Introducing Rashid Rida on Zionism

Anyone who follows pro-'Palestine' Islamic propaganda will recognzie in the excerpts below the source material for the virulent antisemitism, exaggerations and misrepresentations emanating from the Palestinian National Authgority official bodies as well as activists on behalf on 'Palestine'.

They originate from Rashid Rida.

Another scholar claims "As one of the most influential advocates of Arab nationalism and pan-Islamism, we shall argue, Riḍā’s critiques of Zionism and Jewish expansion in Palestine were part of his anti-colonial activities against the ‘Christian’ west." Nevertheless, he notes that Rida asserted as to Jewish goals, "allegedly, they schemed to possess Jerusalem and its neighbouring regions to establish their Kingdom of Israel and turn it into the Temple of Solomon, against the desire of Christians and Muslims (ʿAbduh and Riḍā [1328] 1910, V:139–140)."

He further quotes Rida "Under the title “King of the Jews, their Temple, their Messiah and the True Messiah,” Riḍā stated that the Jews arrogantly disobeyed their prophets, who regularly warned them against God’s punishment if they abandoned His commandments (Al-Manār 30/7: 546–556)."

And Rida becomes starkly clear in this excerpt:

One of Islam’s greatest manifestations, according to Riḍā, was the confirmation of glad tidings of Jesus as a prophet of God and not his son. In this reading, God entitled Muslims to inherit the Holy Land and to build the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the place of the destroyed temple in order to establish the worship of God alone. Riḍā repeated the traditional Muslim view that God placed those who believe in Jesus above the unbelievers (Qur’an Āl ʿImrān 3:55), but that He had struck the Jews with humiliation by making them lose their kingdom until the Day of Resurrection. The Jews, Riḍā said, would follow the Antichrist as their assumed king fighting under his banner in the Holy Land, but Muslims would finally achieve victory upon them and kill them, and the true Messiah would appear and reveal the truth by destroying the Antichrist (Al-Manār 30/7: 554).

And in this:

Muslims did not persecute the Jews but treated them with justice and mercy. He observed that the Jews started to permit each other to reside in Jerusalem around the western side of the wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (Al-Buraq), performing the rituals and sacrifices against the will of Muslims and Christians in the world. They had strong hope to multiply their numbers to own the Holy City and the rest of Palestine in preparation for the appearance of the Messiah again as the King of Israel (Al-Manār 30/5: 391). 

Rida also employed the term nakba already in early 1935:

A few months before Riḍā’s death, the Egyptian historian and religious scholar ʻAbd al-Wahhāb al-Najjār (1862–1941) gave a lecture at Jamʿiyyat al-Shubbān al-Muslimīn (Association of Young Muslim Men) in which he maintained that the Jewish Zionist presence in Palestine was to be like a short “summer cloud” that would clear up soon after a great shock, followed by the defeat of the Jews after the restoration of the kingdom of David and the appearance of the Messiah (Al-Manār 34/8: 607–612)...After the lecture, Riḍā stood up and disagreed with al-Najjār in his arguments. Instead of following this apocalyptic way of thinking, Riḍā requested Arabs and Muslims to “take admonition in the Jewish Zionist nakba (catastrophe) by means of the worldly affairs and social natural laws” (Al-Manār 34/8: 608). By this he urged his Muslim readers not to see the Jewish success on the basis of their religious zeal but due to their work to achieve their political goals. 

Rida "called upon Arab Christians and Arab Muslims, supported by other Muslims in the world, to get the benefit of uniting themselves against the growing power of the Jews. In his own words: The doctrine of the Jews in restoring the King of Israel by means of the Messiah is [39] a denial of the religion of Islam and a clear rejection of Christ Jesus, Son of Mary, may blessings and peace be upon him. It was, however, Christ with whom their prophets had preached, but they had denied him. It was also him who warned them against the ruin of their Temple of Solomon so that there would not remain any stone of it."

Here are more excerpts of another researcher:

A reading of Rida’s depictions of Jews as the embodiment of vices and the orchestrators of global-scale conspiracies is useful to the broader discussion on the proliferation of anti-Semitic ideas in the contemporary Arab world. Translations of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion have been available in Arabic since the mid-1920s, and by the late 1920s they were already incorporated as an argument against Zionism. Following the 1948 war, the Protocols proliferated as an explanation for the Arab defeat. However, Rida viewed Jews as the masters of anti-Christian and anti-Muslim conspiracies already at the turn of the century, with no experience of defeat in mind and no foundational hateful European textbook to guide him. It appears that he was acquainted, albeit not through primary sources, with French anti-Semitic expressions as well as with their refutations in France. Anti-Semitic allegations in Istanbul also did not escape him. Ironically and to a large measure, Rida’s developed anti-Semitism reads as accommodation of his original admiration of Jewish virtues with his realization that Zionism was a serious threat...

...Under the title “The Life of a Nation after Its Death: The Zionist Association of the Jews,” Rida revised his earliest impression of Jewish nationalism, and, always the journalist, flattered himself (without justification in this case), for having already written about the Zionist movement in 1898, “when no one else took notice of it.” His analysis failed to distinguish between Zionists and Jews, and disclosed that he was unaware that the movement had won the hearts of only a minority of Jews around the world....

...Apparently confusing, at least in part, Herzl (whose name was not mentioned in the entire article) with the British-Jewish author and Zionist leader Israel Zangwill (1864 – 1926), Rida wrote that Zangwill had recently negotiated the purchase of Jerusalem as well as predicted a massive Jewish return to Palestine and the transformation of the land by the people of Israel into a shining lighthouse in all fields – social, political, judicial, cultural, and agricultural. Rida went as far as positing that Zangwill was wrong in reprimanding the rich Jews for not donating to Zionism...

In 1903, Rida addressed the Jews again...He wrote that no people in the world demonstrated such communal unity and ethnic solidarity as the People of Israel (Sha‘b Isra’il); however, he added that the Jews tended to divert the resources of the nations among which they lived to their own benefit, and harmed themselves by their excessive egotism. This, he argued, was the reason for the persecution of the Jews and their expulsion by all the peoples and nations. Hinting at Jewish ungratefulness, he concluded that while they could find a safe haven only in the Ottoman Empire, they now sought to gain independence and renew their sovereignty in Palestine...

...On January 1908, following a long period of silence, Rida addressed Zionism again, although indirectly. In a Quran exegesis, he disputed the Jewish hope for a Messiah who would renew Jewish sovereignty. He also suggested that the Jews’ dispersion throughout the world, their lack of expertise in warfare and agriculture, and their focus on professions that required little effort, like charging interest-based loans, were impediments that would prevent the realization of their dream of renewed sovereignty. The weakness of the Jews, he argued, was a punishment from God for their infidelity. Only two years later, Rida changed his mind about the potential of Zionism...In December 1910, he presented the Zionist danger in even graver terms: should the Jews realize their plan to take over alAqsa, they would expel the Muslims and the Christians from the Holy Land...

...[In 1914 he wrote] that if Zionist ambitions were ever realized, they would not allow a single Muslim or Christian to remain in Palestine, as they believed that it belonged to the Israelites alone. Furthermore, the Promised Land that the Zionists sought to conquer was not what Muslims defined as Palestine; rather, according to Jewish scriptures and conventions, Palestine stretched to Syria and the Euphrates. Rida based his warning of the prospect of ethnic cleansing on the argument that in the book of Deuteronomy God ordered the Jews not to spare a single soul upon entering the land...

...in an appendix to a Quranic exegesis from 1924, he cautioned that the “Arabs of Palestine,” who were confronted by “two of the world’s strongest nations [the British and the Jews],” could only be saved if they united with the rest of the Arab peoples and tribes to defend Palestine as well as the holy shrines in Mecca and Medina. Yet the underlying objective of this warning – in itself exceptional for his writing during the early 1920s – was not to call for action, but to denounce Sharif Hussein and his family and praise the Sa‘uds. Rida portrayed Hussein’s family as supporters of those who were seeking to implement the “satanic plan” to deprive the Palestinians of their land, i.e., the British and the Zionists. He cautioned the Palestinians against cooperating with the Sharifian family, explaining that while they could boast a distinguished lineage (as descendents of the Prophet Muhammad), they lacked knowledge and honesty...

...until mid-1920...he noted, in an objective manner, that the Jews considered Palestine as their sacred, ancestral land, but neither debated that claim nor insisted that Palestine was a Muslim land that must never be conceded to the Jews as such. That changed in 1924, but in a way that was far from affirming that Muslims were the rightful owners of the land or would eventually have the upper hand against the Zionists. In a Quranic exegesis, Rida suggested in an almost even-handed manner that God had promised the land to both the Israelite sons of Abraham and to the Arab sons of Abraham, who had also been promised additional lands. The promises were kept for both Israelites and Arabs when they acted righteously, but when they sinned they were punished and the land was taken from them...

...Already in October 1928, only days after the tensions over the Wailing Wall began, Rida portrayed events in Palestine as a struggle between Judaism and Islam, as well as between Britain and Islam. In this struggle, the British were assisting the Jews as part of Britains’s “ambitious” and uncharacteristically illconceived plan to subordinate the Arab nation and impose British rule on the Arabian Peninsula and the three holiest shrines – in Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. In this struggle, the ultimate goal of the Jews was the destruction of al-Aqsa, the third holiest shrine in Islam, and its replacement with a new Jewish temple...

...Rida elaborated [in December 1929] on the prophecies of a Muslim victory over the Jews, reiterating that those were more reliable than the Jewish prophets’ prophecies of Jewish victory. He mentioned the prophecy that the Jews would give fanatic loyalty to the Dajal, a false Messiah, fight against Muslims and Christians in Palestine and other lands, and be defeated, as well as the Prophet’s words, narrated by ‘Abdullah b. ‘Umar: “I heard Allah’s Messenger saying, ‘The Jews will fight with you, and you will be given victory over them so that a stone will say, ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew behind me, kill him!’”...Zionism, he argued, was a striking example of Western moral corruption, because in Palestine the English had done something they had not done anywhere else: they had created a new people based on the ingathering of a rabble from all corners of the earth, allowing the rabble to usurp the land of another people and to exploit and discriminate against the population in a historically unprecedented way. Thus, for the first time, in late 1929, the Jews were denied in Rida’s journal not only a right to Palestine, but also the right to be considered a nation.

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Arab Rights and Jewish Rights: Jaffa 1936

In June 1936, a significant section of Jaffa was demolished due to the need for British security forces to combat growing Arab terror.

But there was a side concern: what to do with now homeless Arabs?

Here is an academic article on the matter.

And here is a parliamentary question from December:

DEMOLITIONS, JAFFA (RE-HOUSING).

HC Deb 16 December 1936 vol 318 

22. Colonel WEDGWOOD asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he has authorised the expenditure of £15,000 which has been assigned from Palestine revenues to build a village for the Jaffa Arabs evicted from that town; and whether anything similar is being done for the Jaffa Jews who were forced to leave Jaffa and live elsewhere?

Mr. ORMSBY-GORE The Palestine Government has been authorised to expend £15,000 on the erection of houses, for which a suitable rent will be charged, to accommodate 100 Arab families rendered homeless by the special demolitions in Jaffa undertaken by Government in the circumstances explained in my reply to a question in the House on 24th June by the hon. Member for West Fife (Mr. Gallaeher). I understand that in consultation with the appropriate Jewish bodies the Palestine Government has agreed to contribute about £5,000 towards the cost of maintenance and rehabilitation of Jewish refugees in Tel-Aviv from Jaffa and elsewhere.

Colonel WEDGWOOD Seeing that the Jewish refugees from Jaffa outnumber the Arab refugees by about 20 to one, will the right hon. Gentleman make representations to the Palestine Government that the rebuilding which they are doing for Arab refugees should be paralleled by rebuilding for the Jewish refugees?

Mr. ORMSBY-GORE I do not think that I can accept the right hon. and gallant Gentleman's figures, nor can I accept his description of these particular Arabs as refugees. In the military interests, and in the interests of peace and order in Jaffa, it was decided to dynamite two lines through the town. The Royal Engineers blew up the houses, and I think the Palestine Government have the duty of rehousing these people elsewhere, as they are now doing.

Colonel WEDGWOOD Does the right hon. Gentleman not see that the Jews who were driven out of Palestine owing to the danger of assassination have exactly the same case for rehousing, with Government assistance, as the Arabs?

Mr. ORMSBY-GORE Then it would be the duty of the Government to re-house almost everybody who have been removed or have removed themselves during a period of disturbance and disorder which we all regret. I cannot commit the Government to that.

Colonel WEDGWOOD I am sorry to be persistent, but is it possible now for the Jews to go back to Jaffa with safety, or is the protection still inadequate?

Mr. ORMSBY-GORE I hope that when we know what the policy of the future is to be, when we have the report 2438of the Royal Commission and the whole Palestine question is cleared up, it may be possible for Jews and Arabs to live as they have up to this year in friendly accord in Jaffa.

Photos:

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An Anti-Semite on Jewish DNA

This came into my mailbox:

Dear White Fake Hebrew Racist Thieving Invading Jew-Nazi Yisrael Medad,

Regarding ... https://www.ynetnews.com/article/b1q82zvok

Nazi-Israel will Burn for its Crimes in Palestine, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq.

Most Jews alive today have no DNA connection to the Ancient Hebrew or the Levant ...

Semitism is Racism ... https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Semitism ... "policy or predisposition favorable to Jews"

https://www.docdroid.net/vdJhN97/the-geography-of-jewish-ethnogenesis-pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eran_Elhaik

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4974603/

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2017.00087/full

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2017.00101/full

Thanks,

Steve Benassi

Minneapolis Minnesota

My reply:

Dear Ben-Assi​,

If there is any problem with Jewish DNA and links to the ancient Hebrews, it is probably due to Jewish women being raped by your ancestors although conversions of other peoples into the Jewish nation probably also account for any

genetic deviations.

Thank you for your attention.

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UK Labourites in Russia Spring 1917...and the Jews

In the spring of 1917, a delegation of the British Labour movement set out for Russia.

The background:

And on Jews, in their report:

Source.

Here they are:

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Shame on the NYTimes Publishing an Anti-Semitic Letter

In Friday's paper, reacting to President Donald Trump's Executive Order [EO], this letter was published:

To the Editor:
Re “Trump’s Order Protects Jews,” by Jared Kushner (Op-Ed, Dec. 12), about an executive order to withhold federal money from colleges that don’t fight bias against Jewish students:

Attacks on Jews in this country and throughout the world are very troubling. Everyone with even a meager knowledge of history is well aware of the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust. Also troubling are the attacks on Muslims, people of color and those who are not heterosexual.
Mr. Kushner’s father-in-law, Donald Trump, and members of the administration are largely to blame for the rise of violence and discrimination against the “other” here in this country, including Jews.

I would be more apt to support the president’s executive order if I weren’t overwhelmingly disgusted by the overt racism, misogyny and anti-Semitism displayed by this president and his supporters over the last three years. It is the president who has engaged in divisive, dangerous rhetoric, fueling the flames of white supremacy and anti-Jewish sentiment.

Instead of seeking fair treatment of all residents of this country, this president has decided to win over the Jewish vote through this transparent ploy.

Jane Carlin
Stamford, Conn.

The EO simply applies, in an equalizing fashion, the terms of the law as it has applied to other minorities. In other words, it removes any discrimination against Jews as regards protection from hate crimes they otherwise previously did not have. We Jews, and the students on campuses, surely do need that equality factor.

Moreover, the reason for that is not Trump. To blame him for radical Muslim students, their extremist progressive allies and, unfortunately, the neo-Bundist Jewish Diaspora supremacists attacking verbally and physical with threats of harm as well as harm caused by prejudiced lecturers and university administrators, is anti-Semitic.  It is, again, blaming the victim.

Shame on the NYTimes.

^

A Historical Note On That Accusation of "Privilege"

Should Jews being angry at being accused of possessing "white privilege"?

Or any privilege that seems to justify hate and anti-Semitism?

Sure.

Look what I found in this book:

Think about that.

Nothing new.

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Gaza's Jews

I have blogged about Gaza's Jewish presence before.

I informed you that

In 1481, a visitor indicates a large synagogue was serving the community.  Rabbinical responsa on issues of observance of laws of agriculture in the 15th century are recorded.  A Reb Meshulam of Volterra visited Gaza in 1395-96 and reported houses and fields of Jews and as they were well developed, it is surmisea, 

If you searched here, you'd notice, I hope, a gap between 1870 to 1929 (as also here; and also at the Wikipedia entry).

I have in my possession a Hebrew book entitled: 40 שנות ישוב יהודי בעזה באר-שבע והקמת חוות רוחמה.  It's by Mordechai Elkayam and was published at the end of 1994.  It contains the following relevent information regarding the presence of Jews in Gaza after 1860 but also other details I didn't find in the above (such as in 1170, Ovadia Bartanura noted 70 Jewish families in Gaza and 2 Samaritans and that was verified by visits of Rabbi Shlomo of Praga and Meshulam of Voltira but here in Hebrew).

In 1882, the Chovevei Tzion branch of Jaffa decided to expand Jewish residency and especially in Arab demographic areas such as Gaza, Lydda and Shchem and the first nucleus was founded in 1886.  The income would be based on barley export and a medicinal plant, Schrad.  A jerry was constructed in 1910.  There was a break between 1916-1918 due to the war.

The founding meeting took place during the Succot holiday 1886.  Nissim Elkayam and Avraham Haim Chelouche rented large houses in Gaza city.

- :

Credits: Matson Collection, Library of Congress

Another group went south and rented houses on Harawt El-Zeitun.  Five months it took for the first families to arrange everything and arrive to settle in until Pesach.  They all possessed foreign citizenship, English, Spanish and French, which allowed them the privileges of which other Jews did not benefit.  And four (!) synagogues were eventually established divided by the families.  By 1890, 30 families were in Gaza.

The book of over 400 pages with pictures and notes and documents is a fascinating read.  For example, one month before the May 1921 riots, Sheikh Haj Said El-Husseini informed Haham Nissim that extremists were demanding of him permission (fatwa) to strike out at the Jews in the city.  Nevertheless, all left for the few weeks until the Arab rage quieted except for Eliezer and Tzila Margolin and family who remianed in the city, trusting the Sheikh's assurances that they would be protected.

In 1929, on the Thursday before Friday when the outbreak of the violent riots in Jerusalem "spontaneously" occured, a Jewish policeman of Indian origin, approached Nissim Elkayam and Eliezer Margolin and informed them that all the 100 or so Jews residing in the town were to be collected and brought to the Yaffe Hotel.  Even the Jewish wives of two police officers, Partrize (phonetic) and Starsky, were brought over.  Arabs beseiged the hotel and one broke in but supjuric acid was thrown at him by Dr. Jeker.  After Shabbat, all were transported to the train station under the guard of the Sheikh and police and made their way to Lydda and Tel Aviv.

In 1972, when one of the Sheikh's sons, by then a PLO terrorist was hiding in the basement of Radja El-Shawa, Moshe Elkayam convinced Moshe Dayan not to blow up the house in recognition of the father's efforts to protect the Jews of Gaza in 1929.

^

Something To Think About Re: Egypt

Aren't we all lucky that there are very few Jews left in Egypt?

Very few:

These were the members of the Jewish community in Cairo...It is no coincidence that there were no men at the meeting. The handful of Jewish community members includes only women, at least as far as is known. The assembled members  elected Magda Haroun, daughter of communist and intellectual Chehata Haroun. From that moment, Magda embarked on a not-very-long journey; the journey of witnessing the end of Jewish life in the land of the Nile.

That was published on April 25, 2013.

The news:

Egypt's Christians terrified after church attacks

---

Egyptian Protesters Turn Fury on Coptic Christians

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The Dangerous Life of Christianity in Egypt

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Egypt's Christians under pressure as churches are torched

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If there were more Jews, they'd be pogromed, torched, raped, pillaged and slaughtered.


Note:

From the days of my early childhood in Egypt, anti-Semitism was not only a common phenomenon, it has been a national characteristic of my country. From Alexandria to Aswan, in every city and small town along the Nile river, anti-Jewish propaganda can be easily found in mosques, bookstores, on the radio, in newspapers and on TV.

Learning to hate Jews starts in Egypt the first moment you learn about their existence and continues long into adulthood.

And from this past June:

I know I’m not alone in having lied and said I’m Christian. Sometimes I truly felt uncomfortable about my interlocutor’s intention. “You’re not an Israeli or Jew are you?” a poor bookseller once asked in Cairo’s Azbakeya book market as I handed him the money. “Because we’re enemies.” I needed the book for class the next day, muttered a panicked no, and simply bolted away.

Satirical comment.

^

Any Jews There?

In an article on honorcide, or 'honor killing', in Jordan, interesting in itself, I caught this:

With a population dominated by Sunni Muslims (92 percent) and Arabs (98 percent),  

98%?

Any Jews in that remaining 2%?

Just kidding.

Here:
 

Jordan warns Israelis not to visit wearing ‘Jew clothes’
Tourism ministry in Amman wary of unfriendly reactions to Jewish dress or rituals in public places

Here:

Jewish Tourists Stoned in Jordan over 'Provocative Hats'
Arabic websites say religious Jewish visitors to Kerak were attacked with shoes and rocks.

And finally, here:

...[in] the US's Department of State...2006 International Religious Freedom Report, they had this to say:

    The Government recognizes Judaism as a religion; however there are reportedly no Jordanian citizens who are Jewish. The Government does not impose restrictions on Jews, and they are permitted to own property and conduct business in the country.

So that the claim is a plain and simple lie..Jordan's Nationality Law includes the following clauses (Article 3):
    The following shall be deemed to be Jordanian nationals:

    (1)Any person who has acquired Jordanian nationality or a Jordanian passport under the Jordanian Nationality Law, 1928, as amended, Law No. 6 of 1954 or this Law;

    (2)Any person who, not being Jewish, possessed Palestinian nationality before 15 May 1948 and was a regular resident in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan between 20 December 1949 and 16 February 1954;

    (3)Any person whose father holds Jordanian nationality; (...)

And Israel signed a peace treaty with the apartheid Jew-hating country.


As for the murder of women to protect/preserve family honor, there's this there:

Jordan has been witness to a semantic battlefield associating honor crimes with Islam and tribal culture, two widely recognized components of Jordanian identity. In Jordan, however, there is a slowly emerging attempt to sever the perceived connection between national culture and the killing of women. This effort has come from above and below, with the Hashemite monarchy and grassroots organizations pushing for the abolishment of Article 340 from the Jordanian Penal Code, which offers excused or reduced punishment to male perpetrators of honor crimes.

^

Have A Hadith

Have you ever read from this:

Sahih Muslim Book 019, Hadith Number 4366 about Jihad and Expedition?

Well, here, do read:-

Chapter : Evacuation of the Jews from the Hijiz.

It has been narrated by 'Umar b. al-Khattib that he heard the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) say: I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim.

This is an authoritative opinion of mainstream Islam thought:

Sahih Muslim is a collection of sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), also known as the sunnah. The reports of the Prophet's sayings and deeds are called ahadith. Imam Muslim was a student of Imam Bukhari. He lived a couple of centuries after the Prophet's death and worked extremely hard to collect his ahadith. Each report in his collection was checked for compatibility with the Qur'an, and the veracity of the chain of reporters had to be painstakingly established. Imam Muslim's collection is recognized by the overwhelming majority of the muslim world to be one of the most authentic collections of the Sunnah of the Prophet (SAW).

Another hadith:

Sahih Sahih Muslim Book 041, Hadith Number 6985.

Sahih Muslim Book 41. Turmoil And Portents Of The Last Hour

Chapter : The Last Hour would not come until a person would pass by a grave and wish that he should have been the occupant of that grave because of this calamity.

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.

Another:

Sahih Bukhari Volume 004, Book 055, Hadith Number 546.
  
Narated By Anas : When 'Abdullah bin Salam heard the arrival of the Prophet at Medina, he came to him and said, "I am going to ask you about three things which nobody knows except a prophet: What is the first portent of the Hour? What will be the first meal taken by the people of Paradise? Why does a child resemble its father, and why does it resemble its maternal uncle" Allah's Apostle said, "Gabriel has just now told me of their answers." 'Abdullah said, "He (i.e. Gabriel), from amongst all the angels, is the enemy of the Jews." Allah's Apostle said, "The first portent of the Hour will be a fire that will bring together the people from the east to the west; the first meal of the people of Paradise will be Extra-lobe (caudate lobe) of fish-liver. As for the resemblance of the child to its parents: If a man has sexual intercourse with his wife and gets discharge first, the child will resemble the father, and if the woman gets discharge first, the child will resemble her." On that 'Abdullah bin Salam said, "I testify that you are the Apostle of Allah." 'Abdullah bin Salam further said, "O Allah's Apostle! The Jews are liars, and if they should come to know about my conversion to Islam before you ask them (about me), they would tell a lie about me." The Jews came to Allah's Apostle and 'Abdullah went inside the house. Allah's Apostle asked (the Jews), "What kind of man is 'Abdullah bin Salam amongst you?" They replied, "He is the most learned person amongst us, and the best amongst us, and the son of the best amongst us." Allah's Apostle said, "What do you think if he embraces Islam (will you do as he does)?" The Jews said, "May Allah save him from it." Then 'Abdullah bin Salam came out in front of them saying, "I testify that None has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah." Thereupon they said, "He is the evilest among us, and the son of the evilest amongst us," and continued talking badly of him.

One more, for now:

Sahih Muslim Book 019, Hadith Number 4363.

Sahih Muslim Book 19. Jihad and Expedition
 
Chapter : Evacuation of the Jews from the Hijiz.

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 (and) you will be safe. They said: Abu'l-Qasim, you have communicated (God's Message to us). The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: I want this (i.e. you should admit that God's Message has been communicated to you), accept Islam and you would be safe. They said: Abu'l-Qisim, you have communicated (Allah's Message). The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: I want this... He said to them (the same words) the third time (and on getting the same reply) he added: You should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle, and I wish that I should expel you from this land Those of you who have any property with them should sell it, otherwise they should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle (and they may have to go away leaving everything behind).

^

Are You A Jewish Archaeologist?

I wonder, could Jewish archaeologists apply to this?

a session on “The Archaeology of Southern Arabia and Her Neighbors ” at the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Meetings in Chicago, November 14-17, 2012.../covering a wide spatio-temporal swath from the Paleolithic to the Present centered on the Arabian Peninsula but including neighboring areas such as The Horn of Africa, East Africa, and South Asia. Contributions might be tied to the region thematically (e.g., pastoral nomadism, domesticates, or
agricultural strategies), methodologically (e.g., landscape
archaeology, or satellite imagery technologies) or through ancient contacts such as trade along The Red Sea, Persian/Arabian Gulf or Indian Ocean.

The deadline for submissions is February 15, 2012.

more information can be found here

Even if it is in Chiocago, you never know with those Saudis.

^

Jews in Palestine

What was will be?

The Jewish travelogue writer J. J. Binyamin recorded the following account after his 1847 sojourn in Palestine — the plight of the Jews he witnessed being consistent with their sacralized degradation under Islamic Law, and despite putative “reforms” of the Sharia imposed upon the Ottoman Muslim rulers in 1839 by the Western European powers:

Deep misery and continual oppression are the right words to describe the condition of the Children of Israel in the land of their fathers … They are entirely destitute of every legal protection and every means of safety. Instead of security afforded by law, which is unknown in these countries, they are completely under the orders of the Sheiks and Pashas, men whose character and feelings inspire but little confidence from the beginning. It is only the European Consuls who frequently take care of the oppressed, and afford them some protection. …

With unheard of rapacity tax upon tax is levied on them, and with the exception of Jerusalem, the taxes demanded are arbitrary. Whole communities have been impoverished by the exorbitant claims of the Sheiks, who, under the most trifling pretences and without being subject to any control, oppress the Jews with fresh burdens …

In the strict sense of the word the Jews are not even masters of their own property. They do not even venture to complain when they are robbed and plundered …

Their lives are taken into as little consideration as their property; they are exposed to the caprice of any one; even the smallest pretext, even a harmless discussion, a word dropped in conversation, is enough to cause bloody reprisals. Violence of every kind is of daily occurrence. The chief evidence of their miserable condition is the universal poverty which we remarked in Palestine, and which is here truly astounding … It even causes leprosy among the Jews of Palestine, as in former times.

Robbed of their means of subsistence from the cultivation of the soil and the pursuit of trade, they exist upon the charity of their brethren in the faith in foreign parts … In a word the state of the Jews in Palestine, physically and mentally, is an unbearable one.

Found here linked from here.

^

Obama on The Jews

From Remarks by the President at Reception in Honor of Jewish American Heritage Month:-

...This month is a chance for Americans of every faith to appreciate the contributions of the Jewish people throughout our history –- often in the face of unspeakable discrimination and adversity. For hundreds of years, Jewish Americans have fought heroically in battle and inspired us to pursue peace. They’ve built our cities, cured our sick. They’ve paved the way in the sciences and the law, in our politics and in the arts. They remain our leaders, our teachers, our neighbors and our friends.

Not bad for a band of believers who have been tested from the moment that they came together and professed their faith. The Jewish people have always persevered. And that’s why today is about celebrating the people in this room, the thousands who came before, the generations who will shape the future of our country and the future of the world.

A New Movement: Esther 4:14

The time to make a decision on the Iranian threat to Israel, the Middle East and the world is passing.

We may lose the opportunity.

So, knowing that some of President Obama's closest advisors and friends are those with Jewish ancestry, I call upon them to act forcefully and intelligently.

And to that end, I declare a campaign to be called

ESTHER 4:14

All you have to do is take your Bible in hand and open to this verse:

For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time,

then relief and deliverance will arise to the Jews from another place,

but thou and thy father's house will perish;

and who knoweth whether thou art not come

to royal estate for such a time as this?'

For this is the time.

The time of Esther 4:14.

Jewish Football - & Chabad

I've included a story on him before, but why not today's NYTimes story.

A Jew, football, super bowl, Chabad.

Anti-Appeasement to Islam Plea

Found here:

Jews have not invented appeasement but they have mastered it to such an extent that in Iran they have earned the reputation for cowardice. I cannot tell you how many jokes I heard about the timidity of the Jews when I was growing up in Iran. Appeasement is always perceived as cowardice. It actually emboldens the bully who sees appeasement as the sign of weakness.

Yathreb, later named after Muhammad, “Madinat al Nabi” (Prophet’s Town), was home to three Jewish tribes. When Muhammad invaded one of those tribes, the other two did not come to help. They feared for their own lives and decided not to anger the tyrant. After Muhammad banished the Bani Qainuqa tribe and took possession of their belongings, he turned his attention to the Bani Nadir. Again the other tribe did not come to the defense of their brethrens. Muhammad banished the Bani Nadir and confiscated their belongings. At this time the Meccans attacked Medina. They came to punish Muhammad for all his raids and robberies. They asked the Bani Quraiza, the remaining Jewish tribe for help. But the Bani Quraiza feared that the Meccans may retreat leaving them at the mercy of Muhammad and refused to help. They even provided Muhammad with picks and shovels to dig a ditch around Medina, which protected him against the invaders.

In the cold of the winter, the army led by Abu Sufyan waited behind the ditches for the Bani Quraiza to join them in the battle. The Jews made excuses and did not show up. Eventually, Abu Sufyan’s patience wore out. He gathered his men, cursed the Jews and returned home.

No sooner than his army left the encampment, Muhammad laid siege on the fortress of the Bani Quraiza, cut off their supply of water and when they surrendered he beheaded all the men and threw their corpses in a ditch that had been dug with their own picks and shovels. He then took their wives and children as slaves.

The British rabbis are making the same mistake made by the rabbis of Yathreb. Should Muslims come to power, the Jews would be the first to lose their freedom and maybe their lives. Can’t the Harrow rabbis see the unbounded hatred that Muslims show towards the Jews? Do they really think all that hatred will go away through appeasement?

Although the Jews in Diaspora try to distance themselves from their brethren in Israel and some go as far as to malign and condemn the “evil Zionists,” Muslims’ enmity towards the Jews did not start with the state of Israel. Muslims hated the Jews before Israel existed and will continue to hate them even if Israel is nuked to extinction. The source of this hatred is in the Quran.

How can Muslims befriend the Jews when the Quran (9:29) says fight them, subdue them, and make them pay Jizyah (protection free) submissively? How can they like the Jews when the Quran (5:13) says “We have cursed them.” How can they be tolerant of the Jews when the Quran says, the Jews “strive to do mischief on earth” and their punishment specified in 5:33 is: “they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land?”

The belief that Muslims will ever accept the Jews as equals is a delusion. This delusion is the result of the ignorance of the Quran and Islam. Because Muhammad was inimical to the Jews, Muslims will keep their hatred of the Jews alive until the “Last Day,” when they believe, stones and trees will call them, “Oh slave of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.”

The Harrow rabbis hope to ensure the safety of the Jews through appeasement. Muslims see this as the sign of weakness. They will intensify their hostility, expecting the Jews to bend over backwards and appease them more. This is how bullies react to appeasement. The more you give the more they want. Meanwhile they despise you for your weakness.

Appeasement is a mistaken policy. The Bani Quraiza paid for their mistake with their lives. Had they come to the help of the Meccans and fought against Muhammad, Islam could have been defeated and ended then. They were massacred and an estimated 280 million lives were lost throughout these 1400 years as the result of their timidity.

(Kippah tip: BT)

A Description I Recognize

There's a play on Broadway on German Jews, the Catskills and the early 1960s.

The main female character is described thus:-

A statuesque woman who wears her sorrows like jewelry, Eva is witty, well bred and at times cozy in the manner of a doting Jewish aunt. But she is also, always, on the qui vive, ready to deflect any bid to break into the willfully isolated world she has created.

I think I have known persons like that.

The Jewels of Medina Were The Jews of Medina

Here's the NYTimes' review of the new book, "The Jewel of Medina".

Actually, the real "jewels" of Medina were its Jews:

Muhammad arrived in Medina in 622 believing the Jewish tribes would welcome him. Contrary to expectation, his relations with several of the Jewish tribes in Medina were uneasy almost from the start...Certain individual pagans and recent Medinan converts to Islam tried to thwart the new arrangement in various ways, and some of the Jewish clans were uneasy with the threatened demise of the old alliances. At least three times in five years, Jewish leaders, uncomfortable with the changing political situation in Medina, went against Muhammad, hoping to restore the tense, sometimes bloody-but predictable-balance of power among the tribes.

According to most sources, individuals from among these clans plotted to take his life at least twice, and once they came within a bite of poisoning him. Two of the tribes--the Banu Nadir and the Banu Qaynuqa--were eventually exiled for falling short on their agreed upon commitments and for the consequent danger they posed to the nascent Muslim community...

...As a siege began, the Banu Qurayza nervously awaited further developments. Learning of their intention to defect and realizing the grave danger this posed, Muhammad initiated diplomatic efforts to keep the Banu Qurayza on his side. Little progress was made. In the third week of the siege, the Banu Qurayza signaled their readiness to act against Muhammad, although they demanded that the Meccans provide them with hostages first, to ensure that they wouldn't be abandoned to face Muhammad alone. Yet that is exactly what happened. The Meccans, nearing exhaustion themselves, refused to give the Banu Qurayza any hostages. Not long after, cold, heavy rains set in, and the Meccans gave up the fight and marched home, to the horror and dismay of the Banu Qurayza.

The Muslims now commenced a 25-day siege against the Banu Qurazya's fortress. Finally, both sides agreed to arbitration. A former ally of the Banu Qurayza, an Arab chief named Sa'd ibn Muadh, now a Muslim, was chosen as judge. Sa'd, one of the few casualties of battle, would soon die of his wounds. If the earlier tribal relations had been in force, he would have certainly spared the Banu Qurayza. His fellow chiefs urged him to pardon these former allies, but he refused. In his view, the Banu Qurayza had attacked the new social order and failed to honor their agreement to protect the town. He ruled that all the men should be killed. Muhammad accepted his judgment, and the next day, according to Muslim sources, 700 men of the Banu Qurayza were executed. Although Sa'd judged according to his own views, his ruling coincides with Deuteronomy 20:12-14.

Most scholars of this episode agree that neither party acted outside the bounds of normal relations in 7th century Arabia.

and here:

Many Medinans converted to the faith of the Meccan immigrants both before and after Muhammad's emigration, but only a few came from Jewish backgrounds because most of the Jewish community rejected Muhammad's status as a prophet. Their opposition "may well have been for political as well as religious reasons". According to Watt, "Jews would normally be unwilling to admit that a non-Jew could be a prophet."...In the Constitution of Medina, Jews were given equality to Muslims in exchange for political loyalty. However, after each major battle with the Medinans, there were accusations of Jewish tribal treachery for aiding the enemies of the community in violation of the Constitution of Medina. After Badr and Uhud, the Banu Qainuqa and Banu Nadir, respectively, were expelled "with their families and possessions" from Medina.

We're One Happy Family or What?

in ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN bestselling author Jon Entine vividly brings to life the profound human implications of the Age of Genetics while illuminating one of today's most controversial topics: the connection between genetics and who we are, and specifically the question "Who is a Jew?"

Entine weaves a fascinating narrative, using breakthroughs in genetic genealogy to reconstruct the Jewish biblical tradition of the chosen people and the hereditary Israelite priestly caste of Cohanim. Synagogues in the mountains of India and China and Catholic churches with a Jewish identity in New Mexico and Colorado provide different patterns of connection within the tangled history of the Jewish diaspora. Legendary accounts of the Hebrew lineage of Ethiopian tribesmen, the building of Africa's Great Zimbabwe fortress, and even the so-called Lost Tribes are reexamined in light of advanced DNA technology. Entine also reveals the shared ancestry of Israelites and Christians.

As people from across the world discover their Israelite roots, their riveting stories unveil exciting new approaches to defining one's identity. Not least, Entine addresses possible connections between DNA and Jewish intelligence and the controversial notion that Jews are a "race apart." ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN is a compelling reinterpretation of biblical history and a challenging and exciting illustration of the promise and power of genetic research.

Source.

And the book's site here.

A Bit of Positive Propaganda

This is making the rounds:-




This year Islam and Judaism's holiest holidays overlapped for 10 days. Muslims racked up 397 dead bodies in 94 terror attacks across 10 countries during this time...while Jews worked on their 159th Nobel Prize.