National Council Jewish Women

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 6:03 pm

Islam has brought peace and harmony in the Middle East throughout history

Palestine, especially Jerusalem, his heart, was sacred to Muslims since the early days of Islam. The Muslims of Palestine as holy has enabled them to restore peace and harmony in the region. Let us examine some historical examples it in this article.

There are two basic reasons that Jerusalem is holy to Muslims: the first direction in which Muslims used to pray. Besides, what could be considered one of the greatest miracles of the Prophet Muhammad and his ascension into heaven, was the Masjid al-Haram to Masjid al-Aqsa, that is, from Mecca to Jerusalem. This was revealed in the Qur'an in these terms:

Glory to Him who took His servant on a journey by night from the al-Haram al-Masjid al-Aqsa, which around We have blessed, to show him of Our signs. He is the Hearer, the all-seeing. (Sura Al-Isra: 1)

In the stories of the prophets in the Koran, verses dealing with the Palestinian territories refer to them as "blessed lands and" the Holy Land. In the above verse about the ascent Heaven, Masjid al-Aqsa described as "a land whose surroundings We have blessed. In Surat al-Anbiya, in which the migration of the prophets Abraham and Lot said, in the same area described as" a We have blessed land. All Palestinian land where many prophets from the tribe of Israel have lived, fought in the way of God, and have been martyred or died and buried, is sacred for Muslims.

Therefore, Muslims have brought "blessings", namely peace and security in Jerusalem and Palestine during the last 1,400 years.

Peace and Justice, Palestine by Caliph Omar

Jerusalem was the capital of the Jews until 71. This year, the army Roman made a large-scale attack on Jews, and banished from the area after great brutality. At the time of the Jewish diaspora began, Jerusalem and its environs was becoming an abandoned land.

However, Jerusalem is once again a center of interest with the acceptance of Christianity at the time of Emperor Roman Constantine. Roman Christians built churches in Jerusalem. The prohibitions on Jews settling in the region up. Palestine remained Roman (Byzantine) territory until the seventh century. The Persians conquered the region for a short period, but later the Byzantines reconquered.

A milestone in the history of Palestine came in 637, when it was conquered by the armies of Islam. This meant the genesis of a period of peace and harmony in Palestine, which for centuries had been the scene of wars, exiles, looting and massacres, which saw new brutality every time it changed hands, a frequent occurrence. The advent of Islam was the beginning of an era where people of different faiths in Palestine can live in peace and harmony.

Palestine was captured by Omar, the second caliph after Prophet. Omar's entry into Jerusalem, tolerance and incredible maturity and kindness he showed towards people of different faiths, presented the beautiful age that was beginning. The British historian and Middle East expert Karen Armstrong describes the capture of Jerusalem by Omar in these terms in his book Holy War:

The Caliph Omar entered Jerusalem riding a white camel, escorted by the magistrate of the city, the Greek Patriarch Sofronio. The Caliph asked to be taken immediately for the Monte Temple and from there he knelt in prayer at the place where his friend Mohammed had made his Night Journey. The Patriarch watched in horror: this, he thought, should be the abomination of desolation as the prophet Daniel had foretold that enter the Temple, must be the Antichrist announce that the last days. Next Omar asked see the Christian shrines and, while in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the time for Muslim prayer came. He politely invited the patriarch to pray where was, but Omar refused politely. If he began to pray in the church, he said, Muslims commemorate the event by building a mosque, and that would mean I would have to demolish the Holy Sepulchre. Instead Omar went to pray at some distance from the church, and, of course, directly opposite the Holy Sepulchre there is still a small mosque dedicated to the Caliph Omar.

The Mosque of Omar was erected another large Temple Mount to mark the Muslim conquest, in collaboration with the Mosque Al Aqsa, which commemorates Mohammed's night journey. For years, Christians have used the site of the ruins of the Jewish Temple landfill. The Caliph helped his clear to the Muslims in the garbage with his own hands and raised their two shrines Muslims to establish Islam in the third holiest city in the Islamic world. [1]

In summary, Muslims brought 'civilization' to Jerusalem and Palestine all. In barbaric belief that showed no respect for the sacred values of others, and who killed simply to differences in beliefs, ruled simply tolerant and moderate culture of Islam. After its capture by Umar, Muslims, Christians and Jews lived peace and harmony in Palestine. Muslims never tried to use force to convert people, although some Muslims have done voluntarily.

Peace and harmony in Palestine lasted as long as the Muslim domination in the region. However, in the late 11th century, an invader penetrated near abroad, and civilized land of Jerusalem was brutal and savagely plundered, in a way never seen. They have crossed the barbarians.

A historical testimony of Muslim tolerance of Christians, Muslims Dome of the Rock by the Christian church.

The savagery of the Crusaders

Crusaders sacked Jerusalem and killed all its inhabitants were not Christian.
Although members of three religions lived in peace and harmony in Palestine, Christians in Europe decided to organize the cross. "The following people a call by Pope Urban II November 25, 1095 at the Council of Clermont, more than 100,000 across Europe went to Palestine to "liberate the Muslim Holy Land and find the legendary wealth East. After a long and tiring trip, and looting and killing more Muslims came to Jerusalem 1099. The city fell after a siege of nearly five weeks, and Crusaders moved in, and who have made similar savagery that the world has rarely seen. All Muslims and Jews in the city have been massacred. In the words of one historian, "They killed all the Saracens and the Turks who found … whether male or female." [2] One of the Crusaders, Raymond of Aguiles, boasted of this violence:

wonderful to see scenes. Some of our men (and this was more merciful) cut off the heads of their enemies, others shoot them with arrows, and fell from the towers, others tortured by throwing into the flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet were seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to choose their path in the bodies of men and horses. But these issues have been small in comparison to what happened in the Temple Solomon, a place where religious services are usually sung … in the temple and the porch Solomon, the men were in the blood up to their knees and bridle. [3]

In two days, the Crusader army killed some 40,000 Muslims in the forms of barbarism that just described. [4] The peace and harmony in Palestine, which lasted Omar, ended in terrible carnage. The Crusaders violated all the moral laws of Christianity, a religion of love and compassion, and spread terror, allegedly in the name of Christianity.

J. Saladin

The barbaric Crusader army made Jerusalem his capital, and established a Latin Kingdom whose borders stretched from Palestine to Antioch. However, the cross that led to Palestinian barbarism not last long. Saladin gathered all the Muslim kingdoms under his banner in a holy war, and defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin in 1187. After battle, the two chiefs of the army of the Crusaders, Reynauld of Chatillon and King Guy, were brought into the presence of Saladin. Saladin executed Reynauld Chatillon, who had gained fame with the terrible savagery he had committed against Muslims, but let King Guy go since he did not commit the same crimes. Palestine once again saw the true meaning of justice.

Immediately after Hattin, and the same day where the Prophet Muhammad have been taken from Mecca to Jerusalem, in a night, the day of the ascent, Saladin entered Jerusalem and was released 88 years of Crusader occupation. When the Crusaders took the city 88 years before had killed all Muslims in, and for this reason they were afraid that Saladin would do the same for them. While he did not hit any single Christian in the city. In addition, he simply ordered the Latin (Catholic) Christians to leave. Orthodox Christians, which do not intersect, they were allowed to live in city and live and worship as they see fit. The British historian Karen Armstrong describes the second Islamic capture Jerusalem in these terms:

The October 2, 1187 Saladin and his army entered Jerusalem as conquerors, and for 800 years Jerusalem being a Muslim city … Saladin kept his word and conquered the city according to the highest Islamic ideals. He did it to avenge the slaughter of 1099, as the Koran recommends (16:127) and now that hostilities had ceased, which ended the killing (2:193-194). Not a single Christian was killed and there was no looting. The rescues were deliberately very low …

Saladin was moved to tears for the suffering of the families that were torn and has published many of them freely, as the Koran calls, but to the chagrin of his long-suffering treasurers. His brother al-Adil was so upset by the situation of the prisoners that he asked Saladin for a thousand of them for their own use, then released them there …

When Imad ad-Din saw the Patriarch Heraclius leaving the city with tanks full of treasures, he urged Saladin to confiscate. But Saladin refused. The Koran says that oaths and treaties must be kept to the letter and it is essential that Muslims must respect the law … Heraclius paid his ten-dinar ransom like everybody else and even provided a special escort to keep his treasure safe during the journey to Tyre. [5]

In short, Saladin and the Muslims in his command treated the Christians with great mercy and justice, and even showed them more compassion than their own leaders had.

Richard the Lionheart, not very "noble" at all.
After Jerusalem, the Crusaders continued their barbarity and the Muslims their justice in other cities of Palestine. In 1194, Richard the Lionheart, who is portrayed as a great hero of history United Kingdom, had 3,000 Muslims, among whom were many women and children, basely executed in Castle Acre. Although Muslims witness this barbaric, had never used the same methods. Respecting the order of God "Do not let hatred of a people incite … go beyond the limits "(Surah Maidah) and never use violence against innocent civilians. They have never resorted to unnecessary violence, even against the Crusader armies they defeated.

The savagery of the Crusaders and the justice of the Muslims once more revealed a historic truth: Only an administration based on Islamic principles could allow people of different religions to live together in Palestine. This has continued to show for 700 years after Saladin, particularly during the period Ottoman.

The just and tolerant Ottoman

In 1514, Sultan Selim captured Jerusalem and its surroundings, and started nearly 400 years of domination Ottoman Palestine. Like other Ottoman states, this period would allow Palestine to enjoy peace, stability and coexistence of different faiths.

The tolerance of Islam continued in the Ottoman Empire. Church, synagogue and a mosque coexisted peacefully.
The Ottoman Empire was administered under the "nation (Millet) system, "the central feature of which was that people of different religions were allowed to live according to their own beliefs and even legal systems. Christians and Jews, described as the "People of the Book" in the Koran, found tolerance, security and freedom Ottoman lands.

The most important reason is that although the Ottoman Empire was an Islamic state administered by Muslims, who did not want to force citizens to adopt Islam. Instead, the Ottoman state to ensure peace and security for non-Muslims, and that govern how they are satisfied with Islamic law and justice.

Other major states at the same time a bill was much cruder, oppressive and intolerant view of government. The Kingdom of Spain could not tolerate existence of Muslims and Jews in the Spanish peninsula and inflicted great violence on both communities. In many other European countries, Jews were oppressed just for being Jews (for example, were imprisoned in ghettoes), and sometimes have been victims of mass massacres (pogroms). Christians could not even move from one to another fight between Catholics and Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries turned Europe into a lake of blood. The Thirty Years War between 1618 and 1648 was a result of the conflict between Catholics and Protestants. As a result of this war, Central Europe became a battlefield, and only in Germany, one third of the population of 15 million deaths.

In such an environment is an important truism of Ottoman rule was very human.

Many historians and political scientists have drawn attention this fact. One of them is the famous expert from Columbia University Professor Edward Said Middle East. Himself a Jerusalem Christian family, he continued his research U.S. universities. In an interview in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, recommended the Ottoman nation system "if a lasting peace must be constructed in the Middle East. What he said:

A Jewish minority can survive the way other minorities in the Arab world survived. â € | it worked quite well under the Ottoman Empire, with its system of millet. What seems much more humane than what we have now. [6]

The morality of the Qur'an: The Origin Islamic tolerance

The rationale for the creation of very tolerant, just and humane administration of the Ottoman Empire and other Muslim countries is that this government is controlled by the Koran. The reason for justice and civilization represented by Omar, Saladin, the Ottoman sultans and many Muslim leaders (and is this acceptable to the West today) was his fidelity to the commandments of God in the Koran. These are some of the commands to the base of the Islamic view of government:

God commands give their owners the things you hold in confidence and when you judge between people, judge with justice. How is what God exhorts you to do! God all hears and sees everything. (Surat An-Nisa: 58)

You who believe! Being champions of justice, the assurance of God alone, even against you or your parents and relatives. Whether rich or poor, God is perfectly capable of looking after them. Do not follow their own desires and deviate from the truth. If you turn away or, God knows what you do. (Surat An-Nisa: 135)

God forbids you not be good for those who have not fought in religion or driven you from your home, or be fair to them. God loves those who are righteous. (Sura Mumtahana:

There is a phrase in political power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. "This means that all who come for political power becomes something morally corrupted by the opportunities this brings to it. This does not really apply to most people because it is consistent with their moral social pressure. In other words, they avoid immorality because they fear the disapproval of society or the sentence. Power gives them strength, however, and reduce social pressure. Consequently, they become corrupt, or come to easily make concessions regarding morality. If they have real power, in other words, to govern a nation can try all means to meet their wishes.

The only male model, where the "law of corruption" does not apply are those who sincerely believe in God, who embrace the religion of fear and love Him and live by religion. Due to customs are not defined by society, even the most absolute power that may affect them. In the Quran, God gave the prophet David as an example of this rule Ideally, the way it applies even those who question his authority, and secondly how they prayed, God with full submission. (Surah Sad: 24)

The fact that Islamic history is full of just, merciful leader, humble and mature stems of this morality that God teaches Muslims in the Koran. Since a Muslim ruler fears God, not the possibility that it could be given to corrupt, arrogant, or treatment cruel. (Though heard of leaders who are corrupt and departed from Islamic morality will arise in the history of Islam, but their numbers and influence are very low).

Conclusion

History reveals that Islam is the belief system only to provide a just, tolerant and compassionate way of government in the Middle East. The Pax Ottoman, which ended with the withdrawal of the Ottoman Empire in the region has not yet been replaced. After the Ottomans, the Middle East first passed into the hands of European colonizers, and then becomes the target of the Israeli policy of occupation and aggression.

It is a basic reason to the current conflict in the Middle East: The fact that the parties do not want to make peace. What Israel must do is comply with UN resolution 242 and withdraw to the previous 1967, and recognize and guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people. What the Palestinians (and other Arabs) to do is to abandon such goals as "casting Israelis into the sea" and agree to live with the Jews. The most important thing of all, it is not dirty just causes of the barbaric acts of terrorism against civilians.

In summary, for peace in the Middle East, both parties must agree to be moderate and tolerant, and make a real effort to get rid of Jewish racism (Zionism) or chauvinism Arabic. The view that this needs to be hidden in the virtues that Islamic morality has blessed the Middle East during the past centuries.

Under the pseudonym Harun Yahya, Adnan Oktar has written nearly 250 works. His books contain a total of 46,000 pages and 31,500 illustrations. Of these books, 7,000 pages and 6,000 illustrations facing the collapse of the theory of evolution. Are available free of charge, all the books Adnan Oktar has written under the pseudonym Harun Yahya on these websites www.harunyahya.com

Notes

1 – Karen Armstrong, Holy War, MacMillan, London, 1988, p. 30-31
Francorum 2 – Geste or the exploits of the Franks and other pilgrims to Jerusalem, trans. Rosalind Hill, London, 1962, p. 91
3 – C. August Krey, The First Crusade: The Accounts witnesses and participants, Pinceton and London, 1921, p. 261
4 – C. August Cray, The First Crusade: The Accounts Witnesses and participants Pinceton and London, 1921, p. 262
5 – Armstrong, Karen, Holy War, p. 185
6 – 18.8.2000, Ha'aretz, MiddleEast.Org, August 2000

About the Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, HARUN YAHYA
Born in Ankara in 1956, Adnan Oktar writes his books under the pen name of Harun Yahya. Ever since his university years, he has dedicated his life to telling of the existence and oneness of Almighty Allah, and to disseminating the moral values of the Qur’an. He has never wavered in the face of difficulties and despite oppression, still continues this intellectual struggle today exhibiting great patience and determination. For mor information pls visit: http://www.harunyahya.com/theauthor.php

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