By:Tashbih Sayyed, Ph. D.
Iran stood alone in shame on Friday, (January 26, 2007) for rejecting a United Nation's resolution that condemned any denial of the Holocaust. The fact that the resolution was sponsored by 104 countries and was approved by consensus did not matter for the Iranian Islamist regime which is determined to complete Adolph Hitler's unfinished business.
Nobody who understands the Islamist mind and is familiar with the Muslim history and sociology was surprised by the Iranian action; Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad just like the Wahhabi masses, represents an ideology that thrives on the hatred of Jews - a common passion that binds all Holocaust deniers together.
This evil passion has been responsible for the persecution of Jews for more than two thousand years. The persecution of Jews has taken different shapes and different forms but the objective has always remained the same - annihilation of Jewish people. In fact, one of the earliest recorded incidents of persecution against the Jews occurred in 306 C.E., when the church Synod of Elvira banned marriages and community contacts between Christians and Jews.
Islamic anti-Semitism has its roots in the historical rivalry that existed between the Arabs who had emigrated to Medinah from Yemen in the aftermath of the destruction of Maarib dam and the Jewish tribes who were living in Medinah since the last days of the Prophet Moses (since about 1200 B.C.)
According to the historical sources Prophet Moses had despatched an army to expel the Amalekites from the land of Yathrib (Medinah) and had commanded it not to spare even a single soul of that tribe. The Israelite army carried out the Prophet's command, but spared the life of a handsome prince of the Amalekite king and returned with him to Palestine. By that time the Prophet Moses had passed sway. His successors took great exception to what the army had done, for by sparing the life of an Amalekite it had clearly disobeyed the Prophet and violated the Mosaic Law. Consequently, they excluded the army from their community, and it had to return to Yathrib and settle there forever. (1)
The second Jewish immigration took place in 587 BC, when Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, destroyed Jerusalem and dispersed the Jews throughout the world. The Arab Jews said that several of their tribes at that time had come to settle in Wadi al-Qura, Taima, and Yathrib. (Al-Baladhuri, Futuh al-Buldan)." (2)
As far as the arrival of the Arabs in Medinah is concerned, it happened much later than the Jews. In 450 or 451 C.E., a great flood in Yemen forced different tribes of the people of Saba to migrate to other parts of Arabia. Among them Aus and the Khazraj went to settle in Yathrib (Medinah). These two were big tribes yet they were unskilled people. Unlike the Jews who practically were the master of all trades, and the owners of most businesses, Arabs in Yathrib made their living serving the Jews in their farms and households.
These Arab tribes, on the one hand, resented the more affluent and established position of the Jews and on the other hand could not live in peace with their own fellow Arabs. Each sought the alliance of one of the Jewish tribes. This worked out well; since the Bani Qainuqa, was not on friendly terms with the other two Jewish tribes also. So Bani Qainuqa and Khazraj formed an alliance together and Bani Quraizah, Bani al-Nadir and Aus joined their strength together.
It is important to note that these feuds were not religiously motivated but were tribal skirmishes. Commenting on the situation Abul A'la Maududi, the father of Islamist ideology, wrote, "Because of this they (the Jews) had not only to take part in the mutual wars of the Arabs but they often had to go to war in support of the Arab tribe to which their tribe was tied in alliance against another Jewish tribe which was allied to the enemy tribe."
This was the socio-political climate in and around Medinah when Prophet Muhammad was invited by the Arabs of Medinah who had recently converted to Islam to arbitrate a bloody civil war between the Khazraj and the Aws Allah, in which the Jewish clans, being their clients, were embroiled.
According to one version, Muhammad arrived in Medina in 622 believing the Jewish tribes would welcome him. But this did not happen and his relations with several of the Jewish tribes in Medina continued to deteriorate over time.
At Muhammad's insistence, pagans of Medinah, Muslim and Jewish clans signed a pact to protect each other, but achieving this new social order was difficult. Certain individual pagans and recent Medinah converts to Islam tried to thwart the new arrangement in various ways, and some of the Jewish clans were also uneasy with the threatened demise of the old alliances.
Muslim sources claim that the Jews plotted to take Muhammad's life and once they came within a bite of poisoning him. Two of the tribes-the Banu Nadir and the Banu Qaynuqa-were eventually exiled for the danger they posed to the Muslims.
During this period, the pagans of Mecca were trying to destroy the newly established Islamic state militarily. In their final military push against Medina (the Battle of the Trench), the pagans of Mecca formed alliance with the Arab tribes in northwestern Arabia including the two exiled Jewish tribes. In addition, they sent envoys to the largest Jewish tribe still in Medina, the Banu Qurayza, hoping to win its support. The Banu Qurayza's crucial location on the south side of Medina suited the Meccans to attack Muslims from two sides.
The Banu Qurayza were hesitant to join the alliance, but when a substantial Meccan army arrived, they agreed.
As a siege began, the Banu Qurayza nervously awaited further developments. Learning of their intention to defect and realizing the grave danger this posed, Muhammad initiated diplomatic efforts to keep the Banu Qurayza on his side. Little progress was made. In the third week of the siege, the Banu Qurayza signaled their readiness to act against Muhammad, although they demanded that the Meccans provide them with hostages first, to ensure that they wouldn't be abandoned to face Muhammad alone. Yet that is exactly what happened. The Meccans, nearing exhaustion themselves, refused to give the Banu Qurayza any hostages. Not long after, cold, heavy rains set in, and the Meccans gave up the fight and marched home, to the horror and dismay of the Banu Qurayza.
The Muslims now commenced a 25-day siege against the Banu Qurazya's fortress. Finally, both sides agreed to arbitration. A former ally of the Banu Qurayza, an Arab chief named Sa'd ibn Muadh, now a Muslim, was chosen as judge. Many chiefs urged Sa'd to pardon the Jews, but he refused. He ruled that all the men should be killed. Muhammad accepted his judgment, and the next day, according to Muslim sources, 700 men of the Banu Qurayza were executed. (3)
Muslim religious leaders and scholars, ever since, have used these events in the Muslim history to convince the Muslims that Jews are the enemies of Islam. The constant barrage of twisted and false history has blinded the Muslim masses completely. The fact that no Muslim society offers an alternative source of information or education that could have controlled or contained the spread of this hate-filled indoctrination has further deteriorated the situation. Muslims have now accepted the biggest lie as the divine truth.
And the havoc that such lies have played with the Muslim sociology has always been on display. During over 1300 years under Islamic rule, Jews were assigned to the inferior status of Dhimmis, in accordance with the prevalent social laws; in Muslim society there were three classes of the population that were inferior and had no rights: slaves, women, and non-believers. The Jews as Dhimmis were much better off that slaves or women, but they were inferior to every Muslim male in the country. For example, in Iran in the nineteenth century the law read "A Jew must never overtake a Muslim on a public street. He is forbidden to talk loudly to a Muslim. A Jewish creditor of a Muslim must claim his debt in a quavering and respectful manner. If a Muslim insults a Jew, the latter must drop his head and remain silent." (4)
Holocaust denial is the logical consequence of anti-Semitism that is the main driving force behind Islamism or political Islam. This fascist ideology has historically been controlling the Muslim societies ever since the establishment of the caliphate in Islam, making it impossible for the ordinary Muslims to learn anything positive about Jews or Judaism. Consequently, in today's context, Muslims remain the most ill-informed or misinformed about the darkest chapter in the history of mankind - the Holocaust.
Islamists like Bin Laden and the Wahhabi establishment has taken full advantage of this situation in advancing the causes of their global jihad. This message of Bin Laden has a long list of irrational grievances against the Jews. He cites many verses in the Quran and the hadith to influence the Muslim street. One particular hadith that he quotes says that trees will cry out that there are Jews hiding behind them, so Muslims should come and kill them.
The wide spread anti-Semitism in the Muslim societies have helped the Islamist terrorists to find protection, support and shelter all over the world. A majority of Muslims consider such fascist leaders as their heroes. The civilized world knows better than to allow this situation to persist.
The world knows that the Nazis could make the Holocaust happen only because the European mind, poisoned by centuries of anti-Semitic education, refused to act in time. We must remember that the verbal demonization is always the first step toward the implementation of genocide. The Holocaust that took away 6 million Jewish lives had its roots in the first words that were used to demonize the Jews ages ago. WE MUST NOT LET THAT HAPPEN AGAIN.
The civilized world has to come up with a plan to eradicate the evil of anti-Semitism otherwise no body will be able to stop the second Holocaust from happening. ONLY THIS TIME IT WILL NOT BE JUST FOR THE JEWS.
(Tashbih Sayyed is the Editor in Chief of the weekly newspapers 'Muslim World Today', and 'Pakistan Today', President of Council for Democracy and Tolerance, (a non-profit organization) an adjunct fellow of Hudson Institute, and a regular columnist for newspapers across the world.)
