Historic Speech Versus Reality

Submitted by Walter (Canada), Sep 20, 2005 at 15:32

One man does not a country make. While I applaud Musharraf's efforts, he is not representative of the ideology of Pakistan's Muslim population. To the best of my knowledge, there have been at least two attempts on Musharraf's life. This does not bode well for a leader whose ideology is at odds with the people he governs. His words that Jews and Muslims "have many similarities and few divergences in their faith and culture," is simply wrong. The belief in the oneness of God, and shared ways of greeting are inadequate for determining relevant similarities. This evidence of similarity is equivalent to noting the similarities between a dog and a cat; they both eat, breathe and are predators by nature. Anyone who has studied the Bible and Qur'an, can state unequivocally, that the two faiths reside at opposite ends of the spectrum. His assertion that Jews and Muslims "have not only lived together and shared prosperity, but also suffered together, is of course true, if and only if the reference to "together" refers to "at same time".

However, with the exception of a few minor situations, Muslims have since Muhammad, designated and treated the Jews as dhimmies (inferior to Muslims) as they do to this day. The Jews and Arabs have lived at enmity with one another from time immemorial, that is, from the times of Isaac and Ishmael. Only someone who is unfamiliar with the history of Israel can see the period since 1945 as an aberration. From 638 A.D. the Jewish people have been under the hand of Muslims and more firmly so, under the hand of the Ottoman Empire which lasted until 1918. The mislabled "significant difference" alluded to by Musharraf, did not begin in 1945 but in 1948, when for the first time since 70 A.D. the Jews had a homeland and no more dhimmi status. If you want to understand the history between the Jews and Muslims, read "From Time Immemorial" by Joan Peters and "A History Of Israel From The Rise Of Zionism" by Howard Sachar.

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