Boreal
Remembering Uzza
If Islam Was Explained to Me in a Pub
The Sykes–Picot Betrayal Haunts Us Still
Gerry:
How long after taking Mecca did the Prophet decide to take the fight to the Byzantines?
Uzza: Later that same year.
Gerry: That quickly?
Uzza: Muhammad, as I have told you, was a man in a hurry. He also was a man who knew how to seize the day. With eager young warriors from all corners of Arabia flocking to his banner with the promise of booty and a river of Zakat flowing into Medina, Muhammad wasted no time taking his now well-funded army of more than 30,000 north to the frontier of the Byzantine Empire.
Archie: The Byzantines must have been surprised.
Uzza: They could not be bothered, being somewhat preoccupied with the Persians who coveted the same territory.
Bob: What happened?
Uzza: Muhammad and his army made the arduous journey of more than 552 miles north intending to engage the Byzantines at Tabuk, now part of Saudi Arabia, only to find no one there to fight.
Archie: A bit of a waste of time, was it?
Uzza: What is your expression? “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Muhammad was very good at making lemonade during the few times lemons were the fruit of his endeavors. He made friends with the locals who were suitably impressed. Many converted, ensuring that the eventual conquest of the land Allah had bequeathed to the children of Abraham was a relatively bloodless conquest.
Bob: If Abraham is the father of both the Jews and the Arabs, that would make them joint owners of the Holy Land?
Uzza: Yes, and that is how it is supposed to be. There is even a revelation in which Allah grants the Holy Land to the Jews[359] and another where He refers to them as His first chosen people[360].
Bob: If Arabs and Jews are both Allah’s chosen people, why all the fighting between the Palestinians and the Israelis?
Uzza: At Tabuk, Muhammad gave an example of how the people who believed in the god that he did should be treated, and that is why the Jews did not oppose the conquest of Palestine by the believers. And why, for more than a thousand years, Jews and believers lived in relative harmony in that now disputed part of the Middle East.
Bob: So, what happened?
Archie: Israel happened, you moron.
Uzza: Israel was the outcome, not the cause.
Archie: And that cause would be?
Uzza: A British betrayal of the aspirations of both Jews and Arabs.
Gerry: But the British did follow through on their promise of a Jewish homeland?
Uzza: Only after six million Jews were murdered and an opportunity for cementing a nurtured peace between Jews and Arabs that had lasted since Tabuk was squandered. The Faisal–Weizmann Agreement, a joint proposal by the Zionists and the Arabs, which would have given the Jews a negotiated home in Palestine in 1919 instead of an imposed one in 1949, was rejected by the British during the Treaty of Versailles negotiations.
Bob: You mean there was a time when the Zionists and the Arabs actually saw eye to eye?
Uzza: Yes.
Archie: And the British did not jump at that opportunity. Blimey!
Uzza: They had already agreed in secret negotiations with the French, the Sykes–Picot betrayal of 1916, to carve up the Middle East between themselves, a Middle East that would be largely liberated by the Arabs of King Faisal to whom they lied. They had no intention of keeping their promise to him that if he fought the Turks, after the war he would be allowed to "unite the Arabs into one nation." Instead, the Arabs were driven out of lands they conquered with their blood by mostly French troops who came to claim what was agreed to during those secret negotiations.
Gerry: Is that the betrayal the Islamic State referred to in its propaganda about uniting the Arabs under one nation as Faisal tried to do?
Uzza: Yes, again. Think about it. If a negotiated home for the Jews had been agreed to back in 1919, not only might we have avoided the atrocities of Islamic State, but how many more Jews would have survived the Holocaust?
Bob: But it was Christians who were crucified by these assholes, not Jews.
Archie: All the Jews had left. They knew better than to stick around.
Uzza: There were more than 2,000,000 Syrian Christians and only a few hundred Jews when the Islamic State invaded. It was inevitable that the Christians would become targets. The Jews today, unlike at the beginning of Islam when they could have made a difference, because of their numbers, are insignificant and will be dealt with when the time comes.
Bob: You mean killed?
Uzza: Yes. Unless they do like Abdullah bin Salam, one of the first Jews to convert to Islam[361]. He not only prospered but became a trusted adviser to Muhammad[362]. It is the Christians who still stand in the way, because of their numbers, of the total subjugation of the West and who have to be shown no mercy if the extremists are to succeed.
Footnotes
7:137 And We bequeathed to the people who were held to be weak the eastern and western parts of the land which we had blessed (the Holy Land); and the fairest Word of your Lord in regard to the Children of Israel was fulfilled, because of their endurance; and We destroyed the houses and towers which Pharaoh and his people were building.
44:30 And thus We saved the Children of Israel from the demeaning punishment;
44:31 From Pharaoh; for he was haughty and extravagant.
44:32 We have indeed chosen them knowingly, above all other peoples;
44:33 And given them many Signs wherein there was a manifest trial.
[361] Abdullah bin Salam was a rabbi and a respected member of the Jewish community before he became a Muslim after a short meeting with Muhammad who answered three fatuous questions to the rabbi's satisfaction. It was fortuitous that the angel Gabriel, whom bin Salam then considered an enemy of the Jews, had just had a conversation with Muhammad about what was on his mind.
Narrated Anas:
Abdullah bin Salam heard the news of the arrival of Allah's Apostle (at Medina) while he was on a farm collecting its fruits. So he came to the Prophet and said, "I will ask you about three things which nobody knows unless he be a prophet. Firstly, what is the first portent of the Hour? What is the first meal of the people of Paradise? And what makes a baby look like its father or mother?"
The Prophet said, "Just now Gabriel has informed me about that."
'Abdullah said, "Gabriel?"
The Prophet said, "Yes."
Abdullah said, "He, among the angels is the enemy of the Jews."
On that the Prophet recited this Holy Verse: "Whoever is an enemy to Gabriel (let him die in his fury!) for he has brought it (i.e. Qur'an) down to your heart by Allah's permission." (2:97)
Then he added, "As for the first portent of the Hour, it will be a fire that will collect the people from the East to West. And as for the first meal of the people of Paradise, it will be the caudite (i.e. extra) lobe of the fish liver. And if a man's discharge proceeded that of the woman, then the child resembles the father, and if the woman's discharge proceeded that of the man, then the child resembles the mother."
On hearing that, Abdullah said, "I testify that None has the right to be worshipped but Allah, and that you are the Apostle of Allah, O, Allah's Apostle; the Jews are liars, and if they should come to know that I have embraced Islam, they would accuse me of being a liar."
In the meantime some Jews came (to the Prophet) and he asked them, "What is Abdullah's status amongst you?"
They replied, "He is the best amongst us, and he is our chief and the son of our chief."
The Prophet said, "What would you think if Abdullah bin Salam embraced Islam?"
They replied, "May Allah protect him from this!"
Then Abdullah came out and said, "I testify that None has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah."
The Jews then said, "Abdullah is the worst of us and the son of the worst of us," and disparaged him. On that Abdullah said, "O Allah's Apostle! This is what I was afraid of!"
Bukhari 60.7
[362] It the post-Jesus era, the Jews were moving away from the more brutal punishments specified in the Torah, such as the stoning of adulterers. Muhammad would have none of it, and with the help of bin Salem forced the Jews of Medina – over whom he had ultimate authority under the negotiated Constitution of Medina – to stick to the old ways, many of which became the news ways of the Koran.
Narrated Abdullah bin Umar:
The Jews came to Allah's Apostle and told him that a man and a woman from amongst them had committed illegal sexual intercourse.
Allah's Apostle said to them, "What do you find in the Torah (old Testament) about the legal punishment of Ar-Rajm (stoning)?"
They replied, "(But) we announce their crime and lash them."
Abdullah bin Salam said, "You are telling a lie; Torah contains the order of Rajm."
They brought and opened the Torah and one of them solaced [placed] his hand on the Verse of Rajm and read the verses preceding and following it.
Abdullah bin Salam said to him, "Lift your hand."
When he lifted his hand, the Verse of Rajm was written there.
They said, "Muhammad has told the truth; the Torah has the Verse of Rajm.
The Prophet then gave the order that both of them should be stoned to death.
Abdullah bin Umar said, "I saw the man leaning over the woman to shelter her from the stones."
Bukhari 56.829