Star of David

Police in Kuwait shut down shop selling magen david necklaces

https://www.thejc.com/news/news/police-in-kuwait-shut-down-shop-selling-magen-david-
necklaces-1lghWRXEOSQrjkAZ35m7HE

Legal action has been taken against a shop in Kuwait after it sold accessories bearing Jewish
symbols.

The Gulf state’s Ministry of Trade and Industry has ordered the closure of a shop in the coastal
city Salmiya, as the sale of items containing the Star of David was deemed illegal.

A post to the Ministry’s official Twitter profile on 27 August said that an arrest had been made
due to the “displaying and selling of accessories bearing slogans that violate the public order of
the state.”

The tweet displayed two images of confiscated accessories bearing the Magen David, a globally
recognised symbol of Jewish religion and culture. The Tweet also stated that legal proceedings
were being taken against the trader.

Last May the Kuwaiti parliament passed a bill that banned support of, contact with, and visits to
Israel, at risk of significant fines or jail sentences of up to 10 years.

The legislation also banned any pursuit of deals or normalisation agreements with Israel that
many of its regional neighbours, including the UAE and Bahrain, have recently pursued.

Kuwait’s constitution declares Islam the state religion, but officially guarantees the “absolute”
right to freedom of belief.

There are no known Jewish citizens of Kuwait and the estimated 20 Jewish people believed to
reside in the country are foreign ex-pats.

The historic Jewish presence in Kuwait began around the sixth century BCE, but by 1920 there
was no Jewish population recorded.

After Sheikh Salim Al-Mubarak ascended to the throne in 1917, he warned the country’s
community of Jewish wine exporters to cease their sale of alcohol in the Muslim-majority
territory, and it is suggested that many were pressured to leave as a result.

According to the Jewish Virtual Library project, Kuwaiti authorities routinely censor English-
language school materials that refer to the Holocaust or Israel.
Kuwait does not legally recognise Israel, and domestic businesses are banned from any trade
with the state. In 2020 Kuwaiti airlines were fined for banning Israeli passport holders from a
New York to London flight.

A spokesperson for the Embassy of Israel in London told the JC: "We are not familiar with the
details of the case, but if it is true that a store was closed because of the sale of a Star of David
and other Judaica items, this is a clear antisemitic act. It is unacceptable that a state would so
blatantly and aggressively attack freedom of religion."

The JC has reached out to the Embassy of Kuwait in London and Kuwait’s Ministry of Trade and
Industry for comment.

Iran outraged as Star of David revealed on airport

https://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2010%2F11%2F29%2F127842

A satellite image of Tehran airport taken by Google Earth service outraged Iranian government
officials as the Star of David appeared on the roof of the headquarters of the national carrier
Iran Air.

The Iranian became angry when local media reported Saturday the discovery of a Google Earth
image that shows the Star of David on top of the main building of the Airline of the Islamic
Republic of Iran, also known as Iran Air, and called for its instant removal, the Israeli daily
Yediot Ahronot reported Sunday.

As speculations rose about the presence of the Zionist symbol in the Islamic republic that has
severed all ties with Israel since the 1979 revolution, Iranian media explained that the Iran Air
building was, in fact, constructed by Israeli engineers during the time of Shah Mohamed Reza
Pahlavi.

Amid calls for removing the symbol, several local media reports focused on the close ties that
existed between Israel and the pre-revolution government.

According to the reports, not only did the government of the Shah hire Israeli engineers to build
the headquarters of the national airliner, but starting 1960 regular flights were scheduled
between Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.

The reports added that Israel also sold weapons to the army of the Shah in return for oil and
that there were training programs between both countries where Israeli experts trained Iranians
in agriculture and trade.

This is not the first time that the Star of David stirs outrage in Iran, as it was spotted in August
on top of one of the buildings in Tehran’s Revolution Square. The square itself had hundreds of
Stars of David, in what local media viewed as a symbol of evil trying to destroy the heart of the
Islamic republic.
The presence of such a large number of stars stirred confusion amongst Iranians as the media
wondered what made the person who designed the square draw the symbol of the Hebrew
state.

An article in a local news website raised the question of whether the designer was ignorant of
the symbol altogether or was too indifferent to think of its political associations.

(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid).

At least five Jews arrested by Iran during protests against Islamic Republic
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-724492

At least five Iranian Jews were arrested by Iranian security forces over the last few weeks
during nationwide protests engulfing the theocratic Islamic state, The Jerusalem Post can
reveal.

Karmel Melamed, an Iranian-American journalist who has deep sourcing within the Persian
Jewish community in Iran and in the Iranian Diaspora, told the Post that "my contact source who
is in contact with the Jewish leadership in Iran has confirmed that indeed five Jews have been
arrested in Iran recently, but one was released after a one-week detention.”

He added that "the four remaining Jews are still in jail, awaiting adjudication of their cases by
the Iranian authorities along with many other young people who have been arrested for their
involvement in the protests. Of the four Jews are in custody, two of them are university students
from Tehran who were rounded up with the scores of other student protestors.”

Some detained Jews are Tehran university students

Melamed, who has written extensively about Iranian Jews, said “one of the Jews in custody is a
Jewish student from Shiraz who was arrested for flying a small drone in his city. The flying of
any drones by civilians is strictly prohibited by the Iranian regime.”

According to Melamed, “right now, the Jewish leadership in Tehran is working closely with the
regime's authorities to help secure their release.”

Iranians burn an effigy in the likeness of U.S. President Donald Trump during a protest marking
the annual al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan in
Tehran, Iran June 8, 2018 (credit: TASNIM NEWS AGENCY)
Iranians burn an effigy in the likeness of U.S. President Donald Trump during a protest marking
the annual al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan in
Tehran, Iran June 8, 2018 (credit: TASNIM NEWS AGENCY)
Armita Abbasi, 20, who sports a Star of David necklace in photographs of herself although she
is not Jewish, was arrested and raped by the Islamic Republic’s security forces in October. CNN
reported that, in contrast to most Iranian dissidents within Iran, she “did not anonymize her anti-
regime posts” on social media.

The news network, which did not mention her wearing a Star of David, reported that leaked
accounts “suggested that Iranian security forces tortured and sexually assaulted Abbasi.”

Sheina Vojoudi, a spokesperson for the Senate of the National Iranian Congress, told the Post:
“Ask the Islamic Republic where Armita Abbasi is – the girl with the Magen David? She was
arrested, raped and tortured. Where is she now?"

An Iranian dissident who fled the Islamic Republic of Iran due to repression, Vojoudi added that
the "Jewish community in Iran is under pressure. Like other Iranians, also Jewish Iranians are
oppressed.

"The Jewish people must admit to whatever the Islamic Republic tells them, to show the world
that the Jewish people in Iran have religious freedom – but it’s a lie," she said. "They can easily
be accused of espionage and cooperation with Israel. They can be sentenced to dreadful
penalties and all their properties can be confiscated.”

Melamed said that "the statements recently released by the Jewish community and Christian
communities leaders in support of the Islamic regime in Iran during the recent protests should
be given zero credibility because they were likely made under duress from the Iranian regime's
Intelligence Ministry.

"Sadly the regime's thugs always direct the Jewish and other religious minority leaders in Iran to
make favorable statements about the regime in the media or often parade them in front of
Western news television programs to praise the regime as a part of a propaganda effort to make
the regime look good," he lamented. "These Jewish and Christian leaders in Iran are forced to
comply with the regime's demands otherwise they know their communities will face possible dire
consequences for their failure to comply.

"The Jewish protestors who were arrested in Iran recently are most likely younger people and
I'm not at all surprised that they've joined the protests with other young Iranians in the streets
there," Melamed said. "While their older Jewish parents and grandparents may have witnessed
or experienced the brutality of the Iranian regime against Iran's Jews over the last 43 years and
have fear of the regime, the younger generation of Iran's Jews has not – and are following other
young people who also have no fear of the regime and are only demanding freedom for
themselves.”

According to Melamed, ”the young protestors in Iran all see themselves as Iranian collectively
and do not differentiate among one another based on religion as the Iranian regime does. I
personally believe that since the Islamic regime has been trying to force state-sponsored
religion down the throats of these young people for so long, they are altogether turned off by
any organized religion.”
Tehran-raised Jew: Iranian Jews want to see Islamic regime toppled
George Haroonian, an Iranian-American Jew who was born in Tehran, told the Post that "It is
absolutely normal that young Iranian Jews like other young Iranians would participate in" the
protests against the regime.

"Their arrests in general does not mean that they have been pinpointed as Jews. All are young
men. The number of arrestees is so high, they do not have enough people to interrogate them."

He added that "a lot of Iranian Jews do not, traditionally, want to speak up. Families are not
saying their names or asking people to fight for them. They are fearful the authorities will hurt
them, like other Iranians – nothing unusual with this regime. The young man who was executed
yesterday, his family did not speak up."

Haroonian, who is one of the leading experts on Iranian Jews in the US, said that "Jews who
live in Iran would very much like to see a government that is not an Islamic religious," adding
that the "Iranian Jewish leadership estimates 10,000 to 12,000" Jews live in Iran, although "the
real number could be lower or higher."

Origin of Star of David

https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/329785/origin-of-star-of-david

Islamweb is the website of the Qatari Ministry for Religious Affairs

They stated that, “We just say that the sources that we consulted prove that the so-called Star
of David has nothing to do with the Prophet of Allaah Daawood (David) may Allaah exalt his
mention. Rather, this is a slogan developed by the Jews in recent times and they gave it this
name.

Dr. Abdul Wahhaab Al-Meseeri says in his book Mawsoo’at Al-Mafaaheem wal-Mustalahaat As-
Suhyooniyyah: (The Encyclopedia of Zionist Concepts and Terminology):

"The 'Star of David' came into existence for the first time in 1648. Its story began in Prague,
which was part of the Austrian Empire at that time. When Prague was attacked by the Swedish
Army, there was a Jewish group among the various ethnic groups that defended the city. The
emperor of Austria at the time, Ferdinand III, suggested that each group of those groups have a
banner which they would carry in order to distinguish themselves from the remnants of the
invading forces which holed up in the city and started to wage a guerrilla war. Following the
proposal, one of the Jesuit priests took the first letter from the word 'David', the Latin character
D, which is in the shape of a triangle, and he wrote another one upside down, and then he
merged the two letters together to form what we know today as the 'Star of David'.

Finally, the priest drew the star on a flag and presented it to the emperor, who agreed to make it
a slogan for the Jewish defenders of the city of Prague. It seems that the idea impressed the
Jewish community there, and they took the star of the priest as a religious symbol for them. This
is how the journey of deception in relation to the Star of David began and originated."

Erasing crosses and other symbols of Kufr

https://islamqa.info/en/answers/5227/erasing-crosses-and-other-symbols-of-kufr

Islam Q&A is an academic, educational, da‘wah website which aims to offer advice and
academic answers based on evidence from religious texts in an adequate and easy-to-
understand manner. The answers are supervised by Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid

They stated, “The symbols of kufr (including the six-pointed star) are included in this, so they
must be removed and wiped out. And Allaah knows best.”