Jews, Zionists, and Israel
What's the difference?
We start with the terminology first..
When we talk about Jews,
Jew is actually a religion..
but it is a religion that is far from its original source..
Like we all know, Jew is one of the Semitic religions.
 
That means it is a religion that is revealed..
Just like Islam...
But the religion is revealed to the prophets of Israel..
Who are the prophets of Israel actually..
Therefore, we refer to the term Israel itself..
Israel is the surname of..
Prophet Yaa'qub (Jacob) AS..
Who is Prophet Jacob AS is?
Yaa'qub is the son of Prophet Ishaaq..
And like we all know..
that Ishaaq is the son of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) 'alaihissalam..
And prophet Ibrahim has..
two sons...
Prophet Ismail and prophet Ishaaq..
and from the lineage of Ismail..
prophet Muhammad S.A.W was born.
So prophet Muhammad was said to be from People of Ismail..
or the son of Ismail..
and then..
People of Israel..
is the descendants of Ishaaq
and Israel is the nickname for Yaa'qub..
who is the son of Ishaaq 'alaihissalam..
and from that..
was born..
or..
we can trace..
the lineage of prophets of Israel..
back to..
Prophet Ishaaq 'alaihissalam..
including..
prophet Daud (David), prophet Sulaiman, Musa (Moses), Harun,
Ilyasa' and all..
and all.. All of them were..
prophets from..
people of Israel..
We just want to emphasize here.
in Islamic perspective..
which is the actual perspective..
these prophets are..
actually the messengers of Allah.
and the religion they conveyed
was basically the religion of Islam..
Since prophet Adam..
until the last Prophet (Muhammad)..
this we must clarify..
On the other hand, from..
the Jew's perspective..
they regard their religion..
to be an exclusive religion..
for the Jewish people only.
And because of that..
there has been an idea..
that Jews is both a race..
and a religion.
The problem is..
they have been making..
this religion an exclusive religion..
only for Jews.
It's unlike Christians..
and Islam..
or other religions to be mentioned..
where anyone..
regardless or their races..
or their lineage..
wherever they come from..
can embrace that religion.
But Jews..
is an exclusive religion.
and because of that..
we said that Jews..
because the religion itself is exclusive..
so they became a race..
that has some elements...
extreme racial sentiments..
In fact..
among the extreme Jews..
they see other people other than them is non-human..
They are the only 'human'..
And other people is known as 'goyim'.
Goyim means..
Livestock..
Or more accurately, cattle or cows..
to that extent the view other people..
so it's not weird at all..
they regard their religion..
as an exclusive religion..
Based on that..
we will see..
how cruel is..
how sadistic is..
people who are living in Israel.
which represents this type of Jews..
treats Palestinian people.
How they could kill children..
how they kill the elders..
how they could execute countless..
type of cruelties..
as we have witnessed together..
 because they do not only view Palestinian..
as a people like them..
but..
they don't regard Palestinians as humans..
So if Palestinians were regarded as non-human..
they are regarded like they are animals..
It's as simple as that they could kill Palestinians.
In fact, the people who have been..
helping Palestinians..
for example, Rachel Corrie.
from the United States.
She has been bulldozed by a bulldozer..
until her face was not recognizable..
To that extent they view..
other people that is not Jewish.
Now we look back to the term Zionist.
Zionism is actually an ideology.
An ideology just like any other ideologies.
which was formed..
by Jewish thinkers..
which was led by a man named Theodore Herzl.
What is Zionism?
Zionism is actually an ideology..
that aimed for the Jewish people..
to return to Zion.
Zion is a place where..
where 'allegedly' God has..
conferred or bestowed upon them.
which is in the Palestine today.
Zion in short is Palestine.
Zion..
the land of Zion..
return to Zion.
That's why the ideology is called Zionism.
However, the ones who advocate the idea..
they are actually not religious..
or who devote to the teachings..
of Jews.
They are a secular group.
In fact..some of the Jews.
Orthodox Jews..
the authentic ones.
regard them as apostles...
because they introduce an idea..
that has not been mentioned in the Jewish teachings.
which is to return to Zion.
or Palestine.
when the time to return has not come yet..
It is true in the Jewish belief..
they will one day return to Palestine.
But Zionism asserts..
that they must return.
Now.
Not at the destined time.
which is known end-time (Eschaton)..
in Jewish belief.
So they are rejected by..
the Orthodox Jews.
And they only use Zionism for certain purposes..
and agendas only..
because the truth is..
they did not get any support..
from the European Jews at that time..
So they use religious sentiment.
They use religious sentiment..
to attract attention..
and gather support..
from Jewish communities..
all over Europe.
and also in Russia.
to support their agenda..
to take over Palestine.
So here, we want to clarify..
that not all Jews..
agree and embrace Zionism.
Some of them reject it..
that's why we need to differentiate between..
Jews and Zionists..
because they really are among the Jewish..
who oppose Zionism..
and disagree with the cruel oppression..
on the Palestinians today..
For example an organization like Neturei Karta..
which is based is London.
They often support efforts..
to help the Palestinians..
In addition, when we launch a campaign..
to lift the blockades in Gaza..
land convoy for example..
they were among those..
who support the mission strongly..
for the Palestinian people..
So we need to be clear here...
who is Jews?
and who is Zionist?
although there are some distortions here and there..
and although there are extremists among the Jews..
but we can't equate them with the Zionists..
and one more thing I feel we should emphasize is..
that the Jewish people is the same as other humans..
except they were born among the Jewish people..
just like us Malays...were born among the Malay race.
and Chinese as Chinese..
they also have hearts and feelings..
and they too are also capable of making decisions and considerations..
like other people..
Therefore, in the context of da'wah..
We as Muslims..
need to see them just like we see other people..
We can't discriminate..
We cannot view them..
as a lesser being than us..
and totally reject and regard them as sworn enemy..
Because they need to be viewed as normal human beings..
and they also need to be introduced to Islam..
In fact...
many of the leading figures among the Jews..
like Maryam Jamilah
like Muhammad Assad..
These are Jewish people who convert to Islam..
and have contributed so much to Islam..
So we call for Muslims..wherever they are.
whoever they are..
especially in Malaysia..
to throw away..
prejudices towards the Jews..
in fact it applies to other races also..
we need to see them as human..
and as audience for da'wah..
to invite them to Islam..
 
