AL-YAHUD: Eternal Islamic Enmity & the Jews

Al-Yahud:

Eternal Islamic Enmity & the Jews

By:  Elias Al-Maqdisi & Sam Solomon

The root of bitterness or “enmity” between the current Palestinian factions and Israel has been caused by generations of strife and conflict primarily over the land since Jews began what is termed the “return”, which resulted in the displacement of the Palestinians.

CHAPTER 1

Setting the Context:

The Search for the Bottom Line

Climate of enmity

This climate is evidence in those widespread and visibly hostile attitudes, seen and read about daily but which are obscured by Islamic claims to the contrary, to be a religion of peace, and one that respects all of the Judeo-Christian prophets, as well as other religions.

Manifestations of the enmity doctrine & the Jews

Jews and Christians in the Muslim daily prayers [Pages 2-3]

In each of the five daily ritual prayers, the Muslims pray the opening Sura of the Qur’an ending in the two verses, “Guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom You have favored with guidance, not [the path] of those against whom there is wrath, nor of those who are astray.” [Sura 1:6-7]

“those against whom there is wrath” are Jews-who have incurred Allah’s wrath

“those who are astray” are identified as being Christians who have blasphemed by adding “partners” to Allah.

“Tolerance?” But the enmity is eternal! [Page 5]

The status of “People of the Book” is thought to be a privileged and “safe” position within Islamic states with rights to worship, but in actuality, it is just the opposite, and is instead a stated of virtual bondage with severe legal limitations, boundaries, and penalties.

Muslim-Jewish crisis as perceived in current public opinion

Hidden Agenda-Is there an unseen agenda?  [Page 6]

Islam is both political and religious.  This characteristic alternating between the political and religious is a major factor in the smokescreen response to each and every issue of the conflict.

Hidden Agenda [Page 8]

The curses in regard to the Jews are hidden, or “veiled” within the coded references of the Qur’an, this leaves the Muslims free to quote the various Sura’s, and alternate between the different nuances when challenged about their treatment of the Jews to hide the deeper and harsher condemnations from public view.

Muslims alternate between the established “religious/Islamic” doctrines and the “political/pragmatic” possibilities when speaking of the Arab-Israeli crisis also as a diversion or smokescreen, in order to obscure their true intent in regard to the “land” issues.

Palestinian “Diaspora” gives credence to a secular state

The role of the Palestinian secular/academic component [Pages 10-11]

Do not underestimate the effect of the substantial “Palestinian Diaspora,” who in immigrating to the West in large numbers because of the difficulty presented by the refusal of Arab countries to welcome them as full citizens have effectively developed the “political” case for the “secular state of Palestine” as well as the case against Israel for allegedly making them the “victims” while effectively presenting themselves as the witnesses and advocates for their case.

The so-called ‘academic license” thus both refutes Israeli claims and provides a form of intellectual legitimacy for Palestinian claims-thus lifting the Palestinian banner for “liberation” from the grip of the “usurper.”

“Liberating” Palestine… or “deconstructing” Israel?  [Pages 11-13]

The emerging apparent secular “legitimacy”  for the Palestinian rights that has been carefully constructed in academia on the back of the deconstruction wave to cover over the reality of the underlying Islamic claims at the base of the “religious/Islamic” rationale.

How central is “the land” in the dispute?  [Page 13]

The crisis over a Palestinian state is the Gordian Knot which is cut, would cathartically satisfy the root issue behind the actions of a long list of Islamist terror organizations within and without the Palestinian territory – would reply with a resounding “yes” to both questions.  The result would be instant “peace.”

Is it true that the land is the major issue?

Third parties can’t see beyond the political “land” issues [Pages 14-15]

For the Muslims-it is not necessary to win the argument of to solve the problem, or settle the issue, but rather to serve a greater overarching cause, i.e. the “religious/Islamic” cause, which most of the time remains hidden or veiled.

The desire is not to solve the problem, because by solving the problem the greater agenda (to implement the mandates of the Qur’an toward the Jews and the land” will be neutralize and therefore rendered ineffective.

Islamic leaders see the Palestinian issue as a gateway issue to the greater goal.

Top Muslim authority plays the alternating theme

Muslims, when addressing the West on the issue have sought to justify this view that there is “no problem” with the “Jewishness” aspect, but only with the issue of the land.  That was just a part of the smokescreen, and a prime example of the “coded” aspect.  It is reverse when addressing the Muslims in Arabic.

The reason for the enmity has nothing whatsoever to do with the political issues or anything the Jews have “done” but instead primarily has to do with the vile “character” of the Jews “are” according to the Qur’an.

CHAPTER 2

The Myth of Peace:

A Two-State Solution

The Myth of Peace:  A Two Stat Solution/Sulla-Hadabia

Misleading Perceptions  [Pages 19-21]

“If there were to be an appropriate agreement over the land among the Jews and the Arabs, the crisis would be over.”

The standard Islamic “street” response is an example of such a habitual smokescreen.  It is always presented in a seemingly logical and orderly fashion-though in reality it is neither of these.  Instead, when dissected, it is a mishmash of loosely related or unrelated issues, accusations and judgments, using all the right terminology-which in turn is connected to unrelated events with great confidence as though it were all related.  The end result begins an almost incomprehensible total distortion of the issues.  It enables the Muslim to both obscure the reality of the situation, or the real issues, and promotes Islam favorably-both religiously and politically-while at the same time alternatively using both political and religious dogmas.

Abrogated Qur’anic verses put to use

Simultaneously the religious arguments are woven in throughout, quoting religious texts, declaring Islam to be a peaceful religion which recognizes and respects Judaism and Christianity, while not being respected in return.  However the verses which would offer all these good things were all abrogated during Muhammad’s lifetime and thus are non-effective and no longer valid.

The Jews, Israel and America as another cover

As Muslims begin to deliberate on Palestine and its occupation, not only the occupied lands of Palestine but all kinds of failures in all the Arab and Islamic states get to be laid at the door of Israel and its Western Crusader Zionist backers as a Zionist conspiracy.  Hence all these arguments taken together justify in their mind the Islamic terror against Israel, or America as her backer.

If all the furore is only about the so called occupation of 1948, and the related injustices by Israel and its supporter-does that mean that prior to 1948 the Muslims loved the Jews?  In fact the larger question is:  Was there ever a time when they loved the Jews?

CHAPTER 4

Jihad Against the Jews:

Mandated Enmity

If the Palestinian problem were to be solved would enmity against Israel and the Jews end?  NO – as Jihad against the Jews is an Islamic duty irrespective of the occupation or not. Also

because it was not land-oriented and political but theological.

This “enmity” is at the root of a wider religious war, and that a religious war has a religious name – Jihad.

According to the Qur’an, Judaism as a religion per se is an innovation - (something newly introduced, new method, custom, device, etc.) , so is Christianity, and therefore both are in violation of that which Allah had originally revealed to the Children if Israel concerning “monotheism.”

Secondly, in the Qur’an the Jews and the Christians were and are in reality “Muslims” since all the Jewish patriarchs and prophets including Jesus were themselves “Muslims” – Muslims who allegedly preached Islam from the outset within the Torah, their main purpose being the foretelling of the coming of Muhammad as the “Seal of the Prophets.”

The Fitrah Doctrine

According to the Islamic Doctrine of fitrah all mankind from eternity has been submitted to Allah and thus all are “Muslims.”  The Qur’anic argument goes that Allah, having created man, he took a covenant or a pack with mankind, and in so doing, bound everyone to a covenant, that they all will believe in and obey him only, Sura 7:172, “And (remember) when your Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their seed (or from Adam’s loin his offspring) and made them testify as to themselves (saying): ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said: ‘Yes! We testify,’ lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: ‘Verily, we have been unaware of this.’”

1.      This covenant of Allah is unilateral and irrevocable.

Unilateral – of, occurring on, or affecting one side only

Irrevocable – that cannot be revoked, recalled, or undone; unalterable

2.      That it remains more of a pact rather than covenant as it is framed in a master-slave relationship.

3.      It is and remains non-redemptive should mankind go astray. 

This covenant was two- fold. One, it was about the oneness of Allah which is known as Tawheed, and the second aspect was the finality of Muhammad as the seal of the Prophets.

The Finality of Muhammad and Oneness of Allah are inseparable

Tawheed (misunderstood in English as absolute monotheism), is not monotheism as we know it, but is instead defined as “Islamic Monotheism” and is by definition is inseparable from the finality of Muhammad-as he simply is not just the “final prophet,” but his rights, sanctity and authority is equal to that of Allah in everything, as stated by the most notable Muslim scholar Ibn Taymiyya.

Islam regards that every human being, when born bears within himself/herself a notion of faith in Allah and his teachings willingly or unwillingly as a natural part of one’s very being or one’s DNA.

Jews and Christians are “converts” who need to be “returned” to Islam.

Muslimhood of all the prophets

Thus we have established that according to the Qur’an, all human beings are born Muslims so this would include prophets and patriarchs-who being born Muslims, they all bowed to Allah in Islam.  In so doing, Islam ignores any references to “Judaism” or “Christianity” as belief systems or “religions” and makes the direct claim that Islam is Allah’s “only religion” as established in the Qur’an.

Mohammad coached by Muslim Prophet Musa Moses) during “Night Journey” regarding the number of daily Muslim prayers. [5]

As all the subsequent prophets and the kings of the Jews were Muslims and portrayed as such, the present day Jews are usurpers and not the rightful owners of the land.

Allah’s pact of “covenant” with the prophets

Secondly, Allah’s pact with mankind was not limited only to the one-god concept or Oneness of Allah but more importantly that Muhammad as his prophet completes the Islamic Tawheed i.e. Allah and Muhammad are inextricably linked.

The Anchor prophets

These five prophets (Muhammad, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus) are known as the “Anchor Prophets” (Ulul-Uzm, in Arabic) in the Qur’an. As a group they have a higher status than the rest of the Prophets although among this group some are more elevated than others, with Muhammad being at the highest level.

Not only the Muslim Isa (i.e. Jesus) announced Muhammad’s coming but he, Muhammad, was the central theme of the previous scripture, so claims the Qur’an that the central prophecy of the Law (Torah)  and the Gospel (New Testament) was the unlettered (illiterate) Prophet.

Hence in reality there is nothing called Judaism or Christianity in the Qur’an since all past generations were Muslims including the Jews and Christians, except that they had rebelled, just as the present generation is still in rebellion against Allah and his apostle, Muhammad.

Tawheed – When Allah restores mankind to his fold (Islamic monotheism)

Islamic Mission Call:  The Da’wa

A call or an ultimatum?

To bring them back to his fold, Allah has devised a method.  This method has been made obligatory on all Muslims to participate in any form or shape they can, such as:  with their tongue, their finances, with themselves, with migrations and volunteering to go to the battlefield to engage the enemy physically.  This method is named in Islam, as “Jihad.”  So it is of paramount importance to note that Jihad is part of Da’wa, Islamic Mission Call.

Jihad in all of its forms (defensive and offensive) is there to aid Islamic missions for the reversion (conversion) of people and to bring them back to Allah’s fold voluntarily or by force.

Jihad is always viewed by Muslims as defensive.

From an Islamic point of view, no matter how brutal Jihad may be, it is always defensive in nature and never an aggression.  For the real aggressors are always the unbelievers (chiefly the Jews) who have vexed the prophet and his master by rejecting his mission and his message-this rejection is initiated and headed by the Jews.  This rejection of the invitation to embrace Islam is in itself a heinous crime which falls under the doctrine of “Fitnah” or “Dissension.”

Jihad executes judgment here and now.  It is the very actualization of forcing people into the fold of Allah.

A “martyr” has privileges and his immediate family treat him as a hero.  He is not mourned for – it is a celebration, for he has obtained favor at the highest levels.  Therefore the only mechanism to provide “salvation” to mankind according to Islam is Jihad.  What we are showing is that in returning non-Muslims to the Islamic fold they have been saved from rebelling against Allah.

Jihad can only cease when the whole earth has been Islamized and all its inhabitants have embraced Islam – the Jews being the worst aggressors!

Muslims are required not to enter into permanent peace with the enemies of Allah or else Jihad would have to be suspended, thus resulting in disobedience to Allah and his messenger.

Assumed Enmity in Defense of Islam

Making war on Islam means any form of resisting or criticizing any tenet of Islam or the person of Muhammad; the refusal to accept the Islamic Call.

Islam began in Saudi Arabia.

Re-Definition of the Crisis

The Muslim Jesus’ sole mission was to proclaim Muhammad’s coming.

The root and the origins of Muslim enmity toward the Jews is a divinely revealed command of Allah.  Therefore this enmity is here to stay.  It is correctly deduced from the primary Islamic sources that Allah himself is against the Jews and is permanently at war with them through the Muslims, the dispute isn’t land-centered, and the Arab-Israeli crisis isn’t just a political crisis.

Therefore the cessation (a ceasing, or stopping, either forever or for some time) of Jihad is being addressed as social injustices and every attempt is being made to resolve it through negotiations.  But, just like “enmity” it remains neither solvable nor subject to any form of human reforms.

Al-Yahud:

Eternal Islamic Enmity & the Jews

By:  Elias Al-Maqdisi & Sam Solomon

CHAPTER 5

The Outworking:

How Muhammad Institutionalized Enmity

The Jews of Arabia prior to Islam

Arab Jews:  Outsiders or Indigenous Arabian Community?  History testifies that the Jews of Arabia lived as vibrant communities with major contributions to Arab society centuries before Islam came on the scene.

They settled in various locations and spread out building and developing the land.  They influenced the Arabic language, brought in new religious concepts among the Pagan Arabs, many of whom accepted Judaism.  Some of those Arabs were later Christianized.  Besides developing the various oases, the Jews congregated in large numbers in a city which they founded which they called Yathrib.  In that city three major Jewish clans put their roots down:  Banu Nadir, Banu Kaynuka and Banu Qurayza.  These three clans would figure strongly in the development to follow-as their city would become the staging ground for Muhammad’s development of Islamic state.

Leadership vacuum in Yathrib on the eve of Hijra

When the Arab tribes arrived in Yathrib, they liked the land which had a number of natural water fountains, and was much more fertile than what they had left behind.  They found the majority of the inhabitants were Jews who where in need of manual laborers to work in some of their farms.  So they located between Al Hura al Sharkiya and Kuba.  Over a period of time they became land owners and developed their own farms and were now wealthy and had built houses all over Yathrib.

Once they were wealthy, there arose a competition/rivalry between them and the Jews over the city’s leadership.

Further factors prepare the grounds for the Hijra

There was yet another rivalry from outside Yathrib (other than the Aws and the Khazraj – Pages 76-77) that affected them all, namely, from the Quraish tribe in Mecca.

The Jews of Yathrib had good relations with the Quraish, but the Aws and Khazraj were anxious to break the Quraish’s commercial as well as religious monopoly.  The underlying difference in loyalties was fertile ground for Muhammad to exploit as he was ready in mortal conflict with the Quraish.

Further factors prepare the grounds for the Hijra (continued)

For Muhammad’s immigration transformed the weak and insignificant follower Muslim community of Mecca into a powerful and effective force, and forged them into a united force wherein they would become carriers of new concepts and doctrines.

Failed Immigration Experience Leads to Further Planning

The Quraish were considering one of the three options against Muhammad:  imprisonment, murder or exile.

Muhammad, accompanied by his adopted son, Zaid ibn Harith left for Talif seeking to be aided to victory by its Jews and Arabs, only to be hounded and chased out of their town by being stoned and booed.

Muhammad needed a more conductive environment to regroup and grow the community in order to be able to stand against and ultimately defeat his Meccan pagan enemies.  Yathrib seemed to offer that opportunity, politically, socially and religiously.  Thus his migration to Yathrib had a defined strategy with clear goals to establish an Islamic entity and to eventually avenge the Quraish and the rest of the Meccan pagan tribes.

Muhammad’s Relationship with the Jews Prior to Migration

At this point in Muhammad’s Mecca era (around 620-622 A.D.), he strategically showed a favorable face to the Jews and the Christians, i.e., proclaiming that, “we all worship the same God, etc.”  Muhammad never intended to buy into either Judaism or Christianity.  He wanted to replace them by claiming that Islam actually preceded them and that, in the final analysis, he was just the last Messenger to set the record straight.

“Revelations” from Mecca increasingly favorable to Jews

For nearly a year before immigration all his new Meccan revelations were more and more affirming of the Jews and harsher and harsher towards the Quraish.

Pledges of Aqaba (Pages 80-82)

Those six were community leaders known as captains who were like modern day social workers who would know the community well and its needs.  Muhammad invited them to embrace Islam, and they pledged their allegiance to him asking them to abstain from overt debauchery.  This was the First Pledge of Aqaba.

In 622 A.D. some 74 or 75 came from Yathrib to Mecca again during the pilgrimage season, 72 men and two or three women representing both Aws and Khazraj came and the Second Pledge of Aqaba was made.

The goals of Muhammad and that of Aws and Khazraj were met in this new pact between them.  It was a political/military alliance as the Sira points out by spelling out the exact words of the pact, Muhammad pledging to fight the “black and the red” of the people in his famous cry “blood, blood, destruction, destruction, I am of you and you are of me, I will war with those who you war with and will make peace those that you make peace with”. Muhammad would lead the Aws and Khazraj, together with his Meccan Muslim followers to form an alliance that would defeat both the Jews (the red) and the Pagan Meccans (the black), at a time when the Jews had thought that Muhammad had no bad intentions against them.

Details of the Second Pledge of Aqaba, Known as the Pledge of War

Muhammad had concluded a separate and secret pact that would ultimately seal the fate of the Jews prior to entering into an agreement with the Jews of Yathrib/Medina called later of the “Medina Pact.”

This was very clever of him, as he stated clearly that they were about to “cut the ropes” –meaning the relationship-that they had with the Jews.

According to the Sira, Muhammad smiled and said, “Blood, Blood, destruction, destruction.”  This meant a declaration of war and killing and destruction.  Muhammad was effectively saying:  Behold I have settled the fate of the Jews.  They are going to be annihilated and so will I get rid of the Quraish as well.  The old order will be fully done away with and I will establish a new order.

The die is cast

The wording of the second ‘Pledge of Aqaba’ that the decision was taken to fight the Quraish and the Jews with the aim of either, total conversion, submission, or elimination.

It is noteworthy to mention that Muhammad was hoping that the Jews would embrace him and his new religion.  However his undercover Pledge with the Arab tribes provided him with a failsafe, should those hopes not be realized.

The Pact with the Jews of Median (Pages 85-87)

The “Medina Pact,” that came to be known variously as a “Fraternal Pact,” or the “Medina Constitution” sometimes known also as a friendship towards the Jews in which he declared religious tolerance, and freedom of belief, replacing unity of religion for ethnic solidarity.

With such religious zeal among the early Muslim community, Medina became a formidable tower and a strong base for Muhammad to develop the political, military and legal components of the Islamic state, i.e. the Khaliphate.  Within a short time the divine ordinance from Allah granting permission for Jihad was proclaimed.

Following the settlement of the Meccan Muslims and Mohammad in Medina the first phase of “tamkeen”, i.e. the consolidation and empowerment of the Muslims community, began as their numbers increased and as preparations were undertaken to fight the “black of the people” meaning the Quraish.

Next, it was commanded to fight all the unbelievers everywhere, as in Sura 9:36,  “…and fight against the Mushrikum (polytheists, pagans, idolaters, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah) collectively, as they fight against you collectively…”

The “honeymoon” is short-lived

If one examines what is reported by the Sira one would discover that it was Muhammad who breached his own peace pact with the Jews first, without any provocation on the part of the Jews.

The battle of Badr or rather the Badr invasion (624 A.D.) exposed the nature of Muhammad’s mission in his methods when he concluded the victory by killing the notable leaders of the Quraish confiscating their wealth, and taking their arms as booty.  Following his brutal victory over the Quraish, now Muhammad turned his attention towards the Jews who had welcomed him when he arrived dejected and rejected by the Meccans.

Dealing with the Jewish Tribe of Banu Kaynuka

It is noteworthy to mention that the Jews had not assisted the Quraish in any form or shape in the Battle of Badr.

Muhammad chose to confront Banu Kaynuka first, as they were the smallest group of the three Jewish tribes in Medina, as well as being the most weakly with hardly any friends-as their relationships was in tatters with the rest of the Jewish community.  Knowing this Muhammad picked upon them first as he knew well that no help will come from any direction.

Predictably, Banu Kaynuka refused to convert to Islam, so the Muslims invented an unsupportable incident of a Jew insulting a Muslim woman as reported by Ibn Hisham, (Page 89).

The story concludes that the Jews retaliated and killed the Muslim who had killed the Jewish trader.  Hence there was anger amongst the Muslims against the Jews and there developed an animosity between them.  Basically, this is the Islamic account of the first instance of admitted “enmity” between the Muslims and Jews.

The Medina pact stipulated that whoever wrongs as an individual will only be punished as an individual, and not the whole community collectively!

Dealing with the Jewish Tribe of Banu Kaynuka (continued)

For according to Qur’anic revelations, “allegiance” to non-Muslims is not valid as it contradicts a Muslim’s faith.

Among the individuals who were seen to be in opposition to Muhammad was the Banu Nadir poet Ka’ab, who was assassinated for having composed a poem criticizing Muhammad.  This had a devastating impact on the Jewish community, almost completely demoralizing them and striking them with profound fear.

Dealing with the Jewish Tribe of Banu Nadir

The actual underlying reason was that they were showing everyone from their scriptures that the central part of Muhammad’s claims to prophet-hood and that he was the successor of all the previous prophets were false and they had the scriptures to prove it, so no wonder they had to be removed.

Dealing with the Jewish Tribe of Banu Quraya

Banu Quraya were a peaceful community of farmers and tradesmen.  Banu Quraya eventually surrendered with all they had (wealth and power) without a fight.  However unlike Banu Kaynuka and Banu Nadir who had been granted exile, Muhammad ordered a wholesale slaughter of all males, boys as young as 14 years old, (any who had pubic hair) was slaughtered.

Muhammad either personally or through consent killed, or rather butchered more Jews than any others that he killed-be it pagan Arabs or otherwise.

Dealing with the Jews of Khaybar

In 628-629 A.D., he made a pre-emptive, sudden and unprovoked assault on the Jews of Khaybar.  Khaybar was mostly a Jewish oasis town.

Background and prelude to Khaybar

The Muslims entered a peace treaty with the Quraish, known as the Hudaibiua Treaty, ending the Muslim-Quraish wars.

Scholars agree that Muhammad’s need to raise his prestige amongst his followers, which had been eroded by the Hudaibiya Treaty, was one reason for the unprovoked attack on Khaybar.

Knowing the outcome of Muhammad’s battles with the other Jewish tribes the Jews of Khaybar put up fierce resistance, and the Muslims were forced to take the fortresses one by one.

Implications of the Khaybar Invasion

This time Muhammad realized that he needed the expertise of the Jews to cultivate the land and attend to the oasis, for two simple reasons:  1) He needed his men to fight his wars and

subjugate the rest of Arabia to Islam, and 2) He needed the Jews and their expertise to cultivate the land and manage the oasis for continued supply for himself and his troops.

Khaybar Treaty which established for the first time what would be known as the “Dhimmi Laws” governing the “People of the Book.” : (Page 98)

The agreement with the Jews of Khaybar served as an important precedent for Islamic Law in determining the status of Dhimmis, (non-Muslims under Muslim rule).

Muhammad captured Mecca just 18 months after Khaybar.

The victory in Khaybar greatly raised the status of Muhammad among his followers and local Bedouin tribes who, seeing his power, swore allegiance to Muhammad and converted to Islam.

It is clear from the foregoing that it was Muhammad who instituted the enmity from the beginning of his mission in Mecca, who brought it to fruition in Median, who breached the peace pact, who continued to attack Jewish communities unprovoked throughout Arabia-claiming that it had been revealed to him that Allah and his apostle were dissolving their treaties and pacts with the non-Muslims, not the other way around.

Of course, all the atrocities that Muhammad committed based on the above revelations are regarded as a proper “Sunnah” to be emulated by all Muslims-hence limitless hate and enmity without exception towards the Jews everywhere at all times.