Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs recently published an alarmist, fear-mongering article about some bumper sticker on a Honda Accord:

ON THE ROAD: “VICTORY FROM ALLAH, AND INVASION SOON”

This just came in from “infidel” in Maine:

I saw this car in Portland yesterday August 24th, 2011.  I had to take a picture of this bumper sticker to share.  The translation on the sticker says “Help from Allah and present victory”

In Arabic it says “Victory from Allah, and invasion soon”  The word “FATTEH = Invasion” was used back in Muhammad’s days when he went from country to country killing people who don’t submit to Shariah.  After they were done, they would celebrate for the “FATTEH” of this country.

This bumper sticker was made for the USA, and was translated so it would sound good to the non-Arabic seaking American…

The car was driven by a burka.

First things first: I did not know “burka’s” could drive.

In any case, this is a mistranslation.  The bumper sticker reads nasr min Allah wa fatah qareeb, which translates to “Help and victory from God is near.” [Nasr = help, min Allah = from God, wa = and, fatah = victory, qareeb = near; so technically, it translates to “Help from Allah and victory is near” although I think my rendering flows a bit better.]

To say that it means “victory from Allah, and invasion soon” is purposefully misleading, blatantly incorrect, and obviously deceitful.

The bumper sticker is actually a verse from the Quran, namely verse 61:13:

Help and victory from God is near.  Give glad tidings to the faithful. (Quran, 61:13)

Interestingly enough, the very next verse gives the example of Jesus’ disciples:

O you who believe, be God’s helpers.  As Jesus, son of Mary, said to the disciples, ‘Who will come with me to help God?’ The disciples said, ‘We shall be God’s helpers.’ Some of the Children of Israel believed and some disbelieved: We supported the believers against their enemy and they were the ones who came out on top. (Quran, 61:14)

It is true that when this chapter of the Quran was revealed, it was in the context of war: the early Muslims were being persecuted for their faith and they were fighting a much stronger foe.  To boost their morale, the Quran reassured them: “Help and victory from God is near.”

Today, those words are used by Muslims whenever they face adversity, not just in the war context.  Certainly Jews and Christians shouldn’t make too much of a fuss about this, since they themselves do the same with Biblical passages.  For example, Psalm 3:8 from the Bible is often invoked by Jews and Christians:

Psalm 3:8 Victory comes from you, O Lord. May you bless your people.

This verse is contained in a “psalm of David”–a war poem.  David beseeches God for help against his enemies, saying:

Psalm 3:7 Arise, O LORD! Deliver me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.

This was revealed during David’s wars of conquest, in which he committed acts of ethnic cleansing and even genocide, which I’ve documented here.  Indeed, God grants “victory” to David, who subsequently “did not leave a man or woman alive” (I Sam. 18:11).

Yet, today Psalm 3:8–”Victory comes from you, O Lord”–is routinely invoked by Jews and Christians.  For example, this marketing website invokes the verse to say that God grants victory/success in one’s business adventures.  Does anyone think that the website is calling for the impending genocide against infidels?

There are several other Biblical verses in a similar vein, which were initially revealed in a war context (actually, in support of ethnic cleansing and genocide), but which are now used routinely by Jews and Christians for the every day struggles of life.  For example:

Deuteronomy 20:4 For the Lord your God is going with you! He will fight for you against your enemies, and he will give you victory!

This verse was said to be revealed to Moses before he conquered the Canaanites and then killed them all, in what can only be called genocide (which I documented here).  Yet, here we have a Christian using this same verse on a cutesy-looking card:

(link)

Should we sound the alarm?  Is this card a Christian-supremacist genocide card?

Or how about this:

Joshua 10:8 “Do not be afraid of them,” the Lord said to Joshua, “for I have given you victory over them.  Not a single one of them will be able to stand up to you.”

In spite of the fact that this verse references genocide (“not a single one of them will be able to stand up to you”)–refer to my earlier article for Joshua’s genocides–this verse is routinely used by Christians today.  Indeed, this website here uses the verse in an article about how to overcome your fears.

Similarly, the Quranic phrase “help and victory from God is near” is routinely used by Muslims whenever they find themselves in times of difficulty.  It is meant to reassure them that soon God will answer their prayers and grant them relief from hardship.

To immediately assume that the bumper sticker is a call for the invasion of America and the subjugation of infidels is truly ludicrous.   In any case, don’t you think the burka who that drove the car would want to keep the impending overthrow of America hush-hush instead of advertising it on her its car?

*   *  *  *  *

But what if some nutty Muslim somewhere decided to put up a crazy bumper sticker, so what?  Have you seen the crazy bumper stickers some Evangelical Christians put on their cars?  In fact, they actively sell them on “respectable” sites.

If you’re up in arms over the vaguely worded Quranic verse bumper sticker above, then what about the bumper stickers below which I found after just two minutes of searching on Google?

Bumper Sticker Calling for Shariah Biblical Law and the Killing of Gays:

(link)

Rule America With the Quran Bible:

(link)

America is a Christian Country:

(link)

America is a Christian Nation:

(link)

Hatred Against Christians Muslims:

(link)

BOMB MECCA and THE ONLY GOOD ARAB IS A DEAD ARAB, etc. etc.:

(link)

Surely Pamela Geller should be more worried about this guy, right?  Isn’t “nuking Mecca” the same or worse than “conquest?”

NUKE IRAN:

(link)

 You can find many, many “nuke Iran” bumper stickers.  Nothing wrong with that, right?

Bring Back the Crusades–You Know, the Holy War and Conquest of the Lands of Islam:

(link)

Another Crusades Decal:

(link)

Christian Jihad:

(link)

It’s Time to Play Cowboys And Muslims:

(link)

I could go on and on and on…

In fact, I’d be willing to bet that I could find 100 times as many bigoted uber-Christian, anti-Muslim bumper stickers than the other way around.  Pamela Geller found one–which she had to mistranslate to make her point–and she’s making such a big fuss about it.

That’s the thing with these Islamophobes: they live off of profound double-standards.  Who cares that I’ve just shown her bumper stickers from right-wing Christians that call for Sharia Biblical theocracy, holy war against the infidel, and nuclear holocaust.  Don’t you see that one bumper sticker on that one Honda Civic which, if you mistranslate it and look at it in one particular angle with just the right lighting, that might somehow (maybe?) call for something or the other Islamist-related?

Do you know how many crazy people there are out there in the world?  In our very own country no less?  Has Pamela Geller ever seen a campus rally during her college years?  She would have seen all sorts of crazy signs there: people holding the most absurdest of signs, from warnings of CIA microchips implanted in our brains to your garden-variety God Hates Fags signs…

If we condemned all religions for the sign or bumper sticker one crazy person from that faith used, every religion–including Christianity–would stand condemned.  But for Geller et al. Muslims are held to a very special standard.  She wants to single them out and demonize them.  Her message is very clear:

Be very afraid of the Moozlums!  They are coming to get you!  Kill them before they kill you!