In this mailing:

  • Andrew Bostom: No, Ed Husain, the Jihad Conquest of Palestine Was Not a 'Liberation'
  • Harold Rhode: A Big Win for Israel

No, Ed Husain, the Jihad Conquest of Palestine Was Not a 'Liberation'

by Andrew Bostom  •  July 22, 2024 at 5:00 am

  • The jihad conquest of Palestine created an Islamic state under Sharia jurisdiction for the surviving Jews, Christians and Samaritans, with all its accompanying religious and socio-political discriminations. There was nothing "liberating" about the jihad waged against the vanquished "dhimmi," per Qur'an 9:29: "Fight against those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth [i.e., Islam] from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah1 willingly while they are humbled."

  • This verse, and its interpretation by seminal Muslim Qur'anic commentators and jurists, was the key rationale for Sharia-based restrictions on non-Muslims' religious practices, as well as their pauperizing taxation, disarmament and inequality in penal law.

  • Ayaan Hirsi Ali may have taken Husain's full measure — still unchanged — 17 years ago during an illuminating debate: "[I]f we continue to deny, those of us who were brought up in Islam, that there is anything wrong with the faith, then there is no point in having a debate on reformation or renaissance or any sort of change. Because if it is perfect – as most Muslims want us to believe – then there's nothing to change."

  • It certainly appears that Hirsi Ali identified the complete obstruction to real change posed by this "ex-jihadist Muslim" turned apologist for Islam, whose replacement fanaticism is his angry denial of normative Islamic doctrine, and related history, past as prologue. Regardless, the jihad conquest of Palestine was not a "liberation," and most assuredly did not "reinstate Judaism and Jewishness to Jerusalem."

The Islamic conquest of Palestine, which began in the year 634 C.E., had devastating and decidedly "non-liberating" consequences, characterized by massacre, pillage, enslavement and deportation of the indigenous Palestinian Jewish, Christian and Samaritan populations. Pictured: The Islamic Dome of the Rock shrine, on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, which was built atop the site of the destroyed First and Second Jewish Temples. (Photo by Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images)

Ed Husain, self-styled ex-Hizb ut Tahrir and ex-Hamas "former radical," now "anti-Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood" campaigner, spoke on July 9, 2024 on a panel entitled, "Islam, Israel, and the West," at the fourth National Conservatism Conference.

Husain is an "ex-jihadist Muslim," turned apologist for Islam. Despite his recent assertion to the contrary, the jihad conquest of Palestine was not a "liberation," and most assuredly did not "reinstate Judaism and Jewishness to Jerusalem."

Continue Reading Article

A Big Win for Israel

by Harold Rhode  •  July 22, 2024 at 4:00 am

Israel's recent strike on Houthi targets in Yemen shows to the Iranians, Arab states and others that Israel is an independent actor, not a "client state" of America, and that Israel is willing to go it alone against the advice or demands of the Americans. Pictured: Fires burn after an Israeli airstrike on an oil storage facility in the port city of Hodeida, Yemen, on July 20, 2024. (Photo by Houthi Media Center via Getty Images)

Following Israel's recent strike on Houthi targets in Yemen, White House National Security Communications Advisor John F. Kirby said: "We did not participate in today's Israeli attack on Yemen and did not help Israel."

This is wonderful news. It shows to the Iranians, Arab states and others that Israel is an independent actor, not a "client state" of America. It also demonstrates that Israel is willing to go it alone against the advice or demands of the Americans.

It shows the Sunni Arab countries that Israel is a reliable partner against the Iranian regime because Israel will do what it must to protect itself and stop Iran and its proxies. As Israel's Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer often says, even if the Sunnis can't have the 800-pound gorilla (the U.S.) to defend them against Iranian aggression, the 250-pound gorilla (Israel) has proved a reliable alternative.

What more can we learn from Israel's attack on the (Shi'ite) Houthis?

Continue Reading Article

Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Donate
Copyright © Gatestone Institute, All rights reserved.

You are subscribed to this list as [email protected]

You can change how you receive these emails:
Update your subscription preferences or Unsubscribe from this list

Gatestone Institute
14 East 60 St., Suite 705, New York, NY 10022