Umno vs Anwar vs PAS: Difference of opinion does not make a Muslim a lesser Muslim

Anwar Ibrahim from PKR has clarified his remarks on the existence of Israel by saying he was referring to a “two-state solution”, and that his support was also contingent on Israel respecting the aspirations of Palestinians. The opposition leader stressed that his remarks meant that he supported a two-state solution, which he said was also mentioned by Foreign Minister Anifah Aman (BN) when the latter addressed the United Nations General Assembly in September last year.

Abdul Hadi Awang from PAS was reported to have said that Palestine, being one of the three holy lands for Muslims, did not just belong to the Palestinians, and that all Muslims had a religious duty to ensure the state’s sovereignty and independence.

Difference of opinion does not make a Muslim a lesser Muslim. It is encouraged in Islam as it sprouts ideas and helps promote a thinking society. It is food for thought for the human kind in a modern society.

Schools of thought

We obviously need to oppose the expansionist and oppressive policies of Israel and condemn their atrocities towards the Palestinians as much as the war carnage, despotism and protracted sufferings of people in some other despotic countries.

Politics at times surpasses religion when it comes to the issue of Israel. Some UMNO politicians look at the Israeli issue from the political point of view and not from the Qur’anic perspective. Some Opposition politicians too employ the same prong. The Palestinian-Israeli issue is always pulsated by UMNO or PAS to win Malay-Muslim votes. They seldom engage their voters with an intellectual discourse to validate or invalidate the existence of the Promised Land for the Jews as stipulated in the Holy Scriptures. Even some Arab countries do the same at the surface level to instil hatred among their people for Israel merely to safeguard the status quo in power. But at a deeper level some Sunni dominated Arab nations work tacitly with Israel to hold back Syiah influence in the region. There are also Muslim countries in support of Israel and condemns Iran just to be in the good book of the US. The equation on the Israeli state is ostensibly a multifaceted one but not without a way out.

According to some social critics, the real problem among Muslims is that some politicians are capable of distorting the interpretation of the Qur’an on Israel but instead use anti-Israel stance as a political tool to win votes. Unfortunately, the majority of the less enlightened electorate believe in their noxious propaganda.

Be that as it may, there are at least two schools of thought among Muslims as to the existence of an Israeli state. One line of thought is that it does not recognise Israel as a sovereign state and define it as an illegal entity that are against Islamic principles.

The other line of thought is the acceptance of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. This has been acknowledged by many Arab states, the United Nations and many other countries. In other words, Israel has the right to exist or co-exist with the Palestinians under two separate states.

The Jews

Israel was established on 14 May 1948 as the homeland for the Jewish people. Over 40 percent of the world's Jews (of about 5.5 million) now live in Israel, more than in any other country. Israel now has a population of about 7.3 million people out of which 5.5 million are Jews. Out of about 4 million people in the West Bank and Gaza 0.3 million or 7.3 percent are Jews. This upshot represents the historical triumph of Zionism, unparalleled in any other Jewish political movement in the past 2000 years.

However, Jewish occupation of Palestinian land has always been rocked by fracas. The UN General Assembly (1975) passed Resolution 3379, which said "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination". According to the resolution, "any doctrine of racial differentiation of superiority is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust, and dangerous." The resolution named the occupied territory of Palestine as an example of a racist regime.

Zionism has been characterised by political scientists as colonialism and it has been criticised for promoting unfair taking away of territory, involving expulsion of indigenous peoples, and causing violence towards the rightful people of the land.

Mahatma Gandhi (1938) rejected Jewish Zionism in a very laconic and spiritual tone, saying that the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine is a religious act and therefore must not be performed by force. He wrote, "Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs. They should seek to convert the Arab heart.”

The confusion among most Muslims is when they lump the Zionists together with the peace-loving Jews. The Jews as a race is just like any other race but the Zionists among them are those who have tarnished the image of the innocent Jews and oppressed the Palestinians. The Zionists are branded by some political scientists – the like of Noam Chomsky– just like the imperialists, conquerors and colonialists of the past.

The Zionists in Israel have notably created a big blunder pillaging, acquiring more land and ousting the people living in those acquired territory. This expansion policy of Israel has no doubt incurred the wrath of the Palestinians and the Muslim world. The Palestinians are made up of 80 percent Muslims and about 10 percent Christians. The protracted antagonism in Palestine is in reality not between Islam and Judaism but more nationalistic in nature. It is the people of Palestine against the Zionists among the Jews.

To some countries in Europe before World War II, the Jews were perceived as a threat to their economy and thus the hatred for them. The Jews are, in truth, intelligent people who have contributed a lot to the human kind in all spheres of knowledge including the sciences and humanity. From scientists to inventors and philosophers of democracy, socialism or communism are attributed to the ingenuity of the Jews. They are indeed the Chosen People as described of them in the Torah, Bible and the Qur’an.

Prophecy in the Bible and Qur’an

The concept “state” or “nation” never existed in the Islamic world of those days. Muslims were only referred to as an Islamic fraternity (community) and it was a continuum – a phenomenon transcending racial boundaries. On any land at that time – just like it is today – there were people of all religions – Muslims, Christians, Jews and others living within an expanse of territory. For this reason, Islam till today does not champion nationalism as there was never an ‘Islamic nation’ at that time. What existed was the influence of Islam. Islam talks about Islamic brotherhood not nation or nationalistic brotherhood. The concept of nation or nationalism is secular or western in nature. The Western world brought in the concept of state to nations to divide people according to different rulers, race or religion.

But going by the prophecy in the Bible and Qur’an the Jews were promised a land for their people. And we have seen – as prophesised or upon God’s design – the creation of a state for the Jews after World War II.

Believers of the Abrahamic faiths are all aware of this prophecy. Today a state is created for the Jews who were before this diasporas for over 2000 years and often persecuted in many countries where they chose to reside. Sympathetic towards their cause has made many countries feel that efforts must be made to protect the security of the state of Israel.

The present conflict between the Palestinians and Israel is more of territorial than religious reason per se. When Israel further occupied Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Golan Heights in the 1967 war the trouble exacerbated. The Palestinians on this occupied land were displaced. The plight of the displaced and oppressed Palestinians later became the concern of all nations, including the peace-loving Jews themselves who feel that they should learn to co-exist with people of other faiths in Palestine instead of provoking and alienating them.

From the Divine perspective

Nevertheless, to many social critics the best approach to this political ambiguity is to base one’s perspective on the Holy Books of the Abrahamic faiths. The right for Israel to exist has been debated by many Muslim and non-Muslim scholars based on the Qur’an, Bible and Torah. The Qur'an, for instance, explicitly says that Allah gave the land of Israel to the Jews and will reinstate them to it at the end of days.

And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, "Dwell securely in the land (of promise)": but when the second of the warnings came to pass, We gathered you together in a mingled crowd. (Qur’an 17:104)

The Qur'an evidently recognises the Land of Israel as the heritage of the Jews and explains that, before the Last Judgment, Jews will return to reside there. This miraculous prophecy has already been fulfilled.

To some scholars there is no convincing reason which proscribes Muslims from recognising Israel as it has been explicitly promised to them a Land in the Abrahamic Holy Scriptures.

Scholars have based their opinions on a theological analysis of dependable religious sources. Thus, presenting the Jewish return to Israel as a Western invasion and the ploy of Zionists as invader is only from the non-metaphysical view point. This has no basis in authentic Islamic or any other Abrahamic faith. According to the Qur'an, no person, people or religious community can claim a permanent right of possession over any territory. The Earth belongs exclusively to God, and He is free to entrust sovereignty over land to whomever He likes for any time period that He desires.

Say, "O Allah , Owner of Sovereignty, You give sovereignty to whom You will and You take sovereignty away from whom You will. You honour whom You will and You humble whom You will. In Your hand is [all] good. Indeed, You are over all things competent. (Qur’an: 3:26)

From the above Qur'anic verse scholars have deduced that God chooses as He likes in the relationship between peoples and countries. Sometimes He bestows a land to a people, and sometimes He seizes His possession back and grants it to another people.

It can be said that God bestows as a reward for rightfulness and takes back as a punishment for impiety. God's ways are not always empirical to our bare minds. It transcends the human intellect. But evidently the prophecies that have been cited in the Holy Books have come true on the Israeli state.

Nationalism, not Islam

To some scholars Arab opposition to the State of Israel is more based on nationalism, not Islam. Israel is a successful democratic state much to the envy of some Arab countries close by. It is a more direct threat to some Arab regimes as Israel borders on the Arab countries and is in the hub of the Middle East. Any normal relations between their countries and Israel would enable the oppressed citizens of these Arab states to measure up to the democracy and advanced society in Israel and their backward state of affairs.

Besides, using Islam as an implement for political warfare against Israel finds a major impediment in the Qur'an itself. Both the Bible and the Qur'an state obviously that the right of the Jews to the Land of Israel does not depend on take-over or conquest. This right has been preordained by Almighty God Himself.

Both the Torah and Islamic Scriptures epitomise that God, through His chosen servant Moses, decided to liberate the offspring of Jacob from slavery in Egypt and to constitute them as heirs of the Promised Land.

The Qur'an narrates the prose by which Moses enjoined the Israelites to possess the Land:

"And [remember] when Moses said to his people: 'O my people, call in remembrance the favour of God unto you, when he produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave to you what He had not given to any other among the peoples. O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.'" [Qur'an 5:20-21]

Not religious in nature

Jerusalem and Masjid al-Aqsa hold such a sacred pose in Islamic faith. The most common spat against Muslim acceptance of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem is that, since Jerusalem is a Holy Place for Muslims, Muslims cannot recognise that it is governed by Jews. To them, such acknowledgement is perfidious. Traditionally, inserting Jerusalem among Islamic holy places has its source in al-Mi'raj – the Ascension of the Prophet Muhammad to heaven. The Ascension began at the Rock, recognised by Muslim scholars as the Foundation Stone of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem referred to in Jewish traditions.

The Qur'an explicitly recognises that Jerusalem plays for Jews the same role that Mecca does for Muslims. And some scholars divulge that there is no bond between al-Miraj [the Ascension] and Muslim autonomy over Jerusalem. When al-Miraj took place, Jerusalem was not under Islamic but Byzantine administration..

Since Islamic anti-Judaism is quite recent, these scholars construe that anti-Jewish sentiments espoused by some Islamic leaders are, in fact, not religious in nature but rather political. Therefore, from an Islamic point of view there is no fundamental reason which prohibits Muslims from recognising Israel as a friendly State. They believe that Islam is not the factor preventing normalisation between Arabs and the State of Israel. It is more a political issue and the preservation of political power among present Muslim states nearby Israel than religion per se.

Unfortunately, there are Muslims who believe that they must fight against Israel until they are completely destroyed. This will only end up in disaster and escalate into a dreadful war involving many nations. The Jews on their part feel that they have suffered long enough and millions of their people perished in many parts of the world due to political persecution. They will certainly not stand idle to be demolished like worn-out dolls. They will retaliate and they have all the means to do so. Only through God’s will the Jews become diasporas again, if they are destined to this effect.

A secularised ideology

Using Islam as a basis for preventing Arabs from recognising any sovereign right of Jews over the Land of Israel is just recent. Such notions are not found in traditional Islamic sources. Those who claim that Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel is something new and solely rooted in human politics denies Divine revelation and Divine prophecy as overtly expressed in the Holy Books (the Koran, Bible and Torah). The conclusion that anti-Zionism is the primordial outgrowth of Islamic faith is equally erroneous. This doctrine if accepted represents the false makeover of Islam from a religion into a secularised ideology.

Zionism is obviously abhorred by most countries and should be effectively curtailed thought continuous negotiations and non-violent means. The peace-loving Jews are followers of the Abrahamic faith and should be accorded their rights to live or co-exist with people of other faiths and creed. Thus, to many political observers, the best solution from the humanistic perspective is still to have a two-state solution to this quagmire – one for Israel and one for the Palestinians. Only God knows what He has preordained for the Jews in the future and this is beyond human intellectual capacity.

Malaysia Chronicle