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BOY BECOMES PALESTINIAN MARTYR
From BBC news 10/2/2000
"Don't shoot" screams the boy's father Just moments after this picture was taken, Muhammad al-Durrah was shot dead.
And now the 12-year-old has become a new martyr for the Palestinian cause.
For 45 minutes, Muhammad's father tried in vain to shield him from gunfire as they crouched against a concrete wall near Netzarim in the Gaza Strip. The whole scene was caught on camera by a France 2 cameraman, and has been played repeatedly on Palestinian television.
The footage shows the boy's father, Jamal al-Durrah, waving desperately to Israeli troops, shouting: "Don't shoot". But the terrified boy is hit by four bullets, and collapses in his father's arms.
An ambulance driver who tried to rescue the boy and his father was also killed, and a second ambulance driver was wounded.
Mr al-Durrah, who was also badly wounded, said his son died for "the sake of al-Aqsa mosque", the holy site in Jerusalem seen by the Palestinians as both sacred and sovereign territory.
"My son didn't die in vain," said his mother, Amal.
"This was his sacrifice for our homeland, for Palestine."
Caught in the fire Israeli officials have questioned whether the boy was killed by Israeli bullets, and said he could have been hit by stray Palestinian gunfire.
But witnesses say the Palestinian youths were armed only with stones, not guns, and the shooting was all from the Israeli side.
The video footage clearly shows that not only were the boy and his father completely unarmed, but they were not even part of the rioting.
Relatives say the pair were returning from Gaza's popular used-car market, and were trying to get home to the Buriej refugee camp where they live along with many thousands of Palestinians.
Image shocks world The disturbing footage has been played throughout the Middle East, and on all major US television networks over the weekend.
A photo still from the video ran on the front page of the New York Times.
The newspaper quoted an Israeli journalist as saying he saw the footage for the first time as he was delivering the news on Saturday night.
"I lost my voice. I've been doing this for many years... But my brain went dead, and my tongue went limp. To see a little boy killed before your eyes," he said.
The British newspaper, The Independent, described it as "an image that will haunt the world as painfully and powerfully" as any of those from the Palestinian uprising or Intifada.
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LIVING AMONG THE HEADLINES
By Helen Schary Motro, an American lawyer and writer living in Israel, is a columnist for the Jerusalem Post
Oct. 7, 2000 | KFAR SHMARIAHU, Israel
This week's photo has been burned into the world's consciousness beside the Vietnamese girl aflame with napalm, the Oklahoma City firefighter carrying the dead baby after the federal building explosion, the boy with raised hands in the Warsaw ghetto. Little did I think when I saw the picture that this anonymous man was far from anonymous to me.
Jamal al-Dirrah and 12-year-old Mohammed were cowering against a wall in Gaza, seeking shelter from the rain of gunshots between Palestinian police and Israeli soldiers, the terrified boy screaming in the crook of his father's arm. Moments later, the boy slumped dead and his father lay wounded with eight bullets in his body.
I knew a Palestinian named Jamal. I sat in my garden looking at the wall he'd built for me when a team of Palestinians had helped build my Israeli house at the height of the intifada. His first son, I recalled, was born 12 years ago, shortly after my daughter. I thought how easily the anonymous victim might have been the Jamal I knew, with whom I'd had an uneasy relationship that tentatively grew into something else.
Then I read in the newspaper that the dead boy's father, 37 years old, was a house painter from Gaza who worked for Israelis in the suburbs north of Tel Aviv. The same first name, the same job in the same area, the same general age. Too many coincidences.
I studied the photo more closely. What if? It was too blurry to see, the man's head turned away. To put my suspicions to rest I telephoned Moshe Tamam, the Israeli contractor for whom Jamal works. "Tell me, Moshe, the man in the hospital, that's not our Jamal?"
But the contractor told me the news I didn't want to hear. I telephoned the hospital in Amman, Jordan, where Jamal had gone for surgery, and I was able to reach him.
"A crime!" said Jamal. "Forty-five minutes firing without stop.
And I cried, 'My son! My son! My son!' but nobody listened. Now he is dead and I am half finished. To shoot at a boy; it's a crime." Jamal began to cry. There was commotion in the background, people talking in Arabic, and somebody hung up the telephone. In the Middle East, I have often observed, people live their lives maneuvering between the headlines. This week our Jamal became a headline.
It was the height of the grass-roots Palestinian uprising, the intifada, when I first met Jamal. In 1988 my husband and I hired a contractor to renovate an old house we had just bought in Tel Aviv's suburbs. Jamal stood apart from the other Palestinian workers. In his 20s, he was angrier, prouder, with a resentment more palpable. We were never really introduced. I just learned his first name over time, and he learned mine. Tall, thin and glowering, Jamal spat out his words in low monosyllables. He accepted begrudgingly, without a smile, the cold drinks in paper cups I brought out to the team of workers. But he would never drink my coffee. Shaking his head dismissively and clicking his tongue, he would pad silently to the periphery of my unfinished patio, crouch down on his heels, extract a crumpled nylon bag from his jacket pocket and shake some dark granules into a glass cup to brew his own strong coffee over a little portable gas heater.
The other workers in the crew -- Nasser, Abed and Yusuf -- were unobtrusive. They bent down in my garden to pray, facing east. I wondered whether they knew about the old mosque atop a seaside cliff at the beach nearby, the mosque where a muezzin no longer calls. As the workers arrived each morning, the radio reported the injured of the day before -- Israeli soldiers wounded by hurled rocks, Palestinians shot, the tear gas fired, the order from army headquarters to break protesters' limbs, the latest death toll. It was a dark and hateful time. Still the workers came to my house day in and day out, plastering, setting tiles, installing plumbing.
They arrived at dawn, worked quietly, kept their heads down. They considered themselves the lucky ones, the ones with steady work. But when terrorist bombings heated up inside the country, Israel retaliated by sealing off the borders, allowing nobody from the territories occupied by Israel to work inside Israel proper. Sometimes weeks would go by while the men sat in enforced idleness inside Gaza. Then suddenly the order would be rescinded, and construction on my home would start anew. Part of Jamal's job involved putting up a garden wall. I was walking next to the newly finished wall when something close to the base caught my eye. I bent down to look closer. "Jamal - 1988" I saw, inscribed in looping English script letters, the handwriting of a foreign schoolboy. The cement was already dry. Indignant, I went straight to the contractor and insisted a new layer be spread over the offensive signature. It was my house after all, not a public sidewalk. If anybody had a right to make graffiti, it was me.
The next morning the signature had been obliterated, large circles of new gray cement in benign swirls over the words. The new spot dried a different shade of gray than the surrounding wall, and for a few years it was visible if you knew what you were looking for. But with time that difference has faded, and it became hard to discern the place where Jamal had tried to leave his mark.
During the period we were building, my third baby was born. Jamal's wife was expecting their first child. When I offered my no longer needed maternity clothes, he nodded his head ever so slightly. I packed up a big bundle. I especially liked my navy wool jumper with red piping. The next day I looked until I found Jamal, and happily presented him with the bag. He took it with averted eyes. Months later I found the bag, still full, stuffed into a crevice in an old repainted cupboard, my navy dress in a wrinkled ball. Then my house was finished and the workers went away.
The years went by, tumultuous ones in Israel. The 1991 Gulf War brought acute fear, then two years later the Oslo accords afforded the first ray of hope for coexistence.
When Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish extremist, things seemed to go back to square one. There was a series of terrorist bombings inside Israel in which hundreds of civilians were killed. In their wake hard-line Benjamin Netanyahu was swept into office. But in the meantime, people living in the Middle East continued to lead their private lives, maneuvering between the headlines. A couple of years ago, I hired the same contractor to repaint my house. I saw there was a new foreman. He came up my steps limping slightly, thin and wiry, reminding me of the physique of Ahknaton, the elongated Egyptian emperor. When he got close, I saw it was someone I knew. Through the graying hair and bony cheeks I recognized Jamal. He smiled, and I did too. There was something of old friends in our greeting.
I could read in his eyes that I'd gotten older too. I supposed Jamal's traumas had been much worse than mine, and yet here he was again, after all those years. Years of arising from bed at 3:30 a.m., to take the bus at 4 to the border crossing, and then board a second bus an hour later out of Gaza to start work at 6 a.m. Was it this backbreaking cycle of physical labor that made the 35-year-old man look like he was 50? Yet he was smiling.
I say we greeted as friends, but I know this is not the deep truth. Even beyond the economic inequality, I could never look at him without "the conflict" on my mind. His Arabness and my Jewishness hung in the air. I wondered what I could represent for Jamal, in my big house, transplanted to this soil of my own will from another place. I still brought coffee out to the workers in the morning. This time Jamal looked happy to get it. "But I hope this is real coffee -- not Jewish Nescafé!" he would laugh. In his surrender to reality Jamal had kept both his spunk and his dignity.
Jamal and I conversed in Hebrew, neither his native tongue nor mine. On Fridays when he went home to catch the earlier weekend transport bus, Jamal would call out over his shoulder, "A peaceful Sabbath!" Although I couldn't see it, I could feel him grinning.
After the first coat of paint went on, and the workers needed to let it dry, there was still time before the bus came to pick them up. So the boss suggested I ask Jamal to do small jobs around the house. I ran to get out my university diplomas from a drawer. Jamal studied the gothic lettering on one for a long time.
"It says New York University, right?" he asked finally, his voice serious and hushed. I nodded yes, flinching a little at the memory of his proud, painstaking English graffiti, which I had ordered covered up.
Jamal hung the diplomas in my study with exquisite care. There was still time before the bus.
I remembered an old reproduction of Renoir's "Girl With a Watering Can" hanging in my youngest daughter's room. It had been my own as a child and was passed on like a talisman to each of my three daughters. By now the wooden frame had fallen apart at the hinges. I asked Jamal if he could patch it up somehow. He nodded.
"Do you have any masking tape?" I foraged in the storage room and came back with a jumbo roll. "Here take this -- it's left over from the Gulf War! Remember when we had to tape up our windows and doors against gas?"
"Allah protect us!" Jamal called with a laugh, holding up the roll. "Imagine how silly we were to think this sticky paper could save our lives. Believe me," he went on, "in my house we never taped the windows or the doors. I told my wife, 'If God wants to kill us, he will, and if he wants to save us, he will.' I never put on any gas mask in the war. Never again! Let that be Allah's will," said Jamal.
An hour later he appeared at my study door. In his hands he held Renoir's "Girl With a Watering Can" -- in a new frame, I thought. Looking closer I saw I was mistaken - it was the original frame bought halfway across the world at the Metropolitan Museum decades before. He hadn't used any of the tape at all. Jamal had repaired it by knocking in dozens of tiny nails perfectly lined up all around the edge. Then, somehow, he had polished the wood to make the black lacquer shine like new.
I asked Jamal how many children he has now. "Six," he told me proudly. "Four sons, two girls."
This time he didn't hesitate to accept my old clothes and toys, though I hesitated to offer them. I had learned enough not to hand them to him anymore. Now I left the bags in the garden, next to the lamppost where he left his rolled-up jacket when he came to work.
I wished I could help Jamal. I wanted his kids to get enough schooling to read the lettering on their own diplomas. But he was a victim of circumstances larger than both of us, I rationalized weakly. So I didn't do much of anything. I just stuffed shopping bags full of old sweaters with fuzz balls, men's jackets that had gone out of style, toys my children had gotten tired of and scuffed boots they had outgrown.
Jamal took them all. I watched his thin frame receding and saw his limp as he walked down the garden steps. The sinews in his long arms moved as he carried the bulging nylon shopping bags with Hebrew writing down toward the boss's pickup, in a rush to make the afternoon ride back to Gaza. The fresh white paint covering Jamal's wall gleamed in the sun.
From the western horizon over the beach the afternoon rays shone on the bronze crescent atop the seaside mosque before reflecting in the glass of my windowpanes. Was Jamal watching the fading sunlight too, through the dusty window of his bus?
I wondered whether Jamal would be back when it came time to paint again. Would his hair be all gray then? Would his four sons be old enough to throw stones, or will the time of stone-throwing have passed? My daughter is 12, like Jamal's boy was. Mohammed loved to swim in the sea; my daughter is on a swim team. Mohammed was good in English -- I know he took after his father. My daughter walks to school beside cypress trees, amid bougainvillea. Her pet dog waits impatiently for her to come home. Mohammed had pet birds. But had he lived to be a grandfather, it's unlikely he and my daughter ever would have met.
Right after Jamal was wounded, Moshe Tamam, the contractor who employed him, said he had tried to get Jamal transferred from Gaza into a big Israeli hospital. He offered to pay for all the expenses, Moshe said, but the Palestinian Authority hadn't allowed it. Jamal had worked for him for 20 years, since he was 14 years old.
"These people are born in hatred, raised in hatred, " Moshe told me. "They return home from working in big houses to their shacks without even sewage. Jamal is a terrific man.
He slept in my own home many times. He is a wonderful worker, and I know that I can leave him alone in any customer's house and there will be no theft, no vandalism, no breakage."
Israel radio reported that Jamal also said that Moshe had offered to send him to an Israeli hospital and pay for it, but that he preferred to be treated in the Arab world. Everything in the Middle East has two stories. When I reached him by telephone, in Amman, Jamal called his boss, Moshe, a "brother."
"I hope to be healthy again, but back to work I don't think I will ever be able to go," he told me. I asked Jamal what does he wish for his remaining children. "My children? To grow as all the children in the world." I heard his voice break. "That they will be surrounded by all good things and nothing bad, nothing bad."
Not a week had passed since his boy was killed. And yet when the reporter from Israel radio asked him if his attitude toward Israelis changed forever in those terrible moments beside the wall in Gaza, Jamal said, "I am a man of peace. We two peoples must live together. There is no other possibility. There is no other possibility."
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JEWS IN THE QURAN
Jews, 5:69, 22:17
and Christians, 2:120, 2:139, 3:75, 5:68
messenger comes to them, 5:32
enmity and hatred among them, 5:64
fights between, 2:113
food restrictions, 6:146
have no rights to claim Allah's bounty exclusively, 57:29
heaven not only for them, 2:111
say they are "Allah's Children", 5:18
believe in but few things, 4:155
claim that they alone are close to Allah, 2:94, 62:6
denied good things of life, 4:160
reasons for, 4:161
foods which are forbidden for, 6:146
good deeds of ancestors don't count, 2:136
hurting themselves by their misinterpretations, 5:64
mistaken to believe in their own revelations only, 2:91
most have forgotten what they've been told to bear in mind, 5:13
most hostile to Muslims, 5:82
ransoming each other during the Prophet's life, 2:85
religious commandments, 2:43, 2:84-85, 5:32
retribution given in the Torah, 5:45
righteous will be rewarded, 2:62, 5:65, 5:69
say "Ezra is Allah's Son", 9:30
say "Our hearts are full of knowledge.", 2:88, 4:155
slaying prophets, 2:61, 3:21, 3:112, 3:181, 3:183, 4:155, 4:157, 5:70
some distort meanings of all revelations, 4:46, 5:13, 5:41
forgive them, 5:13
warning to, 4:47
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WARNED AGAINST THE JEWS
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QUEST FOR JUSTICE
Judith Stone
Deborah Ducrocq was managing editor of the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle. She received and published the article by Judith Stone shown below. The article appeared November 10, 2000 and Debbie was promptly fired by her superiors. Both ladies are Jewish.
I am a Jew. I was a participant in the Rally for the Right of Return to Palestine. It was the right thing to do.
I've heard about the European holocaust against the Jews since I was a small child. I've visited the memorials in Washington, DC and Jerusalem dedicated to Jewish lives lost and I've cried at the recognition to what level of atrocity mankind is capable of sinking. Where are the Jews of conscience? No righteous malice can be held against the survivors of Hitler's holocaust. These fragments of humanity were in no position to make choices beyond that of personal survival. We must not forget that being a survivor or a co-religionist of the victims of the European Holocaust does not grant dispensation from abiding by the rules of humanity. "Never again" as a motto, rings hollow when it means "never again to us alone." My generation was raised being led to believe that the biblical land was a vast desert inhabited by a handful of impoverished Palestinians living with their camels and eking out a living in the sand. The arrival of the Jews was touted as a tremendous benefit to these desert dwellers. Golda Mier even assured us that there "is no Palestinian problem."
We know now this picture wasn't as it was painted. Palestine was a land filled with people who called it home. There were thriving towns and villages, schools and hospitals. There were Jews, Christians and Muslims. In fact, prior to the occupation, Jews represented a mere 7 percent of the population and owned 3 percent of the land.
Taking the blinders off for a moment, I see a second atrocity perpetuated by the very people who should be exquisitely sensitive to the suffering of others. These people knew what it felt like to be ordered out of your home at gun point and forced to march into the night to unknown destinations or face execution on the spot. The people who displaced the Palestinians knew first hand what it means to watch your home in flames, to surrender everything dear to your heart at a moment's notice. Bulldozers leveled hundreds of villages, along with the remains of the village inhabitants, the old and the young. This was nothing new to the world.
Poland is a vast graveyard of the Jews of Europe. Israel is the final resting place of the massacred Palestinian people. A short distance from the memorial to the Jewish children lost to the holocaust in Europe there is a leveled parking lot. Under this parking lot is what's left of a once flourishing village and the bodies of men, women and children whose only crime was taking up needed space and not leaving graciously. This particular burial marker reads: "Public Parking". I've talked with Palestinians. I have yet to meet a Palestinian who hasn't lost a member of their family to the Israeli Shoah, nor a Palestinian who cannot name a relative or friend languishing under inhumane conditions in an Israeli prison. Time and time again, Israel is cited for human rights violations to no avail. On a recent trip to Israel, I visited the refugee camps inhabited by a people who have waited 52 years in these 'temporary' camps to go home. Every Palestinian grandparent can tell you the name of their village, their street, and where the olive trees were planted. Their grandchildren may never have been home, but they can tell you where their great-grandfather lies buried and where the village well stood. The press has fostered the portrait of the Palestinian terrorist. But, the victims who rose up against human indignity in the Warsaw Ghetto are called heroes. Those who lost their lives are called martyrs. The Palestinian who tosses a rock in desperation is a terrorist. Two years ago I drove through Palestine and watched intricate sprinkler systems watering lush green lawns of Zionist settlers in their new condominium complexes, surrounded by armed guards and barbed wire in the midst of a Palestinian community where there was not adequate water to drink and the surrounding fields were sandy and dry. University professor Moshe Zimmerman reported in the Jerusalem Post (April 30, 1995), "The [Jewish] children of Hebron are just like Hitler's youth."
We Jews are suing for restitution, lost wages, compensation for homes, land, slave labor and back wages in Europe. Am I a traitor of a Jew for supporting the right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their birthplace and compensation for what was taken that cannot be returned? The Jewish dead cannot be brought back to life and neither can the Palestinian massacred be resurrected. David Ben Gurion said, "Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves...politically, we are the aggressors and they defend themselves...The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country..." Palestine is a land that has been occupied and emptied of its people. It's cultural and physical landmarks have been obliterated and replaced by tidy Hebrew signs. The history of a people was the first thing eradicated by the occupiers. The history of the indigenous people has been all but eradicated as though they never existed. And all this has been hailed by the world as a miraculous act of G-d. We must recognize that Israel's existence is not even a question of legality so much as it is an illegal fait accompli realized through the use of force while supported by the Western powers. The UN missions directed at Israel in attempting to correct its violations of have thus far been futile.
In Hertzl's "The Jewish State," the father of Zionism said, "...We must investigate and -take possession of the new Jewish country by means of every modern expedient." I guess I agree with Ehud Barak (3 June 1998) when he said, "If I were a Palestinian, I'd also join a terror group." I'd go a step further perhaps. Rather than throwing little stones in desperation, I'd hurtle a boulder. Hopefully, somewhere deep inside, every Jew of conscience knows that this was no war; that this was not G-d's restitution of the holy land to it's rightful owners. We know that a human atrocity was and continues to be perpetuated against an innocent people who couldn't come up with the arms and money to defend themselves against the western powers bent upon their demise as a people. We cannot continue to say, "But what were we to do?" Zionism is not synonymous with Judaism. I wholly support the rally of the right of return of the Palestinian people.
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MUSLIMS OBLIGATION TO INVITE JEWS TO ISLAM
Converts To Islam
We are COMMANDED over seventeen times in the Holy Quran specifically to invite the people of the Book (Jews and Christians), to the path of Allah.
For example: “Say: O People of the Book! Come to an agreement between us and you: that we shall worship none but Allah, and that we shall ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for lords beside Allah. And if they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are they who have surrendered (unto Him).“ 3:64
“Say: "O People of the Book! Why reject ye the Signs of Allah, when Allah is himself witness to all ye do?" 3:98
“Say: "O ye People of the Book! Why obstruct ye those who believe, from the path of Allah, Seeking to make it crooked, while ye were yourselves witnesses (to Allah's Covenant)? but Allah is not unmindful of all that ye do." 3:99
Besides dozens of general orders to invite non-Muslims, Allah directs us to especially dialog with Jews and Christians.
Prophet Muhammad himself converted Jews to Islam
“It has been narrated on the authority of Abu Huraira who said: We were (sitting) in the mosque when the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) came to us and said: (Let us) go to the Jews. We went out with him until we came to them. The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) stood up and called out to them (saying): O ye assembly of Jews, accept Islam “Book 019, Number 4363
The Prophet Muhammad also coordinated with Jewish converts to Islam to bring more Jews to Allah: “The Prophet kept me (Al-Husayn ibn Sailam) in one of his rooms and invited the prominent Jewish personalities to visit him. He introduced Islam to them and urged them to have faith in God...They began to dispute and argue with him about the Truth. When he realized that they were not inclined to accept Islam, he put the question to them:
'What is the status of Al-Husayn ibn Sailam among you?'
(the Jewish elite responded) 'He is our leader, rabbi and our scholar’
(Then Muhammad said) 'If you come to know that he has accepted Islam, would you accept Islam also?'.
(the non-Muslim Jews said) 'God forbid! He would not accept Islam. May God protect him from accepting Islam,' (horrified).
At this point I (Al-Husayn ibn Sailam) came out in full view of them and announced: 'O assembly of Jews! Be conscious of God and accept what Muhammad has brought. By God, you certainly know that he is the Messenger of God and you can find prophecies about him and mention of his name and characteristics in your Torah. I for my part declare that he is the Messenger of God. I have faith in him and believe that he is true. I know him.' Volume 5, Book 58, Number 250: Narrated Anas bin Malik
Muhammad Sent Muslims to Convert Jews, and promised they will be Rewarded.
When Muhammad was sending him to Khaibar to encounter the Jews, to invite the Jews to Islam. He told him, "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of horses [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
Prophet Muhammad also sends Muadh to invite Jews to Islam
“When Allah's Apostle (p.b.u.h) sent Muadh to Yemen, he said (to him), "YOU are going to people of a (Divine) Book. First of all invite them to worship Allah (alone) and when they come to know Allah, inform them that Allah has enjoined on them, five prayers in every day and night; and if they start offering these prayers, inform them that Allah has enjoined on them, the Zakat. And it is to be taken from the rich amongst them and given to the poor amongst them; and if they obey you in that, take Zakat from them and avoid (don't take) the best property of the people as Zakat." Volume 2, Book 24, Number 537: Narrated Ibn Abbas
In conclusion, our disobedience, pessimism and lack of confidence towards inviting Jews to Islam have resulted in Israel being the spigot in the throat of the Muslim world.
Some Muslims make excuses for not converting Jews: Some Muslims even try to quote the Quran in order not to discuss religion with the Jews: “To you be your Way, and to me mine.” 109:6
What Muslims ignore is that the context of this verse is to rebuke atheists who try to lead Muslims astray, and has nothing to do with Jews, as we stated, there are numerous verses in the Holy Quran directly instructing us to bring these people of the Book to the Right Path.
Some Muslims say “Jews will never convert” or “it is too hard to convert a Jew”
The Trinitarian Christian group “Jews for Jesus” has converted 300,000 Jews. The Jews endured the Crusades and Holocaust at the hands of the Christians, and Christianity teaches that the Laws of Moses are like rags to be done away with, yet nearly half a million Jews accepted Christianity, so then can it be that hard to Convert a Jew?
Some Muslims say “a Jew might get angry if I try to convert him”
Allah tells us to speak kindly, in a pleasant manner, not attacking but instead teaching, what Jews get angry about is if you try to take away their Jewishness. Allah the all knowing foresaw this and in response, Allah tells us to say: “..'We believe in that which had been revealed to us and revealed to you, and our God and your God is One, and unto Him we surrender." Quran 29:46
One can be Jew by Race and Muslim by religion at the same time, furthermore, Islam is simply the completion of Judaism.
Some Muslims say “I am too busy, I don’t have time”
The Israelis who are afraid (due to ignorance) of Islam are knocking down Muslim homes, forcing Muslims to stand for hours at check points and arresting hundreds of Muslims. The time it will take to rebuild one of those demolished homes (and buildings) or stand at a check point or sit in captivity, locked in a Israeli prison is a massive amount of time. If we don't give Jews our time, they will take much more of our time, maybe our lives, they do have advanced weaponry and nuclear warheads. You do have a few minutes to dispel the myths Jews have towards Islam, right ???
Some Muslims say “kill all Jews!”
Allah says: "And there are, certainly, among the People of the Book (Jews and Christians), those who believe in Allah, and that which has been revealed to you and in that which has been revealed to them, humbling themselves before Allah: They will not sell the Revelations of Allah for a miserable gain! For them is a reward with their Lord, and Allah is swift in account." {Holy Quran 3:199}
Although the Law of “an eye for an eye” is mandatory, it is also an obligation to call Jews to Allah, so the eye does not get taken in the first place, a converted Jew is better than a killed Jew, a converted Jew would be a ellow brother or sister in Islam and will bring other Jews as well to Islam, when the former Rabbi and presumed Messiah Shabbetai Zevi converted to Islam, thousands of his Jewish followers converted to Islam with him. How many converts will a murdered Jew bring?
Make a 100% effort, follow the Commandments of Allah
There are only 13 Million Jews in the world, compared to the 1.3 Billion Muslims, for every 1 Jew, there are 100 Muslims, so converting ONE Jew to Islam would be as if you converted 100 non-Muslims to Islam and as Prophet Muhammad said, Allah will reward you greatly. Therefore, give it your 100% effort.
"Who is better in speech than one who invites to God, works righteousness and says, "I am of those who bow in Islam." 41:33
You are welcome to use the vast and scholarly material at http://www.Jews-for-Allah.org to distribute for free. A "how to guide" for converting Jews, the artilces are written by Jewish converts to Islam and natural born Muslims specifically to bring Jews to Islam.
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THE RULING ON TITLING THE JEWISH STATE WITH THE NAME OF ISRAEL
By Shaikh Rabee‘ bin Haadee al-Madkhalee
From al-Asaalah Magazine Issue 32 [Included in the book Al-Masjid al-Aqsa: The Path to its Freedom]
Translated by Yahya Ibrahim
There exists a strange trend that has become prevalent among (contemporary) Muslims. This (bewildering trend) is that they label the Jewish State – which has the Wrath of Allaah upon it – by the name Israel. And I have yet to see anyone rebuffing this serious phenomenon. [1] (This action) infringes upon the nobility and prestige of Ya’qoob, may prayers and salutations be upon him – one of the honored Messengers (of Allaah). He is the one whom Allaah praised in His Mighty Book along with his two noble forefathers Ibraheem and Ishaaq. Allaah said: “And remember Our slaves, Ibraaheem, Ishaaq, and Ya'qoob, (all) owners of strength (in worshipping Us) and (also) of religious understanding. Verily, We did choose them by granting them (a good thing, i.e.) the remembrance of the home (in the Hereafter). And they are with Us, verily, of the chosen and the best!” [Surah Saad: 45-47]
Therefore this is the position of Ya‘qoob, the honored Messenger of Allaah in Islaam. How then can he be connected to the Jews and they to him? Many Muslims mention in degradation the name (Israel) while seeking to show their disdain for this (Jewish) State by saying for example: ‘Israel did this!’ or ‘Israel has done this or that!’ or ‘is going to do this!’
In my opinion using (this noble name – Israel – in that context) is a despicable matter. It is not permissible for this term to exist amongst the (vernacular of the) Muslims, let alone for it to be the apparent norm, which is circulated amongst them without any disdain whatsoever!
Having said that, I here put forth (to you) a question and then furnish you with its answer.
Question: Is it permissible to title the vile, disbelieving Jewish State by the name Israel or the Israeli State? Further, can we direct statements of dispraising vilification and criticism towards it while articulating the name Israel?
Answer: The answer simply is that it is not permissible.
Surely the Jews have executed an immense deception (of public opinion) by making their issue of seeking the establishment of a state in the very heart of the Muslim lands as being a religious and legal claim of inheritance of the bequeath of the (Prophets) Ibraaheem and Israa’eel (to them).
There deceptive stratagem (went a step further) by titling their Zionist State – The State of Israel!
I am not saying that their plot has just succeeded in convincing the layman Muslim masses. Rather it has duped even the educated ones from among them! So they (the Muslims) have begun to uniformly use the title ‘Israeli State’ (when referring to the Jewish state). Further, they have begun using the term Israel in the media, newspapers, magazines and periodicals on a daily basis in all forms of discussion – information purposes of just information or in the context of dispraise and vilification. All of this has taken place in the midst of the Muslims. Tragically, we do not hear a word of refutation (concerning this action)!
Allaah has cursed the Jews in the Qur’aan on numerous occasions, informing us of His Anger towards them. But (whenever He mentions them) it is (always) with the term Al-Yahood (The Jews) or with the phrase ‘Those who disbelieved from Bani Israel – Children of Israel.’ He never referred to them as Israel. Israel is the (another) name of the noble Messenger Ya‘qoob the son of the honored Ishaaq, the Noble Prophet of Allaah. Ishaaq is the son of the honored Ibraaheem, the Khaleel (close friend of) Allaah.
(The Jews of today) have no religious attachment to the Prophet of Allaah, Israel (Ya‘qoob) or Ibraaheem, the Khaleel of Allaah. They also do not possess any type of religious birthright particular to them. Rather the true birthright is solely for those of faith. Allaah says in Surah Aali ‘Imraan: “Verily those among mankind who have the best claim to Ibraaheem are those who followed him, and this Prophet (Muhammad) and those who have believed (Muslims). And Allaah is the Walee (Protector) of the Believers.” [Surah Aali ‘Imraan: 68]
And He said while absolving His Khaleel, Ibraaheem from the Jews, Christians and polytheists: “Ibraaheem was neither a Jew nor a Christian, rather he was a true Muslim, worshipping none but Allaah alone. And he was not from the polytheists“ [Surah Aali ‘Imraan: 67]
No Muslim rejects the assertion that the Jews are from the descendants of Ibraaheem and Israel. At the same time Muslims are absolutely certain that the Jews are the enemies of Allaah, His Messengers (their forefathers) among whom is Muhammad, Ibraaheem and Israel. The Muslims also (understand) clearly that there is no inheritance from the Prophets to their adversaries from among the disbelievers; whether the adversaries are Jews, Christians or the pagans from the Arabs or non-Arabs.
In addition to this, (we affirm) that those who are closest to Ibraaheem and the rest of the Prophets are the Muslims – who believe in them, love and honor them, and believe in that which was revealed to them in the Divine Books and Scriptures and consider that to be from among the fundamentals of the their Religion. That is the inheritance that they have received (Tawheed). As such they are those who have the most right and claim to them (the Prophets as their forefathers).
The earth is solely for Allaah and (He grants it) to His servants who believe in Him and His honored and chosen Messengers. Allaah says: “And indeed We have written in the Zaboor (Psalms) [i.e. all the revealed Holy Books:: the Torah, Injeel and Qur'aan] after (We had already written in) Al-Lawh al-Mahfoodh (Preserved Tablet), that My righteous slaves shall inherit the land. Verily, in this (Qur'aan) there is a plain Message for people who truly worship Allaah. And We have sent you (O Muhammad) not but as a mercy for all that exists.” [Surah Al-Anbiyaa: 105-107]
Thus, the enemies of the Prophets – especially the Jews – shall not be given inheritance of the earth during their worldly life and they shall face a grievous everlasting punishment in the Eternal Fire in the next life.
Baffling indeed is the condition of many Muslims who have succumbed to the false claim of the Jews regarding their so-called birthright claim to the land of Palestine and their search for Sulaimaan’s (Solomon’s) Temple of whom they disbelieve in (along with the other Messengers) and defame with their lies and fabrications. Surely they are the greatest enemies of Sulaimaan and the other Prophets that were sent to the Children of Israel.
Allaah (swt) says: “And indeed, We gave Moses the Book and followed him up with a succession of Messengers. And We gave Jesus, the son of Maryam, clear signs and supported him with Rooh-ul-Qudus (the angel Jibreel). Is it that whenever there came to you a Messenger with what you yourselves desired not, you grew arrogant? Some, you disbelieved and some, you killed.” [Surah Al-Baqarah: 87]
Therefore, how then can it be befitting for the Muslims to accept this false claim – acceptance through silent concurrence if not through verbal agreement? How can they address them (the Jews) with the title of Israel and the phrase Israeli State?
Surely – by Allaah – there shall be a day for the people of true belief (to have retribution from the Yahood). This has been explicitly established by Muhammad, the Messengers and their scriptures, the Awliyaa (The Pious Friends of) Allaah and the Awliyaa of His Prophets and Messengers.
Therefore, let the Muslims prepare themselves (for the day of retribution) by focusing on their belief and methodology. Taking them from the Book of their Lord, the Sunnah of their Prophet, the traditional practice of the Messenger and his Companions and those Taabi‘een who followed their way of righteousness and the scholars of true guidance and Religion who came after them. Surely this is the greatest means of attaining (and ensuring Divine) victory for them over their enemies. With this they shall possess their true glory, happiness and honor in this life and in the next.
As well (the Muslims) are to distance themselves from (being overcome by their) Haawaa (vain and evil desires), innovations and fanatical partisanship towards that which is (known to be) falsehood and its adherents.
Furthermore, the Muslims should prepare materially (for this day) with urgency and in all seriousness by increasing their cache of (advanced) weaponry in all of its varying forms and through (correct socioeconomic and political) consciousness and military training as Allaah and His Messenger have ordered. Allaah says: “And make ready against them all you can of power, including steeds of war (tanks, planes, missiles, artillery, etc.) to threaten the enemy of Allaah and your enemy.” [Surah Al-Anfaal: 60]
The word ‘power’ in this passage refers to every type of force and might that can be utilized to intimidate the adversary – every type of available weapon.
The Prophet has stated: “Surely the projectiles are the force (and might). Surely, the projectiles are the force and might. Surely the projectiles are the force and might.” [2]
Any weapon that is launched and hurled into the air is to be considered a projectile. Every effort should be made to attain these projectiles – manufacturing them, purchasing them or through other means.
I was astonished once again at the unrestricted use of the name of this honored, noble Prophet (Israel) for this despicable state - a nation of hostility and slander. How can it be assessed to be or described in dispraise to be “Israel?” Or, the State of “Israel?”
It is as though there is the implication that the expansively rich Arabic language, the language of Islaam, is at a loss for a term to properly address them with so they (Muslims) are compelled to use this name.
Have they (the Muslims) ever stopped to think about the matter insightfully? Have they thought about whether this action is pleasing to Allaah and His Messenger?
Would this action be pleasing to the Prophet of Allaah, Israel? Or, would he consider it defamatory to him if he were alive today?
Do the Muslims not realize that the defamation that they direct towards these Jews whilst using this name (in actuality is a form of) focusing the defamation towards him (as well)?
Allaah’s Messenger said (describing a similar occurrence): “Do you not wonder at how Allaah (protects me and at the same time) redirects from me the curses, dispraise and abuses of the Quraish? They abuse Mudhammama [3] while I am Muhammad (and not Mudhammama)!” [4]
So how can you indirectly focus your dispraise, curses and criticisms that are befitting of only the enemies of Allaah towards an honored, illustrious Prophet from among the Prophets of Allaah and one of His Messengers and His Chosen?
If someone were to say: “But it is possible to find this statement in the Torah?”
We would reply to them: It is not unlikely that is from the distortions or alterations performed by the People of the Book to the Torah. Allaah has bore witness against them in this regard. They changed the scripture with their hands and then claimed that (what they have changed) is from Allaah. In fact, in (their) corrupted (versions of the) Torah they have accused the Prophets of committing disbelief and (all sorts of blasphemous) repulsive qualities (and actions)!
Thus, how can someone use their books in the state (of perversion) that they are presently in as a proof?
We ask Allaah to guide and direct all the Muslims to that, which brings success (in this life and the next) by way of what He loves and of what pleases Him of statements and actions. Surely our Lord is the Hearer of Supplications.
Footnotes:
[1] We have heard our Shaykh Muhammad Naasir-ud-Deen al-Albaanee (rahimahullaah) repeatedly and forcefully warn and rebuff this phenomenon. Refer to al-Asaalah.
[2] Reported by Imaam Muslim in his Saheeh.
[3] Mudhammama means “The blameworthy one.” It was a term the Quraish used to defame the Prophet with. It is a play on the name Muhammad – “The praiseworthy one.”
[4] Reported by Al-Bukhaaree in his Saheeh (Hadeeth #3533)
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EXPLAINING THE HADITH OF BATTLING THE JEWS
By Shaikh ‘Alee Hasan Al-Halabee
From Al-Asaalah Magazine, Issue 30 (pg. 7-8)
Translated by Yahya Ibrahim
Produced by: al-manhaj.com
From the things that the hearts of the believers have been assured and their intellects have become certain of is that the decrepit nation in which the scattered Jews of the world were gathered unrightfully and in oppression – The state of Israel - shall cease and be erased from existence.
We do not declare a timeframe when this shall take place as some emotionally charged individuals state without any right (evidence to support their outlandish claims).
The time may be at hand in their era for that is not difficult for Allaah. Or it may come sooner for surely Allaah says: “And none can know the (magnitude and power of the) armies of your Lord except He.” [Surah Al-Mudaththir: 31]
Surely Allaah is the All knowing and the All Aware.
And it is maybe for this reason (rhetoric claiming the time when the Jewish oppression shall cease) that one of the icons of Palestinian Politics said: “Verily our peace with the Jews is one of a political nature not that of ‘Aqeedah (Belief and creed).”
Indeed the authentic Prophetic narrations are abundantly clear that the big battle is inevitably coming and that the Word of Tawheed will be victorious without a doubt (in defeating the) Jews - leaders and subjects.
The two great Scholars of Hadeeth, ash-Shaikhaan (Imaams Al-Bukhaaree and Muslim) have narrated on the authority of ‘Abdullaah bin ‘Umar (radyAllaahu ‘anhu), that the Messenger of Allaah said: “You will battle the Jews until one of them will hide behind a rock. (The rock) will say: ‘O ‘Abdullaah (Worshiping slave of Allaah)! Behind me hides a Jew come and slay him.’”
The two Shaikhs have also narrated on the authority of Abu Hurairah (radyAllaahu ‘anhu) that Allaah’s Messenger (sallAllaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said: “The Hour will not be established until the Muslims battle the Jews. The Muslims will battle them to the point where the Jew will hide behind a rock and a tree. So the rock - or the tree - will say: ‘O Muslim! O ‘Abdullaah (Worshiping slave of Allaah)! Behind me hides a Jew come and slay him.’ Except for al-Gharqad [1] (which shall remain silent) for it is a Jewish tree.”
These are the two most authentic narrations regarding this issue. They make clear the inevitability of the upcoming battle. The narrations have a two pronged effect. On one hand they portray the reality of the situation while at the same time they declare unambiguously that the victory shall be for Muslims.
With the Praise of Allaah and his Tawfeeq (inspired guidance) the issue is clear and is not in need of excessive commentary or in need of thorough explanation.
And in these two texts are numerous Manhaj implications. There are two extremely significant points that I here address:
First: The first point is connected to the first part (of the narrations), in which he (sallAllaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) says to his Companions: “You will battle….” This is a clear indication that the future will be for Islaam only by the permission of Allaah and only in accordance to the Manhaj (methodology) of the pious predecessors (Salaf as-Saalih). [2]
Second: The second point is connected to the conclusion (of the narrations), in which he (sallAllaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) says narrating the words of the tree and rock: “O Muslim! O ‘Abdullaah!” In this statement we see that the Manhaj of educational nurturing and rectification that is built upon the establishment and realization of Tawheed and servitude is the catalyst for the establishment of the Laws of Allaah on earth and in implementing an Islamic life modeling the Prophetic methodology. [3]
It is important to note that there are numerous unfounded narrations that are Da‘eef or declared weak. They are popular and are commonly circulated among all levels of society – the elite as well as the commoners. As such, it is our obligation to discuss them and indicate their erroneousness.
It has been narrated by Sa’ad in his Tabaqaat (422/7) and Al-Bazaar in his Musnad (137/4 – of az-Zawaaid) and Ibn Abee ‘Aasim in Al-Aahaad wal-Mathaani (2458) and others on the authority of Nuhaik bin Surayim As-Sakooni that the Prophet (sallAllaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said: “You will indeed battle the Mushrikeen (polytheist disbelievers) until the last of you fight the Dajjaal at a river in Jordan you will be on the east of it and they will be to the west of it.”
And the narrator said: “And I don’t know where Jordan will be on earth at that time.”
Its chain of narration is weak because in it is Muhammad bin Abaan Al Qurashy and Abu Daawood has declared him weak as did Ibn Ma‘een and Al-Bukhaaree and others.
Our Shaikh, al-‘Allaamah, al-Imaam, the knowledgeable ocean Abu ‘Abdir-Rahman Muhammad Naasir-ud-deen Al-Albaanee, may Allaah envelop him with His Divine Mercy, has recorded this hadeeth – showing its sources with detail – in his wondrous book, Silsilat-ul-ahadeeth ad-Da‘eefah (The Collection of Weak Hadeeths). Therein he has made clear its weakness. He (rahimahullaah) said: “I have written this because of what has increased in the inquiries about it with regards to the Jews taking over the West bank from Jordan in the first of June of the year 1967. May Allaah curse them and humiliate them and purify the country from them and from their helpers.”
I say: Then I say Ameen in reiterating his du‘aa asking Allaah to show him mercy. I make it abundantly clear that the reason for authoring this article is due to what the Jews have placed upon our Muslim brothers in occupied Palestine. The murder, destitution and corruption have renewed in the last three months. Surely there is no avail or release from difficulty except with and from Allaah.
Footnotes:
[1] This is a type of thorny tree, which is known to them.
[2] Look into the book Basaa’ir Dhawi ash-Sharaf bi Sharhi Marwiyyaat-is-Salaf by our brother Shaikh Saleem Al Hilaalee (pg. 151-165).
[3] Look also into Madaarij-ul ‘Uboodiyyah min Hadyi Khair-il-Bariyyah (pg. 145-153) by our brother Shaikh Saleem al-Hilaalee.
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