Israel vs Palestine - IDF vs Hamas - Israelis vs Palestinians - Jews vs Muslims - How did the conflicts begin? What about the Christians?

At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus.  G.S.

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Israel vs Palestine - IDF vs Hamas - Israelis vs Palestinians - Jews vs Muslims - How did the conflicts begin? What about the Christians? 

        The latest development related to the ongoing crisis / war in what is called "The Holy Land" is pitting the IDF vs Hamas, which in October 2023 attacked Israel, killed many civilians, and took hostages.

        We have all doubtless read and heard many commentaries and analyses, and perhaps even done our own research in the Internet. We are brought back to waves of Intifadas on the one hand, and to Israeli settlements on Palestinian land on the other. Further back in time, we are brought to the 1948 establishment of the independent State of Israel and the associated clearing out of Palestinian villages, called Nakba or Catastrophe in the Arab world. Digging a little more, we are brought back to WW I, which ended the dominance of the Ottoman Empire in this land, succeeded by the "partition" of the land into two separate states: one Jewish and the other Arab.

What about the historical record? 

        Before the Ottoman Empire and rule (15th to 20th c. CE), there were the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods (13th to 15th c. CE), the Crusader period (11th to 13th c. CE), the Fatimid Caliphate (10th to 11th c. CE), the Abbasid Caliphate (8th to 10th c. CE), the Umayyad Caliphate (7th to 8th c. CE), the Early Muslim period (6th to 7th c. CE), the Byzantine period (4th to 6th c. CE), the Roman Province of Syria Palaestina (2nd to 3rd c. CE),  Religious developments and Jewish-Roman wars (1st to 2nd c. CE), the Herodian dynasty and Roman Judea (1st c. BCE to 1st c. CE), the Roman period (1st c. BCE), the (2nd c. to 1st c. BCE), the Ptolemaic and Seleucid eras (3rd c. to 1st c. BCE), the Hellenistic period  (4th c. to 3rd c. BCE), the Persian (Achaemenid) period (6th c. to 4th c. BCE), the  Babylonian period (7th c. to 6th c. BCE), the Assyrian invasions (8th c. to 7th c. BCE), the  Kingdoms of Israel and Judah (10th c. to 8th c. BCE), the Early Israelites and Philistines  (13th c. to 10th c. BCE), the Late Bronze Age collapse & the migration of Israelites from Egypt to Canaan (13th c. BCE), the  Egyptian dominance (16th c. to 13th c. BCE), the Early and Middle Bronze Ages (38th c. to 16th c. BCE), which included the emergence of Abraham and his descendents: both Isaac (father of Jewish tribes) and Ishmael (father of Arab tribes) (20th c. to 19th c. BCE).

A preliminary analysis of the historical record

        As you can plainly see, this particular and relatively small spot on Planet Earth has been from time immemorial a crossroads of conflicting interests and political maneuvers. We can see the origins of present day conflicts in two ways: internally and externally. From an "external" point of view, the land has been coveted by every successive empire ever to arise in the entire region. This means that whoever lived in the land, at any time, were at risk to be conquered and ruled by those powerful interests. 

        From an "internal" point of view, dissension was most definitely sown by the Patriarch Abraham and his wife Sara. Frustrated in their inability to bear a child, Sara drove her slave girl Hagar into her husband's arms and bed. They were glad when Abraham had a son by Hagar, Ishmael, who was better than no son at all. However, when angels visited them and Sara conceived and bore Isaac, she no longer wanted to have anything to do with Ishmael or his mother Hagar. Abraham was forced to send them out into the wilderness. There, she cried out to God and He rescued their lives.

Where conclusions meet observations 

        One can understand how this rejection grew into an intergenerational dissension and conflict whenever the two lines come into contact with one another. To this day, both Jews and Muslims look to Abraham as their Patriarch and father of their people, and to his two sons as the progenitors of their respective peoples, Jewish and Arab. 

        We could dig even deeper and go all the way back to the dawn of humanity and find Cain murdering his brother Abel out of jealousy and insecurity before God. Able was pure in his intentions when offering sacrifice to God; whereas Cain was deemed by God not to be pure of intention; perhaps only making sacrifice out of a sense of obligation. 

        Obviously, then, the roots of the present conflict between these two peoples run so deep as to have become ingrained almost into their respective strands of DNA. From a human point of view, there may never be any definitive resolution until one or both of them are entirely wiped out. Since both of them seem to have legitimate claim to God's favour and blessing, their annihilation is unlikely to happen.

        Hamas and some Muslim people seem dedicated to seek the entire destruction of the State of Israel and every last Jewish person living there; while Zionists and some Jewish people seem equally dedicated to seek the entire destruction of Palestine and every last Palestinian living there, whether Muslim or Christian. It now seems that the IDF is bent on the radical destruction of Gaza and its population.  

A perplexing and distressing question

        As we look at the historical record, there is a question that rises to the surface, and it is this one. Has God abandoned his Chosen People, or at least the Promised Land? The first Temple built by Solomon was destroyed some four centuries later when the people were conquered and deported on two occasions, in the 8th and 6th centuries BCE. The second Temple was still under construction during the time of Jesus of Nazareth, but it too was destroyed, this time by the Romans in 70 CE. Now there are rumours of plans to build a third Temple, but that would seem nothing more than a fantasy with the situation being as it is now. There are no doubt some fervent Jews who feel that the State of Israel is God's answer to the Shoah of the 1940's under the Nazis, and they may be right. However, it is unlikely that God would intend for them to "take over" the land as their ancestors did under the leadership of Joshua after their 40-year sojourn in the wildnerness after their "Exodus" from Egypt and their slavery under Pharaoh. 

What about the Christians?

        Whether or not the Jewish people recognize Jesus of Nazareth as their true Messiah, the fact remains that he truly existed, lived, preached, was unjustly condemned, tortured, and executed by the Romans at the insistence of the Jewish religious leaders. Christians believe that He rose from the dead, appeared to them and gave them final instructions, and ascended into Heaven at the right hand of his Father, and that shortly thereafter, He and the Father sent the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and disciples to give them power from on high. They spread out over the Mediterranean world and did as Jesus had commanded them. They proclaimed the Good News and made disciples for Jesus.

        This is now two millennia later, and the Christian faith has spread to a large portion of humanity, even as the human population has geometrically expanded to over 8 billion. It would appear that Jesus even now is proposing the only workable solution to the never-ending conflict in the Holy Land: mutual forgiveness. The time has come for Isaac and Ishmael to be reconciled to one another, and for Abel to forgive his brother Cain. Both of them in many ways are Abel and approach God with a pure heart; whereas both of them in other ways are also as Cain and are stained with the blood of their brother. 

This conflict is not unique

        This conflict in the Middle East is not unique, but it could be seen to be symbolic of every human conflict. All parties see themselves as innocent victims of the actions and policies of others. Their fears, insecurities, ambitions, greed, and drive to survive bring them to make war on those they see as enemies. To every wound, hurt, and destructive act there arises an equal and opposite reaction, and a spiral arises without a hint of ending.... Russia's war on Ukraine is a fratricidal war pitting against one another people with common origins. Both of them are Orthodox Christians. Like the conflict in the Middle East, here too there have been external forces at work. The U.S.A. never recovered from its fear of the U.S.S.R. and pushed European nations to join NATO to the very border of Russia. Hypocritically, when Russia sent missiles to Cuba, the U.S.A. was prepared to wage all out war. They don't like Russia to get too close, but hypocritically, they think it's fine for them to knock on the very door of Russia and its federation allies. 

        Mutual forgiveness. Fraternal love and respect. Justice for everyone. This is the only road to peace. Our mortal human condition precludes any possibility of walking such a road, which is why we human beings are in need of a Saviour who is God our Creator. Only He can lift us up to a higher level of being, where alone we can look upon one another and see brothers and sisters of the same family, occupying and living in our common home, Planet Earth. 

"Lord, have mercy on us. Christ is risen, alleluia!"

LINKS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Palestine

https://medium.com/migration-issues/who-has-claim-3-000-years-of-religion-in-the-land-between-23f220a697f7

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At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus.  G.S.

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© 2004-2024 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2004-2024 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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Palestinians and Israelis - Learning Each Other's Historical Narrative

At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus.  G.S.

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LEARNING EACH OTHER’S HISTORICAL NARRATIVE: Part One 

Palestinians and Israelis - This is a preliminary draft of the English translation

LEARNING EACH OTHER’S HISTORICAL NARRATIVE: Part Two 

Palestinians and Israelis - Peace Research Institute in the Middle East

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"Learning Each Other's Historical Narrative" in Israeli and Palestinian Schools

A Joint Palestinian and Israeli Curriculum Development Project 

January, 2002 - December 2007

Prof. Sami Adwan, Bethlehem University - Prof. Dan Bar-On, Ben Gurion University

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STATISTICS OF JEWS 

BY H. S. LINFIELD, PH. D.,

DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION AND STATISTICS

OF THE BUREAU OF JEWISH SOCIAL RESEARCH - 1920-1926 

JEWISH POPULATION OF EUROPE IN 1933: POPULATION DATA BY COUNTRY

REMAINING JEWISH POPULATION OF EUROPE IN 1945 
Before the Nazi takeover of power in 1933, Europe had a vibrant, established, and diverse Jewish culture. By 1945, most European Jews—two out of every three—had been killed.

Vital Statistics: Jewish Population of the World
Jewish Virtual Library (1882 - Present)

World Jewish Population 1970 

World Jewish Population 2001 

World Jewish Population 2018 

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U.N. Demographic Yearbook 1948 

U.N. Demographic Yearbook 1955 

U.N. Demographic Yearbook 1965 

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At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus.  G.S.

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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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Islamic civilization has never quite recovered from World War I - By Father Raymond J. de Souza - August 7, 2014

At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus.  G.S.

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https://nationalpost.com/opinion/father-raymond-j-de-souza-islamic-civilization-has-never-quite-recovered-from-world-war-i

National Library of Israel

After The Great War, Jerusalem was lost to Christian Europe. To this day, Muslims ask: When will it be reclaimed? Father Raymond J. de Souza - August 07, 2014  

On Monday, at the Commonwealth ceremony of remembrance in Glasgow Cathedral, the Reverend Laurence Whitley began: “We meet because on a summer’s day like this one, one hundred years ago, the world changed. Our nations and peoples found themselves in a war the like of which had never before been experienced, and the memory of which still haunts us all.”

The centenary of the outbreak of World War I is most often remarked as just that — the event that changed the world. Its effects haunt Europe’s bloodiest century.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire foundered upon nationalisms that tore apart the dual monarchy, nationalisms that would tear apart Europe again and again. The Russian monarchy fell, giving way to communist tyranny. The German monarchy fell, giving way to the unstable Weimar Republic, which in turn gave way to Nazi tyranny.

In the West, we understandably focus on the European consequences of how the world changed. Yet the effects haunt what is unfolding in the Middle East even today. The Ottoman Empire was the fourth great dynasty to fall. It is not possible to understand fully the Middle East today, with its unravelling post-WWI settlement, without attempting to understand how many Islamic eyes see that war.

With the end of the Ottoman Empire, Islam lost its geopolitical expression on the world stage. The great territories of Arabia were carved up by the British and the French, a dramatic consequence of Islam’s defeat at the hands of (what many Muslims consider) Christian Europe. More vivid still was, as an immediate consequence of that defeat, the British mandate over Palestine and the loss of Jerusalem.

The conquest of Jerusalem by Islamic armies in 636 was of utmost symbolic importance — the holy city of Judaism and Christianity had been taken. The Islamic geopolitical presence expanded and contracted over a millennium but, with the exception of the crusader interludes, Jerusalem remained a Muslim city. Jerusalem’s most distinctive features — the 7th-century Dome of the Rock and the 16th-century walls of the old city — were Muslim constructions. After WWI, it was lost to Christian Europe. When would Muslims reclaim it?

The creation of the state of Israel by the United Nations after World War II was a consequence in part of Zionism and in part the Holocaust — a safe national homeland for the Jewish people at a time when independence was coming to colonies the world over. In a contrasting view, historic Muslim lands had been lost when Islam was geopolitically weak, first to Christian Europe and then to world Jewry. The defeat of the Arab armies in 1948 only confirmed that Jerusalem had been lost only because Islam was militarily feeble. In a common Islamic reading, it is WWI, not WWII, that determined the (unjust) settlement of the Middle East.

The first sustained attempt to recapture what had been lost in WWI was the project of Arab nationalism. The Arab nation as a whole would reconstitute Islam’s geopolitical force, but largely on lines of secular nationalism. After that project catastrophically failed in the comprehensive defeat of the Six Day War of 1967, the project became less Arab and more Islamic.

The war in Gaza and the lethal expulsion of Christians from the “Islamic State” in territories of Syria and Iraq are but the latest manifestation of the internal war that dominates the Islamic Middle East. Can what was lost after WWI be reclaimed — a caliphate that will unite Muslims and restore Islamic sovereignty over Jerusalem?

The secular Arab states have made their peace, by treaty or de facto, with Israel, so the remaining option seems to be a non-state movement of jihad. To the extent that it gains political control over territory — whether in Gaza or the Sinai or the “Islamic State” or in Egypt or Libya — things go very badly for both Jews and Christians.

To present this Islamic reading of post-WWI history is neither to be sympathetic to it, much less endorse it. But it behooves us to understand it. The summer of 1914 gave rise to 77 years of European bloodshed and tyranny before the last of the evil empires was dismantled. Due in part to this global preoccupation with Europe’s pathologies, a brake was put on history in the Middle East. History is now accelerating there again. The guns of August echo still.

National Post

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/father-raymond-j-de-souza-islamic-civilization-has-never-quite-recovered-from-world-war-i

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https://nationalpost.com/opinion/scott-van-wynsberghe-the-great-wars-jihad

Wikimedia CommonsEnver Pasha, a central figure in the Young Turks movement, on a 1900s Ottoman postcard.

Scott Van Wynsberghe: The Great War’s jihad       
Special to National Post - November 9, 2012 

During a 1915-1916 standoff between British and Ottoman forces at the Suez Canal, Muslim soldiers from two Indian battalions tried to defect.

As the eleventh day of the eleventh month once again approaches, inspiring remembrance of past sacrifices, the First World War — which led to the very concept of Remembrance Day — continues to confound. Typically portrayed as a conflict that tore apart Western civilization, it is not often recognized as something else altogether, namely, an official Islamic holy war.

The Great War’s jihad has received uneven treatment from historians. Fritz Fischer, in a 1961 book on Germany’s grand strategy in the war, made clear that Berlin aimed to inflict Islamic uprisings on the colonial empires of the Allies. However, Fischer’s message had trouble getting through.

A 1973 account of the war, by David Sherman, did not mention jihad at all. As late as 1989, David Fromkin presented a survey of the Ottoman Empire for the period 1914-1918 that minimized the issue of holy war. General overviews of the First World War by Martin Gilbert (1994), David Stevenson (2004) and G.J. Meyer (2006) followed the leads of Sherman and Fromkin, saying little or nothing on the subject. If not for the efforts of such writers as Peter Hopkirk (1994), Donald M. McKale (1998) and Sean McMeekin (2010), the whole line of enquiry may have languished.

Possibly encouraging disregard for the Great War’s jihad is the fact that it partly originated in the mind of not a Muslim but an erratic infidel, Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II. Quirky and impulsive, Wilhelm had a weakness for odd ideas. (Among other things, he helped invent the paranoid racial notion of the “Yellow Peril.”) Even by his standards, however, what he did in the Middle East was unusual.

In the fall of 1898, reportedly as a means of strengthening ties with the Ottoman Empire, Wilhelm toured parts of that realm. His destinations included Jerusalem (where he dedicated a church), but it was a side-trip to Damascus that got all the attention. During a banquet in his honour on Nov. 8, he became enthusiastic and declared, “May the [Ottoman] Sultan, and his 300 million Muslim subjects scattered across the Earth, be assured that the German Kaiser will be their friend for all time.” Germany thus found itself in an alliance with the Islamic world. According to Sean McMeekin, the news was so surprising that wild stories about Wilhelm converting to Islam spread across the Middle East.

German-Ottoman relations ballooned. The years leading up to the First World War witnessed a huge engineering project, the famous “Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway,” and the number of German military personnel posted to the Ottoman Empire reached about 2,000. As well, the Ottoman Empire itself changed in ways that favoured Germany. As of 1914, there was still a sultan, but he was a figurehead, power having shifted to a revolutionary movement formally called the Committee of Union and Progress but better known as the Young Turks. Central among the Young Turks was Enver Pasha, who had received military training in Germany and had served as the Ottoman military attaché in Berlin.

On the surface, much of the above looked secular, not theological, yet a religious component lurked underneath, as shown by the career of German diplomat Max von Oppenheim. A fervent orientalist, Oppenheim had traveled across the Middle East and had been trained in Arabic and Islam at Cairo, where he served for many years in the German consulate until his retirement in 1910. Oppenheim was a strong believer in the power of Islam, and Wilhelm’s Damascus shocker created a huge opportunity for him, opening doors at the highest levels in Berlin.

Thus, when the First World War erupted in August 1914, it was a safe bet that the Ottoman Empire would join the fight on Germany’s side, and that Germany would use the Ottomans to cause Islamic trouble for the Allies. (Just as predictable was Oppenheim’s return to service: He was put in charge of a unit devoted to Middle Eastern subversion.) Sure enough, the Ottomans declared war in the following November — and then came the jihad.

The exact procedure for the Ottoman declaration of holy war has caused confusion. Some historians (Caroline Finkel, Andrew Mango and André Gerolymatos) pinpont the declaration at the Topkapi palace in Constantinople (now Istanbul) on Nov. 13. Against that, Sean McMeekin has opted for the 14th and the Fatih Sultan Mehmed mosque in the same city, with Peter Balakian agreeing on the date and Peter Hopkirk the site. There is a consensus that Sultan Mehmed Reshad V — who, technically, held the additional title of caliph, or head of the Sunni branch of Islam — was present, as was the top Ottoman cleric, Ugurplu Hayri Bey (reportedly a Young Turks appointee, says Balakian). The issuance of at least one “fetva” (that is, a fatwa or spiritual decree), and possibly up to five of them, was linked to the event.

So the holy war was on, sort of. From the beginning, results were mixed. There was no mass uprising of Muslims against the Allies — some Arabs, for example, were not so fussy on the Turks — but there were some startling moments. According to Peter Hopkirk, a regiment of Baluchi soldiers from present-day Pakistan suffered a 1915 mutiny that killed the unit’s British commander. During a 1915-1916 standoff between British and Ottoman forces at the Suez Canal, Muslim soldiers from two Indian battalions tried to defect. Historian Peter Mansfield says they were shot. In Egypt, Mansfield adds, there were two attempts to assassinate Britain’s puppet ruler there, Hussain Kemal.

London became so nervous that it asked the pro-British head of the Ismaili Muslims, the Aga Khan, to agitate in favour of the Allies. Biographer Anne Edwards claims he made enough progress that German agents tried to kill him. In Persia (now Iran) and Libya, however, he apparently had little influence.

By 1915, Persia was a mess. Such German operatives as Wilhelm Wassmuss had fanned out across the country and recruited locals for attacks on targets connected to Britain and Russia. (Although nominally independent, Persia had undergone a pre-war division into spheres of influence by those two powers.) Kidnappings, bank robberies and assassinations followed, and the British alone had to deploy 11,000 troops to quash this mischief. By the end of the war, Persia had been beaten up by all sides, giving it one more reason to hate the West.

In Libya, the Allies got another scare, this one at the hands of a religious movement, the Sanusi (or Sanussi, Senussi, Senoussi and so on). Espousing an austere form of Sufi mysticism in the early 1800s, this movement had won over tribes conducting trans-Saharan commerce and thereby became an economic force spanning much of the region. That ended in the late 1800s, as European empires advanced on all sides. Sporadic fighting with the French began in the early 1900s, followed by an Italian invasion of the whole of Libya (which was loosely held by the Ottomans) in 1911.

German and Ottoman agents were soon plying the Sanusi with guns and cash and urging them to join the jihad. Although already at war with Italy, the Sanusi attacked French positions in the Sahara during 1915-1916, wiping out the garrison at Djanet, in Algeria. Overstretching themselves, they also invaded Egypt during the same period, driving as far as the port of Mersa Matruh and grabbing a string of isolated oases near the Nile valley. The British needed some 35,000 troops to end the threat.

Ironically, as the disappointing German-Ottoman jihad fizzled out, it turned on itself. One of the Ottoman soldiers advising the Sanusi was an Arab, Jafar al-Askari (or Jafar Pasha), who would be captured by the British and would change sides. Working in concert with such British figures as Lawrence of Arabia, he aided Arab forces that had revolted against the Ottomans in 1916 and had liberated Mecca. Backfires do not get much worse than that.

National Post

 https://nationalpost.com/opinion/scott-van-wynsberghe-the-great-wars-jihad

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At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus.  G.S.

----------------------------------------------------------------

© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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The True Origin of 'Allah': The Archaeological Record Speaks

At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus.  G.S.

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The True Origin of 'Allah':
The Archaeological Record Speaks
https://sites.google.com/site/islamrkntv/09-a-the-true-origin-of-allah-the-archaeological-record-speaks
 A. The Name of God in the Bible

The God of the Old Testament is known as YHWH ()or, when pointed with the correct vowels, Yahweh. This translates as "The Self-Existent One", being derived from the Hebrew háwáh, meaning "to exist". As Allah is the name of God on the Muslim Koran (or Quran), so Yahweh is the Name of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Bible. What is particularly interesting and significant is the fact that Yahweh never appears as the name of of any deity outside the Bible. There is no record anywhere of any other tribe or religion which worhipped Yahweh. The Hebrew Name of God is unique to the Bible and its chosen people. From this alone we may deduce that the Name "Yahweh" was not borrowed from some other culture or religion. It emerged unquely within the Bible revelation.

It is claimed by Muslims that Allah is the God of the Bible and that he is mentioned in the sacred texts. This is absolutely not true. The name "Allah" does not appear once in either the Old or New Testaments. The only time God is referred to by name in the Old Testament is either as YAHWEH (meaning "He (who) is") or as a contraction, YAH. [Please note that the name "Jehovah" is not a biblical name of God but was especially 'created' by Jews afraid to pronounce the Sacred Name by combining the consonants YHWH with the vowels from adonai, meaning "Lord"].

The word alah does exist in Hebrew but it is not a proper name and it never refers to God. It has three principal meanings: (a) to curse, swear, or adjure; (b) to lament (weep); and (c) to arise, ascend, climb, go away, leap, etc.. It is an indisputable fact that ALLAH does not appear even once as the Name of God, or even of a man, in the Hebrew Scriptures. There is no word 'alah' or 'allah' in the Greek New Testament at all. It was, quite simply, unknown in the Bible world. To therefore claim that 'Allah' was the name of God in the Bible is without one single shred of evidence. God has always been known as Yahweh, or (much less frequently) by the contraction Yah.

B. Origin of the Name Allah

The word "Allah" comes from the compound Arabic word, al-ilah. Al is the definite article "the" and ilah is an Arabic word for "god", i.e. the god. We see immediately that (a) this is not a proper name but a generic name rather like the Hebrew El (which as we have seen was used of any deity; and (b) that Allah is not a foreign word (as it would have been if it had been borrowed from the Hebrew Bible) but a purely Arabic one. It would also be wrong to compare "Allah" with the Hebrew or Greek for God (El and Theos, respectively), because "Allah" is purely an Arabic term used exclusively in reference to an Arabic deity.

The Encyclopedia of Religion says: "'Allah' is a pre-Islamic name ... corresponding to the Baylonian Bel" (ed. James Hastings, Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1908, I:326).

I know that Muslims will find this hard to believe so I am now going to make many citations and present the archaeological evidence to prove conclusively that is true. Though this data will be painful for many of our readers, it is necessary to face the truth. Facts are facts, and unless you are willing to desert all logic, reason and common sense, and the evidence of your eyes, they must be faced.

C. Archaeology of the Moon-God

Pre-Islamic and Islamic Crescent-and-Star Glyphs Anatolian (left), Islamic (centre), Ancient Persian Moon-goddess (right)

Muslims worship a deity called Allah and claim that the Allah in pre-Islamic times was the biblical God, Yahweh, of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles.

Ahmed Deedat, well-known Muslim apologist, argues that Allah is a biblical name for God on the basis of "Allelujah" which he convolutes into "Allah-lujah" (What is His Name?, Durban, SA: IPCI, 1990, p.37). This only reveals that he does not understand Hebrew, for haleluyah is the contracted form of Yahweh, YAH, preceeded by the verb "to praise" (literally, Praise Yah(weh)!). His other "biblical" arguments are equally absurd. He also claims that the word "Allah" was never corrupted by paganism. "Allah is a unique word for the only God ... you cannot make a feminine of Allah", says Deedat. But what he does not tell his readers is that one of Allah's daughters was named "Al-Lat", which is the feminine form of "Allah"!

The issue here is therefore seen to be one of CONTINUITY for the Muslim's claim of continuity (from Judaism to Christianity to Islam) is essential in their attempt to convert Jews and Christians. If "Allah" is part of the flow of divine revelation in Scripture, then it is the next step in biblical religion. Thus we should all become Muslims. But, on the other hand, if Allah was a pre-Islamic pagan deity, then its core claim is refuted.

Religious claims often come to grief as a result of solid scientific, archaeological evidence. So, instead of endlessly speculating about the past, we can look to science to see what the evidence reveals. As we shall see, the hard evidence demonstrates that the god Allah was a pagan deity. In fact, he was the moon-god who was married to the sun-goddess and the stars were his daughters.

Archaeologists have uncovered temples to the moon-god throughout the Middle East. From the mountains of Turkey to the banks of the Nile, the most widespread religion of the ancient world was the worship of the moon-god. It was even the religion of the patriarch Abraham before Yahweh revealed Himself and commanded him to leave his home in Ur of the Chaldees and migrate to Canaan.

Archaeologists have uncovered temples to the moon-god throughout the Middle East (see the artistic reconstruction above based on museum artifacts, wall paintings found in ruined cities, etc. in ancient Mesopotamia). From the mountains of Turkey to the banks of the Nile, the most widespread religion of the ancient world was the worship of the moon-god.

Conclusion

The pagan Arabs worshipped the moon god Allah by praying toward Mecca several times a day; making a pilgrimage to Mecca; running around the temple of the moon-god called the Kabah; kissing the black stone; killing an animal in sacrifice to the moon-god; throwing stones at the devil; fasting for the month that begins and ends with the crescent moon; giving alms to the poor, and so on.

The fact that the Muslims worship only one god - are monotheists - does not prove that the god they worship is the True God. 

 

LINK for the full article:         https://sites.google.com/site/islamrkntv/09-a-the-true-origin-of-allah-the-archaeological-record-speaks

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At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus.  G.S.

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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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Can There Ever Be Peace in the Middle East?

At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus.  G.S.

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Can There Ever Be Peace in the Middle East? 

What is the current situation?

Jerusalem is divided. There are Israeli settlements on the Palestinian territory of the West Bank, which is considered occupied territory along with the Gaza Strip, which is isolated from the rest of the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. There are Palestinian enclaves on Israeli territory, neighbourhoods that consist primarily if not exclusively of Palestinians who for the most part are Israeli citizens.

Israel exercises control of movement in and out of Palestinian territory, causing severe restrictions of movement on Palestinians in the occupied territories; while Palestinians who are Israeli citizens enjoy more freedom of movement and activity.

The Israeli economy is fairly robust while that of the occupied territories is anaemic if not in dire straits. The State of Israel ensures very good to excellent infrastructure support and civil services; while the Palestinian authority can do fairly little for its own and the State of Israel seems rather disinterested about extending these services to the occupied territory. 

What do the parties want and need?

The People and the State of Israel need a secure and recognized homeland for the Jewish People, particularly in view of what Jews suffered during the Second World War when some six million Jews were wiped out in the Holocaust and for the first time in their history of several thousand years a serious attempt was made to annihilate them as a people

The State of Israel needs to have its capital in Jerusalem, or at least certain elements and functions of its capital city, given that other elements are already established in Tel Aviv. In addition, both the State and the People of Israel need to live in security on their own territory, without constant fear of attack or terrorist activity.

The Israelis who now live and work in settlements in the West Bank need to maintain their Israeli citizenship, their sense of belonging to the State of Israel, and the responsibilities and benefits they currently enjoy as Israeli citizens.

For their part, the Palestinian People and Palestinian Authority also need a secure and recognized homeland for Palestinian People, given their millennial history of existence as the People of Palestine. Not unlike the Jews – with all due respect for the insufferably severe losses sustained in the Holocaust – the Palestinians in the last almost century have had many of their own people displaced and reduced to the status and sorry lot of refugees.

These refugees need to have their situation resolved, one way or another. Their desire and hope is that they might return to their homeland in Palestine. Practically speaking, it is not likely that they could return to the vineyards and lands, homes and towns they lost. However, they need to be given a place of their own where they might finally land and put down roots and be free at last to leave their refugee camps.

The Palestinians also need to have their capital in Jerusalem, or at least certain elements and functions of their capital, given that like the Israelis, other elements of their capital could exist in another city or town. Again, like the Israelis, Palestinians need to live in security on their own territory, without constant fear of attack or military control, with freedom of movement, work, and freedom to enjoy all the normal activities of life in a civilized society.

What would two neighbouring states look like?

Jerusalem would continue to be a city with international status in view of its value and interest as a religious capital of the world, but also in being the single unified city consisting of capital city elements of the governments and other central public institutions of both Israel and Palestine as two separate sovereign states with unique histories intricately interwoven and entwined with the same land, the same Holy Land. As each state would exercise responsibility for its part of Jerusalem, they would collaborate through a joint mechanism for overall planning and management of the city as a whole.

Dual citizenship could be offered by both Israel and Palestine to those citizens currently living in the other state – Israelis living in Occupied Territory settlements and Palestinians living in Israel – and under certain conditions to other citizens of both countries.

Israelis living in the Jewish settlements in Palestine would become primary citizens of the new sovereign State of Palestine to which they would owe their primary taxes and from which they could expect civil services. Palestine will need time and assistance to bring its infrastructures and public services up to the standard currently offered and enjoyed in Israel.

Palestinians living in Israel, outside the West Bank, Gaza Strip, or East Jerusalem, would continue to be Israeli citizens first, with the same responsibilities and rights as any other Israeli citizen. In addition, they could partake in the new responsibilities and rights of dual citizenship of the State of Palestine.

While each sovereign state would keep and maintain its own military force, there could be a joint and shared military force for the maintenance of peace and order in the shared City of Jerusalem, along their shared borders, and perhaps even along their collective borders with other nations. This would be of particular interest given the relatively small size of the shared lands referred to internationally as “The Holy Land” but also in view of their respective people’s connection with the peoples of the nations of the world. It would be of mutual benefit for these two states to collaborate in assuring together the security of their respective territories. Their partnership could then serve to defuse potential extremist outlooks, demands, or activity.

What would such peaceful cooperation and coexistence cost?

Israel needs to recognize that, despite its right to sovereign existence, international recognition, and security, peace and justice can only come to their land by acknowledging that Palestine also has a legitimate claim to sovereign existence, international recognition, and security. Practically speaking, Israel needs to renounce its demand for sovereignty over the entire territory west of the Jordan River.

Individual sovereignty over the whole territory by only one of the two peoples is not feasible or even just. Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims along with Christians, are all originally Semites and have a shared history on the land. Israel believes that the God of their ancestors gave them the land and led them to occupy it. Nonetheless, many of the original peoples continued to live in the land and coexisted with the Jews.

When the Romans destroyed the Second Temple and crushed that ultimate rebellion, many Jews left the land and increased the population of the Diaspora. It is their descendants who survived the atrocity of the Holocaust and claimed their right of return to the Holy Land. Due to the urgency of their situation, they took measures which in effect displaced thousands of Palestinians for whom this had also been their land for millennia.

The cost to Palestinians is just as high as it is for Israelis. As for Israelis, so Palestinians too must recognize that, despite their right to sovereign existence, international recognition, and security, peace and justice can only come to their land by acknowledging that Israel also has a legitimate claim to sovereign existence, international recognition, and security. Practically speaking, Palestinians and all Arabic peoples supporting their cause and demands must also renounce their claim of sovereignty over the entire territory west of the Jordan River.

It is time that the two brothers made peace with one another.

To put this situation in biblical terms, it is time that the two brothers made peace. The time has come for Jacob to be reconciled with his brother Esau and for Esau to be reconciled with his brother Jacob. It is only human and therefore understandable that they came to be estranged, but now that estrangement has lasted far too long and has become far too costly for it to continue unabated.

Out of respect for the many strands and layers of this most complex of demographic situations, one could also say that the time has come for Sara to be reconciled with Hagar, and for Hagar to be reconciled with Sara; that Abraham may finally have peace between the two mothers of his only sons. The time has come for Isaac to be reconciled with his estranged and only brother Ishmael, and for Ishmael to rediscover and be reconciled with is long lost brother Isaac. They were estranged due to the human frailty and insecurity of their mothers and also the inability of Abraham to settle the matter amicably without alienating his two women.

Their descendants have suffered long enough and they have forgotten their shared history for far too long. The time has come for everyone to remember – not only the parts of our history that we favour and that we use to repel one another – but to remember the whole history that has bound us inextricably and irrevocably together.

While there are irreducible differences stemming from our respective faiths with their religious ramifications, requirements, and practices; nevertheless, it is possible to venture into a common space and time of peace in which each can summon the noblest and best of human attitudes and dispositions of will to at long last find deep within a capacity and willingness to show the other sufficient respect to grant their need for existence, freedom, and respect.

Though our respective claims relating us to the one Godhead may diverge and even at times contradict or exclude one another’s beliefs and claims, could we not out of respect for the One True God at the very least acknowledge one another and allow one another to exist, if not actually go further and collaborate for a mutually shared and supportive existence for our respective peoples?

Written in no one’s name but my own and out of shared reverence for the God of the Jews – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Christians – Jesus the Lord, Son of God the Father and made man by the Holy Spirit, and the God of the Muslims – Allah who called and sent his prophet Mohammad; given, after all, that these peoples all lay claim to belief in the One True God and that there can only be One True God – and that there can be no other god.

 

Fr Gilles A. Surprenant 
            Roman Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Montreal
            1071 Rue de la Cathédrale, Montréal QC    CANADA

abbagilles@gmail.com 

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At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus.  G.S.

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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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Israel Palestine Joint History – Links

At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus.  G.S.

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Israel Palestine Joint History – Links

PRIME – Peace Research Institute in the Middle East joint history school text project

Crossing the Border – Interview of the late Israeli Professor Dan Bar-On, social psychologist, and educator Palestinian Professor Sami Adwan, both 2007 Fulbright Scholars-in-Residence at Monmouth University, NJ, by Dr Saliba Sarsar of Monmouth University

RESOURCES at PRIME – News, Projects, Essays, Summaries, Early Studies – links

Learning Each Other’s Historical Narrative

Israel-Palestine: Creative Regional Initiatives (IPCRI), formerly known as Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information is a nonprofit think tank that combines research with peace-building actions and advocacy across Israel and Palestine.  Our mission is to engage policymakers and the public at large in ending the occupation and promoting a just and sustainable end to the conflict. 

Israeli-Palestinian schoolbook Project

The “Portrayal of the Other” in Palestinian and Israeli school books 

This project was initiated by the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land in Jerusalem, in August 2009.

Joint Israeli-Palestinian Research Group Endorses Concept Behind New Israeli-Arab Textbook

Meeting today in Braunschweig, the Peace Research Institute in the Middle East (PRIME) and the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research (GEI) expressed strong support for Israeli Education Minister Yuli Tamir`s approval of a new approach for the teaching of history in Israeli Arab schools. The new approach, according to Minister Tamir, presents "both the Israeli and Palestinian versions" of Israel`s creation in 1948, providing for the first time some space for Israeli-Arabs to give expression to the conflicts that exist in their identity as Palestinian Arabs who are citizens of Israel.

Israel-Palestinian Negotiations: History & Overview from the Jewish Virtual Library

From Alternative News – 300 Palestinians, Israelis: yes to joint struggle, no to normalisation

Published on 12 January 2014                     Written by Alternative Information Center (AIC)

Thoughts on a joint but unequal Palestinian-Israeli struggle                       By Noa Shaindlinger

Israeli activists have joined Palestinians in demonstrations throughout the West Bank for a decade, in what some have come to bill a ‘joint struggle.’ But the apparent disparity between the daily realities of Israelis and Palestinians beckons the question: What is the role of Israelis in the Palestinian struggle for liberation?

Noa Shaindlinger is a PhD student at the University of Toronto, a human rights activist and citizen journalist.

The Atkin Paper Series – Collaborating for Peace? Assessing the Work of Palestinian-Israeli Joint Organisations since the Oslo Accords                              by Oday Abukaresh                         June 2009

Peacebuilding: Israel and Palestine

This page provides links to selected organizations and services involved in peacebuilding in Israel and Palestine. There is also information about research resources including news sources and resource websites on Israel and Palestine. In keeping with a broad definition of "peacebuilding," this set of links includes both government and civil society organizations, agencies and individuals working in areas of conflict resolution, violence prevention, human rights, legal development and governance. Readers are invited to contribute information that will enhance the purposes and completeness of Israel and Palestine Peacebuilding Links.

PLEASE NOTE: Peacemakers Trust has created these links for research purposes only, and cannot take responsibility for content of third party websites. Inclusion of a link to a site does not imply endorsement of or association with Peacemakers Trust.

Issue 5 July 2013 – QUEST Issues in Contemporary Jewish History – Journal of Fondatione CDEC

Israelis and Palestinians Seeking, Building and Representing Peace. A Historical Appraisal edited by Marcella Simoni   - Introduction   - Civil Society   - Historiography   - The single thought   - Organization of the volume – From the call for papers to the issue

See the links to each article at the bottom of the general page as linked above.  

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At this website by various means we seek to defend life, to encourage Christian faith, to promote Catholic tradition, to edify Marriage in its link to the Creator, to encourage families and individuals, and to support missionary disciples of Jesus.  G.S.

----------------------------------------------------------------

© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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