BEHOLD THE BEAST
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Islam Reviewed
14 - ISLAM AND THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICTContrary to what many believe, the origin of the Arab-Israeli conflict is
neither the birth of the Jewish nation in 1948 nor the Palestinian issue.
They appear to be real issues, but the conflict is really cultural and
religious, and as such is spiritual - demonic and divine.
The root causes of the struggle can be traced back to Muhammad's
time in Medina, about one thousand four hundred years ago.1 When
Muhammad arrived in Medina in 622 AD, there were three prominent
Jewish communities, namely, Banu Qainuga, Banu Nadhir and Banu
Quraizah. At first Muhammad tried to lure them into Islam by making
some concessions to their religious customs, just the way he did for the
pagans of Mecca. For instance, he commanded Muslims to turn their
faces towards Jerusalem when praying. He even adopted the Jewish day
of atonement and his "revelations" were favorably disposed towards
them.
But Muhammad's attempts to win over the Jews proved abortive as
they constantly exposed his ignorance of scripture, pointing out his
deviations and distortions with bitter scorn. The Medinat suras that
correspond to this period paint a vivid picture of Jewish accusations and
Muhammad's counter accusations.
That the Jews slandered Muhammad and threatened to destroy his
religious authority cannot be questioned. But this was not because
Muhammad was an Arabian "prophet." They did the same to their own
and even to Jesus. They might even have told Muhammad that they
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1To a Westerner, this is quite a long time. But to an Easterner, it is like yesterday.
Orientalists place a high premium on history. They draw historical parallels to
events of thousands of years ago to prove a point. For instance, Saddam Hussein
once called his war with Iran "Qadisiyyat Saddam", a reference to the Arab Jihad
against Persia (Iran) fought nearly 1350 years ago.
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would kill him the way they killed Jesus. A boast that Muhammad
countered with sura 4:157.
In the face of this perceived Jewish threat, Muhammad first
unleashed some "revelations" against them:
"Strongest among men in enmity to the believers (Muslims) will
thou find the Jews and pagans . . ." (Sura 5:85).
Though they had previously been accorded the title of "ahl ul-kitab,"
meaning people of the book, the Jews of that book were now targeted
for Jihad (sura 9:29).
Muhammad first moved against the Arabian Jews, apparently, in an
effort to cleanse Arabia of Allah's enemies. He used various means,
including pitting one Jewish clan against another and blockading their
quarters until they surrendered (reminds one of the Nazi treatment of
the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, doesn't it.).
A month after the battle of Badr, Muhammad banished the Quinuga
Jews to Jordan (Sura 59:14-15). Nadhir Jews were forced to relinquish
their gold and weapons and then driven from their homes (Sura 59:1-7).
The properties of the deportees were shared among Muslims.
After the battle of the ditch in 627AD, Muhammad at a market
square commanded the surrendered Banu Quraiza Jews to dig trenches,
then in the trenches they had just dug, he ordered that 700 male Jews
of that clan be slaughtered, one after the other (Sura 33:26; cf. Ibn
Hisham's Siratur Rasul, Part 2, pp. 75, 148). The "spared" widows, small
children and properties were distributed among the "faithful" Muslims
as their reward for helping Allah.
Poor Hitler! His great undoing was his failure to claim divine
inspiration for his actions. If he had done so, we might even have
another major religion in Europe - a Nazi version of Islam.
Muhammad himself chose the most beautiful among the widows,
Rihanah bint Amr bin Khanafa. She however refused Muhammad's offer
of marriage, preferring to be his concubine instead.
In a bid to avenge the massacre of her people, she served Muham-
mad a meal of goat meat poisoned with a fatal toxin that kills instantly.
Bishr bin al-Bura, one of the companions of the prophet, died on the
spot, right after swallowing a piece of the meat. Muhammad managed to
spew out the one he was chewing, but traces of the toxin found its way
into his system and caused a sickness that eventually led to his death.
It is related by Ibn Sa'ad that Muhammad sent for the Jewess and
asked her, "Did you poison the ewe?" She said "Yes." He asked, "What
made you do so?" She answered: "You had done to my people grievous
damage. So I said that if you are a king, we will rid ourselves of you, and
if you are a prophet, it will be revealed to you." Some historians claim he
forgave her while others say he ordered her crucifixion.
That incident is the root cause of the virulent hatred the Muslims
have towards the Jews. That is why Islam regards the Jews as the very
worst enemy Allah has, and believes the Jews must be destroyed. Have
you ever wondered why a non-Arabic nation like Iran is just as antago-
nistic towards Israel as the most radical Arab country? The story above
is the answer. The Palestinian issue, the return of Arab's lands, all are just
political window-dressing. The Palestinians have already been granted
an autonomous state. The Sinai peninsula has already been returned to
Egypt. Syria would have gotten back the Golan but for her intransigence.
So why is there still no sign of peace? The truth is this: Muslims
throughout the world do not believe the Jewish people should be
allowed to exist. Even if the Jews were to totally abandon the Holy Land
and be relocated elsewhere, that hatred would continue unabated and
the conflict would go on (Revelation 12:17 figuratively foretells of this).
Faithful Muslims have been drumming Islam's militant agenda for
decades, but we don't listen. Before Israel became a state, Ayatollah
Khomeini was going into all the Islamic colleges, theological seminaries
and schools in Iran, teaching them a five point program:
Stage 1: Iran must become a theocratic, fundamentalist Islamic State.
Stage 2: Iraq must become a theocratic, fundamentalist Islamic State.
Stage 3: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, have to become funda-
mentalist and theocratic Islamic States.
Stage 4: Jerusalem must be retaken and the Jewish people destroyed.
Stage 5: Conquest of the nations.
As recent history shows, Stage 1 has been accomplished. There is no
Muslim, fundamentalist or moderate, who does not believe in stages 4
and 5. Those five stages are bonds that unite all Muslims, regardless of
sect or geographic location. Let's say it again, Islam's ambitions are:
(1) Annexation of Jerusalem and annihilation of the Jews
(2) Obliteration of Christianity
(3) Conquest of all nations.
To most Muslims, the failure to achieve these objectives means the
failure of Islam and consequently, the failure of Allah - an unimaginable
blasphemy. Islam will never renounce its claim to Jerusalem, neither will
'it relent in its effort to destroy the Jews. Consequently, the conflict in the
Middle east is unsolvable. It is a war between Allah and "I AM" (see
Zechariah 14:1-4).
In 1984, Ayatollah Khomeini declared to the entire world:
"In order to achieve the victory of Islam in the world, we need
to provoke repeated crises, restored value to the idea of death
and martyrdom. If Iran has to vanish, that is not important. The
important thing is to engulf the world in crises. Those who are
called to export the revolution will lose their unhealthy desire
for comfort and will attain the maturity needed to fulfill their
mission. The road to Jerusalem goes through Kerbala." (an Iraqi
town)1
These are not the words of a naive, overwrought, emotional fanatic
with stone-age ideas, as the West mistakenly concludes. Ayatollah
Khomeini was one of the most politically brilliant theological minds in
the Islamic world. He was able to perfectly express the mind of Allah and
of Islam, and though he has been long dead, his manifesto lives on. I
pray that United States political thinkers will heed what is written here,
but their government is now so politically and morally bankrupt, that any
departure from their policy of appeasing Islam is most unlikely. Blindly
optimistic, the American bureaucracy totally ignores the Muslim view of
any treaty signed with infidels.2
Muhammad himself, never honored a peace treaty, an example
being his Nakhla expedition - a banditry operation he ordered during a
month of general truce. Another example was his attack on Mecca
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1 Quoted in Le Point, No. 599, March 12, 1984, pp. 89-90
2 Editor's Note: Hillary Clinton, the American president's wife, in a 3/22/99 speech
delivered in Egypt, declared that the United States would be more accepting of
Islam in the future. Insanity! If Islam ever gains political control in the United
States, religious tolerance will be a thing of the past everywhere in the world.
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despite the treaty of al-Hudaybiya. This spirit of non-committal to peace
treaties is an integral part of Jihad. Muhammad once said that Jihad
means trickery. The count-down to the battle of Armageddon will begin
the day Israel signs its death treaty with her Arab neighbors (what they
think to be a peace treaty will actually be a death warrant for Israel). Not
that one is against peace, but why sign a treaty with those whose intent
is to destroy you? It is ludicrous to believe that the Arabs will sacrifice
Allah's cause with Allah's worst enemies. Hstege fu-lai-llah, - Allah
forbid. Such a treaty would only be a ploy, designed to trick Israel into
lowering its guard, and thus opening the way for a blitzkreig attack. The
type they launched October 17, 1973 during Yom-Kippur. Rest assured,
the Arabs will attack Israel again when they believe they can defeat her.
But how sure are we that the countdown has not begun? Islam has
even gained a foothold in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament). In the Israeli
election that brought Benjamin Netanyahu to power, a Muslim won a
parliamentary seat. As a result, a provision for a mosque has been made
in the Knesset, where the name of Allah - a being who wants them
annihilated - will be invoked daily. A catastrophic occurrence indeed,
and an abomination in the eyes of "I AM!"
The Western nations have compounded the problem by ignoring the
irreconcilable spiritual differences that exist between themselves and the
Muslim states. The Muslim goal first, last, and always has been to
Islamize the world by the power of the sword. But despite the obvious
threat to themselves, the West is only worried about its balance of
payments - imports and exports. Money is their god. That attitude has
permitted the West to sell nuclear technology to the Arabs - nuclear
pigeons that will eventually fly home to roost in the nose-cones of
Islamic rockets.1 It is an accepted fact that only a year or so separates
Iraq and Iran from weapons of mass destruction. It won't be long before
the Jihad we live with in Nigeria reaches its bloody sword across the
Atlantic, and the West suffers for its diplomatic hypocrisy.
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1 Editor's Note: The wealthy Arabian terrorist, Osama bin Laden, has stated
publically that he would explode two nuclear devices in the United States in the
year 2000 as his part in the ever-expanding Islamic Jihad against the West.
Whether or not bin Laden can make good on his threat remains to be seen, but that
he is at war with the West is patently obvious. US intelligence agencies have
already implicated Bin Laden in two US embassy bombings.
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