State of Israel: Ultimate Display of Antisemitism

By Spahic Omer

By virtue of being the final messenger of God to mankind and the Seal of all prophets, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) was the savior of the world. By reviving, confirming and complementing the divine messages of the earlier prophets, he was the prophet for the Jews (the Israelites or the Children of Israel) as well. 

Hence, both the primordial ontological purpose and all the Covenants of God with His creation, including those of the Jews, were duly fulfilled in the personality, mission and legacy of Prophet Muhammad. That is why Prophet Muhammad succeeded to the extent where no other prophet “ or indeed anybody else in history – did, his universal revealed guidance (the Holy Quran and his Sunnah) has been perfectly preserved, and his civilizational legacy remained pure, flawless and an everlasting source of inspiration and guidance for posterity.

When Prophet Muhammad arrived on the scene, the Jews were living their tragic and unsolicited lives. Torn between the prospects of pursuing the shattered and clearly unattainable dreams and living the realities of the imposed life of exile (diaspora), national homelessness and suffering, there was no light at the end of the tunnel. It certainly seemed so, however, Prophet Muhammad was sent as the last hope and a new lease of life, targeting each and every segment of human race: the oppressed and the oppressor, the weak and the strong, as well as the dishonored and the honored. Everyone, individually and collectively, was afforded the opportunity of absolution and, thus redeemed plus rejuvenated, to move on with a clean slate. 

Because Muhammad was given as a mercy to all worlds, yet all creation, (al-Anbiya 107), all people were special and were Gods (chosen) people, and the whole earth was a promised land, in that man as a species has been created as the vicegerent or custodian of God on earth, and the whole earth has been rendered pure and a place of worship (a masjid or mosque). In Islam, in a way, everything and everyone is special, to some extent even holy.

Through the last Prophet, the Jews were given a choice: to follow him, redeem themselves and participate in the fulfillment of the Covenants, or to stay put and, abandoned and cursed by the Almighty God and their prophets, continue as international pariahs to live their troubled lives. History is evidence that only a small portion of the Jews selected the former option, whereas the majority favored the second one. 

Accordingly, instead of reverting to the right path, restoring the Promised Land as the land of the ultimate truth and as part of a bigger and more consequential promised land (context), that is the whole earth, and living the lives of authentic devotion, obedience and self-worth, most Jews “ remaining faithful to the patterns of their rebellious ancestors “ resorted to the prospects of waywardness, abandonment “ at once heavenly and earthly – isolation, suppression and ill-treatment, all in the name of their institutionalized narrow-mindedness, stubbornness, conceit and religious nationalism.

Despite this, the principles of tolerance, justice and peaceful coexistence were firmly established as fundamental rights for the Jewish community within the realm of Islam and its governance. Moreover, owing to its inclusive character, the access to Islam has never been restricted for the Jews. Muslims are ever ready to welcome and embrace them as their brethren. Their status was and remained the one of the œPeople of the Book, hence Muslims are obliged to deal with them impartially and to argue with them in the most beautiful “ and most productive – way. 

As a small digression, Islam is intrinsically only against the lack of freedom, injustice, oppression and cruelty, regardless of who or where they may come from. Indeed, the Islamic notions of general acceptance, fair-mindedness and justice are devoid of bias towards any specific religion, race, culture or society. It transcends their artificial boundaries, operating at a higher level of meaning and experience. All people are the sons of Adam, created from soil and share the same existential destiny.

Surely, whatever befell the Jews throughout history – such as regular genocides, abuses, diaspora, ghettos, pogroms, antisemitism, stereotyping and scapegoating “ were nothing but manifestations of Gods wrath against them, the consequences of their rejection or violation of His Covenants, and the effects of the causes they themselves were laying out for thousands of years. In short, the Jews keep harvesting what they had sowed. The enormity of their predicaments is in direct correlation to the enormity of the privileges and responsibilities that had once been bestowed upon them.

The creation of the illegitimate geopolitical entity of Israel in Palestine in 1948 is the latest indicator of the persistent and apparently insolvable Jewish problem. Many believe that the existence of Israel is a good thing, however, they are mistaken. Apart from being illegal and unjustifiable – as much from the religious perspective of the mainstream Judaism as the perspective of rationality according to which each form of tyrannical occupation is illegal – Israel has been created because of the accepted wisdom that the Jews were not safe anywhere, especially in the West, the source of all recent Jewish sufferings. 

Given that they could be neither accepted nor integrated into Western societies, the Jews had to be driven away “ gotten ridden of “ and confined to a distant and isolated place, like any other œplague that refuses to go away. The state of Israel is an undeniable proof from the West that the historical misfortunes of the Jews were unavoidable, yet for the most part warranted, due to which the same trends were set to continue, for as long as there are underlying forces and catalysts, there will invariably be corresponding outcomes. 

So, the creation of Israel was a message to the Jews and also the world that prevention is better than cure, that the West refused to take the blame for the problems at hand, and that they wanted to pass the responsibilities “ and guilt – to another party (domain). Moreover, and perhaps most damagingly for the Jews and their future prospects, the illegal and repressive Israel entity pitted the Jews against their only friend and ally: Muslims, thereby narrowing down their outlooks and hopes to a zero.

The modern state of Israel is not a promised, but cursed, land for the Zionist Jews. It serves as the climax and, at the same time, most distressing display of antisemitism. It is a microcosm of everything a true Jew will never wish for, and of everything a true antagonist of Judaism and the Jews will ever want.

There were many in the Jewish circles who were able to understand this, voicing their disproval for the creation of Israel as an illicit entity within a foreign context. Such a move was bound to divest the Jews of whatever rights and statuses they were able to secure over ages for themselves in countries across the world. Once a new state of Israel was created, the Jews all over the world will be branded strangers in their own lands, and their hard-won position as citizens and nationals of those lands will be undermined. They will then be required to relinquish what is known and established in exchange for what is uncharted and precarious.

One of those enlightened and able to forecast the future was Edwin Montagu, an influential anti-Zionist Jew and the only Jew in a senior British government position, who wrote a memorandum to the British government in conjunction with the declared British willingness to establish in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people, later resulting in the Balfour Declaration. 

In the memorandum, Edwin Montagu was clear that the idea of a Jewish nationhood was anomalous, for œthere is not a Jewish nation; that Palestine was not œassociated with the Jews or properly to be regarded as a fit place for them to live in; and that œwhen the Jews are told that Palestine is their national home, every country will immediately desire to get rid of its Jewish citizens. 

Edwin Montagu titled his memorandum as, œOn the Anti-Semitism of the Present (British) Government, implying that œthe policy of His Majesty’s Government is anti-Semitic, (and) in result will prove a rallying ground for anti-Semites in every country in the world. In short, the formation of Israel was destined to be a mistake, bringing about more detrimental effects than advantageous ones for the Jewish population.

It follows that Israel proves that the West is a sworn enemy, whose animosity connived that the Jews lose whatever little positive options they had. While historically the whole world was banishing and oppressing the Jews, it was only Muslims who kept extending a helping hand to them. Only in Islamdom could they find a sanctuary, and in Muslims a protective friend. While everywhere else they were œin exile, in Islamdom the Jews were œat home.

The genocidal behavior of Israel towards the people of Palestine in particular and Muslims in general – which is wholeheartedly backed by the institutionalized West – is making the Jews lose the friendliness and support of the Muslim world as well. When that happens, the only party that will celebrate will be the West. They will boast to themselves that they have done it again, albeit in such a smart way that both the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and the Roman general later emperor Titus will be as much proud as jealous. 

The West killed two birds, in the form of Muslims and Jews, with a single stone, which is the creation of the Zionist Israel as the most functional framework for the achievement of the ultimate Jewish banishment, isolation and perhaps even annihilation. ***

(Assoc. Prof. Dr. Spahic Omer is an academic in the Department of History and Civilisation, AbdulHamid AbuSulayman Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia.)