The Everlasting Hatred (18 page)

This is one of the many amazing prophecies in the Bible. Even the number of years the Jews would be held captive against their will was predicted by the prophet Jeremiah and fulfilled to the letter. The Babylonian destruction itself was predicted 150 years before it happened by Isaiah the prophet:

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
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The Bible records that not all of the Jews were taken to Babylon. A few were left in Judea to maintain the land, and some were able to flee to Egypt or Arabia. In 1949, after the birth of the state of Israel, Israelis rescued the Jews of Yemen from the wrath of the Muslims. In an amazing surprise airlift that became known as “the wings of eagles,” all of Yemenite Jews were taken to Israel. These Jews trace their origins in Arabia back twenty-five hundred years, which was the time of the Babylonian invasion.

The greatest flood of Jewish refugees came as a result of the initial Roman destruction of Jerusalem and Judea in A.D. 70 and in the period of some 150 years afterwards. During this time, the
Romans fought off different Jewish guerilla-style insurgencies that tried to take Jerusalem back. The Jewish resistance was finally totally crushed. Some poor survivors stayed on in Israel. Others fled.

Guillaume is certain that “in the first and second centuries A.D., Arabia offered a near asylum” to the Jews who were victimized by the “utterly ruthless” Romans.

Historian Joan Peters
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quotes a vital insight by Bernard Lewis:

The Arabian land considered by many to be “purely Arab,” in the very land that would spawn Islam many centuries later, numbers of Jewish and Christian settlements were established. Both Christians and Jews helped develop Aramaic and Hellenistic culture. The chief southern Arabian Christian centre was in Najran, where a relatively advanced political life was developed. Jews and Judaized Arabs were everywhere, especially in
Yathrib
later named Medina. They were mainly agriculturists and artisans.
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An amazing fact is revealed here and confirmed by other historical sources. The second holiest city in the Islamic world may have been first established as a community by Jews! Whatever the case, Jews certainly played a large role in developing Yathrib. How often do we hear or read about this in history? The story of widespread Jewish settlement in pre-Islamic Arabia is certainly one of the world's best-kept secrets.

“Thus,” writes Joan Peters, “evolved the flight of the first ‘Palestinian refugees'—the Judeans, or Jews.” I believe it is extremely important
to understand how the early Jewish settlements in Arabia got there. These Jewish refugees are seldom discussed, yet understanding what happened to them is critical to understanding today's Middle East crisis.

You may ask, why is this important to know? Because the pattern of action that developed toward the Jews in Arabia established the Islamic tradition that has been followed wherever Islam has spread!

Before Mohammad's time, the comparative wealth of Yathrib (Medina), thanks to the hard-working, industrious Jewish refuges, attracted many pagan Arabs. They came for the jobs, the markets, and the commercial opportunities.
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In subsequent chapters, we will see this pattern first established in Yathrib repeated in nineteenth- and twentieth-century “Palestine.”

It is important to note that Judaism was very popular in parts of Arabia just before the birth of Mohammad. Guillaume writes,

At the dawn of Islam the Jews dominated the economic life of the Hijaz (the sacred eastern section of Arabia that contains Mecca and Medina). They held all of the best land… . At Medina they must have formed at least half of the population. There was also a Jewish settlement to the north of the Gulf of Aqaba… . What is important is to note that the Jews of the Hijaz made many proselytes (or converts) among the Arab tribesmen.
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Guillaume suggests that the prosperity of the Jews was due to their superior farming abilities and technology. So the first “Palestinian refugees”—the Jews—quickly became large landowners and controllers of Arabian finance and trade. This success no doubt led to the Jews becoming something of a stumbling block to their envious Arab neighbors—especially in Medina, or Yathrib; as it was then called.
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It was into this historical context that Mohammad launched his ministry. As noted in the last chapter, Mohammad's zealous crusade against polytheism made him increasingly unpopular in his hometown of Mecca. When townsmen tried to kill him, he and his disciples fled to Yathrib.

Not surprisingly, the Jews of Yathrib did not accept Mohammad's claim to be a prophet of God. He tried very hard to win the Jews over by representing himself as only a teacher of the creed of Abraham. He even adopted the Jewish Sabbath, some dietary laws, and initially required prayer toward Jerusalem rather than Mecca.
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The Jews, however, were not deceived and refused to acknowledge him as anything but a false prophet. This infuriated Mohammad, who wrote into Islam a perpetual doctrine against Jews and then initiated an action that would become his standard pattern—the sword. He marched against this particular Jewish tribe and besieged their village. When they surrendered and came out one by one, they were beheaded. So the first Muslim massacre was executed on the Jews. The pattern of “confess Islam or face the sword” was established in this action.

Mohammad was anxious to spread Islam beyond Medina. After the Jews, who not only rejected but also opposed him, were dealt with, he began to train his disciples as warriors and developed a new strategy for defending Medina. He had them dig a long deep trench along the side of the city where the Meccans were expected to attack.

Although simple by modern standards, this strategy was totally innovative in seventh-century Arabia. Unable to get beyond the trench, the Meccan army laid siege to Medina.

Some of the surviving Jewish citizens within the city seized this opportunity to attack Mohammad's army from behind. He had to divide his army to deal with a two-front battle. But a sand storm suddenly struck and forced the Meccans to pull back. Then the Muslims turned their whole army upon the Jews and slaughtered them.

The Battle of the Trench is commemorated as one of the most decisive and critical battles in the formative stages of Islam.

At the wells of Badr, near the coast of the Red Sea, Mohammad's three-hundred-man army was caught off guard by a superior three-to-one force from Mecca. Although outnumbered, the Muslims defeated the Meccans.

Mohammad claimed that his victory was due to thousands of angels, led by Jabril (Gabriel), who fought for them.

I mention this battle as significant because if Mohammad's army had lost, or if Mohammad had been killed, it would have ended the Muslim movement. The victory gained both converts as well as prestige among the Arabs and other people of the region.

Three years after the Battle of Badr, a ten-thousand-man Meccan army again laid siege to Medina, but the Quraysh tribe of Mecca was not able to conquer the city. On the other hand, Mohammad was not yet strong enough to defeat the Quraysh tribe, so he
signed a ten-year treaty of non-aggression with Mecca. However, by A.D. 630, barely a year later, Mohammad had built up a strong army. He ignored the treaty and stormed Mecca by surprise, quickly conquering the city. At last he made himself ruler of the city of his birth.

Mohammad's first act was to establish Mecca as the holiest city of Islam. John Noss writes:

One of his first acts was to go reverently to the Ka'aba; yet he showed no signs of yielding to the ancient Meccan polytheism. After honoring the Black Stone and riding seven times around the shrine, he ordered the destruction of the idols within it and sanctioned the use of the well Zamzam and restored the boundary pillars defining the sacred territory around Mecca.
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Mohammad then proclaimed the Ka'abah as “Haram” (forbidden to non-Muslims). Islam now had two capitals—Medina the political, and Mecca the religious.

Since that time, Muslims have quoted the “Quraysh Model” as justification for deceptive treaties. This model means: “Negotiate ‘peace' with your enemy until you become strong enough to annihilate him.” This is the justification Chairman Yasser Arafat quoted in Arabic to the Muslim world when he signed the Oslo Agreement. Muslims believe that no infidels really understand what the Quraysh Model means—and for the vast majority of non-Muslims, that is a correct assumption.

Mohammad and his disciples treated the Jews much more severely than any other “unbelievers.” Why? “They had irritated him by their refusal to recognize him as a prophet, by ridicule and by argument,” explains Guillaume. “And of course their economic supremacy was a standing irritant.”

Guillaume continues, “Their leaders opposed his claim to be an apostle sent by God, and though they doubtless drew some satisfaction from his acceptance of the divine mission of Abraham, Moses and the prophets, they could hardly be expected to welcome the inclusion of Jesus and Ishmael among his chosen messengers.”
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Mohammad decided that these non-believers—these skeptics—right there in his own homeland had to be eliminated if he was going to fulfill his imperial ambitions. So Mohammad decreed a deadly Islamic law: “Two religions may not dwell together on the Arabian Peninsula.”

After issuing this decree, Mohammad wasted no time in enforcing it. He went after all the Jewish communities of northern Arabia. He systematically slaughtered them all. First the Quraiza tribe was exterminated. Then Mohammad sent messengers to the Jewish community at the oasis of Khaibar, “inviting” Usayr— their war chief—to visit Medina for peace negotiations.

“Usayr set off with 30 companions and a Muslim escort,” writes historian Norman Stillman. “Suspecting no foul play, the Jews went unarmed. On the way the Muslims turned upon the defenseless delegation, killing all but one who managed to escape.”
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Mohammad then attacked and destroyed their whole community.

Mohammad justified this treachery by saying, “War is deception.” War practiced according to this Muslim doctrine was not just deception, it was a literal hell—even with the primitive weapons of the seventh century. The complete annihilation of the two Arabian-Jewish tribes, with every man, woman, and child slaughtered, is, according to the late Israeli historian and President Itzhak Ben-Zvi, “a tragedy for which no parallel can be found in Jewish history.”
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Parenthetically, in the West's current war against Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, it would be good for the leaders to remember this “Islamic tactic of warfare.” According to this “religious” doctrine of Islam, what Muslims say does not have to be true— after all, to them, “War is deception.” And the end justifies the means.

As an example of the enormity of Islamic brutality and barbarity, after another Jewish town surrendered to the Muslims, approximately one thousand men were beheaded in one day. The women and children were sold into slavery.
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Elsewhere, as the attacks on the Jews continued, some managed to survive. Under a new Islamic policy, non-Muslims or “infidels” were permitted to maintain their land so long as they paid a 50 percent tribute for their “protection.”
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“Thus the Jewish
dhimmi
evolved—the robbery of freedom and political independence compounding the extortion and eventual expropriation of property,” writes Peters. “Tolerated between onslaughts, expulsions and pillages from the Arab Muslim conquest onward, the non-Muslim
dhimmi
—predominantly Jewish but with Christians too—provided the important source of religious revenue through the ‘infidel's' head tax. He became very quickly a convenient political scapegoat and whipping boy as well.”
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As noted earlier, the Bedouin was raised to fight, raid, and pillage. It was endemic in his genes. As historian Philip Hitti wrote, “The raid is raised by the economic and social conditions of desert life to the rank of a national institution.
It lies at the base of the economic structure of Bedouin pastoral society. In desert land, where the fighting mood is a chronic mental condition
, raiding is one of the few manly
occupations. An early Arab poet gave expression to the guiding principle of such life in two verses: ‘Our business is to make raids on the enemy, on our neighbor and on our own brother, in case we find none to raid but a brother!'”
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And now comes Mohammad, who tells them they can fight, raid, and pillage in the sanctified service of Allah—and keep the booty as well. Their fighting is now raised to the level of a “holy war” in the cause of Allah. In fact, an old Arabic word was dusted off and given new meaning—
Jihad
, Holy War.”

Guillaume explains how this new policy of repression and confiscation led to Islam's growing appeal among the nomadic Arab tribes:

Much of the wealth of the country which had been concentrated in the hands of the Jews had now been seized by the Muslims, who were no longer indigents but wealthy landowners, men of substance, owning camels and horses and their own weapons… . Mohammad's fame spread far and wide, and the Bedouin flocked to him in thousands.
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