.4 As reported by The Times of Israel, the 11 terrorists included “Baha Alian, who killed three Israelis on a bus” and Alaa Abu Jamal who “careened his car into Israeli pedestrians, exited the vehicle and stabbed the victims.”5 Abbas showed his support for the dead terrorists by telling the families, “Your sons are martyrs.”6
To call a terrorist a martyr is to endorse the killing of innocent civilians. This is not the view of moderate Islam—it is radical Islam. The Islamic teaching of martyrdom is based on verses in the Qur’an including 4:74 – “So let those fight in the cause of Allah who sell the life of this world for the Hereafter. And he who fights in the cause of Allah and is killed or achieves victory – We will bestow upon him a great reward.”7 By calling 11 dead terrorists “martyrs”, Abbas is suggesting that they will be rewarded by Allah for their actions.
Terrorists who kill civilians are not martyrs—they are criminals. To intentionally kill an innocent civilian is an act of evil. Abbas is guilty of moral inversion: declaring that evil is good. He should be condemned by the International community for his support of terrorism. If he were the leader of a Western nation, he would be forced to resign.
Notes
- “Abbas achieves landslide poll win,” BBC News, January 10, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4160171.stm
- “PLO elects Abbas ‘Palestinian president’,” The Sydney Morning Herald, November 24, 2008, http://www.smh.com.au/world/plo-elects-abbas-palestinian-president-20081123-6eza.html
- Uri Savir, “The end of Abbas, the end of moderation,” Al-Monitor, October 7, 2015, http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/israel-abbas-moderate-leader-true-partner-peace-end-era.html
- Elior Levy, “Abbas meets with terrorists’ families hours after attack,” Ynetnews, February 4, 2016, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4761949,00.html
- “Abbas meets families of terrorists just after deadly Jerusalem attack,” The Times of Israel, February 4, 2016, http://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-meets-families-of-terrorists-just-after-deadly-jerusalem-attack/
- Ibid.
- Qur’an 4:74 (Sahih International). http://quran.com/4
Christopher John Lindsay 
Have you considered the possibility that in palestinian society, his views are moderate?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very good analysis Christopher. Thank you for leaving this link at my own blog.
I only have a minor quibble about Mahmoud Abbas and his endorsement of terror. This is no recent thing, as you mentioned in the post above. He has a long history of such pro-terror activity. Here he is backing kidnapping of Israelis back in 2009.
And of course he wrote his doctoral thesis, (he received his doctorate from Moscow University), if not quite on the subject of Holocaust denial, then on the “collusion of the Zionists in the Holocaust” which if anything is worse.
So yes, you are 100% correct that Abbas should resign or be forced to resign, but we can be quite sure that such an event will not happen.
On the other hand, better the devil we know. After all we don’t know who will come after him, and that person might be a lot worse.
LikeLiked by 1 person