A Saudi YouTube channel uploaded a children’s video earlier this month depicting the Koranic story of Jews being transformed by Allah into apes for violating Shabbat.
In the animated video, uploaded to the Ibtikar Media channel on Oct. 9, the narrator explains how a group of Jews in a seaside village employed “trickery and deception” to circumvent a divine prohibition against fishing on the day of rest.
Allah, she continues, tested the Jews by sending them great numbers of fish only on the Sabbath.
“So they employed a trick. They would cast their nets on Friday, the fish would get trapped in the nets on Saturday, and they would collect them on Sunday.”
However, some of the Jews remained righteous and did not defy Allah’s commandment. These righteous Jews “would warn the people about Allah’s wrath and His punishment, and would forbid them from doing what they were doing,” the narrator continues. A third group directly opposed the righteous Jews.
“When the sinners did not heed the words of advice, Allah’s punishment came upon them at night. The group that commanded good were spared the punishment. The fate of the third group was not mentioned. The punishment of the sinners was that they were transformed into apes,” the narrator states.
The apes recognized their human families but were not themselves recognized, according to the story. The apes died shortly thereafter, “leaving no descendants,” the video concludes.
