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The “normalising of ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel” has obvious economic and political implications, despite the spin given to it by Professor Mohammed Ibrahim Alghbban from King Saud University in Riyadh, who is now justifying that relationship on the grounds that Muhammad “had good relations with the Jewish people.”
Saudi Arabia has been desperate, after being hit with an oil collapse, coronavirus and an expensive war with Yemen, in which the Saudis recently declared a unilateral cease-fire. So it is now “tossing lifelines.” Israel is a major and obvious target of this initiative. And Israel “is presenting itself as a willing and able partner.”
Professor Alghbban states that Muhammad “had good relations with the Jewish people, and his clashes with them were political, not religious.” This is an odd statement, aside from its obvious self-contradiction, since that politics and religion are inseparable in normative Islam, which is based on the Sharia, Islamic law. Alghbban wants to “bring the two nations closer,” and he’s doing it by ignoring the truth: the unfavorable verses about Jews in the Quran and Muhammad’s clear and unrelenting hostility toward and violence against the Jews. So how does terror-funding, Wahhabi Saudi Arabia pull off supporting its new friend Israel, a Jewish state with drastically opposing values, including a commitment to freedom, human rights and democracy? Does Saudi Arabia now condemn jihad terror? Is it backing away from Wahhabism? Will it allow synagogues to be built in Saudi Arabia and welcome Jews into the country? Saudi Arabia still does not even formally recognize Israel, and it still has a poor human rights record despite boasting about reforming.
The broader situation in the Middle East is that many major players are vying for regional hegemony, which leads each to form strategic relationships with countries it may not otherwise deal with — hence the “coziness” of Saudi Arabia with Israel. It has nothing to do with Muhammad having “good relations with the Jewish people,” which he did not, nor of a desire of Arabs to do so.
Saudi Arabia’s clerics may be prepared to resort to the Islamic practice of dissimulation (taqiyya) for political and economic gain in normalizing ties with Israel. Although taqiyya as a concept originated among Shiites, it is also employed by Sunnis. Yet the new friendship is already beginning to unravel, as the Saudis have condemned Israel’s plans to assert its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Saudi Arabia has also reiterated its “steadfast stance toward the brotherly Palestinian people.”
“Saudi academic cites Prophet Muhammad in bid to normalise ties with Israel,” TRT World, July 15, 2020:
Saudi Arabia has been desperate, after being hit with an oil collapse, coronavirus and an expensive war with Yemen, in which the Saudis recently declared a unilateral cease-fire. So it is now “tossing lifelines.” Israel is a major and obvious target of this initiative. And Israel “is presenting itself as a willing and able partner.”
Professor Alghbban states that Muhammad “had good relations with the Jewish people, and his clashes with them were political, not religious.” This is an odd statement, aside from its obvious self-contradiction, since that politics and religion are inseparable in normative Islam, which is based on the Sharia, Islamic law. Alghbban wants to “bring the two nations closer,” and he’s doing it by ignoring the truth: the unfavorable verses about Jews in the Quran and Muhammad’s clear and unrelenting hostility toward and violence against the Jews. So how does terror-funding, Wahhabi Saudi Arabia pull off supporting its new friend Israel, a Jewish state with drastically opposing values, including a commitment to freedom, human rights and democracy? Does Saudi Arabia now condemn jihad terror? Is it backing away from Wahhabism? Will it allow synagogues to be built in Saudi Arabia and welcome Jews into the country? Saudi Arabia still does not even formally recognize Israel, and it still has a poor human rights record despite boasting about reforming.
The broader situation in the Middle East is that many major players are vying for regional hegemony, which leads each to form strategic relationships with countries it may not otherwise deal with — hence the “coziness” of Saudi Arabia with Israel. It has nothing to do with Muhammad having “good relations with the Jewish people,” which he did not, nor of a desire of Arabs to do so.
Saudi Arabia’s clerics may be prepared to resort to the Islamic practice of dissimulation (taqiyya) for political and economic gain in normalizing ties with Israel. Although taqiyya as a concept originated among Shiites, it is also employed by Sunnis. Yet the new friendship is already beginning to unravel, as the Saudis have condemned Israel’s plans to assert its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Saudi Arabia has also reiterated its “steadfast stance toward the brotherly Palestinian people.”
“Saudi academic cites Prophet Muhammad in bid to normalise ties with Israel,” TRT World, July 15, 2020:
