The Jews

The Chosen People Who Earned God’s Wrath

There was a time when the Jews had it all. But that was a long time ago. They were the ‘Chosen people’ by virtue of being the seed of Abraham whom God had befriended. God would have loved them had they kept His Commandments, that they Love Him with all their Heart and Soul:

 Hear O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your  forehead, and Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates

(Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

But they threw it all way in their arrogance, rebelliousness and racial pride. They took the name of God in vain and spurned his prophets, even going to the extent of slaying those who did not agree with their views. They followed the letter of the law with pride, but held its spirit in contempt. They had this ridiculous idea that since they were the Chosen People, that God was beholden to them and that they could get away with anything.

They took immense pride in being the ‘Chosen People’ often quoting the Bible to prove their point, like when God says of the Children of Israel: “You are a people sacred to your Lord, your God; He has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly His Own; it was not because you are the largest of all nations that the Lord set His Heart on you and Chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations” (Deuteronomy 7:6-7).

But what they did to vindicate this special status which God Himself had given them is another story. Little wonder John the Baptist warned them:

You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?  Produce fruit that will be worthy of repentance.  And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up (instead of you) children for Abraham.  The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire

(Matthew: 3: 7-10)

Tribalizing God

While they could have been an example to the nations, they were the very antithesis of it. They portrayed God as peculiarly their own, as a tribal god of the Jews, not of the universe. We find in the Bible numerous instances of women of other nations married to Jewish men worshipping their own gods and even turning their husbands’ hearts towards them, perhaps the most famous being King Ahab’s wife Jezebel who led her husband to worship Baal.

That these non-Jewish women did not embrace their husbands’ God wholeheartedly shows just one thing, that the Jews themselves in their tribal zeal portrayed their god as a Jewish god, supposing that other gods could exist for other peoples. Had they really been keen to portray their god as a universal God, they could have easily convinced their wives of it, nay even insisted on a mark that could absorb them into the community and distance them from their old beliefs, maybe something like the circumcision their males underwent. But nay, they would not bother.

So first they irked God claiming Him as solely theirs to the exclusion of others; then they in their fickleness took other gods in his place, and when they gave it up, they oppressed their fellow men, engaging in one mischief after another. Little wonder Paul, himself a Jew, observed in his Epistle to the Romans that because of the Jews: “The Name of God is reviled among the Gentiles” (Romans 2:24).

                                                     A God Full of Wrath

You may wonder when you read the Old Testament of the Bible, which is the scripture of the Jews, why the God of Israel is so full of wrath, enjoining stern laws and demanding endless sacrifices. It might even lead you to believe that God is not merciful, but rather vengeful, that He is capricious and changes overnight from a Loving Lord to a Terrible Taskmaster. But hold on, it is not God who changes, but man, and the Jews changed even more than other men. God spoke through the Prophet Malachi: “I am He Who Is. I do not change” ((Malach 3:6). So it was not God who had changed, but the people he at one time favoured, the Children of Israel, and they provoked his anger like no other nation.They throughout proved to be a fickle-minded people, often lapsing into idolatry or even flirting with it, even letting themselves be tempted to sacrifice their children to the Canaanite deity Molech, which is why God ordained that anybody in Israel who gave his offspring to Molech shall be put to death (Leviticus 20:2).

That is why in the Bible we often find God metaphorically addressing Israel as a harlot, harlotry being equaled to idolatry:

I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you; you became mine says the Lord God. Then I bathed you with water, washed away your blood and anointed you with oil. I clothed you with an embroidered gown, put sandals of fine leather on your feet; I gave you a fine linen sash and silk robes to wear. I adorned you with jewellery. I put bracelets on your arms, a necklace about your neck, a ring in your nose, pendants in your ears, and a glorious diamond upon your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver; your garments were of fine linen, silk and embroidered cloth. Fine flour. Honey and oil were your food. You were exceedingly beautiful, with the dignity of a queen. You were renowned among the nations for your beauty, perfect as it was, because of my splendour which I bestowed on you, says the Lord God. But you were captivated by your own beauty, you used your renown to make yourself a harlot, and you lavished your harlotry on every passer-by, whose own you became. You took some of your gowns and made for yourself gaudy high places, where you played the harlot. You took the splendid gold and silver ornaments that I had given you and made for yourself male images, with which also you played the harlot. You took your embroidered gowns to cover them; my oil and my incense you set before them; the food that I had given you, the fine flour, the oil, and the honey with which I fed you, you set before them as an appeasing odour, says the Lord God. The sons and daughters you had borne Me you took and offered as sacrifices to be devoured by them! Was it not enough that you had become a harlot? You slaughtered and immolated my children to them, making them pass through fire. And through all your abominations and harlotries you remembered nothing of when you were a girl, stark naked and weltering in your blood” (Ezekiel 16:8-22)

Their arrogant nature is seen in the Bible itself. In Genesis we read that Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, was called Israel after he had wrestled with the Almighty. What greater blasphemy than this I ask you ? And to think they had a law penalizing those who blasphemed with death which they did not shy away from using against innocents like Jesus who did not agree with them.

If you read the Bible you will find a common thread, a pattern of rebelliousness that ran through the Jews in all ages, from the days of their very beginnings, as children of that great patriarch Jacob even well before they became the twelve tribes with the passage of time. You don’t have to look far. The Bible says it all, like how when Joseph, Jacob’s favourite son, was showing signs of greatness, his own brothers said to one another on seeing him approach: “Here comes that master dreamer! Come on, let us kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns here; we could say that a wild beast devoured him. We shall then see what comes of his dreams” (Genesis 37:19-20); How Judah, another well known son of Jacob and eponym of the Jews (He gave his name Yehud to the Jews) mistook his daughter-in-law Tamar for a whore and entreated her to have sex with him and when told that she had played the harlot and was with child, cried out ‘Bring her out. She shall be burned” (Genesis 38:24);  How two more of Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi (by the way Levi became the father of the Jewish priestly class) slaughtered the Hivite males of Canaan who were still in pain after being circumcised in spite of entering into an agreement with them that they would give them their daughters and take them in marriage if they did so, and as if that were not enough the rest sacked their city, seized their flocks, looted their houses and carried off their women and children, which needless to say caused great distress to their father who later said of the two upstarts: “Let not my soul enter their council, or my spirit be joined with their company; for in their fury they slew men, in their willingness they maimed oxen. Cursed be their fury so fierce and their rage so cruel” (Genesis 34:14-30, 49:5-7).

And when we come to the days of Moses we find that they had only got worse. They scorned and spurned the God who led them out of slavery in Egypt and even parted the Red Sea for them so they could escape from Pharaoh’s army. But what did they do, as soon as Moses was away for a few days, they took to worshipping a golden calf. Is it any wonder that Moses railed against them:

“Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day I knew you”

(Deuteronomy 9:24)

“For I knew thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death?”

(Deuteronomy 31:27)

Is it any wonder that Moses sang of Israel:

They spurned the God who made them and scorned their saving Rock. They provoked him with strange gods and angered him with abominable idols. They offered sacrifice to demons, to “no-gods”, to gods whom they had not known before, to newcomers just arrived of whom their fathers had never stood in awe. You were unmindful of the rock that begot you, you forgotthe God who gave you birth. When the Lord saw this he was filled with loathing and anger toward his sons and daughters. “I will hide my face from them” he said “and see what will then become of them. What a fickle race they are, sons with no loyalty in them. Since they have provoked Me with their ‘no-god’ and angered me with their vain idols, I will provoke them with a no-people, with a foolish nation I will anger them. For by my wrath a fire is enkindled that shall rage to the depths of the netherworld, consuming the earth with its yield, and licking with flames the roots of the mountains. I will send on them woe upon woe and exhaust all my arrows against them. Emaciating hunger and consuming fever and bitter pestilence, and the teeth of wild beasts I will send among them, with the venom of reptiles gliding in the dust. Snatched away by the sword in the streets and by the sheer terror at home shall be the youth and the maiden alike, the nursing babe and the hoary old man. I would have said: “I will make an end of them and blot out their names from men’s memories”. Had I not feared the insolence of their enemies, feared that these foes would mistakenly boast “Our own hand won the victory; the Lord had nothing to do with it”

(Deuteronomy 32:15-27)

That is why God, knowing well their ways, swore if they did not observe his commandments, they would be visited by the curse of disease, drought, destruction:

The Lord will strike you with wasting and fever, with scorching, fiery drought, with blight and searing wind, that will plague you until you perish. The sky over your heads will be like bronze and the earth under your feet like iron. For rain the Lord will give your land powder dust which will come down upon you from the sky until you are destroyed. The Lord will let you be beaten down before your enemies; though you advance against them from one direction, you will flee before them in seven, so that you will become a terrible example to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your carcasses will become food for all the birds of the air and for the beasts of the field, with no one to frighten them off

(Deuteronomy 28:22-26)

The curse of invasion and siege:

The Lord will raise up against you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, that swoops down like an eagle, a nation whose tongue you do not understand, a nation of stern visage, that shows neither respect for the aged nor pity for the young. They will consume the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil, until you are destroyed; they will leave you no grain or wine or oil, no issue of your herds or young of your flocks, until they have brought about your ruin. They will besiege you in each of your communities, until the great unscalable walls you trust in come tumbling down all over your land. They will so besiege you in every community throughout the land which the Lord, your God has given you, that in the distress of the siege to which your enemy subjects you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you

(Deuteronomy 28:49-53)

And exile:

Just as the Lord once took delight in making you grow and prosper, so will he now take delight in ruining and destroying you, and you will be plucked out of the land you are now entering to occupy. The Lord will scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve strange gods of wood and stone, such as you and your fathers have not known. Among these nations you will find no repose, not a foot of ground to stand upon, for there the Lord will give you an anguished heart and wasted eyes and a dismayed spirit. You will live in constant suspense and stand in dread both day and night, never sure of your existence

(Deuteronomy 28:63-66)

Interestingly here, the Israelites are not threatened with punishment in the hereafter, but rather in this worldly life itself. Perhaps it may be because they were even then a very fickle, worldly-minded, hard-hearted people to whom an other worldly punishment like hellfire would not have made them give up their evil ways, and so we have the threat of invasion and exile which actually took place many times in the history of Israel.

God’s Warning Comes True

God’s warning to Moses soon proved to be true, for not long afterwards we hear of the Israelites abandoning the Lord, the God of their fathers, and serving the Baals and the Asherahs, the deities of the Canaanites and Phoenicians, thus inviting the wrath of God who let them fall into the power of Cushon, King of Aram; when they had been saved, they again offended their Lord who strengthened Eglon, King of Moab, who went on to conquer Israel (Judges 3:7-14). After Gideon, who had delivered them from Midian, they again abandoned themselves to the Baals, this time making Baal of Berith their god, forgetting the Lord their God and showing their ingratitude to the family of Gideon in spite of all the good he had done Israel (Judges 8:33-35).

Idolatry again raised its ugly head after Solomon’s death, when the kingdom split into two, the kingdom of Judah comprising of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin led by Solomon’s son Rehoboam centred in Jerusalem and the rest of the tribes of Israel founding what they called the Kingdom of Israel under his rival Jeroboam. Jeroboam, thinking to himself that the kingdom would return to the House of David if his people went to the temple in Jerusalem, had two calves of gold made and said to the people: “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here is your God O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt”. He placed one idol in Bethel and the other in Dan (Kings 12:26-30). Judah under Rehoboam went one worse, building for themselves sacred poles upon every high hill and under every green tree, even going to the extent of having cult prostitutes, imitating all the abominable practices of the nations that the Lord had cleared out of the Israelites way (Kings 14:22-24). God their Cherisher spoke about their abominations through the Prophet Jeremiah:

“As numerous as your cities, are your gods O Judah! And as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up for Baal”

(Jeremiah 2:27-28)

“The people of Judah have done what is evil in my eyes. They have defiled the house which bears my name by setting up in it their abominable idols. In the valley of Ben-Hinnom they have built the high place of Topheth to immolate in fire their sons and daughters, such a thing as I never commanded”

(Jeremiah 7:30)

“The bones of the kings and princes of Judah, the bones of the priests and the prophets, and the bones of the citizens of Jerusalem will be emptied out of their graves and spread out before the sun and the moon and the whole army of heaven (the stars) which they loved and served, which they followed, consulted and worshipped. They will not be gathered up for burial, but will lie like dung upon  the ground. Death will be preferred to life by all the survivors of this wicked race who remain in any of the places to which I banish them”

(Jeremiah 8:1-3)

The retribution God had promised soon came in the form of Nebuchadnezzar, King of the Assyrians who in the 6^th century laid siege to Jerusalem and carried away its inhabitants to Babylon. Not until the days of Cyrus, King of Persia were they allowed to go back. And when they did, it was only the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi that made it to Jerusalem. The rest of the tribes were lost. None knows what happened to these lost tribes of Israel. When they returned they had almost forgotten their Hebrew speech and soon Aramaic, a Semitic language closely related to Arabic spoken by their neighbours replaced it.  Aramaic was of course the speech of the folk of Aram (Syria) who had in earlier times actually fought against the Israelites under Ben Hadad (Kings 20:26). Thus Aramaic that had actually been the speech of the enemies of Israel now came to be spoken by the Jews themselves. So thorough was the transition that when the Romans took over Palestine it was Aramaic that was spoken. It was Aramaic that Jesus spoke.

The Jews of course returned to Palestine under Ezra ever the wiser not to irk their Lord. They became very strict Sabbatarians which even Jesus found disconcerting. That was in the 6^th century before Christ. The Talmud, a well known body of Jewish writings supposed to have been written by their learned people regards Ezra as a second Moses, even claiming that the Torah would have been given to Ezra had not Moses preceded him. So strong was the adulation for Ezra that God would, in the Qur’an, accuse the Jews of calling Ezra ‘a son of God’ (The Repentance: 30).

The Jews Become Hard-Hearted

Ezra who was then chief priest of the Jews focused more on ritual than right, more on the letter of the law than its spirit. He exhorted his fellow Jews following their return to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon: “The land you are entering to take possession is a land unclean with the filth of the peoples of the land, with the abominations they have filled it from one end to the other in their uncleanliness. Do not then, give your daughters to their sons in marriage, and do not take their daughters for your sons. Never promote their peace and prosperity; thus you will grow strong, enjoy the produce of the land, and leave it as an inheritance to your children forever” (Ezra 9:11-12).

Ezra’s ideas needless to say were at odds with the Law of Moses which prohibited the oppression of non-Jews and contains some valuable moral lessons:

You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will flare up and I will kill you with the sword; then your wives will be widows and your children orphans

(Exodus 22:2023)

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not be so thorough that you reap the field to its very edge, nor shall you glean the stray ears of grain. Likewise you shall not pick your vineyard bare, nor gather up the grapes that have fallen. These things you shall leave for the poor and the alien. I, the Lord, am your God.

(Leviticus 9:9-10)

 You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you shall fear your God. I am the Lord.  You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgement; show neither partiality to the weak or deference to the mighty, but judge your fellow men justly. You shall not go about spreading slander among your kinsmen; nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbour’s life is at stake. I am the Lord

(Leviticus 9:14-16)

The Talmudist followers of Ezra could not be bothered with what the scripture taught. They were more concerned about preserving the Jews as a ‘Master Race’ and assiduously weeding out any threats to this idea, even to the extent of engaging in racist diatribes of the worst kind which would have paled in comparison to Hitler’s rantings:

Even though God created the non-Jew they are still animals in human form. It is not becoming of a Jew to be served by an animal. Therefore he will be served by animals in human form

(Midrasch Talpioth)

Every Jew who spills the blood of the godless (non-Jews), is doing the same as making a sacrifice to God

(Bammidber raba & jalkut)

All gentile children are animals

 (Yebamoth)

Gentile girls are in a state of filth from birth

(Abodah Zarah)

Mission of Jesus to the Jews

And then came Jesus to put the Jews on the correct path. As they had become strict ritualists he sought to reform them by stressing on the spiritual wisdom behind the law. Had not God spoken through the Prophet Hosea: “Your piety is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes away. For this reason I smote them through the prophets, I slew them by the words of my mouth, for it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:4-6). Jesus in his wisdom knew it would be no easy task to reform his people, for did he not tell his twelve disciples when he sent them to the Jews: “Behold! I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves” (Matthew 10:17).

Jesus condemned his Jewish fellows for being too obsessed with ritual. In his time the Sabbath was very rigidly observed as the Jews had by then become very strict Sabbatarians following their return from the Babylonian captivity under Ezra. In the Bible we read that once Jesus was going through a field of grain on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him: “See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the Sabbath”. He said to them: “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions, but only the priests could lawfully eat?” (Matthew 11:1-4). On another occasion, when he was about to cure a man with a withered hand, they questioned him: “Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath?” so that they might accuse him. He responded: “Which one of you who has a sheep that falls into a pit on the Sabbath will not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable a person is than a sheep. So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:10-14).

He condemned the hypocrisy of their priests in the strongest possible terms:

They preach, but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them. All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honour at banquets, seats of honour in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces and the salutation of Rabbi (My lord)” (Matthew 23:3-7)

And strongly condemned their fickleness and lack of love for God:

You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men. (Matthew 15:7-9)

And as if that were not enough, Jesus stressed that piety could also be found among gentiles. Did not he, impressed with the pious words of a Roman Centurion in Capernaum, say to his followers: “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth” (Matthew 8:5-12). Thus Jesus, being a messenger of God made it clear that not only the children of Israel, but gentiles too could also enter heaven. All this the Jewish leaders of the time found very distasteful and did all in their power to put him away. Finally they brought a false charge of blasphemy against him and sought to nail him on to the cross. God however saved him by taking him up to Himself.

But let us see how great the malice of the Jews was towards this final prophet of theirs. You will find in the Bible that when Jesus was condemned to death by the high priests, the Roman Governor Pilate tried in vain to save him, seeing no wrong in the man. But when he saw the mob calling for his blood and that a a riot was about to break out, he took some water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves.” And what did all the Jews gathered there  say? They all said, “His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matthew:27:24-26). So the Jews of that day brought upon the curse of God not only on themselves, but also their offspring!

The Jews Reject Salvation

As if rejecting Jesus was not enough, they went one worse by rejecting the message of the universal messenger that would have brought them into the league of mankind and helped them shed their racial pride and the accursed existence that came with it. The Jews surpassed others in their rejection of Islam for two reasons. Firstly because of their racist bigotry, and secondly because they had a long history of rejecting even their own prophets and killing them with impunity. As God says of them:

Miserable is the price for which they have sold their souls, in that they deny (the revelation) which God has sent down; in insolent envy that God of His grace should send it to any of his servants He pleases. Thus have they drawn upon themselves wrath upon wrath,and humiliating is the punishment for those who reject faith

(The Heifer: 90)

Although the Jews at first seemed to welcome the Prophet when he migrated to Medina from Mecca, they soon realized that he was destined for greatness. It did not take them long to go back to their tribal ways. They threw in their lot with a few malcontent Medinans and even assembled in the mosque during the service to listen to what the Muslims had to say and laugh and scoff at them openly. Once some Jews came to the Prophet and said, “Poison be upon you” (Using the word Sam “Poison’ instead of Salam ‘Peace’). Ayisha, the Prophet’s wife huffed: “And upon you and may the curse of God!” The Prophet said, “Easy, Ayisha, you must be gentle.” She said: “Didn’t you hear what they said?” He said, “Didn’t you hear what I said? I repeated it to them (and upon you) and what I said about them will be accepted and what they said about me will not be accepted” (Adab al Mufrad).

They plotted incessantly to destroy the young Muslim community in Medina that had been formed of migrants from Mecca and the Arab tribes of Aws and Khazraj who had welcomed them with open arms. This hate campaign took the form of composing provocative and vulgar verses against the Prophet’s wives and Muslim women by the likes of Ka’b bin Ashraf. But that’s not all, they did their utmost to undermine the unity of the young Muslim community like when the Jew Shaas bin Qays got a Jewish youth to recite some poems composed about the old pre-Islamic Battle of Buath to a gathering of Muslims comprising the tribes of Aws and Khazraj till they got so worked up that they challenged each other, one saying: if you wish we will do the same again and the other responding: We will. To arms! To arms!. As soon as the Prophet got the news he rushed to them and said: “O Muslims, remember God, remember God. Will you act as Pagans while I am with you after God has guided you to Islam and honoured you with it and made a clean break with Paganism, delivered you from unbelief, made you friends?” (Sirat Rasul Allah, Ibn Hisham).

In spite of all their mischief-making, the Prophet entreated them to become Muslim:

“O Jews, beware lest God bring you the vengeance that he brought upon the Quraysh and become Muslims. You know that I am the Prophet who has been sent -you will find that in your books and God’s Covenant with you”

Only to have the Jews insolently reply:

“By God if we fight you, you will find we are real men”

(Ibn Hisham)

Huyay Ibn Akhtab, the chief of the Jewish tribe of Banu Nadir, whose tribe was ensconced in the fortress of Khaybar even visited the arch-enemy of the community, Abu Sufyan, in Mecca, promising to support him in his struggle against Muhammad. Abu Sufyan asked him: “You O Jews, are the people of the first scripture and know the nature of our dispute with Muhammad. Is our religion the best or is his?”. Huyay replied that the religion of the Quraysh was definitely the best, in spite of the fact that it was seeped in idolatry. His successor Abu Rafi Sallam went further, using his tribe’s wealth to induce neighbouring Arabs and especially the powerful tribe of Ghatafan to join them against the Muslims so that he was able to raise a large army. Fortunately he was assassinated by the Ansar supporters of the Prophet and it was not long after that Khaybar was besieged by the Muslims and surrendered.

There was also the Jewish tribe of Qurayzah who plotted to attack the Muslims from the rear by allowing their fellow Jews of the Banu Nadir into the settlement so that they could slaughter the women and children who were housed in a nearby fortress. The Qurayzah despite being bound by an agreement with the Prophet to help in the defence of the city against the Meccans now changed sides. Seeing the large army of the Quraysh filling the plain in front of the city for the great Battle of the Trench, they threw in their lot with the enemy. They grew defiant and challenged the Muslims: “Who is the Messenger of God? There is no pact between us and Muhammad nor any agreement!”. Their efforts to slay the women and children could thankfully not be carried out as a Jew dispatched to the fort to spy was spotted by the Prophet’s aunt Safiyyah, who taking a large peg nail off a tent struck the Jew in his head with such force that he fell dead. She then cut off his head and threw it amongst the Jews, who believing that there were fighters inside the fort, dared not attack it. They were further disheartened when the Quraysh army whom they counted on to defeat the Muslims beat a hasty retreat.

The Prophet, now inspired by the angel Gabriel, summoned the Muslim army and surrounded the Qurayzah. The Jewish chiefs in typical Jewish fashion told their people that they could kill their women and children and attack the Muslim army. If they died, they argued as the godless do, they would not have to worry about their dependants, and if they won they could easily find new wives. To put it in their Chief Ka’b bin Asad’s words: “Let us kill our wives and children and send men with drawn swords to Muhammad and his companions leaving no encumbrances behind us. If we do perish, we shall not leave children behind to cause us anxiety. If we conquer we can acquire other wives and children”.

Now, killing their wives and children was an accepted Jewish tradition in times of war like they did during the siege of Masada in the First Jewish War against the Romans in 73 A.D when the Jewish leader Eleazar observed that God had turned against the Jewish people and ordered: “Let our wives die before they are abused, and our children before they have tasted of slavery, and after we have slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one another mutually“. The men then embraced their wives and children and put them to the sword. Ten men were then chosen to take the lives of their comrades with the one who killed the rest falling on his own sword. That the Jews of the Prophet’s time thought likewise is not surprising.

The Qurayzah, confident that their allies among the Medinites would save them surrendered unconditionally, and as expected the Medinan tribe of Aws pleaded with the Prophet to be merciful to the Jews. The Prophet asked them whether they would accept the decision of one of their number, a chief named Sa’d and they agreed. The man, who was on the brink of death due to the treachery of the Jews judged that all their 600-900 fighting men be killed and their wives and children taken into slavery. To put it in his words: “Slay the fighting men and take captive their women and children”. Only one woman, who took part in attacking the Muslim army by throwing a millstone during the siege was beheaded.

This sad incident has been termed by some an extermination of the Jews, but the facts are different. The Medinan chief had chosen to apply the Jewish law of war, not in its full rigour which demanded:

“You shall not let live anything that breathes”

(Deuteronomy 20:16)

But rather a more lenient form prescribed for enemies of far-off cities:

“You shall smite every male with the edge of the sword, but the women and the little ones and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, you shall take unto yourself and you shall eat the spoils of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you”

(Deuteronomy 20:13-14)

Even in this case, it was not all adult men who were killed since the old men and those unable to bear arms would have been spared. The word used by Sa’d for the fighting men of the tribe who were liable to be killed was muqaatil or ‘those who kill or can kill’. If you think this is harsh, know then had it been the Jews who triumphed, they would have applied the more rigorous rule since they were not in a far-off city, but in the territory of Medina itself. It is of them that it is said in the Qur’an:

God took them down from their strongholds and cast terror into their hearts (so that) some you slew, and some you made prisoner. And He made you heirs of their lands, their houses and their goods

(The Confederates: 26 -27)

What they had done to others, had now turned a full circle and come back to them. These were after all the very Jews who had incited the tyrannical Dhu Nuwas to massacre the Christians of Najran in the year 522 when as many as two thousand innocent souls were martyred by being burnt in a huge pit, an incident that even finds mention in the Qur’an which condemns in no uncertain terms the makers of the pit (of fire) (The Constellations: 4-8).  Despite all this, the Jews were given the chance to embrace Islam again and again:

O People of the Book! There has come to you our Messenger revealing to you much that ye used to hide in the Book, and passing over much (that is now unnecessary). There has come to you from God a Light and a Clear Book, wherewith God guides all those who seek His Good Pleasure to ways of Peace and Safety, and leads them out of darkness by His Will, unto the light- guides them to a path that is straight

(The Repast:15-16)

It was only a very few who took up the offer. The majority of them rejected this last handhold which could have saved them. That’s not all, they could not content themselves living under Islamic rule and did their best to do away with him when the opportunity arose, like when one of their number, a Jewess brought the Prophet and his comrades poisoned sheepmeat to eat. He had hardly tasted a morsel of it when he was inspired not to swallow it and lost no time warning his companions that it had been poisoned. One of his companions who had swallowed a mouthful died.

   When the woman was brought before the Prophet, she admitted that she had poisoned the meat, why, because her people, she claimed, had been humiliated by the Muslims. She had taken the Muslims kindness for weakness, and despite all this the Prophet forgave her. When his companions asked, “Should we not kill her?” he firmly replied”No“. The woman was executed only after the companion of the Prophet who had eaten of the meat died (Abu Dawud). Anas, a close companion of the Prophet says: “I continued to recognise the poison in the sighs of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace.” (Adab al Mufrad). Just as they had tried to kill Jesus, they had now almost succeeded in killing Muhammad. In fact the ill effects of the poisoned meat continued to plague the Prophet until his demise.

The Chosen Ones Fall from Grace

And so the Jews became a condemned people, a cursed people enduring persecution wherever they went, in the ghettos of mediaeval Europe, the pogroms of Russia, Hitler’s gas chambers. Is it not strange that the word holocaust used of the animal sacrifices at the temple of Solomon should have come to refer to the extermination of Jewry by the Nazis? Is it not odd that a nation that prided itself in calling itself the ‘Chosen people’ and regarded others as little more than dirt should be labeled an inferior, nay subhuman race by the Germans of that age? Is it not strange that a nation that tried to kill Jesus and claimed they did, should be done to death by another that claimed to follow Jesus? Is it not bizarre that a nation that denied the hell of the hereafter should have been made to go through hell in this earth, in the gas chambers and the crematoria of Auschwitz, Belsec, Treblinka?

Such was their fate which they continue to suffer to this day. By hating others, they made a ghetto of their own making to which they confined their small minds and so the outside world made ghettos for them, confining them to these special quarters meant for them and them only where they had to live away their miserable existence cursing at every gentile who crossed their path.

As you have seen, the God of the Bible does not mince His words when condemning His ‘Chosen People’. He promises them all sorts of terrible punishments if they disobeyed him and slew his prophets, much of which came to pass. In the Qur’an, which is in a sense a continuation of the Biblical message, you will find the Jews being addressed in a similar vein.

For one thing their constant rebelliousness and hard heartedness is condemned:

We divided them into twelve tribes or nations. We directed Moses by inspiration, when his people asked him for water “strike the rock with your staff”, out of it there gushed forth twelve springs. Each group knew its place for water. We gave them the shade of clouds and sent down to them manna and quails (saying)” eat of the good things We have provided for you”. (But they rebelled); to Us they did no harm, but they harmed their own souls

(The Heights:160)

God did aforetime take a covenant from the Children of Israel, and We appointed twelve captains among them. And God said: “I am with you: if ye establish regular prayers, practice regular charity, believe in My Messengers, honour and assist them, and loan to God a beautiful loan; verily I will wipe out from you your evils and admit you to Gardens under which rivers flow; But if any of you, after this, resists faith, he has truly wandered from the path of rectitude. But because of their breach of the covenant, We cursed them and made their hearts grow hard. They change the words from their places and forget a good part of the message that was sent them, nor will you cease to find them-barring a few-ever bent on deceit; but forgive them and overlook (their misdeeds) for God loves those who are kind”

(The Repast:12-13)

The People of the Book ask thee to cause a book to descend to them from heaven. Indeed they asked Moses for an even greater (miracle), for they said: “Show us God in public” but they were dazed for their presumption by thunder and lightning. Yet they worshipped the calf even after clear signs had come to them. even so we forgave them and gave Moses manifest proofs of authority. And for their covenant We raised over them (the towering height) of Mount (Sinai); and we said: “enter the gate with humility” and we commanded them: “Transgress not in the matter of the Sabbath”. And we took from them a solemn covenant. (They incurred Divine displeasure) in that they broke their covenant; that they rejected the Signs of God; that they slew the messengers in defiance of right; that they said “Our hearts are the wrappings” – nay God has set the seal on their hearts for their blasphemy, and little is it they believe- That they rejected faith; that they uttered against Mary a grave false charge; That they said (in boast): “We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of God”. But they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them. and those who differ are full of doubts with no knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not- Nay God raised him up unto Himself, and God is Exalted in Power, Wise. And there is none  of the People of  the Book but must believe in him before his death;  and on the Day of Judgement he will be a witness against them

(The Women:153-159)

This attitude of the Jews is confirmed in the Bible where we read the Almighty commanding the Jews:

“Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and be no longer stiff-necked”

(Deuteronomy 10:16)

‘For the sake of the Lord, be circumcised, remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem; lest My anger break out like fire, and burn till none can quench it, because of your evil deeds”

(Jeremiah 4:4)

God told the Jews that the mere rite of external circumcision would be of no avail unless it was accompanied by the removal of the hardened heart. But the Jews treated it with scorn. The Qur’an says of this attitude:

And we took from them (The Jews) a solemn covenant. (They incurred Divine displeasure) in that they broke their covenant; that they rejected the Signs of God; that they slew the messengers in defiance of right; that they said “Our hearts are the sheaths” – nay God has set the seal on their hearts for their blasphemy

(The Women:155)

The Arabic expression used here for “Our hearts are the sheaths” quloobuna ghulfun could also mean ‘Our hearts are uncircumcised’.

And again and again we hear of their slaying the prophets sent them:

We took the covenant of the Children of Israel and sent them messengers. Every time there came to them a Messenger with what they themselves desired not, some they called impostors, and some they (go so far as to) slay, they thought there would be no trial; so they became blind and deaf; yet God (in His Mercy) turned to them; yet again many of them became blind and deaf- But God sees well all that they do

(The Repast:70-71)

We gave Jesus, the son of Mary, clear signs and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit.Is it that whenever there comes to you (Jews) a messenger with what ye yourselves desire not, ye are puffed up with pride? Some ye called impostors, and others ye slay!

(The Heifer:87)

They (the Jews) drew on themselves the wrath of God. This because they went on rejecting the Signs of God and slaying His Messengers without just cause, This because they rebelled and went on transgressing

(The Heifer: 61)

This Jewish tendency to slay their own prophets is likewise confirmed in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testament. The Prophet Jeremiah who had warned them against their idolatry was murdered by his Judean compatriots in Egypt. Zechariah, another prophet who lived in the reign of King Joash and who warned them against their idolatry was stoned to death in the court of the Lord’s temple (Chronicles 24:18-21). This was no doubt the Zechariah mentioned by Jesus whose death between the altar and the temple he blamed on the Jews (Luke 1I:49-51).

Did not God Himself accuse Israel:

“Your sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion”

(Jeremiah 2:30)

Did not Jesus lament:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you. How many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling. Behold your house will be abandoned”

(Luke 13:34-35)

Did he not cry out:

“Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the memorials of the righteous and you say: “If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined in shedding the prophets’ blood. thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets; now fill up your ancestors measured out! You serpents, you brood of vipers, how can you flee from the judgement of Gehenna?”

(Matthew 23:29-33)

Their Racial Arrogance

Another presumptuous attitude of the Jews condemned in the Qur’an is their racial arrogance in holding themselves to be the Chosen People to the exclusion of all other nations. Thus we have God challenging the Jews: “If the last Home, with God, be for you specially, and not for anyone else, then seek ye death, if ye are sincere” but then it adds: “Thou wilt indeed find them, of all people, most greedy of life – even more than the idolators. Each one of them wishes he could be given a life of a thousand years. But the grant of such life will not save him from punishment. For God sees well all that they do” (The Heifer: 94-96).

Also condemned is their constant mischief making and war mongering:

The Jews say: “God’s Hand is tied up”. Be their hands tied up and be they accursed for what they utter. Nay, both His Hands are widely outstretched. He gives and spends (of His Bounty) as He Pleases. But the revelation that comes to you from God increases in most of them their obstinate rebellion and blasphemy. Amongst them We have placed enmity and hatred till the Day of Judgement. Every time they kindle the fire of war, God extinguishes it; but they strive to do mischief on earth, and God loves not those who do mischief

 (The Repast: 64)

And their indulging in exploitative practices like usury:

For the inequity of the Jews we made unlawful for them certain (foods) good and wholesome which had been lawful for them- in that they hindered many from God’s way – That they took usury, though they were forbidden; and that they devoured men’s substance wrongfully- We have prepared for those among them who reject faith a grievous punishment

(The Women:160-161)

And in shirking their obligations to Non-Jews with flimsy excuses:

Who if entrusted with a single gold coin, would not return it to you unless you constantly stood over demanding it. This is because they say: We have no duty toward the gentiles”, but they utter a falsehood concerning God, and they know it

(Family Imraan:75)

Finally, we find the Qur’an, like the Bible, reminding the Jews of their rebelliousness and the punishments He visited on them:

And We gave warning to the Children of Israel in the Book that twice would they do mischief on the earth and be elated with mighty arrogance (and twice would they be punished). When the first of the warnings came to pass, We sent against you our servants given to terrible warfare. They entered the very inmost parts of your homes. And it was a warning fulfilled. Then did We grant you the Return as against them. We gave you increase in resources and sons, and made you the more numerous in manpower. If ye did well, ye did well for yourselves; if ye did evil (ye did it) against yourselves. So when the second of the warnings came to pass (We let your enemies) to disfigure your faces and to enter your temple as they had entered it before, and  to visit with destruction all that fell into their power. It may be that Your Lord may (yet) show Mercy unto you, but if ye revert (to your sins) We shall revert (to our Punishments). And We have made Hell a prison for those who reject (faith)

(The Night Journey: 4-8)

The Terrible Visitations

The first wave of destruction referred to here came with Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC when the Jews were carried off into captivity. They had rejected the pleadings of their Prophet not to lapse into idolatry and now had to face the consequences. Their foes were in a sense Servants of God as they were the instruments through which God’s wrath was visited on the Jews. The second destruction came with their rejection of Jesus’ mission by the Jews, resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman general Titus in 70 AC. Since then the Temple of Solomon destroyed by Titus has never been rebuilt. In its place the Muslim Caliph Umar built a fine mosque that stands to this day. All that remains of the old temple is a bit of wall today known as the ‘Wailing Wall’ – the holiest site in Judaism.  Thus Jesus warning came to pass:

“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that its desolation is at hand. Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. Let those from the city escape from it, and let those in the countryside not enter the city, for those days are the days of punishment when all the scriptures are fulfilled”

(Luke 21:20-22).

The Qur’an goes further, saying that the Jews will continue to suffer misery at the hands of other nations, assuring them that it would continue to the Last Day unless they repented and accepted the truth:

Behold! Your Lord declared that He would send against them (Jews), to the Day of Judgement, those who would afflict them with grievous penalty. Your Lord is swift in retribution, but He is also oft-forgiving, Most Merciful

(The Heights: 167)

Finally there’s a moral to be learned from the Jews being condemned in such scathing terms. It is a warning to Muslims not to become like them. It is a warning not to become arrogant like them, selfish like them or brutal like them. When the Jews were scattered following the destruction of their temple in 70 AC, we often hear of the persecutions they faced at the hands of others, especially Christians who held them responsible for Jesus’ death. We hear of the ghettos, of the pogroms, of concentration camps, but little do we hear of what they did during all this time they lived in Europe and elsewhere. So why not go back to history and see what the wandering Jew did all that time. True he was oppressed, but this oppression had a basis, and it all boiled down to the attitude of the Jews themselves especially their narrow racist attitudes.

This is why Christians whose kindness they took undue advantage of, persecuted them throughout much of their history. Is it surprising that anti-Semitism is unique in that it describes a phenomenon so widespread throughout history that it transcended both time and space as if it were more of a natural rather than an unnatural development. And what may this be? Nothing but the outcome of Jewish attitudes towards the rest of humanity.

Whose Avarice Knows No Bounds

The Jews were avaricious by nature and left no stone unturned in finding ways to make money, even resorting to scriptural license to charge usury from non-Jews despite being prohibited from doing so from their own tribe: Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury, but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury (Deuteronomy 23:20). In fact Jewish Jurists such as Maimonides considered it mandatory to exact as much usury as possible on a loan to a gentile.

Thus while the good Christian, like the good Muslim, eschewed usury on religious grounds, the Jew thrived on it, for as he argued the Torah prohibited taking interest only from his own kind, not others.  So they became astute moneylenders charging exorbitant rates of interest from innocent people. You can get an idea of what they were like if you read Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice where the character of the typical Jew is personified in Shylock with his insistence on his ‘pound of flesh’.

Even though they were confined to the ghettoes in Europe, they carried on their money-lending activities with such vigour and made so much money that even the governments in these countries where Christians themselves were forbidden to exact interest, found them useful as milch cows to tax. The total wealth of English Jewry in the 13^th century amounted to no less than a third of the coinage circulating in England at the time. Such were the ill-gotten gains they made at the expense of others. This of course made them the target of popular purges and eventually mass expulsions as happened in England in the 14^th century when they could not return for more than 300 years.

Their greed told in many other ways as well and as if exploiting people was not enough, they exploited the rest of God’s creation as well, in some horrible ways, like inventing that dish called Foie Gras which is today considered a delicacy in French-speaking countries. It was the Jews of the ghettos who pioneered the practice of breeding geese in crammed up conditions and forcefeeding them to make them as big as possible so they could fetch a higher price. The geese so bred were forced to stay in one position amidst great suffering so that all the food they were force fed with were converted into fat. This led to another development, fattened goose liver which eventually became that well known French ‘delicacy’ Foie gras still produced in the west in spite of the immense suffering to the animal concerned. This has always been the nature of the Jew –  thriving on the misery of both man and the rest of nature.

But that’s not all, they have always taken life with a pinch of salt. The Talmud, that body of orthodox Jewish law is clear that a non-Jew is like an animal and could be killed with impunity. That is why Rabbi Simon Ben Yohai declared: Tob shebe goyyim harog (Even the best of the gentiles should all be killed) (Minor Tractates. Soferim). Is it any wonder then that a disproportionately high number of American doctors performing abortions are Jews. Why, because they have no qualms about taking gentile lives, in this instance the most helpless of them – the unborn.

Returning Kindness with Wickedness

While Europe gave a free hand to the Jew and persecuted him whenever he revealed his true nature, the Muslim controlled him for his own good and the good of all. The Jew could not engage in his exploitative practices like usury, but still he was not oppressed. He was given all the rights the Christians were given as People of the Book. Indeed when Jerusalem, then ruled by the Christians, capitulated to Caliph Umar in the 7^th century, the Caliph agreed to a condition of the Christian leaders that the Jews would be kept out of the city. The Caliph at first agreed, but later revoked this condition as he did not want to oppress the Jews in any way or treat them any differently from Christians. Such was the fair treatment the Muslims meted out to the Jews.

Despite all this, what the Jews did to the Muslims is a different story. From the days of the Prophet onwards they conspired to create mischief and rouse up wars, but all to no avail. Although much of what they did are lost in the mists of time, we can never forget what they did in Palestine in their quest for a homeland of their own, because all this took place within living memory.

Palestine, as you know, was inhabited by Arabs, both Muslim and Christian, who had lived there in peace for centuries. But then came the Zionist movement started in Europe by a fellow named Theodor Herzl which called for the Jews to return to their ancient homeland after almost 2000 years of exile. The Jews, you will recall, had been exiled from Jerusalem with the sacking of the city in 70 AC by the Romans, thus beginning the Jewish diaspora which spread all over the world, especially Europe. The Muslims took the city from the Romans, who had now become Christians, in and in the many centuries that followed all lived in peace under Muslim rule.

Those were the days when Palestine was ruled by the Ottoman Turks and the Zionists soon realized that the Turks, being good Muslims would never betray their Palestinian subjects. The Ottomans allied itself with Germany when the First World War broke out and now they saw the ideal opportunity. In 1916, a disastrous year for Britain, they prevailed on the British government that they would push America to enter the war on the side of the Britain if it promised to support a Jewish home in Palestine.  Not long afterwards in 1917 British Foreign Minister Lord Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration pledging that Britain would “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. The Jewish Press in the US soon got to work and before long had involved the US in an European War. Germany lost and its Ottoman allies were dispossessed of their choicest lands in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon that came under a British Mandate. But the act would cost Jewry a terrible price, for Adolf Hitler who would in the years to come rise to become Germany’s leader took his revenge, wiping out millions of them in what would come to be known as The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem.

However it was the poor Palestinians who had nothing to do with it who had to pay the heaviest price. Jewish settlers from all over Europe now came to settle in their land. Well armed terror groups created by the Zionists such as the Irgun and Stern Gang engaged in countless atrocities and by the time Israel’s “War of Independence” had ended in 1949, over 750,000 Palestinian men, women, and children had been ruthlessly expelled.

To force the Palestinians out of their lands, the Zionists perpetrated brutal massacres never seen since the days Joshua took Canaan to pave the way for the promised land by killing everything that breathes. Take what they did in the little neutral Palestinian village of Deir Yassin in April 1948, even before a single Arab army had entered the fray. They wiped out the village by lining up men and women and shooting them dead and as if that were not enough slashed the little children’s throats and carved out the unborn while still in their mothers’ wombs with butchers’ knives. News of the killings sent shockwaves among the innocent Palestinians who had never heard of such brutality. Before long the Zionists had taken over their lands. It was from such unspeakable acts of terror that the modern state of Israel was born.

And to think that the heads of the two militias that perpetrated these crimes, Menachem Begin and Yitzakh Shamir, would later become Prime Ministers of Israel. When Begin was interviewed on American television and asked “How does it feel, in the light of all that’s going on, to be the father of terrorism in the Middle East?” he proudly proclaimed, “In the Middle East? In all the world!” Yes my friend, the Zionists were the first to light the fuse of terrorism in the Middle East, nay the entire world. All other acts of ‘terrorism’ like what the PLO did, pale in comparison to it.

As if that were not enough Zionist Jews have become as bad as or worse than the Nazis in spewing out racist drivel, ideas, no doubt inspired by works such as the Talmud. Take for instance what Menachem Begin said before the Knesset “Our race is the master race. We are divine gods on this planet.We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects. In fact, compared to our race, other races are beasts and animals, cattle at best. Other races are human excretment. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races. Our earthly kingdom will be ruled over by our  leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves”. Such arrogance has been there throughout much of Jewish history, which is why even to this day Israel celebrates the fall of  Masada, when some Jewish fanatics took their lives and those of their families rather than surrender to the Romans.

                                        The Tide Turns

But the tide now turns against Israel, which is already an anachronism in today’s world. Israel remains the only state that has race as the cornerstone of its very existence, founded as it was on the theme of racial superiority. It discriminates against the Palestinians, whether Muslim or Christian and despoils their religious sites. It kills those who protest its repression with impunity. It continues to illegally occupy lands captured in war such as Arab Jerusalam and the West Bank, and on top of it build Jewish settlements there in contravention of international law.

With the fall of the Apartheid regime of South Africa, its very existence as a racist nation state is threatened. It is now a pariah in the international community and might even remain so till the end of days, when Jesus comes to take his due place. Racist views are now giving way to more egalitarian ideas the world over. You have only to watch the latest films produced in the West to realize how true this is, how the native peoples of old are now being cast in a positive light and the pioneer Americans who took their lands sparing neither man nor beast shown for what they really were, a band of bloodthirsty barbarians. The days of the gun-totting cowboy hero killing the poor Red Indians like flies so common until the 1970s are now long gone as the west reappraises its bloody past. Even Hollywood actors and actresses are now supporting the Palestinians and speaking out against Israeli brutality. American universities are increasingly voting to boycott Israel thanks to its wonderful young people, who know better than their elders about what is really going on there. In Europe it is stronger as a growing Muslim population has a greater say in the policies of these nations with regard to Israel.

All this is not going in Israel’s favour and they know it; but they cannot do anything about it, but recede deeper and deeper into their cocoon of race, into a shell of exclusivity from which they already find difficult to come out of due to their hard heartedness inherited from their Israelite ancestors. Yes, Israel today is nothing but a large ghetto of their own making.

The Return of Christ and the War Against Antichrist

So let us wait until Jesus comes, for when he comes, he will come as an instrument of God’s Vengeance against the Jews who had constantly laid thorns in the path of His Messengers and even slain them. Had they not tried to kill Jesus who was sent to reform them? and to add insult to injury they would cast their lot with another who will claim to be the Messiah. But Jesus will not have any of it. He will slay this false Messiah, the Anti-Christ to take his rightful place. Once he has put an end to his arch-foe, the trees and the stones will cry out: “Oh Spirit of God, here is a Jew hiding behind me” so that none will be left from among the followers of the Antichrist whom he will not kill. The Muslims too will join Jesus in this final battle.

As our Prophet said:

The last hour will not come until the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a rock or a tree and the  rock or tree will say: O Muslim, the servant of God, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him;but the tree Gharqad (a thorny tree known as Boxthorn) would not say so, because it is the tree of the Jews

(Saheeh Muslim)

And so the rebellious Jews will meet their end at the hands of Jesus and his followers, never to bother man or the rest of nature till the Day of Judgement comes.

Even Jews Can Be Saved

But this does not mean that just because one is born a Jew, he is cursed. Rather, God’s Mercy is open to all, be he Jew or Gentile. It is only those Jews who persist in their arrogance and reject the mission of their own Prophet Jesus and of the final universal prophet Muhammad who will have to pay the price for their disbelief. Why have the weight of three thousand years of annoying God and oppressing their fellow men bear on them, when they can simply acknowledge Christ as their Prophet and Muhammad as his successor and join the league of nations?

Jews too are after all only human. Once the Prophet saw a corpse being taken, and stood up, followed by his companions who were with him. Later they said: “O Messenger of God, it was the corpse of a Jew!”. He promptly replied: “Is he not a human too?” (Saheeh Al-Bukhari).

Thus in Islam, no Jew can be harassed on account of his being born a Jew as the Nazis did in Germany. The way is open to them to embrace the universal faith and join the universal brotherhood of Islam anytime and Muslims worldwide are then obliged to treat them as one of theirs. In fact there have been a few born Jews who have seen the light of Islam and even written extensively about their new found faith. One such was Leopold Weiss who even took on the Arabic name of Muhammad Asad, Asad being the Arabic rendition of his first name Leo meaning ‘Lion’.