The Manila Times Internet Edition | OPINION > Jewish-Muslim coexistence
DOUBLE TAKE
By Eric F. Mallonga
Jewish-Muslim coexistencePEOPLE appear to believe that the Jews and the Muslims have no points of convergence for them to stop the bloodshed in Palestine’s Gaza Strip. Reader Cizar Canlas even erroneously observes that every Muslim in Gaza has been indoctrinated by the Hamas organization to view the Jewish people as enemies to be exterminated, which means that all Muslims in Gaza Strip are threats to the life, liberty and security of every Jew. Canlas thus absurdly concludes that there is no other solution to the Jewish and Muslim Conflict in the Middle East except for the withdrawal of the Hamas and Iran, which is allegedly propagating the rift among Jews and Hamas by proxy, from the conflict or the absolute extermination of the Muslims in Gaza Strip. Canlas is wrong. With his macabre and senseless proposals for the genocidal massacre of the Muslim peoples of the Gaza Strip, it appears that there is no longer any hope for peace and progress in the conflict-riven Palestinian region. More than the audacity of hopelessness posed by Canlas, the audacity of hope must prevail for world peace to be achieved. People must appreciate historical events wherein Jews lived harmoniously with Muslims in avoiding an apocalyptic world war.
Centuries before Prophet Muhammad’s birth, Jews were actually living in the lands now known as Saudi Arabia and the other Middle East countries. One Arabian King Dhu Nuwas, in fact, was a convert to Judaism. Arabian Jews were also indistinguishable from other Arab tribes, as harsh realities of desert life recognized no distinctions among cultural communities or religious creeds. They spoke Arabic dialects and traded with the Quraysh and other leading Arab tribes. Having descended from the sons of Abraham, Jews and Arabs were familiar to one another in language, attire and culture, except for their distinct religious practices and rites. Thus, the Arabian Jews were more familiar than alien to Muhammad as explained by Arab historian Zachary Karabell in “People of the Book: The Forgotten History of Islam and the West.”
In fact, in 622, Prophet Muhammad moved from Mecca to Medina with most of his followers from the prominent Quraysh tribe in one of the defining moments of Islamic history called the Hijra. For some period, with Muhammad’s arrival, Medina became a unified Jewish-Muslim community as it had three powerful Jewish tribes, more particularly the Banu Qaynuqa, the Bau Nadir and the Banu Qurayza. The Constitution of Medina recognized the two religions as separate and distinct from each other, and recognized that the followers of the two religions could live side by side as equals and supported each other when and where support was needed. It created a precedent for peaceful and cordial coexistence as a hybrid community of Jews and Muslims. Muhammad has seen himself as the last in a series of Jewish prophets, and even instructed his Muslim followers to face Jerusalem when they prayed, thus gaining respect even among the Jews, who saw him as a first among equals and an arbiter of disputes. Clearly, the Constitution of Medina, which Muhammad established with the non-Jewish tribes, the three Jewish tribes and the Islamic community was a model of ecumenism.
Like any prejudice as exemplified by reader Canlas’ selective memory of the history in the long-drawn Jewish-Muslim conflict, the mutual animosity between Islam and Israel is merely fueled by ignorance and intolerance. Hatred, scorn, hostilities and offensive personalities and notorious historical events should not be emphasized because its continuous proposal and replay merely enflames the social prejudices of one religion against the other rather than searching for commonalities to bind together the peoples in the conflict. Islam is not a religion of jihadist violence and suicide bombings. Islam, in its literal definition is a religion of submission to the will of God. Islam is a religion of personal struggle towards divinity, of striving to be godly, within a community of believers in the same God. Islam is a community of the “People of the Book” as Muhammad had seen the Quran as some continuation, or a replication with its own unique variations, of the writings inspired by Allah, which includes the Torah, the Old Testament, and the Christian Bible.
Thus, the commonalities among different religions must be explored in binding people in peace, common understanding, and progress. The five pillars of Islam, which involve prayer, fasting, almsgiving, pilgrimage and charity, are non-violent, morally righteous activities that are also themselves observed among Christians and Jews alike.
The legacy of religious coexistence and cultural harmony must be reclaimed. Albeit there will be tension among the variations of religious philosophies, these beliefs should not constitute the basis for a bloodbath among people descended from a common ancestor. But when Israel continues its conflict against the children of Gaza Strip with excessive aggression, it will definitely fuel the already heightened tensions in the Middle East among the Muslim peoples identifying themselves with the civilians of Gaza Strip, dangerously inviting an apocalyptic war beyond its borders.
The Manila Times Internet Edition | OPINION > Jewish-Muslim coexistence