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Israel and the Palestinians: ideological backgrounds (Islam)

14/12/2023 • comments off

The battle between Israel and Palestinians is becoming increasingly intense. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is about land and borders, about Jerusalem and about the return of Palestinian refugees. In Israeli society and politics as well as among Palestinians and Arab countries, there are groups that do not wish others to have their own state. This position often arises from religious-ideological motives. In Israel, these groups form a minority. However, this is different on the Palestinian side.

Israel and the Palestinians (Islam): ideological backgrounds

  • The beating heart of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians
  • Fundamentalist Islam
  • Jesus, Moses and Mohammed
  • Islam has no separation of church and state
  • Dhimmie: Jews and Christians are Dhimmies
  • Muslims: ‘The best people’
  • The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem
  • Jihad against Israel
  • Hamas Charter
  • Temporary files: ‘the armistice of Hudaybiyyah’
  • The Hamas charter is not a dead letter
  • Lying and deception and the taqiyyah principle
  • Sermons in the Middle East
  • Mickey Mouse learns to hate Israel
  • Death cult
  • Little reason for optimism

 

The beating heart of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians

In this conflict, decisions should not simply be made regarding national borders, the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, making it a matter of give and take, making compromises and compromising. No, that is just the ‘political exterior’ as presented in the media. If we look further, we see that the heart of the conflict is religious-ideological. In the secularized West, people often find it difficult to relate to people and societies that are guided by religious motives. It is hard to imagine that other people are part of a society where religion plays a dominant role and that they look at reality through a religious-ideological lens.

Religion

In the West, the Great Narratives, the three great ideologies of socialism, confessionalism and liberalism, are defunct. To quote former Prime Minister Wim Kok, we have shaken off our ideological feathers and in this postmodern, post-ideological era we are creating our own story, we are crafting our own personal worldview. Ideology has made way for materialism and hedonism: economics and ‘having fun’ are things that we often revolve around. Not so in the Middle East, where religion and faith are strong driving forces and determine people’s views regarding the organization of society, interpersonal relationships and people. ‘Only when you know it will you see it’, to quote Johan Cruyff.

Fundamentalism: ,A religious attitude that reduces religion to a political ideology.,(1)

 

The Al-Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem / Source: Rwayne307, Pixabay

Fundamentalist Islam

In this conflict we are dealing with fundamentalist Islam, where there is hardly any distinction between politics and religion. It is about slavishly following what is seen as the will of Allah: Islamic world domination. The followers of political Islam are willing to die and achieve their goals by violence. Sowing death and destruction for the greater honor and glory of Allah is justified. Israel has been Islamic territory since it was conquered by Islamic forces in the 7th century and will – Allah willing – one day be reconquered, just like in the time of the Crusaders. After that, the rest of the world will be brought under Islamic rule.

The connection between Islamic Orthodox religiosity and politics is succinctly expressed in a statement that, according to the Arabist Bernard Lewis, is often quoted by Muslim writers, sometimes as an ancient Persian tradition and other times as the words of the prophet Mohammed: ,Islam [or religion] and government are twin brothers. One cannot prosper without the other. Islam is the foundation and government is the defender. What has no foundation collapses. What is not defended falls.,( 2) Islam has no separation between church and state, that is a Western concept.

Jesus, Moses and Mohammed

According to Lewis, the absence of ‘its own secularism’ in Islamic culture and the strong rejection of what they consider a Western invention stems from a number of profound differences between Islamic and Judeo-Christian culture. For example, the founding story of Christianity is diametrically opposed to that of Islam. Jesus was humiliated and mocked, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and buried and his followers were persecuted for centuries until the Edict of Milan in the year 313 brought freedom of faith. The leader of the Israelites, Moses, was also not a hero or conqueror from a human point of view. He wandered through the desert with the people for 40 years before they were finally allowed to enter the Promised Land. However, God told Moses to stay behind and he only got to see a glimpse of it.

Muhammad was a statesman and prophet

Muhammad, on the other hand, was during his lifetime – measured by human standards – a very successful man who achieved victory after victory, founded his own state and as a statesman legislated and levied taxes, administered justice as a judge, as a commander and warrior, assembled armies and waged wars and the ‘Pax Islam’. That is to say, the ‘peace of Islam’: unbelievers had to convert on pain of death, ‘people of the Book’ (Christians and Jews) had to either convert or submit to Islam in all humility and submission and a special pay extra tax, the jizya . Muhammad was a statesman who legislated and a prophet who spoke the words of God. His words and actions were recorded and sanctioned by Islamic scholars and further elaborated by later generations of scholars into what is now called the sacred law, or Sharia (or Sharia).(3)

Islam has no separation of church and state

Muhammad was a religious, political and military leader; he was a statesman, legislator, judge and military leader. No trias politica (separation of powers) and no separation of church and state, as expressed six centuries earlier in the winged words of Jesus: ,Render to the emperor the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s., (Mark 12:17) After Muhammad’s death, his functions were taken over by his successors or deputies: the caliphs. According to Islam, there is no conceivable human legislative power and there is only one law for all believers: the Sharia, the sacred law of Allah, obtained through revelation and elaborated by the scribes in the various Islamic legal schools. The state exists for the purpose of spreading Islam. Church (Islam/faith) and state are one; inseparably linked and God is at its head and Mohammed as his representative on earth. An old metaphor makes this clear: ,Islam, the prince and the people are like a tent, the tent pole, the guy ropes and the pegs. The tent is Islam, the tent pole is the prince, the guy ropes and the pegs are the people .No part can exist without the other.”(4)

Dhimmie: Jews and Christians are Dhimmies

Orthodox Islam divides the world into two areas:

  • the dar al-Islam (‘the house of Islam’, i.e. all countries that are under or have ever been under Islamic rule); and
  • the dar al-harb (‘the house of war’, i.e. the non-Muslim lands), which area is destined to be brought under Islamic rule.

 

Dar al-harb

It is theologically impossible for a country once under Islamic rule to be returned to its pre-Islamic state and become part of the Dar al-Harb again. Viewed in this way, the Land of Israel belongs to Islam. Jews and Christians are only allowed to live there as Dhimmis. The word dhimmi is used in Sharia to denote a Jew or Christian who has recognized the superiority of Islam and submissively submits to the Islamic supreme authority. They are given certain religious freedoms, but, as mentioned, they have to pay an extra tax ( jizya ) and endure all kinds of restrictions and discriminatory regulations. Resistance to this is punishable by death. There is only one way to escape this inferior status, namely to convert to Islam. Entire peoples have done this over the centuries since Islam began its campaign of conquest.(5)

Opened Arabic Quran / Source: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons (PD)

Muslims: ‘The best people’

In Islamic theology there are three categories of people:

  1. Muslims
  2. ‘people of the book’; and
  3. unbelievers.

The Qur’an says in Sura 3:110 that Muslims are ,the best people raised up for mankind; you enjoin what is good, forbid what is evil, and believe in God., People or peoples of the book are Jews and Christians who, according to Islam, have had a previous revelation from God, the Jews the Tanakh and the Christians the New Testament, but they have deliberately corrupted this. Muhammad is the last prophet and messenger, the ‘Seal of the Prophets’, who is said to have received the final revelation from God himself. Jews and Christians may, as mentioned, as peoples of the book, keep their religion, but they certainly do not have the same rights as a Muslim. In addition to paying the jizya , they are bound by the ‘Treaty of Omar’, which contains all kinds of humiliating provisions, such as:

  • not openly practicing their religion;
  • not talking loudly in church services or around Muslims;
  • not allowed to carry weapons;
  • not allowed to ride a horse, but allowed to ride a donkey;
  • not allowed to build new churches or maintain them.

And then there are the unbelievers, the lowest category in the hierarchy. They must convert to Islam and if they refuse, they are killed. They have no other choice.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Amin (Haj) al-Husseini visits Hitler / Source: Heinrich Hoffmann, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA-3.0)

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem

The rise of radical (political) Islam in the occupied territories did not occur in recent years, but started in the first half of the last century. It cannot therefore be presented as a response to Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank (Samaria and Judea) since 1967. In the early 1930s, at the instigation of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Amin (Haj) al-Husseini already founded terrorist groups, such as the terrorist group the Holy War for the Holy Land. After the outbreak of the Arab Revolt in 1936, these groups were brought under the umbrella of a central organization called the Arab Higher Committee , over which the Grand Mufti held sway.

Jihad against Israel

The recently released book ‘From Jew hatred to suicide terrorism ~ Islamization of European anti-Semitism in the Middle East’ by Dr. Hans Jansen (not to be confused with the Arabist Hans Jansen) states the following about the Arab uprising that took place in 1936. broke out: ,The ‘Arab revolution’ was against the British and Jewish occupation of Palestine: pogroms broke out in several cities and towns in Palestine. This uprising was not an anti-colonial independence revolution against Great Britain, as the PLO in particular always claims. This revolutionaries were not future secular statesmen, but religious leaders, who declared a holy war to liberate the Holy Land of Islam primarily from the Jews. (…) The religion, Islam, was the unshakable foundation of this Arab revolution. They wanted the Muslims in Palestine to be in control again and for Jews and Christians to be given dhimi status as in past centuries, since Islam conquered Palestine at the end of the seventh century., (p. 111).

Hamas Charter

Hamas was founded in 1987. The Muslim Brotherhood, from which Hamas emerged, managed to gain many followers in the preceding decades by increasing its influence in the Palestinian mosques and by having new mosques built itself. The group was founded in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna and the movement stood for strict observance of the Koran and the establishment of an Islamic state according to the teachings and life of Prophet Mohammed.

The ‘fighters’ of Hamas / Source: Thephotostrand, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-2.0)

Goal of Hamas
The goal of Hamas, which won the last parliamentary elections in January 2006 with flying colors and took power in the Gaza Strip by force a year later, is the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state in the entire area between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. In 638, the city of Jerusalem fell to the Islamic forces of the second Caliph of the Arab Empire, Omar ibn al-Khattab, and since then the area has been under Islamic control. In the eyes of Hamas, this will remain the case until the Day of Resurrection. No people on earth and no treaty in the world can change that. Article 15 of the Hamas Charter clearly states what to do to liberate Palestine from the, in their view, abhorred Jews who have taken over this territory that belongs to Islam: ,If our enemies appropriate part of Islamic territory , then jihad becomes a binding obligation for every Muslim. Faced with the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, raising the banner of jihad is an obligation. […] I swear by the one who places the soul of Mohammed in His hands I will indeed go to war in the cause of Allah! I will attack and kill, attack and kill.,

Temporary files: ‘the armistice of Hudaybiyyah’

Only temporary treaties may be concluded with the enemy for strategic reasons; if the enemy is too strong and the Islamic fighters need a breather, it is allowed. This period of rest can be used to regroup and rearm. After signing the Oslo Accords in 1993, Arafat, at a secret meeting, compared these accords to the truce that Muhammad had agreed with the unbelieving tribes of Quraish in Medina in the year 628. At that time Muhammad was powerless to defeat them. The armistice was concluded for a period of 10 years, but after about two years he had a large and well-trained army. He then broke the truce, went to war and killed the Quraish. This agreement is known as ‘the Truce of Hudaybiyyah’ and is a model for how Muslims should conclude treaties.

Temporary agreements on a ceasefire

In the book ‘Unlimited War’, Peter Scholl-Latour writes about the Hamas ceasefires: ,The offer of a ceasefire [also called ‘hudna’], which many Western commentators already saw as an important concession, corresponded precisely to a clear directive, with a prescription from the Sharia: temporary agreements on a truce may be made with the ‘People of the Book’ [Jews and Christians] if they are of benefit to the right believers, and as long as the opponent is unequivocally superior. Reconciliation is allowed never mention such a concession.,(6)

The Hamas charter is not a dead letter

The charter is not a dead letter. Hamas Leader Khaled Mashal said in so many words on October 12, 2008 on the Al-Jazeera TV channel that he views the fight against Israel as a prelude to Islamic world domination.(7) This Khaled Mashal emphasized in 2006 that Hamas will never change its goals: “Hamas has a vision. Hamas has a plan. Hamas can handle the political struggle, just as it controlled the military struggle, but in a different language, with different tools, and those tools do not include recognizing Israel.” No, Israel must be wiped off the map: ,Before Israel dies, it must be humiliated and dishonored. If Allah wills, then before they die, they will suffer humiliation and dishonor every day. If Allah wills, we will make them lose their sight, make them lose their minds.,(8)

Lying and deception and the taqiyyah principle

In some situations it is lawful to lie according to Sharia. In the classic manual of Islamic law ‘Reliance of the traveler’ by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri, it is stated that it is forbidden to lie. In fact, it is one of the worst and most detestable sins. However, in certain cases – if you want to achieve a certain goal – it is allowed to lie. In a war situation it is permissible to lie, although it is more advisable to mislead the enemy by using words that mislead him.(9) This double agenda tactic is sometimes called the taqiyyah principle: in Islam people lie if it is good for Islam.

Lie

Al-Ghazali (1059-1111), one of Islam’s most important theologians, summarizes the principle of taqiyyah as follows: ,Know that the lie in itself is not wrong. When a lie is the only way to achieve a good result (10) All this is based on Sura 3:54: ,’And they devised a deceit, and Allah devised a deceit; and Allah is the best deceiver.”(11) Islam, the only religion among all world religions, celebrates that its God is a deceiver, liar and deceiver.

Arafat / Source: World Economic Forum – Remy Steinegger, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA-2.0)

Arafat was a master of deception
The leader of the Palestinians, Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004, excelled in misleading his Israeli and Western interlocutors. He was very good at feigning willingness and giving the impression that he was pursuing (lasting) peace. Apparently he took an increasingly moderate position and to the outside world he appeared to be a serious partner in the peace process. Who is not familiar with the images of then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin shaking hands with Yasser Arafat in Washington in 1993, with American President Bill Clinton smiling between them. Less than a year later, after signing the Gaza Jericho Agreement, Arafat told Muslims in a mosque in Johannesburg that the Jihad against Israel would continue.(12) He also compared the Oslo Accords to the Hudabiyyah ceasefire and he never PLO charter calling for the destruction of the State of Israel. This was agreed in the context of the peace negotiations, the Oslo Accords. In an interview with the Jordanian newspaper Al-Arab on April 22, 2004, PLO Minister Farouk Kaddoumi said that the PLO Charter would never be amended on that point. This impression was created in the 1990s – in the euphoria of Oslo. Deception: It is religiously sanctioned in times of war. And war, jihad, that is the battle that has been waged against Israel for decades and will continue until it disappears from the map.

Pistol and olive branch
Arafat’s well-known double agenda is well expressed in the image of Arafat with a pistol in one hand and an olive branch in the other, when he gave his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly in 1974 . “Don’t drop that olive branch,” he said menacingly.

 

Sermons in the Middle East

It is not only members of Hamas and other radical groups who are calling for jihad against Israel these days. In preparation for the above-mentioned book, Jansen read dozens of sermons by leading imams from the Middle East, which they recited on television and in the mosque in the years 2000-2005. The following themes keep recurring:

  • The Jews (both in Israel and elsewhere in the world) are archenemies of Allah who conspire with Satan to first conquer the Middle East and then subjugate the entire world.
  • Jews who resist Allah are cursed by Allah and turned into monkeys and pigs by Him.
  • Conducting peace talks with the Zionist entity is a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.
  • Time and again there are calls to reconquer all of Palestine and destroy the Jews.
  • The education of children to martyrdom and jihad is the will of Allah.
  • The sixth recurring theme in the sermons is that the struggle of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank must be a holy war.(13)

 

Mickey Mouse learns to hate Israel

Jansen describes in his book that politicians from the Palestinian Authority (PA) instruct spiritual leaders to deliver hate speeches against Israel. In mosques in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, there are incessant calls to die as a martyr in the fight against Israel.(14) And Palestinian schoolbooks are preparing a new generation for jihad.(15) Ironically, against a country that is on the cards from these schoolbooks do not appear: Israel. Children are also prepared for the holy war against Israel on television. On YouTube you can see an example of a television recording in which Mickey Mouse promotes children to hate Israel and presents them with Islamic supremacy over the world. It is ironic that the Arab cleric Muhammad Al-Munajid recently called for Mickey Mouse to be killed, but he probably did not mean the vindictive Palestinian television mouse. But that’s besides the point.

Death cult

Martyrdom is promoted at school and at summer camps children receive military and religious-ideological training in preparation for the jihad against Israel. Dying as a shahid (martyr) is the guarantee of immediate admission to paradise. A whole new generation of Palestinians is being raised with this death cult, in which dying for Allah and making as many victims as possible is seen as the highest good. There are also fathers and mothers who tell their offspring that martyrdom is a desirable goal and that dying in the jihad against Israel is preferable to living. Some parents help their children prepare for suicide. In 2002, Umm Nidal Farhat was filmed helping her son Muhammad Farhat put on an explosive belt at home just before he left to carry out a suicide operation in Israel.(16) In 2002, the world was also surprised with the suicide baby : after the Israeli army searched the home of a Hamas member, a photo of a baby dressed as a suicide bomber was found (see image).

Little reason for optimism

The Middle East conflict is a thoroughly religious-ideological conflict. Hamas’s religious-ideological views offer little prospect for a peaceful solution to the conflict. Also, the resulting death cult, in which people who blow themselves up are portrayed as heroes and role models for the youth, offers no reason for optimism and hope. How can a generation that grows up with the idea that it is okay to kill and maim Jews by carrying out an attack or blowing yourself up achieve peace?

Nuts

  • (1) Wim Hoogendijk: Denouement ~ Why there is still no peace between Israel and the Palestinians; Near East Ministry, Voorthuizen, 2001, p. 34.
  • (2) Bernard Lewis: The Middle East ~ 2000 years of cultural and political history; De Boekerij, Amsterdam, 2002, 3rd edition, p. 152.
  • (3) Bernard Lewis: What went wrong? ~ Relations between the West and the Middle East; De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam, Antwerp, 2002, p. 110-111.
  • (4) Ibid, p. 111.
  • (5) One reads: Bat Ye’or: The decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam ~ From jihad to dhimmitude; Associated University Press, London, 4th edition 2002.
  • (6) Peter Scholl-Latour, Unlimited War, De Arbeiderspers, 2003.
  • (7) http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1929.htm?auth=01583d6eece89ac07f9b60c2973824b5
  • (8) http://www.trouw.nl/opinie/letter-en-geest/article1279871.ece
  • (9) Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri, Reliance of the traveler, a classic manual of Islamic sacred law,1994, p. 744-745.
  • (10) Sam van Rooy and Wim van Rooy (eds.): Islam – Critical essays on a political religion, ASP nv, second edition, November 2010, p.540.
  • (11) Often this passage is mistranslated to soften its true meaning. Read: http://www.wikiislam.net/wiki/Allah_the_Best_Deceiver#Qur.27an_3:54_2 (last consulted on November 14, 2011)
  • (12) http://www.refdag.nl/artikelen/123253/Arafat+de+revolutionair+die+faalde.html
  • (13) Hans Jansen, From Jew-hatred to suicide terrorism ~ Islamization of European anti-Semitism in the Middle East; Groen Publishers, Heerenveen, 2006, p. 675-728.
  • (14) Ibid, p. 714-716.
  • (15) Hans Jansen, Education of Palestinian authorities encourages holy war against Israel; Chai press, Nijkerk, nd.
  • (16) Ibid, p.92.

 

read more

  • In Islam, apostasy is punishable by death
  • H. Jansen: Islam for pigs, monkeys, donkeys and other animals
  • Hans Jansen: Reading the Quran yourself (about Islam and the Quran)
  • Position and rights of women in Islam: an exploration
  • Christians in Gaza persecuted by fundamentalist Muslims
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