Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

 
 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
May they prosper who love you
Psalm 122:6 New King James Version (NKJV)
 
It may come as a surprise to many who read the news these days  that in many respects Jerusalem could be held up as a model of peaceful coexistence. I live in a Jewish suburb surrounded by Arab villages. The large  majority of my Arab neighbors  live, work, shop and play quite peaceably with their non-Arab neighbors, and want nothing more than to get on with their lives in peace. I shop in the same shopping center  as my Arab neighbors, a center where shops are owned and operated by both Jews and Arabs. We get along just fine and I often see the little acts of kindness that ordinary people, both Arabs and Jews, carry out towards each other: a sympathetic smile for the mother with a crying baby, a seat for the elderly and so on.
 
However, sadly, there is another face of our city.  Recently there  has been a significant increase in the number of  incidents of violence, perpetrated in the main by a small minority of angry, disaffected young men.



http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24932/Default.aspx

Scenes such as the one above are becoming a daily event in Jerusalem but are largely going unnoticed by the press and even  by the residents of the city.  In the last two months there have been some 152 incidents of stabbings, rock-throwing and firebomb attacks, mainly occurring when Jews dare to stray into Arab-dominated neighborhoods.

Last  Monday (8 Sept) dozens of masked men stormed the gas station between French Hill and the Palestinian neighbourhood of Isawiyah, setting it on fire and looting the store, after a 16 year old Palestinian, Mohammed Sanuqrut had been killed during a riot earlier in the day. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.615781

A few days later a family coming to Jerusalem from Ramat Gan narrowly escaped a lynch attempt  when their GPS led them to  make a wrong turn and enter the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz, where rioters threw a volley of rocks and bricks at the vehicle  in which they were travelling.
Noam (Dabul) Dvir
Published: 09.12.14, 12:58 / Israel News   

The main target of this 'silent Intifada' is the city's new light rail transit system.Since the beginning of July, there have been over  100 instances of stone-throwing, and the throwing of Molotov cocktails  and paint at the trains, which were meant to be a symbol of the city’s unification.  CityPass, the company operating Jerusalem's light rail system, announced last Sunday morning that "due to continued and repeated rock throwing that inflicts damage to the trains, this morning we only have 16 operable trains out of a total of 23."http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4570596,00.html
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.615781



ISLAM AND VIOLENCE


Obama speaking to the American people about Islamic State (Photo: AFP)
Obama speaking to the American people about Islamic State (Photo: AFP)http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4569912,00.html
On the 10th of this month, President Obama made a speech to the American people, "about what the United States will do with our friends and allies to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL."

In this speech, among other things, he said,
"Now let's make two things clear: ISIL is not "Islamic." No religion condones the killing of innocents. And the vast majority of ISIL's victims have been Muslim. And ISIL is certainly not a state".
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4569912,00.html

Is he right? Does Islam condone the killing of innocents, or not? We can analyze the Koran, verse by verse, we can study the Hadith and Sunna, and argue academically either way. However the 'proof is in the pudding' as the saying goes. Take a look around you. Where is there violence and warfare in our world today? What drives the main terror organizations that threaten us today?  Of the 10 most deadly wars currently in progress around the world, 9 involve violent Islamic terror organizations or militias,  or struggles between competing Islamic sects or ideologies . http://www.internationalrelations.com/wars-in-progress/#syria
   
True, not all Muslims are violent, and not all Islamic sects or movements espouse violence, however violence has been an integral part of the spread of Islam since its very inception. During his lifetime Mohammed ordered 100 military expeditions and he himself took part in 27  of these. By the time Mohammed died  Muslim forces had conquered most of  the western Arabian peninsula.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_expeditions_of_Muhammad. During the period of the first four Caliphs,(632-661 AD) Islam had conquered most of the Middle East and a large part of North Africa. Under the  Ummayyad Caliphs (661-750 AD) Islam had by force  spread across northern Africa and entered even into Europe,  conquering Spain.   

Map of the spread of Islam from 622-750 AD

 http://www.maps.com/ref_map.aspx?pid=11393 

Certainly it would be difficult to convince anyone living in the Middle East today that Islam does not at least condone violence, even it does not actively promote it. 

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of the five founders of the Hamas movement, put it this way:
"Islamic life is like a ladder, with prayer and praising Allah as the bottom rung. The higher rungs represent helping the poor and needy, establishing schools, and supporting charities. The highest rung is jihad.
The ladder is tall. Few look up to see what is at the top. And progress is usually gradual, almost imperceptible ... Traditional Muslims stand at the foot of the ladder, living in guilt for not really practicing Islam. At the top are fundamentalists, the ones you see in the news killing women and children for the glory of the god of the Qur'an. Moderates are somewhere in between. "
"Son of Hamas " Mosab Hassan Yousef , 2010,Tyndall, USA

The Salafist-Jihadist movements such as Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, and now ISIL, just to name a few, attract those zealous Muslims who are drawn to desire the highest spiritual levels of Islam, namely Jihad. Although Jihad is not necessarily violent, it  has the goal of spreading Islam to the whole world by any means available. Historically and still in our times, Islam does not prohibit violence and even condones it. In Islam there is no way to be certain of forgiveness of sin, or of everlasting life, except through active participation in Jihad.
 

The Koran says this in Surah 3:157  "And if, indeed, ye be killed in Allah's way or die, surely forgiveness from Allah and mercy is better than what ye could have had on earth"  and again in Surah 16:110, "Then, verily, thy Lord, will be forgiving and merciful for those who left their homes after they had been tried and then carried out Jihad and were steadfast".  (Palmer English Translation)

 
For a fuller exposition on the violent nature of Islam see  "Islam: Religion of Peace or War?    http://my.cbn.com/pg/file/06823b10-ae06-4364-be15-72e351272f98/read/11546237/islam-religion-of-peace-or-war/