While Colorado Islamic scholar Karim AbuZaid said in a November 10, 2023 Friday sermon streamed live on the Facebook page of the Colorado Muslims Community Center that Muslims should not shy away from talking about martyrdom. He said that people in the West taunt Muslims about the 72 “women” that martyrs receive in Paradise, but “there is a prize for those who die in the cause of Allah”. AbuZaid continued to paint an image of Gazans hiding from the bombings and then becoming martyrs in Paradise. He said that it is like being upgraded from economy to first class by the airline, and he added: “Don’t worry about them”, Mantasha Ansari is a Research Assistant at MEMRI’s South Asia Studies Project in an article published in MEMRI said, the latest issue of the Urdu-language magazine “Taliban”, which is published by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has several articles on Jews and Israel, condemns Israeli attacks in Gaza, and criticizes the lack of action by Islamic leaders to defend Palestinians. In a major article, the magazine also promotes antisemitism, disparaging Jews as “pigs and monkeys”.
In the MEMRI article Ansari said TTP magazine’s editorial titled “Palestine Bloodied” condemns Israeli attacks on Gaza and the lack of action from Muslim leaders to help Palestinians. “Israel, the illegitimate child of America, has been continuously breaking mountains of oppression on the people of Palestine for the past 70 years, but in this current invasion, its cruelty and barbarity has reached an extreme”, it says.
Accusing Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza, the editorial says: “Israel has openly committed war crimes in this invasion. Innocent children and women have been bombarded, residential areas, hospitals, educational institutions, and welfare centers have also been targeted by aerial attacks, but the UN has remained a silent spectator despite all these atrocities”.
Criticizing the support for Israel from the United States and European countries, the editorial laments the lack of a strong response from Muslim leaders. “The United States and other European countries have openly declared their support for Israel on this cruelty, but unfortunately, the so-called rulers of the Muslim Ummah are unable to even make a statement against Israel and in favor of the people of Palestine”, it adds.
The editorial says that despite witnessing the oppression and injustices in the holy land of the prophets, the Muslim Ummah has abandoned the concept of jihad in the path of Allah. It mentions that the Ummah seems to have fallen into a state of wahn, or intellectual and spiritual weakness as per the Quranic meaning.
It says the Muslim Ummah is no longer actively pursuing jihad as a means of resistance or defense in the face of oppression and injustice, adding: “Where has the honor and dignity of the Muslim Ummah gone? Humiliation and indigence have become the destiny of this nation [of Muslims]. It was bound to happen that the Ummah would abandon jihad in the way of Allah and is suffering from the disease of wahn”.
Questioning why, despite Jerusalem being the land of prophets and the holy land for Muslims, the Muslim Ummah seems to be passive, relying on prayers alone, the editorial emphasizes the determination and sacrifice of the people of Gaza, who choose honor over humiliation in defending their land and Islam. “The day is not far when this sacrifice and struggle of the people of Gaza will pay off and the existence of the impure state of Israel will end on this earth. Allah willing”.
One of the major articles, titled “The Jews’ 3,500-Year Short History,” gives a perspective of the historical status of the Jewish people, as described in the Quran and by certain Islamic religious scholars. “In order to understand the eternal humiliation and eternal subjugation of the Jews, we divide their history of three and a half thousand years into three periods”, it says.
According to Mantasha Ansari the article highlights three distinct periods in Jewish history: the 2,000-year era before the advent of Muhammad as a prophet, the 1,370-year period from Prophet Muhammad’s mission until the establishment of Israel in 1948, and the 75-year period from the establishment of Israel to the present day.
In the first period, Jews were considered a highly honored and superior nation due to their adherence to God’s laws, the article says, adding that their ingratitude and rebellion against the laws of Allah led to their decline in status and eternal humiliation. The article is written by Mufti Ghufran, an Islamic religious scholar.
During the second period, lasting from Prophet Muhammad’s mission until the establishment of Israel, Jews were dispersed across the world and faced various challenges, it says. The third period, beginning with the establishment of Israel in 1948, is characterized by ongoing humiliation of Jews, seen as divinely ordained as a form of punishment for their disobedience of Allah’s laws.
The article cites specific verses from the Quran to support these claims, including 2:62, which reads: “The punishment of the Jews is described as eternal humiliation and embarrassment in this world and the wrath of God in this world and the hereafter… No matter how rich they become, they will always be considered the humiliated and despised among all the nations. Whoever touches them will humiliate them and put the symbols of slavery on them”, it says.
Tehreeh-e-Taliban Pakistan in its editorial said: “Every sincere Muslim in the world is saddened by Israel’s genocide of Palestinian Muslims and is forced to think how this problem can be solved in the end, and how to stop Israel from this terror and oppression, and how to avenge the massacre of oppressed Muslims,” the article’s author, Maulana Abdul Hakeem Siddiqui, says and tells the people of Pakistan: “You expecting the Pakistani army to defend Islam and Muslims against an unbeliever force [reflects] a misunderstanding”.
