Islamic Forgetfulness of Their Jewish Essence

Nadene Goldfoot                                                

Ever since the 1920's when Islamic nations faced the idea of Jews returning to their native land of what was then Palestine, they had managed to forget their Jewish roots.
                                                                                   

Ibn Hussein Feisal (1885-1933) King of Iraq from 1921, eldest son of Hussein,
sherif of Mecca, and  Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952)  chemist and 1st president of Israel
at Conference  

 They had become rooted in the idea of being ousted from their position there, and managed to use the few Arab people populating Palestine as their soldiers of Fortune-fighting against the Jews' intentions of a permanent presence.
                                                                             

Abraham and nephew, Lot 

Mohammad, who probably noticed that his name began like Moses, was not a Messiah to be worshipped like Jesus was to the Christians.  Mohammad presented himself to his people as a prophet to be followed and obeyed.  He, a man who could neither read nor write, felt he was completing the teachings of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses as well as Jesus, he thought, though he was not a student of Judaism at any time from his own birth in 570 to death in 632.   He had heard Jewish men lecture to their audiences in  groups  sitting outside  along the streets of Medina, Arabia where many Jewish tribes were living.  They were probably reading from the Torah.  To Mohammed's people, Jews were "people of the book."  So were the Christians."  His people had no book and he couldn't read, an example of the necessity of other things but not reading or writing among his family or people.  Mohammad was a leader without followers.  He had to dictate his thoughts to a scribe who wrote them down into the Koran.
                                                                             

Moses seeing the burning bush 

At one point, he called himself a "Jewish prophet."  Here's how Judaism had impressed him at this beginning point of his life.  However, I charge him with missing the essence of Judaism that is so important.  When he turned against the Jews because they wouldn't follow him and started slaughtering them, he had missed the idea entirely of the ethics that Moses was giving us.  He was behaving, like Moses did, however, 2,000 years earlier when Moses slaughtered those who broke the laws during their Exodus. We do have the permission to kill, however, when attacked to save our own lives.  We had to do this when we entered Canaan and were met with force.  No welcome wagon there, at all.
                                                                       

Haj Amin al-Husseini, sherif of Jerusalem and Adolf Hitler
discussing the demise of the Jews

  People seem to upgrade their ethical behavior as time passes, and then there are always exceptions.  The Nazis came from the most advanced country of its time and slaughtered 6 million Jews, a number hard for anyone to really fathom.  Where Moses gave G-d's law in the 10 commandment of Thou Shalt Not Kill, it's followed rarely throughout the generations.  There's always a war going on. I'm sorry to say that Hitler's writings have probably been more popular among the Arab nations than the sayings of Mohammad in the Koran.   They've been inspiring them to kill the Jewish people.
                                                                                   

Tower of David in Jerusalem, for King David who ruled in 1010 BCE-970 BCE

1. Mohammad had chosen Jerusalem as the city to be faced in prayer which is exactly what Jews do.  Muslim have changed since then and face Mecca because of Mohammad's anger when the Jews refused to join his religion, refusing anything like Christianity as well, and sticking with Judaism.  They were not to be swayed.  His first error was in thinking that Jews were an easy target and were to be his first converts.  He didn't understand that Christianity and the proselytizers in that forced the Jews into Arabia to escape such matters.
                                                                         

Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem

2. He set aside Friday as their special day with congregational prayer, copying the observance after the Jewish concept of a weekly holy day and choosing Friday because that was the day that Jews began their Sabbath preparations to start the process as sundown on Friday night.  Christians had chosen Sunday to be different from Judaism, not wanting to observe on the day Jews observed.  .

3.  He was in agreement with the Jews in opposing idol worship which was still going on in the East and spoke out against it.
                                                                                   

4. Abraham , born in 2nd millennium BCE, c1948 BCE, was the first in his family and world to be monotheistic.   Possibly the Pharaoh, Akhenaton, born some 600 years later, (reign in Egypt in 1353 BCE to 1336 BCE) , husband of Nefertiti, who refused Egypt's belief in a myriad of gods, and worshipped the sun instead, can be said to have been monotheistic, too.   He had tried to sway all the Egyptians, but they thought it was a ridiculous idea and refused it.  But that really doesn't come close to Abraham's thoughts on the subject.  Moses, who lived from 1391 BCE to 1271 BCE and died at 120 years of age, would have been born before Akhenaton   Moses had an intimate relationship with G-d and brought the Jewish slaves monotheism in full with laws of ethical behavior, customs, holidays, and responsibilites.  Mohammad's Islamic religion was also strongly monotheistic.  He spoke of restoring the religion of Abraham.  and even supported the teachings in the Hebrew bible "Tanakh".  Besides this, he even venerated its people, the Jews.  That means he regarded Jews with great respect and admiration.  He believed in being courteous and respectful to fellow Jews.  How on earth have some Islamic groups such as the Shi'a of Iran and Salafi of ISIS turned against Jews 180 degrees today and continue to believe that they are followers of Mohammad?

5. Of 25 prophets listed by Mohammad in the Koran, 19 are from Jewish writings in their scripture.
I find Muslims quoting Islamic teachings that are from Jewish teachings quite often.
                                                                               

6. Jews and Muslims are forbidden to eat the flesh of pigs, and Muslim are forbidden  any other animal not slaughtered in the name of G-d, whereas there are other animals not allowed to Jews as well, like camels, shellfish; and others not following the prescribed phylum.    This is following the idea of the Jewish Kosher law and ritual slaughter.  There are differences as well as this similarity.  Read:  http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2014/01/differences-between-kosher-and-halal.html

7.  Jews who are very observant pray 3 times a day at certain established times so Muslims pray 5 times a day as well at certain hours.
                                                                         

8. Jews circumcise their sons at age 8 days, just like Abraham began.  Muslims also do this.  It was a practice that I have found evidence of going on in Egypt, and of course Moses came from there.  Other people living in Arabian lands did not have this practice; so it was brought to Mohammad through the Jews.
                                                                       

Hagar, Egyptian handmaid being given to Abraham by Sarah, his wife and neice
who then took her as a wife and had Ishmael by her. 

9.  Arabs trace their origins to Ishmael, Abraham's son by the servant of Sarah, his wife, who was Hagar, an Egyptian.  Hagar and Ishmael had family problems in getting along with Sarah and Isaac, so left the compound to be on their own and join Hagar's people.  In the Bible, Genesis 21:18 tells that He will make Ishmael a great nation.  Mohammad built upon this connection by placing Abraham at the center of Islam.
                                                                               

10. Mohammad placed the Kaaba stone in Mecca as the last remnant of a house of worship built by Abraham.  This is very important to Muslims as for those pilgrims making the trip there, they kiss it as part of their ceremony out of respect like Jews do to the Torah when the Torah is brought to the worshippers at a point during their services in the synagogue.

11.  Outside the Kaaba is the zamzam, a well said to have been used by Hagar and Ishmael after they left Abraham's house.  This is not in the Torah or any other Jewish writings.
                                                                         

Police called in at Jerusalem's Temple Mount with Arab youth stabbing pedestrians

12. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, built by Muslims, sits on the very spot on which the 1st Temple stood.  The Islamic story is that Mohammad's magical horse leaped upwards from this Mosque towards heaven.  The reason Jews had built the Temple on this spot was that it was the very spot that Abraham reportedly bound his son Isaac, in answer to a call from G-d.  Of course, in the Muslim telling of this Jewish story, the son became Ishmael that Abraham was about to slaughter.  I must remind the readers who are gasping that at the time of Abraham, human sacrifice was being practiced, just like it was in the Aztecs who climbed their massive pyramids that look so much like Egyptian pyramids to sacrifice the chosen one for the year to appease the gods.  In the law of Moses, one does not sacrifice people anymore.  That is the essence of the Jewish teaching.  That came to an end with this story.
                                                                               

13.  Moses giving the 10 Commandments is a major part of Judaism, and Moses is revered by Christianity and Islam for this. .   Showing this fact is the fact that the Christians built a monastery of St. Catherine in the year 340 at the foot of what they thought was Mt. Sinai, the mountain Moses had climbed to receive the commandments from G-d.  At the top stands a Christian chapel and a Muslim mosque.   Judaism is an ethical religion. It is a religion based on ethics and how to treat others fairly, not an emphasis on what happens to individuals when they died.  They believe that leading a good life of ethics will ensure one of whatever happens after death.
                                                                       

Looking at Cave of Machpela in Hebron over 100 years ago
Hebron is now occupied by the Palestinian Arabs, lies 19 miles S of Jerusalem.The city is divided into two sectors: H1, controlled by the Palestinian Authority and H2, roughly 20% of the city, administered by Israel.

14.  The feeling of Jewish belief is so strong in Christianity and Islam that Israel had to find a decision for all people to enter the Cave of Machpela at Hebron, the burial site for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives.  They have regulations of what entrance each can use and when it's open for others not praying in groups there.  Muslims in 1976 were allowed to pray there 24 hours a day and on every day of the week whereas  the Jews were limited to evening prayers only on Fridays to be able to greet the incoming Sabbath.

Somewhere along the way, Mohammad himself turned against the Jews who would not follow him and become Islamic.  They had politely told him that no, they had their own religion, thank you.  The fact is that Islam does not have the reasoning behind it that is found in Jewish literature.  Judaism already had existed since Moses started teaching the Israelists he rescued by the year c1311 BCE, and Mohammad's followers rode to convert people about a year after he had died, which was when Judaism was already about 2,000 years old.  Jews had developed rabbis after leaving Jerusalem in 70 CE who got together and debated points in the Torah and put together the Tanakh already.  We had the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud.  There was so much that Mohammad did not know or understand about out religion and why things were done that were points discussed by many worldly rabbis.
                                                                               

Beheadings are used to cause fear by ISIS

What really rankled the Muslims was when Jews felt they were being forced to fight against others and be on the Muslim side of the fight.  They tried to get out of it, and this enraged the Muslims towards the Jews.  All was forgotten both, I'm afraid, by Mohammad, if his writings are to be believed, and by the Muslims themselves.  They had a schism in who to follow as their religious leader which brought about Shi'a and Sunni branches of Islam and now even the more extremes that ISIS is a part of. Salafists have come into the news with ISIS.
                                                                                 

Salafism, Ultra-Conservatism and More

" The Salafis are Sunnis who have tried to modernize Islam by dropping the traditional law schools, and reading scripture directly instead. In this sense they are the Muslim equivalent of Protestants. Like some Protestants, some Salafis derive an obscurantist, hyper-literalist, sectarian, fanatical orientation from their non-traditional readings of scripture. (The term “Wahabi” denotes this kind of extremist tendency among Salafist followers of the Arabian reformer Ibn Abdul-Wahhab.)   Those intent on creating half the world as their caliphate, ISIS, follow the Salafis way.
                                                                         

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was a meany to Israel  His hatred lives on.
His family
claimed to be descendants of Mohammad. He ruled from 1979 to 1989,
causing the Shah of Iran to leave power.  He just took over and changed
the whole climate of Iran. 

       That should give Iran more credence, since they are Shi'a.  However, they have turned into one of the most hateful Muslims in the world, always threatening Israel and calling them every horrible name they can think of.  Their intent is not a secret, as they keep telling a world with deaf ears, that they intend to wipe out Israel.  They are not much different, really, than the bloody Salafis ISIS group. They threaten to use an atomic bomb by shooting a missile loaded with it.

There is nothing left of any Jewish ethics in the extremist viewpoints.

There is Egypt and Jordan who are neighbors of Israel and have signed peace pacts with them.  The rest are muddying up the good beginnings of Islam and ruining their reputation as a peaceful religion.  Instead of advancing their ideas, the Salafis have gone back into the Dark Ages, something that happened in the West once upon a time to the Greeks and Romans and to Europe as well.  We've seen a raging war between Islam and Judaism that continues to this day.  The odds are constantly against the Jews who keep on winning-with G-d's help, of course.  Muslims, you started off well with good intentions of Mohammad's, following much of Judaism's important points.  What happened and look at where you are today.  Is this your idea of improving on the Mosaic law or Jesus's  idea of love?
                                                                 

It's time to go into self analysis and improve oneself.  Rage and temper have to be controlled in order to live with even one's spouse, let alone one's world.  What would Abraham say?

Resource: The Jewish Connection by M. Hirsh Goldberg p. 68 to 71.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/12/03/s-words/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2011/02/campbell-soups-and-islams-halal.html
 http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2014/01/differences-between-kosher-and-halal.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebron