CHAPTER NINE
HORRORS OF FUNDAMENTALISM
Fundamentalism
is the ultimate aim of revelation which seeks to brainwash people by excessively
exploiting their instincts of fear and favour. A messenger or messiah is the
person who loves to be worshipped, but worship is the lowest form of
self-humiliation, and therefore, repugnant to the freedom-loving nature of
mankind. A messenger (prophet) or messiah can achieve this goal only by making
his follower a fundamentalist. This is the reason that one can confidently say
that revelation is not the source of guidance but misguidance, and man is
walking on the path which leads him to the opposite direction instead of the
true destination.
Definition of Fundamentalism
What is Fundamentalism? It is the
state of mind when man's moral splendour and rational excellence are completely
eclipsed by the vehemence of faith and he begins to hate everything which
challenges his religious values, no matter how absurd. Why? Because the elements
of his personality which are likely to become unstable owing to stress of fear,
are held together by the super glue of belief. Therefore, opposition to faith
constitutes a threat to personality, which one is inclined to defend at all
costs for survival. It is like going through a voluntary process of blindness
and deafness with a view to avoiding reality. The purpose of faith is to provide
protection against the inclemencies of reality, and not the reality itself: the
dark glasses which shield eyes against the glare of the sun to facilitate its
observation have a positive role to play in the life of the observer but the
dark glasses which lead to permanent darkening of the observer's vision deprive
him of discovering the truth. When faith assumes such a facinorous stature, it
becomes the fetter which through its faltering effect, turns life into a regular
series of futility. Fascinating though life may look through the bliss of
ignorance, one must seek freedom from such a false faith because it is
debilitating, degrading and destructive.
Raising false hopes is not an act
of mirth and mercy but the fountain of mischief and misery. Revelation is the
biggest hoax because its power of deliverance is based on the extremely stilted
personality of a Messenger or Messiah who lives and dies like any other man, and
is himself subject to the human mechanism of fear and factor Yet he claims to be
divine against all criteria of rationality!
Brainwashing is an act of reducing
man's rational faculty for inducing him to adopt a pattern of conduct which he
will not display under normal circumstances. A fundamentalist or brainwashed
person loses his will and becomes a puppet on a string. His entire intellectual
and physical life is manipulated by the puppeteer who is usually a messiah or
his lieutenant. He becomes a robot, quite happy to obey the most heinous
commands of his operator with utmost pleasure. Let me give a few examples from
the Crusades and modern history to show you that fundamentalism is a volcano of
hatred; it is nothing but utter negation of moral conscience; in fact, it is the
reversal of humanity: Jerusalem forms a good point of reference in this
respect:
David and Ark
David, having conquered Jerusalem,
proceeded to enhance its glamour which should tempt Yahwe, the warrior God of
the Jews, to adore it as His bride. Yahwe's stern heart, used to toughness, felt
immersed in a wave of tenderness when David moved the ark to this city. To make
sure that the ark did not have to migrate from one sanctuary to another, he
chose Mount Moriah or the Temple Mount for its permanent residence. Though there
is no proof, Jews, under the dictates of their compelling faith, have always
believed that this was the spot where Abraham had built the alter to murder his
own son Isaac to gain the pleasure of Yahwe!
The Temple of Solomon
This is where Solomon, the son of
David, built the (first) Temple in 957 B.C. The building faced eastward; it was
oblong and comprised three rooms of equal width; one of them being the Holy of
Holies which housed the ark and ranked as the most sacred spot on earth for
being the point of the Divine Presence (Shekhina). Nobody could enter it except
the highest priest and his privilege was confined to Yom Kippur or the Day of
Atonement. It became the centre of Judaism and led the Jewish life with much
greater power than a steering controls the movements of a motor car or heart
regulates the blood supply.
Despite its spiritual beauty and
religious splendour, Yahwe, the Bridegroom, never defended it against the
horrors of sacrilege and destruction which it suffered several times. Each time
the flames of desolation enveloped Jerusalem, rabbis the Jewish priests, whose
living, prestige and authority depended upon the grip of faith, found a
justification for Yahwe's desertion and blamed people's sins for the pillage,
rape and murder of their loved ones. The Roman pagans had interpreted the
destruction of Rome in similar terms. They declared that the City fell because
the Romans had betrayed their gods to embrace Christianity! There is no end to
the caprices of faith. People will do and say anything to hide themselves behind
the shield of faith to escape the forceful arrow of reason.
Solomon and his beauties
The Temple was an extension of
Solomon's palace which happened to be the abode of his seven hundred wives and
three hundred concubines along with the statues of their foreign gods which
Solomon is known to have worshipped for winning the tender favours of his exotic
female beauties. Yet the Temple rose to the apex of reverence beyond the flight
of fancy!
Jesus and the Temple
Jesus Christ is also said to have
preached in the Temple. I find it difficult to believe that the Jews would have
allowed him to use their holiest shrine for teaching the blasphemy which
provoked them to secure his crucifixion. To the Christians Jerusalem had an
equally fascinating appeal because Jesus was born in its suburbs (Bethlehem/Bethleheim);
this is where he played as a boy and this is where he was nailed to the Cross
"to wipe off human sins through Divine mercy and to give believers a chance
of resurrection".
Islam and the Temple
The Moslems were equally imbued
with the sanctity of Jerusalem. To woo the Jews, the Prophet Muhammad had
appointed it as Kibla, the direction of worship, for his followers. The
prophet's journey to heaven when he went to see Allah in person, had also taken
him "to the Further ' Mosque, the precincts of which had been blessed by
God".
This "Further Mosque" on
whose precincts the Al-Aqsa Mosque of Islam was founded later did not exist at
the time of the Prophet's journey and referred to the ruins of the Second
Temple. It rose from the ashes of the original (first) Temple of Solomon which
had suffered total devastation at least twice between 586 B.C. and 70 A.D.
However, a portion of the Western Wall of the Second Temple had remained intact
to display the miraculous powers of Yahwe - always eager to remind the Jews of
their infidelity, idolatory and insincerity. When Yahwe subjected the Jews to a
terrible opprobrium for breaking the Covenant, Allah approved of this attitude
by encouraging his followers to heap further humiliation on the Jews by building
the al-Aqsa Mosque in A.D. 691 on the site of the Jewish Temple. The glitter of
the Dome of the Rock was to serve as an eternal sign of the Jewish depravity.
Start of Crusades
Though Jerusalem, the City of the
Jews, rose to become the highest symbol of esteem in human history, the Jews
themselves fell to the lowest point of contempt It is because the Christians
thought of them as the murderers of their Lord and the Moslems believed that
they had been condemned by Allah for not believing in the Prophet. This created
a strange situation, that is, the love of the Christians and Moslems for
Jerusalem grew inversely proportionate to their hatred for the Jews. Yet it is
not the hatred for the Jews but the devotion to Jerusalem that erupted as the
volcano of terror in 1095. The Christains wanted to dispossess the Moslems of
Jerusalem by any means - might, misery or mischief. This was the beginning of
the most unholy war which demonstrated the true nature of fundamentalism and
lasted for two centuries until 1291.
Pope Urban II
The Council of Clermont was
convoked by Pope Urban II on November 18 1095. The Holy Father, as a mark of his
dedication to Christian ideal of love renewed the Truce of God which meant peace
for mankind and love for neighbours but excluded the non-Christians from the
Divine mercy. They might look human but did not qualify as such, and therefore,
deserved extermination. In a speech brimming with the fire and thunder of
explosive oratory, he moved members of the Council to tears with the profane
stories of the Moslems who were habitually persecuting the Christian pilgrims to
the Holy land. To raise an army of crusaders devoted to pious carnage, he used
his heavenly authority and granted a plenary indulgence to all those who were
prepared to travel to the East and undertake murder as mercy and dispense bane
as beneficence.
Plenary indulgence
What was plenary indulgence? It was
the papal licence to heaven. Officially, it meant remission of all penance for
sins but the crusaders believed that a Christian bearing his Lord's Cross could
do no wrong. The murder of the old and sick, decapitation of women and children,
pillage of the innocent and rape of bellibones (including that of the Christian
nuns), was a holy fun. With the privilege of entry into heaven, went the release
from feudal bondage, usurious debts and taxman's excruciating demands. If they
survived the horrors of long journey and perils of the battlefield, their lives
which hitherto had been a series of misfortune and molestation were to be
crowned with the rights and reverence reserved for a crusader and if they
perished, their martyrdom guaranteed them a place in the Kingdom of Heaven whose
streets were paved with gold and where beautiful virgins impatiently sighed to
embrace them.
Urban's sermon
Tickling the racial pride of the
French with the spiritual sceptre, Pope Urban II, himself a Frenchman, raised
his deep voice choked with ecclesiastical grief and said "O race of Franks,
the beloved and chosen people of God, hearken that an accursed race has
polluted, plundered and possessed the Holy Sepulchre of our Lord . . . The Holy
City of Jerusalem, the Centre of the earth, begs you to come and free her from
the clutches of the unclean infidels".
As the oratorial tempest of Urban's
address subsided, tempers of the believers rose with an unimaginable heat and
their hearts fulminated with the cries of "Deusvolt" - God wills it.
What a chance it was for the Christians to sail into paradise through the
streams of Moslem blood. They all vowed to wear a cross to display the sanctity
of their mission, and affection for the Saviour.
Love for the Saviour was equally
matched with hatred for the Prophet Muhammad through a series of highly profane
and perverse tales. One gossip said that when Muhammad suffered a fit of
epilepsy and pretended to be in a trance, a hog devoured him alive as a divine
punishment.
Moslem hatred of Non-Moslems
The Moslems, on the other hand,
were equally impatient to cut the throats of the Christian infidels. Their ears
rang with the Koranic message:
a. "O believers, do not treat
your fathers and brothers as your friends, if they prefer unbelief to belief,
whosoever of you takes them for friends, they are the evildoers"
(Repentance: 20).
b. "Certainly God is an enemy
to the unbelievers" (The Cow: 90).
c. "God has cursed the
unbelievers, and prepared for them a blazing hell" (The Confederates: 60).
d. "Let not the believers take
the unbelievers for friends . . . for whoso does that belongs not to God
...." (The House of Imran: 25).
e. "O believers, do not make
friends with Jews and Christians; . . whoso of you makes them his friend is one
of them" (The Table: 55). Every revealed religion is a fountain of hatred;
here the divine advocacy for loathing unbelievers is equalled by persuasion of
friendship for the fellow-believers:
"The believers indeed are
brothers;
so set things right between two
brothers . . ." (Apartment: 10).
"Moslems are hard against
the unbelievers, merciful to one
another" (Victory: 25).
Islamic Jehad
With these exhortations went the
commands of Jehad, that is, a Moslem's duty to wage holy war and embrace death
honourably in the battlefield. Islam guarantees that a martyr never dies; he
enjoys immortality in the paradise where he is allotted seventy-two houris of
musky bodies and several beautiful youths.
Religion and hatred
Both the Christians and Moslems
though in theory praised the doctrine of love, in practice, were ready to
demonstrate their universal hatred for humanity which the device of revelation
promotes to adore God and deplore mankind. No butcher has ever been able to
express half as great a skill in throat-cutting as did the admirers of
revelation. For two whole centuries, these divine murderers tirelessly soaked
the torrid sands of the Arabian desert with human blood which is more sacred
than anything that exists in this world. Despite being the cause and centre of
this iniquity, Jerusalem remained the Holy Land! Still more shameful is the fact
that while the City of the Jews rose to become the object of reverence for the
Christians and Moslems alike, the Jews themselves became the target of contempt
for the believers of all shades. It shows how natural pride of the Christians
and Moslems, which had been humbled by the innovative skill of the Jews through
their mastery of revelation, had turned into an inferiority complex: they
naturally sought the rejuvination of their repressed instincts through
suppression of the Jews.
The Impatient Crusader
Urban had appointed the month of
August 1096 as the time of departure. Like the lover who finds waiting the most
tormenting moments which assume the longevity of months and years, the believers
could not sit still until August and found it too long a suspense to bear. About
12,000 persons left France in March under the leadership of Peter the Hermit and
Walter the Penniless. They were Soon joined by another 5,000 from Germany, and a
crowd of similar strength from Rhineland under Count Emico of Leiningen, swelled
their ranks still further. These bands, aflame with the love of Jerusalem,
decided to practice the art of cruelty on the Jews of Germany and Bohemia and
showed no respect to the appeals of the local clergy and Christians. Having run
out of their meagre supplies, they laid claim not only on the wealth of the Jews
but also their honour. Of course, they believed in Jesus but not in his celebacy.
Was it wise not to indulge in the appetites of the flesh, having secured plenary
indulgence from the Holy Father? However, they did not enjoy their divine rights
of orgy for very long because they were cut down near Nicaea by a force of the
Seljuq Turks, highly trained in archery This was the first division of the First
Crusade.
By an irony of history, these
crusaders were not being led by their kings because several monarchs such as
Philip I of France, William II of England and Henry IV of Germany had been
excommunicated by the Pope. The First Crusade was mainly a French adventure and
its meritorious division was commanded by the nobility such as Duke Godfrey,
Count Bohemund of Tarantu, Tancred of Hauteville and Raymond, Count of Toulouse.
Personal interests of Crusaders
When one looks at the events more
closely, it transpires that the crusades had been engineered to satisfy the
human greed for prestige, and not to enhance the glory of God. For example, some
of these noble lords, as they crossed the Taurus, separated themselves from the
main army to pursue their personal political interests: Raymond, Godfrey and
Bohemund wandered into Armenia to make their private conquests and Baldwin
(Godfrey's brother) founded the first Latin kingdom in the East during 1098.
Emperor Alexius Comnenus
It was originally Alexius Comnenus,
the Byzantine emperor, who repeatedly asked the West for help against the Suljuq
Turks who had extended the boundaries of their empire uncomfortably close to
Constantinople. When eventually, his appeal was granted by Pope Urban 11, and he
found the presence of a massive force of 4,000 mounted knights and 25,000
infantry near Constantinople, he employed his imperial skills gathered through
the political blat and blare of seven centuries, and demanded of each
crusade-leader to swear on the Bible that he would restore to the Empire any
conquered territory which formerly belonged to it. Further, he required each of
them to take the feudal oath of allegiance to him for holding any new land as an
imperial fief. The glitter of gold and brilliance of diamonds, which Alexius
generously distributed among these holy combatants, soon softened their tongues
which uttered words of musical appeal to the imperial ears.
For the Pope, it was yet another
link in the long chain of his efforts to augment the Holy Power without regard
to the holiness of means which sought to secure it:
Donation to Constantine
History has recorded that the Holy
See forged the document known as Donation of Constantine, a supposed grant by
the Emperor Constantine, the Great, to
pope Sylvester 1(314-335). This
document reined to give pope and his spiritual Successors supremacy over all
other patriarchs in religious matters as well as dominion over Rome including
the whole of the West. It was during the 12th Century that Popes started using
it as an effective tool against the secular rulers to humble them. The scholars
have established that this paper was forged between 750 and 800 A.D.
Shroud of fibrin
The Shroud of Turin which was
supposed to contain the imprint of Christ, is a further illustration of this
tendency to seek power deceitfully. It was believed to be true until 1989 when
its falsity was established by forensic evidence.
No believer of any persuasion will
put up with such forgeries as an ordinary human. It is amazing how these
tricksters had degraded the intellectual capacity of their followers by the
application of the revelatory magic. I do not know whether to commend or condemn
them for this adroitness; after all a skill is a skill irrespective of its
nature!
Al-Hakim
The Pope was not just a spiritual
leader but also an earthly prince. The Donation of Pepin (745) actually gave him
and his successors the princedom of central Italy which lasted until the 19th
Century. It shows the imperial inclinations of the Holy Father. The preaching
and sanctioning of the Crusades was a practical step to unite the East and West
under the papal command for ruling the lives of all Christians from top to
bottom. Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was a lame
excuse because it had been restored to its formal state by the Moslems at their
own expense. It had been damaged by Al-Hakim, the Fatmid Caliph of Egypt
(996-1021) who was known to be mad and deluded with his own divinity. It is
against the Islamic traditions to hurt Christian shrines, and no true Moslem
would have ever done it.
The fate of the first division of
the Crusaders had struck a big blow to the Christian morale. In May, 1098 the
news that Karbogha, the Prince of Mosul, was approaching with a great army,
frightened the Christians to such an extent that many of them boarded ships on
the Orontes, preferring the modest living in the West to the magnificent life in
the Kingdom of Heaven, saturated with splendour and gaiety. Even Alexius thought
it fit to believe these deserters, and instead of joining the Crusaders, he
turned back to the safety of Asia Minor.
Peter Bartholomew
At this juncture, a priest known as
Peter Bartholomew produced an ingenious trick to buttress the sagging courage of
his people. Stroking his beard in the most ecstatic manner, he thundered to
assure his fellow-combatants that by a divine chance he had found the lance that
pierced the side of the Lord Jesus. The psychological state of the crusaders
underwent a similar change as the parched grass experiences after a heavy rain.
Thinking of the Lance as a gift from the Lord, for doing to his tormentors what
they had done to him, they became sure of victory. They praised the Lord, burst
into singing sacred hymns, and danced frantically. This over-confident army of
crusaders, intoxicated with the promise of success, was led to the
battlefield under the Lance, carried aloft as the sacred standard. The Moslem
warriors were put to flight by the Crusaders whose fighting zeal had touched its
peak. They roared for vengeance, and the most loving God provided them with an
opportunity on June 7, 1099 when they stood before the walls of Jerusa'em whose
purity was about to display the putrid aspect of mankind.
Butchery at Jerusalem
As the sun dawned on 15th July,
each of its golden rays became incandescent with the heat of hatred to expose
the shameful reality of the Revelatory Message which the followers of different
prophets had received from the Most Merciful Creator. Under the leadership of
Godfrey and Tancred, their soldiers scaled walls of the Holy City successfully
and then let hell loose to depict its horrors with the utmost sincerity of a
believer. A lay priest known as Raymond of Agiles proudly recorded "the
wonderful things that he had seen": he saw the heads of the saracens
(Moslem Arabs) mown down like a lush crop; some were shot with arrows, others
were forced to jump down from the lofty towers; many were tortured mercilessly
for days and then heaped together and burnt alive. The streets were scattered
with limbs such as heads, feet and hands and no matter how far one's horse
galloped, the dead bodies appeared everywhere.
These ecstatic conditions as
experienced by the Christian zealots were also described by their
contemporaries: it turned out to be the favourite hobby to kill the subdued
people by piercing their sides with lances to avenge the Lord; the frightened
women were stabbed repeatedly as an expression of delight; the suckling babies
were snatched from the breasts of their mothers and thrown over the walls as a
mark of respect to the Babe in the Manger. As the murderous frenzy became more
tense, the holy warriors developed the mania of carrying the infants by their
legs and dashing their heads against large stones, pillars and walls. The number
of Moslems who perished in this divine orgy of blood-spilling rose to 70,000 and
this was in addition to those who died fighting.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Jews who had developed the Holy
City, and thus provided a fountain of piety to the believers, were not thanked
for it. Instead, they were hunted throughout Jerusalem; their damsels were raped
and tortured; their babies were torn apart alive; their wealth was plundered;
and as a final gesture of thanksgiving to the Lord who, in His immense wisdom,
had facilitated this miracle of mercy, the crusaders drove the surviving Jewish
population into a synagogue which was too small to hold them. The worshippers of
the Most Clement Lord heaped men, women and children on top of one another and
set the building alight. To celebrate the jocund mystique of the occasion, they
quite reverently marched into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre whose grotto had
once housed the crucified Jesus. There they hugged and kissed one another; the
sense of fulfillment brought tears to their eyes, and the gratitude to the Lord
for this mighty accomplishment choked their voices with passion and puerility.
Yet they sang Hallelujah in an ear-rending pitch
which drowned the Jewish
supplications for mercy, and thus provided the Lord with an excuse that He could
not hear the laments of the burning Children of Israel!
Yahwe's attitude towards
Jerusalem
What happened to Yahwe, the
Bridegroom of Jerusalem? He proved to be the vain lover who enjoys the
burgeoning beauty of his bride but does not bother to defend her honour. His
attitude towards the Chosen Race was based on the English maxim: "I told
you so". That is, He had warned them that unless they stopped worshipping
other gods, He would sanction their persecution. It is strange to see that the
Jews, known for their toughness, have never been able to look up into the eyes
of Yahwe, the living cause of their perpetual humiliation. One wonders why Yahwe,
who pretends to be the Universal God, does not punish other nations for
idolatory? Are Jews His only Children? Who "Created" the rest of
mankind? If there is another God, then Yahwe cannot be the sole object of
worship. If He is the only God, then He must treat all His Children equally. As
He, obviously, does not, He is not great enough to be Divine.
The success of the first Crusade
enabled the Christians to carve out the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem which under
King Fulk, Count of Anjou (1131-43) extended to include most of Palestine and
Syria though the Moslems still held Emesa, Aleppo and Damascus. The Christian
zeal soon gave in to the urge of dominance which has always determined the
attitudes of rulers; as the barons took over ownership of the conquered lands,
they reduced the former owners, both Christian and Moslems, to the status of
serfs and laid upon them far severer terms of feudal servitude than they had
ever imagined. Man is the victim of faith. How easily he is manipulated by the
forces of divinity to their own end, leaving him hoping for ever.
Islamic share of carnage
The tragedy of the Crusaders spans
over two centuries and demonstrates the savagery of fundamentalism. I have said
enough to expose the Christian aspect of this bloodiest saga of mankind. What
about the Moslem side of it? The Moslems were at war with the Christians, and
thus equally share the ignominy of shedding human blood arising from the bigotry
of faith. I shall describe only one episode to illustrate this truth. After all
this book does not solely concern the history of crusades.
The Second Crusade (114648) proved
disastrous to the Christians. The Emperor Conrad 111 of Germany suffered such a
big disaster at Dorylaeum that ninety per cent of his army was wiped out. The
French fared even worse. King Louis VII proceeded to Antioch along with several
nobles and ladies but he left his remaining army in Attalia. Now came the turn
of the Moslems to please Allah: in 1148, they swooped down on the City like
starving hawks, and the French soldiers who had left the shores of France in a
prodigious spirit of victory behaved like doves struck by despair, dismay and
despondence. The Moslem Qaris, i.e. Professional reciters of the Koran, chanted
the scripture with eloquence, and in a tone of authority to assure their
warriors that Allah had forbidden death to those who gave their lives for the
cause of Islam; what is termed as death is just a transition from mortality to
immortality; it is a transportation from the painful life of this earth to the
eternity of Paradise where wide-eyed houris with swelling bosoms and fragrant
bodies serve believers in the most exhilarating environment. As the recitation
became louder and the mention of Allah's mercies increased in frequency, the
Moslem swords flashed faster and felt more blood-thirsty. Nearly all the
Frenchmen perished. Their women ended up in the harems and their children formed
part of the Conquerors' possessions. Some 60,000 followers of Jesus met their
Maker before their time, and the same fate befell the Christians of Tyre, Sidon,
Haifa and Beirut.
Divine cover-up
Of all the addictions,
fundamentalism i.e. the addiction to faith is the worst. The doleful news of the
holy fiasco opened up tongues of the European sceptics They argued that wisdom
and mercy of God who treated His most loving devotees with such utter contempt,
was doubtful. St. Bernard, the real instigator of the Second Crusade, replied
that man had no right to question the ways of the Almighty which are beyond
human understanding. God cannot be blamed for the failure of the Crusade because
it is a punishment for Christians' sins! Similarly, each time the Jews have
faced a disaster, the rabbis have come up with similar logic based on evasion of
the truth. They have never admitted that Yahwe is a myth. If they do, they will
soon be out of priestly business which is so rewarding and prestigious.
Therefore, they depict each calamity as a fulfilment of prophecies which they
forged themselves to fool the believers.The fundamentalists, whether they be
Christians, Jews or Moslems, submit to the authority of faith which is so
totalitarian, tantalizing and tortuous. Fundamentalism has simply come to mean
selling one's self into slavery along with one's conscience, self-respect and
power of judgement.
Jewish attitude towards Germany
Fundamentalism is a greater source
of mischief today than ever before. Take the modern Jewish attitude towards
Germany. Despite their high-sounding philanthropic claims, Jewish people hardly
know anything about forgiveness. It is not surprising that there is no mention
of compassion in the Pentateuch. Instead, the emphasis is on revenge, the relic
of the law of talion practiced by Hammurabi and his predecessors over three
thousand years ago.
Law of Talion
In Jewish terms, the law of ration
forbids forgiveness and lays down that if someone hurts your eye you must hurt
his eye and if someone breaks your tooth, you must break his tooth (Ex. 21:
24-26).
It is difficult for a practicing
Jew to be kind-hearted owing to his preference for inflicting injury as a means
of seeking personal satisfaction. This tendency, which is carefully nursed by
the divine law, is made more acute by the consciousness of racial superiority as
a member of the "chosen" or ``exalted,, race. The Jewish
law is a colossus of command and
perplexity. Nobody can prove or disprove anything from it. As a result, the word
of the rabbi reigns supreme, and acts as the source of his authority and
prestige.
Jewish Law
The written Law of Moses as found
in the Pentateuch is inflated tremendously by the inclusion of the oral Law
which has been handed down over centuries and expanded by each successive
generation. The Pentateuch plus oral traditions came to be known as the Torah or
Law. The written form of the oral Law is called Mishna. Then, there is Talmud
which refers to commentaries and interpretative writings accumulated over a long
period, ranking next to the Bible (The Old Testament) only. The sheer vastness
of the Law, on the one hand, makes it the determining religious and social
force, and on the other, its tendency to yield to a wilful interpretation
renders it the vehicle of convenience. When enormity of law commands every
movement of life, it begins to impinge upon free will. Being over-conscious of
law, people pay it lip-reverence, and to restore their liberties, circumvent it
to make their deeds look legal.
Concept of timeless justice
Since forgiveness is not encouraged
by the Jewish law, seeking revenge has become an integral part of the Jewish
culture. Let me explain this point with reference to the attitude of the British
Jews towards the Germans, euphemistically, known as the "Nazi war
criminals" but without looking as avengers. They demand retribution in the
name of justice and claim that it has no relevance to passage of time:
"Justice is timeless; if you have offended, it does have the right to call
upon you".
Since Yahwe punishes the sins of
fathers on their children generation after generation the concept of timeless
justice is compatible with the Jewish attitude of retribution but is repulsive
to lovers of justice. It is strictly time-bound because:
a. the length of time is a deciding
factor in assessing the value of evidence which determines the quality of
justice.
b. cultural spirit, that is, ways
of thinking, feeling and acting are directly linked with time. What was
fashionable a century ago, may be outmoded now. For example, women's psychology
was different when they had no votes some six decades ago. Therefore, they were
motivated by different considerations in the past compared to the present, and
it goes without saying that the nature of motive affects the quality of
behaviour and standard of justice.
Jewish wealth and influence
Using the immense power of their
wealth and political influence, the Jews have mesmerised the governments of the
West with their illogical concept of the 'timeless justice" and persuaded
them to change and reshape their laws for trying the Nazi war criminals. It is
insane to think that the rules of war-time emergency can be applied to the peace
time normality because the difference between the two is the same as between an
erupting volcano and striking a match for lighting a cigarette. If the purpose
of such trials is really justice, then securing absolutely exact evidence is a
must, but this is an impossibility after such a long time especially when most
of the mitigating records are likely to have perished, and the witnesses become
hysterical just by the mention of the word "Nazi or German".
Jewish persecution complex
Frankly, this is an exercise in
mollifying the Jewish inferiority which has become an integral part of their
persecution complex, starting with the Babylonian captivity. The Babylonian
Talmud seeks to lighten the burden of Jewish humiliation with the promises of
divine glory. In fact, the entire Jewish conduct of sorrow and servility over
the last 2,500 years has been suffused with a dream of self-deception which
emerges from their philosophy of racial superiority, and disdain of the Gentile.
Thus they have flouted the reality, and lived in a world of make-believe where a
sparrow assumes the manner of an eagle. As a result, there came into being a
small section of the "Court Jews" who influenced the state policies
through a mixture of bribe and flattery. The Christian monarchs, who loved the
Lord Jesus dearly, were equally infatuated with the Jewish wealth. They
protected the Jewish usurers against their own Christian subjects who usually
had genuine complaints against them. The sighs and cries and moans and groans of
the Christians were subdued by the jingling of gold pieces which the Jews poured
into the bottomless pockets of the Christian rulers where their conscience lay.
The Jewish ability to suppress the genuine grievances of the Gentile gave their
inferiority-ridden ego a tremendous fillip of superiority. This psychological
fact has now asserted itself in demanding prosecution of the German war
criminals. The message is loud and clear: nobody can molest the Jews and go
scotfree. But what about the Jewish molester? This is different because a Jewish
molester ranks as divine, it is only the non-Jewish tormentor who qualifies as
the devil. Am I perverting the course of justice? Not at all. It is the facts of
history which lead me to this conclusion. See them for yourself:
Nazi and Judaism
Hitler was inspired by the Jewish
principle of racial superiority as well as their practice of looking down upon
other nations. This Austrian born leader of the National Socialist German
Working Party (the Nazi) adopted the same mode of assertion as used by the
Jewish prophets who claimed that they had been instructed by the Lord to say
this and that. He declared that he was called upon by the Providence to lead his
country against the Jews! Even his conduct was modelled on the Biblical account
of the Jewish behaviour in relation to the Philistines. What I am about to say
is an example of the Jewish historical conduct referred to at the end of the
sixth chapter (Judaism):
God promised the Jews that He would
give them a land flowing with milk and honey. This land turned out to be Canaan
i.e. Palestine. How did God enable them to Possess it?
Simply through a determined policy
of genocide and pillage. Let me paraphrase the relevant perts of the Old
Testament which you can check yourself:
a. When you come near a Canaanite
city for the purpose of possessing it, declare peace. If they surrender, they
become Jewish tributaries and slaves (Deut. 20: 10-11).
b. However, if they exercise their
right to defend honour and liberty and refuse to be plundered, and do not submit
themselves to servitude, then the Jews must strike them with the edge of their
swords to murder every man, woman and child and shall not leave any live thing
to breathe; this extermination had got to be total and complete because this was
the command of the Jewish God (Deut. 20: 12-16).
c. This is exactly what the Jews
did. They destroyed city after city, murdered every man, woman. child and baby;
took over houses, cattle and lands of the vanquished (Deut. Ch. 3). This policy
of deliberate extermination of all nationalities that dwelt in the Promised Land
was carried out by Joshua even after the death of Moses. Jos. 10:28 gives a
systematic account of this planned destruction city by city.
Was Jewish extermination by the
Nazi any different from the well considered plan of extermination that the Jews
carried out in Canaan?
Didn't Nazi like the Jews, try to
conceal their crimes against humanity under the veneer of Providence and Divine
Command? Was Jewish plunder of the Canaanites any different in purpose and
methods from those of the Nazi? Both Joshua and Hitler committed similar acts
but Joshua is considered a prophet of God, and Hitler is thought of as the Devil
incarnate! Why? It is because Joshua was a Jew and Hitler was not.
Cycle of history
The Jewish inferiority pining to
assert itself as superiority has been the bane of this fraternity; the
suppression of Gentiles' liberties has always rebounded on them in the form of
rape, murder, pillage and expulsion in every century, yet these chosen people
have not shed one sincere tear of remorse for the dishonour of their virgins and
decapitation of their babes. What a price to pay for racial ostentation! In
fact, it has become a cycle of history: the Jews of the present generation by
displaying their glory at the expense of the Gentile, sow the seeds of
destruction for their next generation. Now, this phenomenon is taking its course
in Britain.
Revenge, Revenge, Revenge
For the purpose of seeking revenge,
the Jews have set up headquarters in Los Angeles charged with the duty of
hunting Nazi war criminals. It means not only hounding the suspects but also
persuading different countries to change their laws to facilitate trials. Common
law countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia have already done
so. Now, it is the turn of Great Britian where there are Supposed to be four men
who may be successfully prosecuted as Nazi war mammals. One of them has died. A
Jewish Nazi-hunter expressed his regret at the death of the suspect but it was
not for the reason that a human being had died, but because there would now be
one suspect less to be tried, thus reducing the amount of satisfaction that
would have arisen from the trial of the whole lot. This shows the nature of the
timeless justice! Again, it should be the function of each individual state to
decide, of its own free will, whether or not to seek and try these alleged
criminals. The active persuasion by the Jews turns the Whole episode into a
charade, and also shows the enormous influence of the Jewery on the internal
affairs of other countries. Since they have the power to change foreign laws,
one can surmise what they can do to the individuals who do not suit their
palate. This success which the Jews are enjoying today will form part of the
cycle which I have previously mentioned. The new British generations will take
notice of their fathers' follies to restore the balance of justice which will
prove horrendous to the next generation of Jews. The reader does not have to
believe me; he ought to look into the pages of history.
What is true law
Of course, laws are made and remade
but law is law only when it contains a natural element. Having discussed this
issue in "Taxation and Liberty" I shall not go into details of this
point here but must add that the law is the ambassador of legality only when it
acts as an effective restraint on dictatorship, that is, it forbids the
executive, legislators and judges to use law as the tool of convenience. It must
be beyond the manipulative desires and powers of the political magnates. When
they can mould it to act as the medium of realising their particular designs and
dogmas, the law loses its basic values of defending liberties and ensuring
natural justice. The natural element which I have previously referred to
concerns these basic values. Once these basic values are lost, the law becomes
the source of legal dictatorship known as legalism.
Existing British law
This is exactly what is happening
in Britain. Since these suspects were neither born in Britain nor did they
commit the alleged atrocities as British nationals, the existing law does not
permit their trial. Bowing to the Jewish pressure, the British parliament, which
is the custodian of British honour, is about to dishonour the entire concept of
British honour, based on fairplay. A fairplay is a fairplay only when it is free
of bias but when the law itself is being modified to suit a particular purpose
it is the proof of a fundamental bias because it shows that the end is being
considered good enough for justifying the means. This is an act of high treason
against the traditions of British fairplay whose virtue once echoed throughout
the Empire. Those who are guilty of this monstrous act will have to stand trial
at the bar of history to receive eternal condemnation which they so truly
deserve.
Richard, The Lion Heart
If these men were really criminal,
they would have committed crimes over the last forty years since they have been
in this country. On the contrary, they have been law-abiding citizens of this
land and thus deserve protection of the British
Law, and moral strength of this
country. Assuming that they are guilty of the alleged offences, they did only
what everyone else was doing at that time in the Eastern European countries;
Jew-bashing had been made as fashionable during the Second World War as
murdering a Moslem or a Jew was considered an act of piety during the Crusades.
Has ever anyone reviled Richard, the Lion Heart for participating in the holy
carnage?
Mitigating factors
If these men did act wrongly they
were victims of the abnormal circumstances brought about by the local press
which incited to murder the Jews, the local police which instead of protecting
the Jews sought their extermination and the local regimes which rewarded
Jew-bashing. How can you try such men who had lost the insight to act correctly?
They can be judged only in accordance with the then prevailing conditions and
laws in those countries. It is stupid and sinful to apply the same rules of
conduct to mental patients as applicable to normal people. These suspects were
themselves the victims of their local environment. Is there a person who is ever
immune to the effect of his social surroundings?
Edward I and Jews
The concept of timeless-justice, is
the most dangerous nonsense. What about Edward I? He expelled Jews from England
and Gascony and thus subjected them to a great deal of agony. Shouldn't we
punish him for Jew-bashing?
Since many a crime is committed in
the name of law, there is an English precedent to sanctify such a profanity:
Charles II dug up the bones of Oliver Cromwell and hanged them. Why doesn't the
Parliament commit such a lunacy which the law permits to carry the concept of
timeless-justice to its logical conclusion? In addition to pleasing the Jews, it
will also appease the Scots who have always moaned about the harsh Edwardian
attitude.
Retrosepctive legislation
This type of atrocity is nothing to
the government which is prepared to indulge in passing retrospective
legislation. What is retrospective legislation? It springs from the dark
interior of mankind because the brute force of authority declares that a certain
law existed in the past whereas, in fact, it did not exist, and nobody had ever
heard of it. Passing this type of laws and placing them on the statute books was
a speciality of the Nazi who mastered the art of murdering their Opponents
legally! What an example for the British Parliament to follow!
Henry VII
Usually the retrospective
legislation seeks to legalise illegality and all its attendant horrors In
England, Henry VII used this device and had himself declared the King of this
country one day earlier than his actual date of enthronement. Henry VII was a
despot and could have beheaded anyone but that constituted "injustice and
cruelty" which looked bad for his royal image. The purpose of this trick
was to declare all his opponents as traitors who resisted his "lawful"
authority, which he actually did not possess for being an invader with a very
dubious claim to the throne of England. He wanted to punish all his antagonists
legally. A crime committed in the name of law looks most beautiful despite being
one of the ugliest things in reality. Who cares about reality? People usually
fall for the appearance the more attractive a thing looks, the greater its
appeal. This fact equally applies to the retrospective legalisation which the
British government may pass to enable the Jews to wreak vengeance in the
disguise of justice.
House of Lords
In "Taxation and
Liberty", I had argued for the upgrading of the British House of Lords and
suggested that its members should not be subjected to electioneering but
appointed on merits, especially with regard to the services that they have
rendered to the nation. There are plenty of such peers already in the House of
Lords. They will probably defend the honourable traditions of this country by
defeating such a bill. My admiration for this noble House has always been
copious. Since it ranks as a great human institution for guiding the path of
democracy and checking the pace of ravenous tax-gatherers, I hope that it will
nip the evil in the bud.
German-bashing
The connotations of such a bill
becoming the law do not seem to have been understood properly:
1. Firstly, propagating horrors of
the Nazi camps has become a very regular Jewish affair and thus ranks as a
business which strives to achieve certain rewards. In addition to making money
out of misery, it seeks to denigrate the Germans habitually. This is an act of
revenge to depict them as the most despicable race. It is totally unfair because
Germans are a great people whose scientific, industrial, cultural and religious
contributions to civilisation need no introduction. Is there a nation which has
not been aggressive to its neighbours at some point in history? Why pick on the
Germans with a religious zeal? I certainly do not condone the German atrocities
but it equally baffles me that nobody has so far apportioned the blame
attributable to the Jewish attitudes towards the Germans during the pre-war era.
It does not seem proper to call Adolf Hitler "insane". The man who
commanded the loyalty of his people and stood up to the whole world for several
years, could not have been mad. His genius, though tinted with evil, deserves a
better appraisal. His passion for supremacy was no greater than that of
Alexander the Great or Napoleon Bonaparte.
Ban anti-German propaganda
The fact that the Germans have
become ardent supporters of the European Community, shows that they have
realised the evils of nationalism and want to be a part of mankind. Their
participation also ranks as a proof of repentance Besides, they have paid for
their follies and deserve a clean slate. Their partnership calls for genuine
respect from all her European allies; continuous campaign of mistrust and
assassination of the German character will eventually provoke the Germans and
destabilise the European Community. It is high time that the Shoa business
("the holocaust industry") was banished and preaching of hateful
propaganda against the Germans made
illegal throughout the European Community. Wisdom demands that the Jews must
heed this warning. European dream of unity is becoming a reality. It is the Jews
who will suffer for being an eastern race. Their future lies in the East, the
land of Moses and David. I refrain from developing this theme because to me,
every Jew is as human as anybody else and thus entitled to equal dignity and
respect.
Nazi-type Jews
2. If the purpose of securing
retrospective legislation is to seek justice against those who harmed the Jews,
then it opens up a new avenue, far more macabre than the fertile imagination of
a novelist can dream of: the Nazi were not the only Jew-bashers. History has
recorded that there were some Jews who sent fellowJews to the horrors of the gas
chambers. Some did it to protect the lives of their relatives and others were
sordid enough to make a business out of it for financial rewards.
A murderer is a murderer whether he
is one's brother or a stranger. What has the British government done to trace
such Jews? Has the Israeli government done anything to prosecute them? They are
probably being cared for in some Jewish sanatorium.
British Jews and Palestinians
3. Finally, it raises a point of
far more fundamental importance, utterly repugnant to the Jews themselves.
Justice means justice for all the aggrieved and not for one particular section.
If the British government is so anxious to dispense justice that it wants to
change the law for trying its citizens who were not born and bred here, then it
must also be equally zealous to prosecute all those British citizens who were
born and bred here and are guilty of harming others. I am, of course, referring
to the British-born Jews in relation to the Palestinians. The British Jews bear
a direct responsibility for the misery, molestation and murder of the
Palestinians. Why? Because every Jew is considered a citizen of Israel.
Secondly, donations of the British Jews must play a considerable role in keeping
the Israeli state alive, and thirdly, there are plenty of British Jews who have
their second homes and business interests in Israel.
Have the British Jews ever
demonstrated against the Israeli attitudes towards the Palestinians? No. Not at
all, yet they clamour for justice! It is strange that they cannot tolerate
racial discrimination in the lands of their abode whereas their motherland, i.e.
Israel, is founded on racism. All Palestinians are second-class citizens but all
Jews in diaspora are more than first class citizens for holding exalted
positions in the commercial, industrial and political life of other countries.
I can develop this theme far more
effectively but I shall not do so because the purpose of this criticism is not
Jew-bashing but pointing out the lethal effects of fundamentalism which relegate
man to the status of a lower animal by reducing his vision and curbing his
conscience
The modern Jews owe their social
recovery to the broad-mindedness they showed in response to the Napoleonic
investigation. They can be liberal without turning their backs on Judaism. The
diplomacy of clenched fist has brought them nothing but misery. Their children
and virgins are entitled to human dignity and respect This is high time that
they opened their arms a little, instead of antagonising the Gentile. Until such
time that they make forgiveness a part of their culture, history will keep
repeating itself. There is no evidence that anti-Semitism has died down it has
simply become dormant and is likely to raise its head when someone's interest
persuades him to change the prevailing climate.
Islamic fundamentalism
Jews are not the only
fundamentalists in the world. Fundamentalism, irrespective of its origins, is
destructive. Whereas Jewish orthodoxy has been partially responsible for the
preservation of Judaism, the Islamic fundamentalism has become a tool of
dominance for the Moslem politician who deliberately corrupts the Islamic
principles to advance his own cause but in the name of Islam. It has been quite
easy for him to do so. Since there is no formal priesthood in Islam, the Moslem
clergy could not gain an authoritive position in his own right like the
Christian priest. Thus his secular weakness made him a puppet of the politician
whose patronage depended upon how skilfully he interpreted the Koran to suit his
master's purpose.
Mulla and Learning
The Moslem Mulla (priest) is a
learned man but his erudition is lopsided because he hardly knows anything other
than the Koran and Hadith; he is usually pious but poverty poses a problem to
his probity and he feels obliged to prevaricate for providing the politicians
with preferential and not precise interpretations of the Koran which should make
the faithful believe that snow is as hot as fire and a sparrow is a higher flier
than an eagle.
Koranic Law
To understand this fact, one must
realise that the Koran is considered by Moslems as the last revelation of Allah,
and its purpose is to guide man through an eternal code of law. Since the
Koranic law is for ever, it obviously means that it is capable of providing
legal guidance under all circumstances and for all ages. Such a law must be
capable of interpretation without losing its essence. The mulla's submission to
the will of politician has struck a big blow to the Koran as the eternal legal
guide. It has been stressed by the Moslem scholars that once a principle has
been unanimously agreed through Ijtihad (Juristic effort) it is final, and
binding on Moslems of all ages without any regard to the passage of time. Thus
they have destroyed the value of juristic deliberation and made Islam a rigid
and regressive code of life.
Qatl-E-Murtad
Take for example the
unanimously-agreed doctrine known as Qatl-E-Murtad (decapitation of a renegade).
It is utterly against the Koranic principle which clearly
states that a renegade shall be
beheaded only if he makes a game of apostasy, that is, he embraces and renounces
Islam again and again. This is further supported by the fact that hypocrisy was
the Prophet's biggest abhorrence. If a person born as a Moslem wants to renounce
his faith, he will not do so owing to fear of decapitation and shall be forced
to live as a hypocrite. The spirit of the Koran confirms it abundantly that the
Prophet would have preferred apostasy to hypocrisy: he wanted true followers and
not phoney believers. This is the reason that the Koran states "La Ikrah Fe
Din": there is no compulsion in religion.
As a result of such attitudes, most
of the Moslem nations do not practice Shariah i.e. the Islamic law. For example,
Turkey discarded it in 1926 and adopted the swiss family law; India and Pakistan
have essentially become Common Law countries Even in Egypt and Tunisia Shariah
courts do not exist as a separate entity and many Islamic countries have
abolished polygamy, changed rules of divorce and modified procedures of
evidence.
Secondly, what made Islam a
practical religion was the fact that the Amir-UI-Momineen (head of the Moslem
Community) was required to be the practical model of the faith. To make sure
that the faithful follow this law strictly, the Koran gives them the legal right
to rise against an unrighteous ruler:
"So you must not obey who tell
lies . ..
Never you obey the mean swearer,
backbiter, those who indulge in
slander,
obstruct righteousness, the guilty
agressor,
the uncouth and the ignoble"
(The Pen: 10).
Today, one has only to look at the
Moslem leadership to realise that the genuine practice of the faith is no longer
an integral part of leadership in many Moslem countries. Instead, the Moslem
followers have been carefully and excessively conditioned to the word:
"Islam". Whoever, can use this word effectively, commands the
obedience of the Moslems. This is why Islam has been turned into a blind faith
and serves as a tool of dominance for the politician and seekers of social
prestige. It is this wilful misinterpretation of the Koran that has led to the
decline of the world of Islam. Every Moslem wants to practice his own brand of
Islam without knowing what real Islam is. In fact, the true Islamic principles
have been overshadowed by the darkness of misinterpretation to such an extent
that it is no longer possible to establish them. This is the reason that Islam
has broken up into numerous sects; it is totally un-lslamic:
"Those who have made divisions
in their religion
and become sects, you have nothing
in common with them" (Cattle: 160).
The Islam that is full of sects is
not Islam. The present state of the Moslem world does not reflect the character
and teachings of the Prophet. On the contrary, it represents what the Prophet
disliked and forbade. The Islam that the Prophet Propounded enabled its
followers to rule the world for a thousand years! This s why the Koran states:
"You are the best nation ever raised because you bid for honour and forbid
dishonour" (House of Imran: 105).
Need I comment on it?
Allah's curse on Jews
After this lengthy explanation, now
I may resume the discussion of Islamic fundamentalism; the Koran says:
"Some of the Jews pervert
words from their meanings . . . . but God has cursed them for their unbelief . .
." (Women: 45).
Interpretation of Allah's curse
Moslems all over the world
interpreted these verses to mean that Allah's curse meant that the Jews would
never be allowed by the Almighty to return to Palestine and form their own
state. This interpretation became a fundamental part of the Moslem faith. This
is the reason every Moslem felt that he had been struck by lightning when the
State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948. To prove that it was a fleeting
affair, the Arab world including the Palestinians wanted to drown all Jews in
the sea; the ensuing bloody wars were waged to appease the Islamic
fundamentalism.
Every nation has the right to a
homeland, and the Jews are no exception. If we accept the interpretation that
the Moslem scholars have put on this verse, then it means that the Koran is
wrong because the Jewish state has become a reality. I am more inclined to think
that it is the interpreters who are to blame. Having been born as a Moslem and
trained to be a scholar of Islam, I know that the Koran has been frequently
subjected to misinterpretation by those who seek power and influence as Moslem
Zealots but without having any true reverence for Islam.
Jewish rights and heroism
The Jews have the right to a
homeland like any other nation. Where is the Jewish homeland? It has to be the
land that has always been loved and adored by the Jews. Obviously, it is
Palestine which according to the sincerely-held Jewish belief, was promised by
God. No nation has ever shown half as much reverence to its homeland as have the
Jews. Palestine has been their vision, their palpitation and, above all, an
integral part of their faith. They waged bloodiest wars against the aweful Roman
imperialism. Their velour, tenacity and heroism knew no bounds to defend the
Holy Land, the Gift of Yahwe, the apex of devotion. Why the Apex of Devotion?
Without a mighty, marvellous and magnificent devotion they could not have fought
the lethal wars that raged between 132-5 and then again during the reign of
Antoninus Pius (138-61). These wars were based on the ideal of liberty,
sincerity of conduct and true piety of faith, and therefore, marked the apex of
devotion because they led not only to the decimation of 985 towns but also the
slaying of 580,000 men, women and children. The Jewish population fell below
half of its original strength. I applaud the Jewish gallantry. Each of the slain
was a hero whose blood was infused with divine purity, preference of death as a
lover of liberty, to the slavish living, is a mark of honour and godliness.
These Jews were immortal and their blood was sacred, super and sublime. They
were a different species from the Jews who went to the Nazi gas chambers like
lambs. Though they lost the battle, the quality of their struggle constitutes
the true human virtue and ranks as the ultimate dream of mankind.
Palestine, the greatest human
romance
It is not only the sacrifices of
the Jews which make Palestine their natural home but also their undying love of
this country. The Jewish love for Palestine is the greatest romance that man can
dream of. Its sanctity is lifted sky-high when we realise that this love is not
based on design but devotion, without any expectation of reward. Am I
exaggerating? Not at all. The Jews had several opportunities to found a new
homeland abroad. For example, in 1903, the British government offered them 6,000
square miles of uninhabited Uganda but they turned it down. Why? Because they
wanted to go back home, that is, Palestine. In fact, they have always wanted to
return to Palestine. The story of this yearning and the selfless attempts to
achieve it, is a long one. The Jewish attachment to the Holy Land is ecstatic
and devotional; without this relationship, they could not have been willing to
throw their wealth, position and comfort, which they enjoyed in Diaspora, in
exchange for the frightening uncertainties, awaiting them in Palestine. There is
a New York, New South Wales, Nova Scotia, New England but there is no New
Israel. Why? The reason is obvious.
Indivisibility of Jerusalem
What is Palestine? It was a
territory on the eastern Mediterranean coast, once embellished by the kingdoms
of Israel and Judah. But now after many centuries the situation has changed. The
United Nations on 29th November, 1947, recommended the establishment of seperate
Arab and Jewish states in Palestine. Though Jews could claim the territories of
modern Lebanon and Syria, extending to the Euphrates once ruled by David and
Solomon, they ought to be realistic and acknowledge the rights of the
Palestinians who are also entitled to a homeland. Not only that, they have the
duty to give full human rights to all the Palestinians who live within their
jurisdiction. After all, they enjoy all such rights in the foreign lands.
However, they cannot renounce a part of Jerusalem, the dream of David, the
passion of Solomon and the bride of Yahwe. The Israel without the whole of
Jerusalem is an eye without sight, a marriage without consummation, a fireball
without light, a cloud without rain and a romance without excitement. It is not
a matter of fundamentalism. If it were so, I would oppose it openly. It is a
matter of fact that Jerusalem is Judaism and Judaism is Jerusalem. Being a
rationalist, I believe that every person has the right to a belief of his own
choice, provided it advocates tolerance and respect for other people's views.
Since sanctity of Jerusalem is an integral part of the Jewish faith, dividing
Jerusalem means the destruction of Judaism. This is what makes it indivisible.
The Bride of the Lord is not available for seduction.
Yes, the Bride of the Lord is
untouchable. Dividing it, is an act of profanity. Partitioning means
desecration. Why desecrate Jerusalem now? Just because it is in the Jewish
hands? Then, in all justification, it is a Jewish city, and to establish this
fact, I wrote about its background in the beginning of this chapter.
It is a nonsense to say that it
should be treated as an international city because Christian and Moslem shrines
are located there. What about Mecca? One billion Moslems of numerous
nationalities truly believe in its sanctity. Yet it is legally and morally an
integral part of Saudi Arabia. Rome is, similarly, a part of Italy despite being
the holy centre of Christians of all races.
To say that (part of) Jerusalem is
a conquered territory, and therefore, it should be given up, is an even greater
nonsense. The Jews have conquered nothing; they have simply repossessed what is
legitimately theirs. If we look into the matter fairly, it transpires that Arabs
are in Palestine by conquest. Shouldn't they also be made to leave
Palestine?
The answer is an emphatic
"no" because they have been there for so long that Palestine ranks as
their home. They are entitled to all the dignity and rights of a homeland but
the whole of Palestine does not belong to them exclusively. Jews are the natural
claimants to a part of it known as "Israel", yet they have been
deprived of this fundamental right for a very long time indeed. It has made
Jewry a major international problem fraught with lethal consequences which are
likely to arise from the Jewish sense of insecurity.
A deeper examination shows that
sense of insecurity is the fountain of inferiority complex which puts on a cloak
of imaginary superiority to hide its infirmities and reinforces it with
ostentation and belligerence. Prolonged homelessness and continuous fear of
survival is the source of the Jewish sense of insecurity, leading to their
anti-Gentile philosophy and attitudes. As a result, their faculty of social
adjustment in relation to mankind has suffered a serious setback and they find
it hard to treat other people as their equals or even as members of the human
race. Solution of the Jewish problem lies not in their extermination but giving
them a secure homeland.
Both Jews and Palestinians are
civilised people but they have chosen to live at the same cultural level as did
their ancestors 3,000 years ago: they are as full of mutual hatred and revenge
now as they were then. This is the result of fundamentalism which benumbs
conscience and strangles the faculties of reason.
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