Why Israel is Not Anathema to Islam

The notion that Israel is anathema to Islam needs to be abandoned. Individuals like Sheikh Palazzi and Islamic scholar Khaleel Mohammed provide some particularly strong arguments for peace. Unfortunately, many Muslims fail to see that Islam adds another layer to their ethnic identities; it adds a layer of peace and rationale.

Instead, Islam has become a vehicle for Arab nationalism; used to fight a war under the guise of being religiously sanctioned. Those who refuse to seek peace with the Jews are only willing to throw away Islam for a hollow victory.

Many will ask, “why do you not sympathize with the plight of those affected by the Israeli-Arab conflict?” If one is in the trenches and all they can see is the battlefield, they still lack sight of the situation. I fail to see how one can speak of disloyalty when the focus is on saving lives.

Furthermore, there is a double standard applied to Israel. How many Muslims speak of destroying Sudan because of its conflict/genocide? How many speak of destroying Syria because of the 1982 Hama massacre in which thousands were killed?

Respecting the message of the Quran is all that I am asking my fellow Muslims to do (Quran 5:21). There will be those that will attempt to find other verses to disprove what has been cited in the Quran. I ask those rejecting peace to simply look at the Quran as a whole text, not as individual verses intended to be abrogated.

Recommended: an article by Palazzi and research by Khaleel Mohammed. Robert Fulford has a good article on Abdul Hadi Palazzi. In the article, Fulford makes note of an Islamic scholar at Al-Azhar that “pressured” Anwar Sadat to make peace with Israel.