Dead People Can’t Be Killed: The Amalek Lie |
The Amalek card gets played every time someone criticizes what Islam actually teaches about Jews, Christians, and apostates.
Especially in the last 2 to 3 years, since October 7th. You will see a flood of keyboard warriors and so-called experts on the conflict (basically two-minute TikTok warriors) rushing to shut the conversation down with the same tired line.
“The Bible has Genocide too.”
Except there’s one problem nobody wants to sit with: you cannot kill people who have been dead for 2,700 years.
That’s the whole argument. Right there.
Who Are the Amalekites and What Is Israel’s Beef With Them?
If you go through history, the Amalekites weren’t some random tribe caught in the wrong place (by the Israelites).
They were renowned for preying on the sick, the elderly, the women, and the weakest children trailing behind the Israelite column. They first did this to the stragglers who couldn’t keep up, right after Israel fled Egypt. The Amalekites were known for one thing: attacking defenseless refugees.
Deuteronomy 25:17-18 says: “Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God.”
They didn’t come to negotiate. They came to pick off the weakest people they could find.
Centuries later, God commanded Israel through the Prophet Samuel to King Saul: “Now go and attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them.” (1 Samuel 15:3) Brutal? You can say that. But if you believe in God, or even if you don’t, it pretty much seems the right thing to do to people who spent their existence slaughtering innocent civilians with no provocation whatsoever from those civilians.
Mind you, a key thing to note: according to the Torah, the Amalekites weren’t a people group Israel was supposed to attack at all, or commanded in any way to attack, before this provocation they started. The only reason they were marked out by God was because of their deliberate desire to attack the weak and innocent. (Numbers 24:20)
The Part Pro-Palestinians Conveniently Avoid When They Mention Amalek
Always remember, the Amalekites are gone.
That’s what the Pro-Palestinian side will never admit.
This is a people group lost through the pages of history.
First Chronicles 4:42-43 records it: under King Hezekiah, roughly 700 BCE, Israelite soldiers killed the last remaining Amalekites.
Saul struck them. David struck them again. The Simeonites under Hezekiah finished the job.
Historians validate this. Scholar Carl Friedrich Keil establishes that the Amalekites ceased to exist in the second half of Hezekiah’s reign, nomads who left virtually no archaeological trace and no surviving descendants.
They basically didn’t make it past the 7th century BCE.
Next time someone invokes Amalek to deflect from Islamic teachings, don’t have a brain freeze moment. Blurt it out: you cannot execute a people group who have been dead for millennia.
How Modern Judaism Actually Treats This Command
Because no identifiable Amalekites exist, as stated earlier, Jewish law transformed this command long ago. It is now a spiritual and symbolic teaching, not a call to action against any living human being. (Chabad: Wipe Out Amalek Today?)
Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman states it perfectly: the commandment to exterminate Amalek has no place in the modern age. Today’s nations bear no clear relationship to the peoples of the Bible. Any claim to have identified Amalek in today’s world is impossible. (Times of Israel: The Lessons of Amalek for Our Time)
In Jewish tradition, Amalek names the baseless cynicism and doubt that poisons faith from within. Interestingly enough, the Hebrew name makes the connection explicit: “Amalek” totals 240, the same numerical value as the Hebrew word for doubt, safek (סָפֵק). (Chabad: Amalek)
As one rabbi teaches: “Amalek today is the enemy within. It’s the sneering part of ourselves that mocks goodness, demeans truth, and poisons the soul with suspicion.”
Jews fulfill this commandment through words and ritual, not violence. Before Purim, communities recite the Torah section on Amalek. When Haman’s name is read from Esther, people stamp their feet and make noise to drown it out. All sound and ceremony, nothing more.
The rabbis are unanimous on this subject: defeating Amalek is God’s obligation, not ours. The Mekhilta de Rabbi Ishmael speaks of God personally waging war on Amalek in the age of redemption. Until then, the matter rests in heaven.
This proves that modern Judaism has no motivation to attack a people group that doesn’t even exist, and takes it a step further by saying it’s entirely God’s obligation to deal with.
What Islam Actually Teaches About Non-Muslims
Islamic scriptures contain explicit commands to fight, subdue, or kill Jews, Christians, polytheists, and apostates.
Is that sentence sinking in … ?
These are people numbering in the billions today. They are alive today. As the Quran Surah 9:5, the Sword Verse, reads: “But once the Sacred Months have passed, kill the polytheists wherever you find them, capture them, besiege them, and lie in wait for them on every way.”
The classical scholar Ad-Dahhak bin Muzahim confirmed it without hesitation: this verse “abrogated every agreement of peace between the Prophet and any idolator, every treaty, and every term.”
Surah 9:29 continues: “Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day, nor comply with what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, nor embrace the religion of truth from among the People of the Book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”
“People of the Book” means Jews and Christians specifically. The 8th-century jurist Al-Shafi’i interpreted this to mean Jewish and Christian blood is only protected if they convert or pay the jizya “while feeling themselves humiliated.”
Surah 9:30 states: “The Jews say, ‘Ezra is the son of Allah,’ while the Christians say, ‘The Messiah is the son of Allah.’… May Allah’s curse be upon them.” Ibn Kathir, one of the most authoritative Quran commentators in Islamic history, writes that this verse “encourages the believers to fight the polytheists, disbelieving Jews and Christians.”
Surah 2:191 declares: “Kill them wherever you come upon them and drive them out of the places from which they have driven you out.” The verse itself sets no explicit time limit.
Then Came Muhammad’s Own Words in Hadiths
The Hadith, which is a body of recorded sayings, actions, and silent approvals of Muhammad and his companions, makes things even more explicit.
Sahih Muslim records Muhammad saying: “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, ‘Oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me. So kill him.'”
Hamas quoted this hadith directly in Article 7 of their founding charter to justify violence against Jews. Worth noting: Hamas has since reworded their charter in an attempt to appear more moderate to the international community, but the ideology behind it hasn’t moved an inch. A 2011 poll found 73% of Palestinians agreed with this hadith.
Sahih Muslim 1767 records Muhammad stating: “I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslims.” Caliph Umar implemented this directly after Muhammad’s death, expelling both communities from the peninsula.
What One Is Self-Defense. The Other Is Not.
So what have we learned?
The Amalekite passages describe a response to unprovoked aggression.
They received divine judgment for it. And as we’ve researched through what the rabbis say now, the whole idea of the Amalekites is understood through a completely different lens from that ancient time period: internalized, spiritualized, and placed firmly in God’s hands alone.
Nachmanides (the Ramban) interpreted the Amalekite conflict as fundamentally a war against God Himself, since the Amalekites “did not fear God” and attacked the people of His covenant without provocation. (ICEJ)
This was self-defense. Not an offensive approach.
Surah 9:29, by contrast, commands offensive warfare against Jews and Christians who have not attacked Muslims at all.
All they do is simply exist and maintain their own religions, yet the command is to attack them.
Classical Islamic jurisprudence built the entire doctrine of offensive jihad on exactly this foundation: to expand Islamic rule over populations who pose no military threat. (European Journal of International Law)
One is a defensive response with a closed historical chapter. The other is an open-ended offensive command against billions of living people. Don’t be a Useful Idiot
When someone pulls out the Amalek card to deflect from what Islamic texts actually say, they’re either confused about history or counting on you to be a “useful idiot.”
Preying on your anger towards a certain political narrative. Preying on the assumption that you won’t dig into the actual hardcore truth of what Amalek is versus what Islamic commands teach.
So remember: the Amalekites are gone.
Have been for millennia.
But Islamic commands targeting Jews, Christians, apostates, and polytheists?
These people groups are alive. They number in the billions.
And in 13 countries right now, those teachings shape law, justify execution, and inform the founding ideologies of active terrorist organizations such as: Hamas, ISIS, Boko Haram, and others like them.
That isn’t a theological debate.
It’s happening right now. To real people. And the Amalek card is just a tool to stop you from seeing it.
Citations: Both Sides of the Argument
Biblical command on the Amalekites:
Targeted a specific people who ambushed defenseless, fleeing refugees
Was carried out and concluded by approximately 700 BCE (Jewish Virtual Library)
Cannot be applied today. The target population is extinct and unidentifiable.
Is interpreted by modern Judaism as a spiritual battle against internal doubt and evil, not a call to harm anyone living
Islamic texts commanding violence or subjugation:
Target groups that exist today in the billions: Jews, Christians, polytheists, apostates (At-Tawba 29)
Have been interpreted by classical and contemporary scholars as ongoing and universal commands
Are cited by active terrorist organizations like Hamas, ISIS, and Boko Haram to justify present-day violence against Jews and other non-Muslims (Open to Debate)