The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has issued the following statement, following detailed reports now in from Mumbai on the multiple massacres perpetrated there by Islamist jihadist terrorists that have resulted in the killing of at least 172 people, including at least 31 foreign nationals, and the wounding and maiming of 293 more:

“We see in this attack – beyond the absolute horror of the assaults and the barbarity of the Islamist terrorists themselves – something else of terrible significance: although the Islamist jihadists targeted non-Muslims in general, it is quite clear that a special effort was also made by the Islamist terrorists to locate, torture and murder Jews simply because they were Jews. This effort was made despite the fact that Mumbai is a huge city with only the smallest of Jewish communities. Yet the Islamist terrorists deviated from their otherwise consistent assault on mass-casualty venues like hotels and railway stations in order to locate a small Jewish institution, a Chabad House, and murder Rabbi Holtzberg, his pregnant wife and other Jews who were there at the time. We are particularly horrified to learn that the Islamist terrorists went out of their way to torture their victims before murdering them in cold blood and that the torture marks on those in Mumbai Chabad House exceeded those seen on other victims who were also tortured and murdered in other venues.

“As we have now learned, special sadism and barbarism was reserved for the Jews in the Mumbai Chabad House, as one of the examining doctors said: ‘Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks … It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again.’

“The responsibility for the acts of Islamist terrorists always lies with the Islamist terrorists themselves and the radical preachers, like their Islamist cleric, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, who not only urged them to kill till their last breath and to take as many lives as possible (they were hoping for perhaps up to 5,000 deaths) but who also told them ‘The only language India understands is that of force, and that is the language it must be talked to in.’

 “We have heard this sort of language and false justification for Islamist terror many times before – for example, from Hamas’ Mahmoud Zahar: ‘The Zionist enemy knows no other language aside from the language of fire directed on him by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades [Hamas’ armed force].’ We have also heard it from Hizballah’s Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, who told reporters in October that Israel understands only the language of force.

“This is nothing but the common language of Islamist jihadist mass murderers, who recognize no limits to the crimes they are proud to commit against innocent people in countries around the world, but especially against Jews. It is something the world needs to understand when Islamist terrorists attack Israel. Till now, the world, especially the world media, has shown a clear proclivity towards accepting their rationalizations of alleged suffering at Israeli hands at face value. In Mumbai, the Islamist terrorists sought to kill all sorts of non-Muslim innocents – Hindus and Western tourists and so on – but in doing so, they made a special point of locating and murdering Jews.

“There is also a secondary responsibility for the terrorism committed in Mumbai. It is to be found in the organs of the United Nations, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the League of Arab States and other international bodies that tolerate, promote, disseminate and institutionalize demonization of Jews and Israel. If international bodies devote the lion’s share of their time, personnel, committee work and resolutions to condemning and maligning Israel in every conceivable way and on every conceivable occasion, is it any wonder that Muslim and Arab extremists raised on anti-Semitic ideologies of hate, heed the message that they transmit? All Islamist jihadists hate Israel, but their acts in faraway corners of the earth have nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with their vile hatred of Jews. That is why, in one of the world’s largest cities, one with a minute Jewish presence, Muslim terrorists sought out Jews to terrorize, torture and murder. Under interrogation, the only captured Islamist terrorist, Ajmal Kamal, confessed that he and the other Islamist terrorists were specifically ordered to target the Jews they murdered at Mumbai Chabad House.

“It is perfectly clear in this case what the inspiration was for these Islamist terrorist acts. They had nothing to do with global poverty, economic hardship, the absence of a Palestinian state or any of the other reasons that are routinely regurgitated to explain the barbarism of Islamist jihadists. In this context, we roundly condemn the foolish and irresponsible claims made by people like Deepak Chopra who said on Larry King Live that these acts are the ‘collateral damage’ from the U.S.-led war on Islamism,  or Newsweek‘s Fareed Zakaria, who claimed that they were due to economic inequalities that Muslims may experience in India. This is simply an inexcusable ignoring of the poisonous Islamist jihadist ideology that the terrorists themselves explain as their motivation. Would we ever seek to justify the evils deeds of the Nazis? No, the Islamists and the Nazis are simply evil monsters who want to control and kill. Clearly, there is no grievance on earth which could ever justify the continuous murder of innocent civilians by these Islamist terrorists.

“The ZOA is also appalled by the fact that so much of the international media attempted to use euphemisms about the Islamist terrorists – like the Al Jazeera, which called them ‘gunmen’ and CNN and the New York Times, who continue to call them ‘militants’ – as if these terms told us who the perpetrators were or why they acted. They deserve condemnation for this. It is the duty of the media to properly identify these killers for who they are – Islamist jihadist terrorists – not camouflage their identities and purposes. The terrorists were not Swedes or Japanese – they were Islamist, jihadist terrorists. For example, a bank robber may be a gunman, but he is not a terrorist.

“We also criticize the New York Times, which just as shamefully tried to erase the anti-Semitic motivation and nature of the attack on Mumbai Chabad House by declaring at one point that Mumbai Chabad House may have been an ‘accidental hostage scene’; and the BBC, which simply called it an ‘office building.’ These were apparently efforts to disguise the Islamist identity of the perpetrators and their anti-Semitic ideology.

“Our hearts go out to the relatives and friends of all those murdered by these bestial Islamist terrorists and to the young Jewish infant, Moishe, who was orphaned by the torture and massacre of his parents in Chabad House.”

“We must make it clear that the civilized world will not tolerate the horrific actions of these Islamic terrorists and will do everything in our power to stop it.  We call on every Muslim leader to join Jewish and other leaders to condemn these despicable acts.”