As God is Their Witness

It would however necessitate a simple investigation to know the truth regarding the matter. In fact, this can easily be done but how? We suggest documentary evidence. It’s just like asking belligerents to present themselves duces tecum or for them to present proof.

The best proof would be the holy books as the belligerents are both ahl al-kitab or people of the book. Naturally, all Christians; Catholics or Protestants alike would also be interested in what the holy books would say. But here, as God is their witness, the Quran, the holy book of the Muslims fails to shed light as time is against it. Islam as having been taught is historically claimed to only being preached within the sixth century and collated even much much later is silent on the Palestinian cause for it was just seen in Quran not as a nation and by the Muslim conquerors as simply a land worthy of exploitation. The jizya, a special tax for non-Muslims which is the root of all evils for the Muslim conquerors to fight wars against themselves would in fact, indicate the presence of inhabitants who had always been there and allowing themselves to be taxed just so they can be allowed to stay by their foreign Muslim masters of the land. The Muslims who live there did not have to pay the special tax of course, but they have never exerted any significant effort to make themselves independent or have done anything noteworthy to claim as a standard of their own culture so that they may be called Palestinian. Palestine, in fact, as a focus of early travelogues made from observant foreign travelers to the holy land, remained a ravaged land undeveloped land where people of different faiths lived and allowed by the succeeding conquerors; who although have the power to grant independence for their brothers who are also Muslims never made the simple gesture but were just satiated by the jizya of people with other faiths. In other words, there was never any Palestinian state to speak of until the Jews planned to come back from their diaspora.

However, the Muslims could lay claim that the Quran mention the Masjid of Jerusalem on the very site of the Temple Mount which the Romans laid waste in 70 AD as prophesied by the Christ. According to Mohammed’s account of his fantastic journey he led Isa (Jesus) and other holy characters in praying within this place of worship. Likewise, this is also the holy place where the great rock was from where he commenced his ascent into heaven. If this night journey was indeed true, Muslim scholars would argue that perhaps the Palestinians have built the said Masjid which is why, the prophet had a common place to pray within in Jerusalem. But this claim would become problematic if we study history. This is because when the first Caliph, Umar, the Great allegedly came to Jerusalem the Temple Mount was still in rubbles with no “rock upon a rock” as I already mentioned, prophesied by unrecognized Messiah. Therefore, Mohammed’s account of the Masjid al Aqsa or whatever masjid it was not yet in existence since no architectural attempt or construction had been made there after the Temple’s destruction. Even the fact that that here was no rock standing over another rock had been questioned by some smart historians that such a thing was impossible judging from the fact that some buildings of antiquity had withstood sieges and burnings. We, in Sanhedrin have studied the matter and realized that the stones used for the second temple had exploded due to conflagration as Titus’ Roman soldiers failed to heed his orders not to burn the Temple built by Herod. In fact, the wailing wall is not part of the Temple but rather part of the retaining wall to keep the soil of the mount from eroding. Consequently, Mohammed’s night journey or the Mi Raj I hereby proven to be just a mirage or a figment of the prophet’s imagination. Even if Caliph Ali’s coming to Jerusalem is proven to be true, even he would not find any masjid there which would invite scholars to think that Palestinian Muslims built one already because Ali, the first Shiah Imam died far away from both Mecca and Jerusalem in 661. Abd al Malik Ibn Marwan had the Dome on the Rock constructed around 691 yet with Umayyad Caliph Al Walid constructing the Haram al Sharif (the noble sanctuary) and therefore the Jamia-al-Aqsa only in 705 CE. What we mean here is that there was no mention of any Palestinian Muslim who had anything to do with these holy constructions when in fact Jerusalem is holy also to all Muslims. Why would the Palestinians who claimed to have kept the faith through all these times not be mentioned if the Palestinian state was in existence as claimed?

In fact, the term Palestine etymologically speaking comes from the word Philistine, the pernicious enemy of the people of Israel since the time of the judges (Samson) to the time of the kings (David) and would mean “cruel people, or unfeeling foe” as what they like to call themselves as worshippers of Dagon during the Old Testament times. It was providential that the periphery of Jerusalem and the holy sites would be referred to before as Palestina following the Roman tradition of naming it all as part of the Roman province. The Arabs of this periphery chose to use Palestine to conjure historicity or link with the past especially when the Jews were already coming in droves the newly-established state of Israel.

And yet, the witness of the Holy Bible can not be undermined. Israel was the Promised Land of Yahweh to the Jews. If the Quran can not be made a credible proof, the Bible can be, as it is replete with the fulfilment of the Promise made by God and what is happening today is just the unraveling of the prophecies made of the return of its people and how it would progress phenomenally. In 1947, the United Nations voted for Resolution 181 for the partition of Palestine into two separate states; the Jewish and the Arab states. 33 nations against thirteen voted in its favor with ten countries abstaining. The Jews accepted the terms of the resolution although historically, the kingdom of Israel was much larger territorially, they were happy given a place of their own. But the Arabs did not and adopted the name Palestine for their state which meant they wanted the whole of it, as from that formerly occupied by Rome. And so, Eretz Israel was declared a state by David ben Gurion on May 14, 1948 while Palestine Authority meandered on what else to do and ended organizing the People’s liberation Army which goal was to expel the Jews from their fatherland dramatically.

Benjamin Netanyahu was clear in his definition of the events unfolding in the recent Israel-Hamas conflict. There was a time when much of the areas being claimed now were simply barren and underdeveloped. And yet, when the Jews came and developed them into kibbutz farms, the land simply grew and blossomed producing the best produce available in the world market today. Mao Ze Dong had his Great Leap Forward and so did Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khruschev with their developmental agro-industrial collective communes which were well-supported by the Chinese and Russian socialist governments, respectively but there was the factor of Godliness missing and these totally-artificial attempts simply failed and produced famines and hopelessness. The Israeli kibbutz system was simply different in that the real spirit of brotherhood and cooperation was manifest because they believed that this is part of God’s plan and they believe in Yahweh.

Perhaps, the Filipinos, the new wandering people of the world ought to learn from this. The Green Revolution should have succeeded with the bayanihan spirit after it was launched during the time of Ferdinand Marcos in the 70s. But the Filipinos then were into a cultic following, not in the real sense of following God’s plan for a Catholic Philippines. There were several cults then which considered Da Apo their god and they were not corrected. Even the priesthood was silenced and discontinued their prophetic duty of telling the people what was the truth. And this same mistake happened easily again in the microcosm of Socorro in Surigao del Norte. It was good that some people stood up and spoke before it could become a bigger problem again like the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association in Dinagat Island. Faith is ordained by God as a theological virtue and does not grow out of self-study and indulgence and therefore is focused on God and not just a creation. What Mao did although he masterminded the Cultural Revolution was to start a cult following which made his person the focus of the cult. Stalin and Khruschev did just that based on the cult of Leninism which declared religion as the Opium of the people. In the case of Islam, it would have qualified as a real religion but it was the prophet which had become the focus of the faith; the standard of the Muslim had become what Mohammed has done and would do in a given situation and not what Allah wants.

This is illustrated by the fact that Mohammed could change what Allah had in mind to be the standard of faith because he just wanted to satiate himself such as in the case of the ladies who were subjects of his lewd desires; Zaynab and Mary, the Copt. Or do these events simply mean that Allah is not a real god such that he is subservient to the human whims of his chosen prophet? Or his teachings are even subject to the interpretation of mere ayatollahs and imams?

If this is the case, Mindanao, the Philippines’ land of promise can never be secure such as the areas predominantly inhabited by Islamic extremists. Because they will simply classify as: of Dar al Islam or Dar al Tawhid, Dar al Ahd or Dar al Sulh, or Dar al Harb. The first is where Pax Islamica exists such that all Muslims are secure under an Islamic government, and whose periphery is also secured with no non-Muslim area in operation. The second is where a certain truce or treaty is in place between Muslims and no-Muslims. The third is simply a territory of war where Muslims can can always wage war with because the said abode/state is inhabited by infidels. Now, of course this is not a teaching of peaceful god or a religion of peace. We would say it is very akin to the worship of Dagon. And very Philistine, at that!

Icarus Leido
Tariq Suleiman