Nice thoughts, but do they matter?

Reader comment on: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel: An Islamic Prophecy

Submitted by Phillip Slepian, Jan 29, 2013 12:51

Assuming Salim's interpretation of the Koran and other Islamic texts is legitimate, his sentiments are quaint, but in the end, meaningless. Voices like Salim's are few and far between in the Islamic Umma, and those in power work quickly and ruthlessly to silence them. Of course there were Germans in World War II who objected to the Nazi rulers, but it made no difference. They were silenced, imprisoned, or executed.

While Salim's points are reasonable on their face, they still eminate from the basis that Islam is the one and only legitimate faith. The idea that if others, like the Jews, "do well" they will benefit from Allah's largesse ring hollow to non-Muslims. What does "do well" really mean? Many Islamic scholars would suggest that for the Jew or the Christian to "do well" means, at the least, to accept their dhimmi status within the Islamic Umma and pay the jizya - to "feel themselves subdued" as the Koran states.

How can Salim reconcile the Jewish right to the land of Israel and Muhammad's prophecy of a world completely submitted to Islam? How can he reconcile all of the seemingly contradictory statements in Islamic texts regarding Islam, Judaism, and Christianity? What about the principle of abrogation? Salim admits that Jerusalem does not appear once in the Koran (it appears several hundred times in the Torah), yet has no trouble naming it Islam's third holiest city. How can he justify that? Salim suggests that a state of Palestine in Judea and Samaria is a legitimate goal (albeit minus Jerusalem), but does not address the historical reality that these territories are the very heart of the ancestral Jewish national homeland. Salim's piece begs more questions than it answers.

Salim should understand that non-Muslims do not wish to be defined by Islam.

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Other reader comments on this item

Title By Date
Koran and the Jews [34 words]SandraFeb 20, 2013 06:53
Forgery of history: the Muslims are champions! [112 words]François AlexandreFeb 13, 2013 02:40
Muhammad's 'prophecy' [89 words]WinnieFeb 4, 2013 12:59
Read your Quran and Hadith more closely, Mr. Salim. [30 words]Steven BuckleyJan 31, 2013 17:25
Who is the author? [20 words]PCJan 30, 2013 12:54
I wonder...? [93 words]Max ModineJan 29, 2013 22:49
↔ Racist? [20 words]TreehuggerFeb 15, 2013 11:05
Wow [5 words]Robert NicholsonJan 29, 2013 20:34
⇒ Nice thoughts, but do they matter? [299 words]Phillip SlepianJan 29, 2013 12:51
↔ Al taqiyya? [62 words]Jim FoxFeb 7, 2013 14:00

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