KHAIBAR: the Assassination of Muhammad

Remember Our AlamoThis book is written in tribute to Zainab, a Jewish woman who assassinated Muhammad at Khaibar in Arabia. I am not quite sure of the genre. I am calling it "historical fiction" because I have to fill in the blank with something. If anyone knew what I was talking about I would prefer the term "docudrama" but that has not been applied to written work. The problem is that you can't grow a garden until you clear out the weeds. Zainab is a flower that has been lost in a...
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Remember Our AlamoThis book is written in tribute to Zainab, a Jewish woman who assassinated Muhammad at Khaibar in Arabia. I am not quite sure of the genre. I am calling it "historical fiction" because I have to fill in the blank with something. If anyone knew what I was talking about I would prefer the term "docudrama" but that has not been applied to written work. The problem is that you can't grow a garden until you clear out the weeds. Zainab is a flower that has been lost in a field of weeds called Islam for 1,500 years so it will take time to make space around her so that finally she can be viewed and appreciated in all her awe-inspiring glory.Khaibar is to the Jews as the Alamo is to the Texans. We lost the battle but we never lost the war. The year was 629.A Qatari firm produced a dramatic film on Khaibar in the last few years and it was broadcast throughout the Muslim world. This is an anti-Semitic diatribe of the most vile sort. The Jews are portrayed not as flesh-and-blood characters but as debased caricatures. An Arabic newspaper stated that the purpose of the movie was to show the "treacherous nature" of the Jews. The screenwriter admitted that his movie was not just about an historical event, but had a message for current generations. "The Jews are the Jews. They still act according to their nature, despite the passing generations. They corrupt any society in which they live."If that were as far as it went, you could only shrug your shoulders. But this is the modern world of the Internet.The film is offered on YouTube with English subtitles and there is a cartoon version with French subtitles beyond what is being disseminated in the languages of Muslim countries.Look at the double standard. The Muslims are encouraged to defame Jews on YouTube and no one makes a peep. On the other hand some obscure American produces a film critical of Islam and he gets thrown in jail and then the US government piles on by blaming him for causing the murder at Benghazi of an ambassador and three others. Up to now he is the only one who has gone to jail for that and he had nothing to do with it.There are two sides of the story on Khaibar, perhaps the most prosperous community in the world in its day built by people who worked very hard, minded their own business, and never bothered anyone. Along comes a large menagerie of bums and hoodlums, none of whom had done an honest day's work in years, armed to the teeth, looking for plunder, and led by a maniac who had just come from Medina 100 miles to the south where he had ordered and supervised the chopping off of the heads of 900 Jewish men and one Jewish woman simply because he felt like it, and destroyed everything.I don't see anyone with the guts anywhere, certainly not in Hollywood, to make films the tiniest bit critical of Islam -- you saw what happened to that poor schnook that did it -- but someone has to answer the Qataris. Muslims everywhere seem to have this idea and it is encouraged by western governments and big corporations like Google, the owner of YouTube, that they have carte blanche to assail anyone they want but no one may respond.I am perfectly qualified to respond. I happen to be no one. These guys can dish it out; let's see how well they take it