DEAR Editor,-
Islam has quite unjustly been depicted by André Brand (Herald, September 12) as a religion that ‘teaches their children to hate and kill Jews’, whereas it is a religion that seeks to bring about peace through submission to the will of God, since the name ‘Islam’ means both peace and submission in Arabic.
The Quran acknowledged the prophets of the Jews as genuine prophets of God and accepted them as Islam’s own, teaching its adherents to honour their names and memories.
Islam has reassured Jews amply. All those who believe in God, in the ‘Day of Judgement’ and live righteous lives shall have their reward with God and have no cause for fear or grief.
With regards to the Jewish/Arab question, I am inclined to take the side of the Arabs because I consider it immoral that immigrants, assisted by a foreign ‘great power’, should come from abroad with the avowed intention of attaining to majority in the country and thus dispossess whose country it had been since time immemorial.
The Jews came as conquerors to Palestine. Long before them were many other Semitic and non-Semitic tribes which settled there – the Amorites, the Edomites, the Philistines, the Moabites and the Hittites.
These tribes continued living there even in the days of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. They continued living there after the Romans drove all the Jews away and are living there today.
The Palestinians are the direct line descendants of the original inhabitants, original in the sense of having lived in this country centuries before the Jews came to it.
With regard to his boast about the Christian intervention, I would like to tell him of Paul’s and Jesus’ (God’s choicest blessings be upon him) accusation of the Jews killing all their own prophets (Peace and blessings be upon them all). (1 Thessalonians 52:15 and Matthew 23:1 – 24:1).
YA KHAMISSA
Albersville
