The Jews and Prophet Muhammad

From "The Wrath of Allah"

The Qur’anic attitude towards the Jews changes with time. (Remember the later verses are the ones to be noted as the earlier verses are abrogated if there is a contradiction. The Sura are not in chronological order) At first Muhammad believed that they could be allies. Later there is not a good word to be said for them. Indeed, (dare I say it? ---The arm of Allah is long.) this evolution of thought is more indicative of a human being changing his mind than the opinion of an omniscient diety.

Sayings of Prophet Muhammad

"Dispute with them (the Jews) in the kindest manner" (16:126, translator Rodwell)

"Wage war on the people of the Book, who ... do not accept the religion of Islam." (9:29) "Fight against them (the Jews and Christians)! Allah shall punish them, at your hands." (9:14)

"Those who follow Muhammad are merciless for the unbelievers but kind to each other." (48:29)

"The Jews and Christians and the Pagans will burn forever in the fire of hell. They are the vilest of all creatures." (98:6)

"Fight the unbelievers in your surroundings, and let them find harshness in you." (9:123)

"Kill the unbelievers wherever ye find them, capture and besiege them and prepare for them every kind of ambush." (9:5)

Muslim 71 The Prophet said: ". . . The Jew or Christian who hears about me but does not affirm his belief... shall be one of the denizens of Hell-fire."

Muslim 1149 The Prophet said: "When it will be the Day of Resurrection Allah will deliver to every Muslim a Jew or a Christian and say:

"That is your rescue from Hell-Fire". The Muslim may have sins as heavy as a mountain but the wrong beliefs of the non-believers would save space in Paradise."

Muslim 1227 The Prophet said: "A group of the Children of Israel was lost. I think that they turned into the shape of rats."

Hadith Malik 511:1588 The last statement that Muhammad made was: "O Lord, perish the Jews and Christians. They made churches of the graves of their prophets. There shall be no two faiths in Arabia." (During the caliphates of the first four Caliphs this edict was fully carried out and all non-believers were removed from Arabia.)

Bukhari 4:52:297 The Prophet said, "None will enter Paradise hut a Muslim."

Bukhari 5:59:362 The Prophet killed the men of the Jewish tribe Bani Quraiza (some 600 to 800 of them) and distributed their women, children and property among the Muslims All the other Jews of Medina were exiled.

Bukhari 5:59:365 The Prophet had the date-palms of the Jewish tribe of Bani-Al- Nadir burnt and cut down. "It was with Allah’s permission" (Qur’an 59:5)

Bukhari 5:59;55I The Prophet gave the land of Khaibar back to the Jews of Khaibar on condition that they would work on it and cultivate it and they would have half of its yield.

Bukhari 5:59:447 The Prophet said to Sa'd, :The Bani Quraiza have agreed to accept your verdict" Sa’d said, "Kill all their men and take their women and children as slaves" The Prophet replied, "You have judged according to God's Judgment"

Abu Dawud 38:4390 Attiyah al -Quran was among the captives of Banu Qurayza "They (the Companions) examined us and those who had begun to grow (pubic) hair were killed and those who had not were not killed. I was among those who had not grown hair."

From "The Life of Muhammad"

Muhammad was still hoping to secure the Jews as allies if not as Believers and an agreement was drawn up with them. The Qur'an shows a positive attitude towards them: "Dispute not, unless in kindly sort, with the people of the Book; save with such of them as have dealt wrongfully with you: And say ye, "We believe in what hath been sent down to you. Our God and your God is one, and to him are we self-surrendered." (Muslims) (29:46) But the Jewish hearts hardened and hardly any converts were plucked from their midst. The Qur'an reflects a new attitude: "Desire ye them that for your sakes the Jews should believe? Yet a part of them heard the word of God, and then,... perverted it." (2:70) Soon Allah revealed a verse forbidding any contact with the Jews: "Contract no friendships except among your own number. Others would certainly corrupt you. They desire your humiliation: their hatred is clear enough in what they say, but what their hearts conceal is even worse. . ." (3:118)

Seventeen months after the Prophet arrived in Medina, the qiblah (the direction in which Muhamrnad and his followers faced during prayers) was changed from Jerusalem to Mecca. Soon an opportunity presented itself to take on the Banu Qaynuka. A Muslim girl was selling her wares at the Qaynuka market when some Jewish boys teasingly tried to lift up her veil. Joining in the fun, a Jewish goldsmith tied her skirts without her knowledge so that when she rose the world could see her private parts. The honour of Islam was at stake and a Muslim, in revenge, killed the goldsmith. Thereupon the Muslim was killed by a group of Jews. The Qaynuka withdrew inside their fort hoping that the affair would blow over. For two weeks the Jews were besieged in their fort. The other Jewish tribes did not come to their assistance. When the Qaynuka surrendered, Muhammad wanted to put them all to death. However, Ibn Ubayy, a pagan Medinan whom he did not yet wish to fight, persuaded him otherwise. But Allah had decreed: "If thou overcomest them in war, then make of them an example, to strike fear into those that are behind them, that may take heed."(8:57) The decision was that the Jews should leave their homes and all their possessions behind them. Eventually the Qaynuka reached exile near Syria. The booty the Muslims received was enormous and the Prophet and his state received a fifth share.

The angel Gabriel came to the Prophet to tell him that the Jewish tribe of Nadir was plotting to kill him. The Prophet told the Jews: "Leave your land and take all that your camels can carry, except your arms and your armour. "And had it not been that Allah had decreed Banishment for them, He certainly would have Punished them in this world: and in the Here-after They shall have the Punishment of the Fire." (59:3) Allah revealed that, as it had been a bloodless victory, all that the Jews had left behind belonged to the Prophet and that he was to share it with the poor. Now the Emigrants were financially independent of the Helpers. The Jews made their way to Khaybar further north in the Hejaz and determined to get back their homes. To show that his influence could reach as far as Khaybar, Muhammad sent some men there to kill the aged Jew Atu Rafi. They struck him in his bed.

In March 627, the "Confederates" consisting of the exiled Banu Nadir and other Jews, and the Quraysh and other Arabs who hated the Prophet raised an army of ten thousand with a thousand horses … The Meccans were able to convince a tribe of Jews, the Bani Qurayzah to break their pact with the Prophet so that he had to garrison their town with three hundred cavalry. This A thousand Muslims besieged the fortress of the Bani Qurayzah for 25 days when the Jews eventually opened their gates and threw themselves on Muhammad's mercy. They agreed to a chieftain of a Medinan tribe, Sa'd ibn Muadh, judging them for their treachery to the young Islamic state. The Mosaic law applied to the Jews and their punishment should have been total extermination: "thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth" (Deuteronomy 20, 16). Allah was more merciful than Jehovah however (33:26) and Sa'd's adjudication was to slay the men and take the women and children into captivity. The Prophet was pleased and replied to Sa'd: "Thou hast judged with the judgement of God from above the seven heavens." In the morning Muhammad ordered long, deep and narrow trenches to be dug in the market place. The seven hundred or so men from Bani Qurayzah were brought in small groups to kneel beside the trench. Then the younger and stronger believers cut off the Jews' heads each with a stroke of a sword. The last to die were beheaded by torchlight. The women, children and property were divided amongst those who had taken part in the siege. The Bani Nadir ransomed many of their kin but Muhammad kept for himself, as concubine, a beautiful Jewess named Rayhanah. "And He made you heirs of their lands, their houses and their goods, and of a land which ye had not frequented before, And Allah has power over all things." (33:27)

The Jews had not forgiven Muhammad. One, by the name of Labid was gifted in sorcery. He obtained some combings of the Prophet's hair and tied eleven knots in it. His daughters breathed curses upon each knot. The hair he attached to a male date-palm flower and threw it in a deep well. The magic could only be countered by undoing the knots. The health of the Prophet declined drastically. He lost his memory and began to imagine things. He felt very weak and could not stomach food. He prayed to Allah for His assistance and, in his sleep, heard two angels discussing the reason for his illness. Gabriel verified his dream and gave him Suras 113 and 114. "I seek refuge in the Lord of Daybreak. ... against the mischief of women who blow on knots." (133:1-5)~~... Against the mischief of Satan... against djinn and man." (114:3-6) These two suras total eleven verses and as each verse was recited one of the eleven knots was loosened. Soon the Prophet had made a full recovery. Muslims call them "the two takings of refuge" and recite them for protection against the evil eye.

With their south secure, the Muslims decided to march on the Jewish fortresses of Khaybar. The Muslim force was only sixteen hundred men and the Jews totalled fourteen thousand. The Prophet decided to tackle the smallest fortress first and the other Jews did not come to its aid. The Muslims were in luck as inside they found machines for scaling and breaching the walls of fortresses. The Prophet agreed to kill none of the Jews provided that they vacated Khaybar leaving all possessions behind. For concealing treasure two Jews, Kinana and his cousin were executed. Kinana's beautiftil seventeen year old widow, Safflyah was attractive to Muhammad and he married her. "He was as twenty men."27 The whole of Khaybar became the property of Islam and Muhammad allowed some of the Jews to remain behind and pay a rent of half their farm produce. On the same terms, the Prophet became landlord of the Jewish settlements of Fadah and Wadi 1-Qura. Now that his tenants had handed over their weapons, the Prophet had to protect them from marauding Bedouins.

From "Two Faces of Islam"

"Ansarullah" (Helpers of Allah) has claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Argentine Israeli Association headquarters. Ninety six bodies have been dug from the rubble and ten people are missing. It is thought that the explosion may have been caused by a car bomb similar to the one that destroyed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires on March 17, 1992 killing 28 people. The Islamic terrorists are hoping to sabotage the peace process in Palestine.

The Dhimmi

"The vile and ignorant dhimmis (non-Muslims in an Islamic country) must be humiliated, belittled and rendered abominable and able to be distinguished by their appearance." For example, "different colored shoes, one white the other black"; for males badges such as an "ape for a Jew and a pig for a Christian: for women yellow veils." ¹⁷The distinctive dress shows the Muslim that the dhimmi is to be treated as an inferior - not to stand up for her or shake his hand, not to give them Muslim charity. He is to expect respect and deference from the dhimmi who shall not join a group of Muslims or raise his voice in their presence. The non-Muslim is to stand aside if the pathway is narrow. It is haram (unlawful) for him to slaughter animals; reserved for him is the cleaning of lavatories and sewers, and carrying away rubbish and refuse. His house should be painted a dull color and be no larger than that of a Muslim neighbor.

"Some Islamic History"

Yasser Arafat

Mohammed Abder Rauf Arafat al-Kudwa al-Husseini was born in Jerusalem in 1929 of Egyptian parents. He adopted the name Yasser meaning 'easy-going' adding ABU AMAR after a companion of the Prophet Muhammad. He is a practising Muslim, has performed the Haj to Mecca and wears a pendant engraved with a verse from the Qur'an.¹

In 1920, when Britain was given the mandate to rule Palestine, there were about 75,000 Jews living there and about 600,000 Arabs. Angered by the influx of Jews from Europe, Muslims in 1929 rioted in Hebron, Haifa and other cities killing 135 Jews. The latter retaliated killing 116 Arabs. By 1936 there were about 400,000 Jews and 1,000,000 Arabs.

During World War II some leading Muslims including Haji Amin al-Husseini worked for the Nazis in Germany, calling for a jihad against Britain. Amin was the grand mufti of Jerusalem and Arafat's uncle. Hitler wanted to barter some Jews for the return of German nationals but the Muslims convinced him to send 8000 Jewish children to the death camps instead of to Palestine.

Late in 1947 Britain announced that it planned to withdraw from Palestine. Their proposal that Palestine be partitioned in two was rejected by the Arabs, in particular by Haj Amin al-Husseini. Years later after a number of defeats at the hands of the Israelis they would have gladly accepted the boundaries offered.

There was a deal of military activity on both sides but the initiative for terrorism was begun by the Jews. In April 1948, an extremist group, the Irgun massacred 254 men, women and children of the Arab village of Deir Yassin. Arafat who had been active in Cairo University circles went with about fifty other students to fight. However their weapons were confiscated by the Egyptian Army.

On May 15, 1948 the British withdrew from Palestine and the state of Israel was declared. Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria sent troops in but were unable to dislodge the Israelis. The only result was that 700,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their homes.

Back in Cairo, Yasser trained with the Muslim Brothers and took part in their raids on British installations. The Islamic fundamentalists helped Arafat's rise in the students' organization even though he canvassed support from all factions, including the communists.

Active in Palestinian affairs, Arafat was made unwelcome by Nasser. He had completed his degree in engineering and went to work for several years in Kuwait. Now he had the money to print literature and buy arms. With the aid of other Palestinians he set up Fatah, which is Qur'anic for "opening the gates of glory". Fatah was independent of the Arab states and of ideology. Its sole aim was to liberate Palestine by armed struggle.

Fatah realized that water was essential to Israel's expansion and so its first targets were the water projects. One bomb exploded killing seven Israelis. By 1966 attacks had moved to homes and kibbutzim.

In June 1967, Syria, Jordan and Egypt moved against Israel. In six days Israel had put them to rout. They increased their territory to three times its original size by incorporating the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. More than a million extra Arabs came under their control.

Arafat immediately organized guerillas, 500 of them, to cross into the West Bank. He organized shopkeepers and truckdrivers to strike. Bombs were planted in Jewish areas.

Israel conducted a successful campaign of rooting out Palestinian activists. Arafat and 300 Fatah fighters were lucky to escape from the West Bank to Jordan.

On March 18, 1968 a busload of children hit a mine near Eilat. Two children were killed and twenty seven were injured. The Israelis attacked into Jordan to destroy the Fatah base at Karamah. The Palestinians were waiting for them with rocket-propelled grenades. The Jordanian air force and army came to Fatah's assistance and the Israelis had to retreat. Although more Muslim lives were lost than Jewish, Yasser claimed it as a victory, the first ever over Israel. It made headlines in every Arab newspaper and Arafat's picture went around the world. Thousands of new recruits were added to Fatah's fighting forces. The terror escalated; more bombings took place. Thirteen people, including some Arabs, were killed when an old refrigerator exploded in Jerusalem. Another fifteen were killed when an old car exploded in the market place of Jerusalem.

Fatah had become the biggest of the Palestine guerrilla groups and Arafat was able to win control of the PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organization. The aim of the PLO at this time was to wipe out the Jewish state and in 1969 the PLO carried out over 2000 attacks on Israel. The PLO was an umbrella organization for a number of groups and Arafat came to be praised or blamed, as the case might be, for a number ofterrorist operations which he himself did not plan. For example the Christian, George Habash of the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) organized three successful hi-jackings. These planes were redirected to Jordan and King Hussein was forced to deal with the Palestinians, eventually killing 3000 PLO.

In October 1967, Egyptian missiles sank an Israeli ship, the Eilat killing forty seven people. In retaliation Israel destroyed two Egyptian oil refineries. Egypt sent commando raids into Israel and there were dogfights in the sky.

Arafat sent Fatah members into Europe and South America to strike at Israeli targets abroad: The most infamous of these was in September 1972 when Fatah's Black September group took Israeli athletes hostage at the Munich Olympic Games killing eleven of them.

On Yom Kippur 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. In two weeks of fighting the forces were quite evenly matched much to the dismay of the Israelis, although Egypt lost 10,000 men, 650 tanks and 180 planes. By the peace plan of 1974 Israel handed back half of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. Anwar Sadat had had enough and left the Palestinians to their own devices.

The PLO were based in refugee camps in Lebanon and continued raids into Israel. On 11th April, the PFLP attacked the Jewish village of Kiryat Shmonah with hand grenades and small arms. They killed eight children and eight adults. In May, three DFLP terrorists took a hundred Jewish children hostage in an attempt to free twenty Palestinian prisoners. Sixteen children were massacred and another sixty eight were wounded.

In October 1974 the Arab rulers came to the agreement that "the PLO, with Arafat as its chairman, would become the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people".²Yasser announced that the PLO was prepared to accept the West Bank and Gaza for the Palestinians as a state. Arafat was seen as a traitor by George Habash and Ahmed Jabril (PLF) and they withdrew from the PLO.

To undermine Israeli Labor Party proposals to accept the "two state solution", the Jewish hardliners pushed for settlement right along the West Bank and in Gaza. The PLO likewise hardened its attitude killing Arabs who sold land to the Israelis.

In November 1977 Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel. Hardliners on both sides sought to negate the Camp David accords. Six Jewish students were murdered in Hebron. Two Arab mayors were crippled in car bomb explosions. Israel bombed PLO sites in Lebanon and the Christian Phalange massacred Palestinians in the refugee camps of Lebanon. On Monday 7th. October 1985, four "PLO" terrorists took over the cruise ship, the Achille Lauro. They took hostage about one hundred passengers, demanding the release of fifty Palestinians who were in Israeli jails. Next day, off the coast of Syria, the Islamic heroes murdered a retired American Jew, Leon Klinghoffer by shooting him in the head. He had had a stroke and was confined to a wheelchair. The helpers of Allah ordered two crew members to throw his body and wheelchair overboard. Apparently the master-mind was not Arafat but Abul Abbas of the Palestine Liberation Front.

With the PLO unable to mount border attacks into Israel, the Palestinians themselves began an uprising, the intifada. Women and children stoned Israeli soldiers and settlers. It was not bloodless; numbers of young Arabs were shot for throwing stones or painting slogans on walls.

A possible confederation of Israel, Palestine and Jordan is being considered but the right-wing Israeli leaders are not prepared to talk with Arafat or the PLO. The Palestinians on the other hand see the PLO as their representative organization. Nor is Arafat now aligned with the Muslim fundamentalists who want nothing of Israel and want Palestine to be an Islamic religious state.

The only hope for the region is a secular settlement. Arabs and Jews are both Semites; their languages are similar; (the main thing which divides them is religion. Separation of religion from politics could ensure a confederation of mutual advantage to both sides). Already 150,000 Arabs work happily in Israel. This number could be increased and Jews would have access to large Arab markets. On the other hand, Arabs would have the use of Israeli ports on the Mediterranean Sea and Israeli know-how especially in agriculture. Despite his Islamic upbringing, Yasser hopefully sees the solution in a Palestine, not controlled by Islam, reduced in size but cooperating with a more liberal Israel.

Yasser Arafat has resisted the threats of Hamas, the organization of Palestinian Islamic fundamentalists, and recognized Israel as a state. Israel's Rabin has ousted the hardliners and agreed to meet Arafat as the spokesman of Palestine. The first step in the accord is to grant limited autonomy to the Gaza Strip and the town of Jericho.

From "Idi Amin

In 1970 he made the pilgrimage (Haj) to Mecca so the pilgrim title is correct. Amin was considered as a holy man by Uganda's numerous Muslims. He often took part in Muslim religious ceremonies. Every evening he had verses from the Qur'an read over Uganda TV

He had also been to the Omar mosque in Jerusalem. While in that city he had been treated for syphilis. He was in the tertiary manic stage of that disease but he was not the fool that many people thought he was.¹

He had had a love-hate relationship with Israel but eventually the balance fell on the Palestinian side. In 1972 he sent a cable to the United Nations congratulating the Black September terrorists for the murder of Israeli sportsmen at the Olympic games in Munich. In the same cable he praised Hitler for destroying over six million Jews.

On the 3rd July 1976 the hijacked Flight 139 was diverted to Entebbe airport just out of Kampala. Amin was sympathetic with the hijackers and he permitted additional terrorists to reinforce them. His own 80~100 troops at the scene had their guns trained on the 103 Jewish passengers in support of the ten terrorists who threatened to execute the Jews from dawn, Sunday 4th of July.

After the freeing of the hostages by Israeli commandos, Idi was livid. He had air traffic controllers and civil aviation authorities executed even those who had been off duty at the time.