The Al-Aqsa Mosque Imam Declares War on Israel

                                               Al-Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount
                                                                                                          

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

Mosque of Omar or Dome of the Rock

War has been declared last week  by Imam Raed al Danna against Israel.  He's an Imam from East Jerusalem at the Al Aqsa Mosque.  He called all the surrounding Muslim nations to destroy Israel.  This Imam announced this while visiting in Milan, Italy at a Muslim conference.  He emphasized Egypt and Jordan, nations that have peace pacts with Israel to liberate the land from the Jews.  He is waiting for a legion of conquerors to take over Israel.   The leadership of this mosque had been in the hands of Muhammad Ahmad Hussein,  who was expected to avoid controversy and self-aggrandizement.  Now he serves as the 7th and current Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.The appointment came from Abbas.  

  

On January 9, 2011, while addressing a crowd at an event marking the 47th anniversary of the founding of Fatah, Hussein quoted a controversial hadith (saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad), stating: "The Hour will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: O Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."  Hadiths supposedly have been written by people after Mohammad's death.  That could be why this is controversial.  This one makes very good anti-Semitic propaganda used to instigate war.  

The site has been a place of unrest lately. Just before Passover on Monday April 14th,   the Israeli police had to limit  attendance at Al-Aqsa because of the fear of more violence after clashes happening over the weekend.  Security measures taken are that the men under 50 couldn't attend.  Neither could any women until a security assessment of the possibility  of more disturbances had been taken.  What can they expect after this announcement by the head Imam?  5 people were arrested on Sunday during a clash.  Muslim rioters threw stones and many Molotov cocktails.  Police officers responded with stun grenades.  Members of Hamas were were in the crowd, probably leading the protesters.  They had to pick Passover to riot!  During major Jewish holidays, when Muslims prefer to attack, the military blocks the road to Israel from Judea-Samaria for 48 hours from midnight.  Entry would be permitted only to medical, humanitarian and exceptional cases.  

Jews are getting anxious to be able to pray at the holy site where the Temple once stood, but cannot get near it or be seen moving their body back and forth while standing in prayer by the Muslim guards.  Moshe Dayan in 1967 gave permission to rule on the site to the Muslim Imam.

"“We have returned to all that is holy in our land. We have returned never to be parted from it again.” 

–Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, upon reaching the Western Wall  

However, "Chief Rabbinate Council reminded the public that "in view of the fact that the holiness of the area never ceases, it is forbidden to ascend the Temple Mount until the Temple is built.  So the Muslims don't allow Jews there and our rabbis say it's not for us at this time as a place to pray.  That should keep things peaceful, but many Jews are not aware of this fact and try to get close, and the Muslims lie in wait for it to happen.  

The Muslims consider the Al-Aqsa Mosque as the "Farthest Mosque" mentioned in the Koran.  It infers this is in Jerusalem, but never mentions the word, Jerusalem.  This couldn't be since Mohammad, who was the author of the Koran, died in 632 and the mosque was built in the year 705 CE by the Umayyads who ruled in Palestine.  The mosque lies along the southern wall of Haram al-Sharif.  It has become the 3rd holiest site in Islam and is in the Old City of Jerusalem. This has a silver dome.   It sits on the same site with the Dome of the Rock or "Noble Sanctuary."

Muslims believe that Muhammad was transported from their Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al-Aqsa during the Night Journey on a flying horse named Buraq.

 Their tradition is that Muhammad led prayers towards this site until the 17th month after the emigration, when Allah directed him to turn towards the Kaaba.  Our Jewish tradition suggests that the change was due to his frustration with Arabian Jews who refused his attempts to convert them to Islam, his new religion.

 This site is called the Temple Mount on Mount Moriah, the holiest site in Jerusalem, the place where the Jewish Temple stood before being destroyed by the Romans in  70 CE, which was the 2nd time the original Temple had been restored.  The First Temple was built by King Solomon, ruler of Israel, who lived from 961 to 920 BCE, dedicated to G-d and as a place to keep the Ark-10 Commandments.  The Assyrians attacked and carted away Jews by 722 BCE after destroying the Temple in 721 BCE.  The Babylonians then attacked Judah in 597 and 586.  Cyrus of Persia (today's Iran)  freed them and told them to go back home and rebuild their Temple which they did.  Herod was appointed king of Judah by the Romans  after he attacked and captured Jerusalem in 37 with the Roman army and he renovated the Temple, but the Romans destroyed it when they seized Jerusalem in 70 CE.

It seems to be the custom of Islamists to build mosques over others' religious sites as a show of ownership.  The Dome of the Rock, otherwise called the Mosque of Omar, is the one with the beautiful golden dome that stands out in Jerusalem.  It was also built in the center of the Jewish Temple area called al-Harim ash Sherif by Caliph Abd al-Malik in about 738.  He had it built to replace the temporary building set up by Caliph Omar 100 years earlier.  It is situated on the traditional site of Mt. Moriah, too.

So Israel has many mosques.  There is freedom of religion for the 1.7 million Muslim citizens of Israel.  One of these days the 3rd Temple will be built.  The location is not known.

Update: 5/8/14:  The Muslim Waqf members saw a 16 yr old Jew's lips move and arrested him for praying.  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/180358#.U2uclIFdU8o

Resource:  http://www.memritv.org/embedded_player/index.php?clip_id=4252 declaring war on Israel
http://midnightwatcher.wordpress.com/2014/05/02/imam-from-jerusalems-al-aqsa-mosque-calls-upon-surrounding-muslim-nations-to-destroy-israel/
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aqsa_Mosque
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ahmad_Hussein
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1016102
http://www.sixdaywar.org/content/ReunificationJerusalem.asp
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/abdulmuhd/amuhd/563/muhammad-claims-to-jerusalem-is-a-myth/

  

90,000 Syrian Deaths But Not Alarming to Newsmen

Nadene Goldfoot
On the 12th of February 2013 at least 70,000 Syrians had been killed in their uprising. Syria has been the 17th largest Muslim majority country in the world with a population of 22,505,000 of which 90% are Sunni/Shi'a following Hanafi/Alevi  fiqhs.   Kerry reports that now 90,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began.  It has been a wholesale slaughter but the world just isn't reacting very strongly.  They're just ho-humming about it.   Is it that when an Arab kills an Arab it is not news?  Reporters don't get excited until it is a Jew that kills an Arab.  1.2 million Syrians have been displaced.  Many have found refuge in Jordan who has had to create camps to hold them.  The fighting is even spilling into Israel's Golan Heights.

Jews don't have any laws going on to kill Arabs.  There is no enmity on the part of the Jews towards Arabs, but there has been on the part of the Arabs towards Jews starting at the beginning of time.  Abraham lived in the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE.  Our problems started about 4,000 years ago. Ishmael, first son of Abraham with Hagar, the maid of Sarah,  had reason to be angry with his half brother, Isaac.  He was cast out of Abraham's house along with his mother by Sarah's frustration over his behavior around the baby, Isaac.  Ishmael became the father of the Arab people.

 Joktan, , the 2nd son of Eber (Gen. 10:25)  is thought to be the ancestor of the southern Arab tribes. Joktan's sons in the order provided in Gen. 10:26-29, were: Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Sheba, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. Joktan means small, smallness.

 Problems between the two parties continued  with Esau and Jacob, twin sons of Abraham's son, Isaac when Isaac took the birthright due to go to  Esau who was the elder brother by a few minutes. Esau had sold it to Jacob in a deal to get a meal quckly.   Esau wanted to kill Jacob for his own negligence of giving his birthright away which caused Jacob to leave home in Haran.  Jacob returned 20 years later and was greeted affectionately by Esau, who is identified with Edom.  Jacob's name was later changed to Israel, denoting a change in status.  This became the point of reference telling about the 2 nations.   First Isaac had problems and then his son Jacob had problems.

However, with Islam and Mohammad's anger with Jews not converting to his new religion, anger has sprung up again from the Muslims for Jews and along with it an intoleration of Jews living  in the Middle East.  Qaradawi, religious leader from Egypt who lives in Qatar, has a fatwa out for all Jews to be killed.  Enmity has been  shown by the Gazan Arabs who have shelled Israel with mortars, missiles and rockets since 2001 until just recently.

When Israel announced its birth on May 14, 1948, it was attacked immediately by the Arabs which marks Israel's "War of Independence" which cost around 20,000 casualties in total for both sides.  That's the highest amount of deaths that Israel has suffered so far.  Casualty estimates of the wars of 1967  was 20,000 and 1973 was 15,000.

All wars involving Israel have been less that Syria's deaths of the last few years by about 30,000.  The fight from Gaza led to deaths that are but a fraction of Syria's numbers of Arab on Arab.  How has the press reacted?  With protest movements against Israel by bigots.  Israel was attacked.  Israel responded eventually  but with as much diligence as humanely possible.  Then the press reacted by calling Operation Cast Lead a "Holocaust", muddying the word that exemplifies the Jews losing 6 million people in a Holocaust of having become the scapegoats of a warrior nation that tried to exterminate the whole Jewish people.   The Gazans fought among their own populated areas hiding behind women and children, making sure they would be targeted first to play the sympathy card whereas Israel does the best job of teaching soldiers techniques to save lives.

Gazans claim to have lost 1,385 in Israel's Operation Cast Lead action but uniformed soldiers count was 200-300.  "Difficulties in ascertaining an accurate Palestinian casualty count have been attributed to a number of factors. It was reported that Hamas fighters had been ordered not to wear military uniforms during the fighting..  Israeli-Arab journalist Khalad  Abu  Toameh wrote in The Jerusalem Post that this practice led to the over-counting of civilian casualties and under-counting Hamas military casualties, as Palestinian casualties arrived at hospitals without weapons or any other signs revealing they were actually fighters."

Why did the Arabs attack southern Israel from 2001 on?  "Rationales given by the Palestinian groups responsible for the attacks vary, but often include the argument that the rockets are a method of protest and of calling attention to perceived injustices. According to other explanations, the attacks constitute revenge for – or defense against – perceived Israeli aggression."  The Israel aggression hasn't been anything other than defensive strikes when deemed absolutely necessary to stop constant hits.

Israel, being such a small nation of people who make up only  half of 0.02% of the world population, is under the magnifying glass constantly.  Every death is investigated by the press as well as having been investigated by Israel itself.  It's a good thing Jews have tended to follow the profession of law, as they must be ready constantly to defend themselves against anti-Semites.  Every movement Jews in Israel make finds protesters of some sort.

The Syrians are just passed up as stale, uninteresting news.  Fighting goes on among Arabs on a regular basis in the Middle East.  Lebanon and Syria, Palestinians and Jordan, Iraq and Iran, all have had their to the death battles.

When Ha-Shem told the Jews that they were to be the light among nations, I'm sure he didn't mean to have the flood lights or stage lights on them constantly whenever they had to protect themselves, but that's the case.   So Israel tries to be the light of ethics,  even when they are in horrible situations such as war.  The fact that they have shown restraint and care for life as found by fellow soldiers of battle from other countries, puts them in a good light.

Reference:  dailyalert@list-dailyalert.org  from Gatestone Institute, by  Douglas Murray
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_civil_war
http://www.timesofisrael.com/kerry-says-90000-killed-in-syria/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Gaza_War
Tanach, the Stone Edition

So It's Okay For Muslims To Call Jews Nasty Names?

Nadene Goldfoot
Along the theme of saying slanderous things about another's religion, the biggest purveyors of this crime are the Islamists who call Jews every despicable name in the books.   One remark that made me laugh is when on the official PA daily on Israel's independence day said that Israel's goal was to turn a "Jewish monarchy in Palestine into a basis for their [the Jews'] eternal rule over the world, that others, 'goyim' [non-Jews], must submit to their will.  It must be the Islamists who started the original rumor that Jews would take over the world and now they're saying it so much they themselves believe it.  Jews, who make up far  less than 1% of the total world population, more like .03-.04%,  are not trying to take over the world.  They're just trying to stay alive, which isn't so easy with Qaradawi's fatwa telling their followers to kill us all. On the other hand, Muslims number 1.6 billion or 23% of the world population.

Islam almost succeeded in taking over the world with empires reaching into Spain and into Eastern Europe from Saudi Arabia, as Mecca, Saudi Arabia is their center. The last was the Ottoman Empire.   They seem to be trying it again as they already have 48 Muslim majority countries and are trying for the 49th with a Palestine.    After the loss of Jerusalem in 70 CE, Jews haven't even had their own state until 1948 , and have had to fight off Muslim invaders ever since.  Now Obama doesn't see why Israel shouldn't be forced back to the 67 borders that really were indefensible.

The weirdest thing I have discovered is that it is Judaism, of all the religions, who calls saying false things about another a crime. Judaism believes in free speech, but this is considered something apart from it.   It is Judaism who frowns on Loshen hora, (gossip, untruths about someone).  Obviously it's okay for Muslims as far as they are concerned to beat the heck out of Jews with their malicious lies, the latest being that Jews are vampires. Other pet names for Jews are Satan with a tail, apes, being void of wisdom, sin and filth, cancers and, tumors.   Oh really! Isn't calling all Jews such names also including our prophet, Moses?   I just printed off 12 pages of lies that Palwatch collected of horrible things that Muslims say about Jews which are said  by their leaders such as Abbas and Ahmadinejad.

When you come right down to it, many distasteful  things are said about us right in the holy books of Islam, so I think that it's a miracle we ever were able to live just as dminnis in the Muslim world for so long.  We must have been seen as harmless folk up till 1948, when they suddenly realized that we might have some clout and they might lose out on taking over Palestine, which they never wanted in the first place.  When Mohammad saw that he couldn't convince all the Jews to convert over to his new Islam, he was angry and added comments that were against Jews.  So this enmity between Jew and Muslim goes back to the origin of Islam.

I admire my Muslim friends who can treat me as another fellow human being without all the thoughts of these horrible adjectives.  They are people who have progressed along with Western civilization and wish to live in peace, just as I do.  Keeping all those horrible attitudes alive just doesn't get us anywhere or help this poor planet to keep on rolling.  These friends are very special to me because they have bucked the prevailing attitude towards Jews.  Their very friendship has caused me to see the whole problem in a new light as well just by their kindness.

And who did this idiot videomaker of blasphemy of Islam blame as having made it?  Of course!  We could guess in a half of a second.  He'd blame the Jew.  It turns out it was a Coptic Christian who was the culprit.

Resource: http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=7475
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim_majority_countires
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_world

Differences Between Judaism and Islam

Nadene Goldfoot
Judaism, with 4,000 years of history,  is the first form of monotheism founded by Abraham in the 2nd millenium BCE who is called "The Father of Judaism."  Islam is one of the forms of monotheism brought to the Arabs by Mohammed in the 7th Century CE.  It became a world religion through Arab conquests. Judaism did try at one time to convert people but soon dropped the idea.  One becomes Jewish by being born to a Jewish mother or by requesting a desire to become Jewish and going through conversion.  Today  Reform Jews may be Jewish by birth with only a father  who is Jewish. 

Mohammad thought that there was no real difference between Judaism and Islam, and mistakedly thought that Jews would quickly convert and accept him as their prophet.   He thought that all holy books were copies of one in heaven and that all revelations were one, just distorted by different people.  He was just there to correct things.  Judaism  is a living faith with a destiny to benefit not only Jews but the whole human race.  There is a variety of thought from strict Orthodoxy, guardians of the unabridged tradition to radical Reform.  They share the same belief in one G-d.  and in following the 10 Commandments. 

Islam's religion and its law are woven together, just like in Judaism.  Islam also has a written Law (Koran) which has been explained more in the Oral Law (Hadith).  Judaism also has the written law (Torah) and the Oral law (codified in Mishna and Talmud)
Originally, Mohammed's creation was similar to Jewish halakhah.  The Jews of Medina would not accept him or his Koran and mission, so he created laws to emphasize the differences between Islam and Judaism, which became quite harsh.

The Koran has plenty of biblical people from the Five Books of Moses in it that he accepted.  Mohammed has Abraham, who lived in the 2nd millennium BCE,  as the founder of monotheism, but also makes him the builder of the Ka'ba, which Judaism does not.  He includes Noah, Moses, David and Solomon as well as Jesus among prophets who were long before Mohammed's time.  Mohammed was born 570 CE and died 632 CE.  His interests in G-d started around the age of 40.  When he was young, he often traveled with Meccan trade caravans and met Jews and Christians to whom he would ask religious questions.  He came to believe that he also was a chosen prophet after his experience with an angel, Gabriel. 

He introduced a day of fast that is very similar to the Jewish Day of Atonement.  He chose Friday as the public day of prayer after the Jewish Shabbat which falls from Friday night to Saturday night.  Jews pray towards Jerusalem, and Muslims did likewise till he saw that Jews would not convert.  Then he changed some of the new rites and became very hostile towards the Jews.  Somehow he overcame his hostility and took Safia, a Jewish girl, as his wife. 

Tombs revered to Jews in Israel, like the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron are also revered by Muslims.  The Moslem tradition has the mosque on the Jewish Temple mount site in Jerusalem as the "farthest mosque" that Mohammed reached on his famous night journey; now regarded as a Holy Place.  When the Romans took Jerusalem in 70CE they razed the Temple and it served as a center of military activity, but later they built a Roman Temple over it.  Then when Islam came into being the mosque "of Omar" was built over the site.  We see much material borrowed from the Midrash of the Jews. 

Many religious laws are common to both Islam and Judaism, like not eating anything from pigs, not having images of G-d, fixed times for prayers.  One difference is that religious Jews pray 3 times a day and Muslims do it 5 times a day. 

Originally, Muslims regarded Jews and Christians as "people of the Book" who should enjoy religious freedom in Moslem countries in return for payment of a poll tax.  Sects of Islam such as Shi'a, predominently found in Iran, were more stern in their attitude towards Jews. (It's good that Queen Esther and the Jewish people lived in Persia way before Islam was created).   The clashes with Mohammed and the Jews of Arabia, who would not convert to this new religion, resulted in the Jews' expulsion and often times extermination of whole Jewish tribes. 

Jews created a Jewish Creed after the way they were treated in Arabia by Muslims.  The persecution of Jews by Moslems for religious reasons was rare and even discriminatory legislation was often unenforced, but today things have changed.  We see religious leaders of Islam putting a fatwa out saying that all Jews should be killed everywhere.  Qaradawi of Qatar, a major Muslim Brotherhood religious leader, is quite bloodthirsty about it.  Though he's an elderly man confined to a wheelchair, he wants to kill any Jew with his bare hands. 

Why do Muslims revere Abraham like the Jews do?  Ishmael was Abraham's first son by Abraham's wife's Egyptian handmaid, Hagar.  He was circumcised at age 13, whereas Jews are circumcised at age 8 days.  He and his mother had been asked to leave permanently at the request of Sarah, Abraham's wife as he was not treating her younger son, Isaac,  well at all.  Ishmael was removed to Paran, but did join Isaac when Abraham died, so they both buried him.

 Ishmael's daughter married Esau. Esau was the 1st twin born to Isaac, and according to tradition was a  a violent person to the point of being quite a villain.  His twin brother was Jacob.  Jacob received the birthright from their father and so got the blessing that was to be given to the first born.  Esau was so mad that Jacob tricked him into giving his birthright to him that he tried to kill him, causing Jacob to escape from his wrath and go to Haran.  He returned 20 years later with gifts for Esau, but it didn't heal Esau's feelings.  Jacob later is given the name, Israel.   Traditionally, Ishmael is the ancestor of the Arab people.  Thus was born the original hostilities between Arabs and Jews.  The birthright was an oral pronouncement from Isaac on his deathbed. 

Definitions: Muslim: noun, adjective, one who surrenders to G-d- Allah, an adherent of Islam
 Moslem: variation of Muslim
Islam  noun,  submission to the will of G-d, the religious faith of Muslims including belief in Allah as the sole deity and in Muhammad as his prophet; the civilization erected upon Islamic faith, the group of modern nations in which Islam is the dominanat religion. 

Resource: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Oral_Law.html
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia page 667, Mohammed, "He held that all Holy Books were copies of a aheavenly model"...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_to_Judaism
http://blog.becomingjewish.org/?p=2173
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_is_a_Jew%3F