When will Muslims around the world begin to see that the nature of the Palestinian 'resistance' movement against Israel is inherently anti-Islam?
Asil Sawaed, a practicing Muslim Bedouin from the northern part of Israel was killed earlier this week by a 14-year-old knife-wielding terrorist at the Shuafat checkpoint in Jerusalem. Sawaed’s killing while on duty as a sergeant in the Israeli Police force unit called “MaGav”, an acronym for "Mishmar HaGvul" (Border Patrol), was barely reported on by Arabic media sources, let alone pro-Palestinian publications who seemingly forget to read the reports anytime the facts are too concrete to be distorted in favor of their fabricated narrative. Despite trying to avoid the not-so-unusual case of Palestinian nationalism killing Muslims, a serious topic comes to mind, one that should concern the entire Islamic Ummah; does the Palestinian cause outweigh the teachings of Islam and the unity between followers of the prophet Mohammad?
THIS is the REAL Israel.
— Yishai Fleisher يشاي ישי פליישר 🕎 (@YishaiFleisher) February 14, 2023
Minister @itamarbengvir at the funeral of Beduin @IDF soldier who was killed in yesterday's terror attack: Border Patrol Staff Sgt. Asil Sawaed, 22.
Even if you don't speak Hebrew or Arabic look at the body language of the Beduins and Ben Gvir. It's real. pic.twitter.com/LDTdDoy33T
To fully understand the question, the volume of Muslims within the Israel Defense Forces and Israel’s Police needs to be quantified. According to data shared by IDF’s logistical wing (AK'A), in 2021 over 1000 Arab recruits joined the ranks of the Israeli Defense Forces. Although 2021’s numbers were record-breaking, an average recruitment year will result in anywhere between 500-700 Muslim recruits, along with hundreds of Christian and Druze recruits. The IDF even reported that "700 of the potential new recruits in 2021 actually came from Arab-dominated countries, including Lebanon and Syria, perhaps as part of the change the region is going through. We couldn't believe this demand.”
The IDF’s stats are impressive and perhaps shocking to some, however, the Israeli Police’s plans for the future may be even more surprising to those who have called Israel an apartheid state. A three-year plan presented by the Israeli Police in 2021 aims for 10% of the entire force to be Muslim, which would mean 2,500 blue-suited policemen in Israel would be of the Muslim faith by the year 2025.
Combined, between the IDF and Israeli Police, thousands and thousands of mostly practicing Muslims serve in Israeli security organizations. These Arabic-speaking troops have chosen to side with the entity that many refer to as the 'Zionist State', but by all means, are part of the Islamic Ummah, and pray in the direction of Meccah five times a day like any devout Muslim would. These Israeli-Muslims are not infidels, and if they are killed fulfilling their duties, they hope to be considered martyrs, like any other Muslim. It is important here to note that Arabs in general have an automatic exemption from service in Israel's security agencies which makes the numbers of those voluntarily recruiting into IDF of Police units for their mandatory service that much more impactful.
This is Israel. pic.twitter.com/n99ULWVhxQ
— RedLehi (@LehiRed) February 14, 2023
Should the unjustified and random killing of any of these troops, like Asil Sawaed, not be mourned and protested by the Muslim world? Is the Palestinian cause, which was born some 1500 years after the teachings of Mohammad more important than the sanctity of life according to Islam, especially among Muslims? These are all questions that supporters of Palestinian statehood and followers of Islam alike should be asking themselves; it really comes down to religion put up against nationality, and not even a historically vital nation of immortal importance but one that was created in the 20th century and only became 'displaced' after Jordan retreated from Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria in 1967.
Among the many things debated in the Quran by the Islamic world’s leading scholars, such as forced conversions of non-believers and killing those who refuse, Muslim-on-Muslim violence was never one of them. It is very clear to everyone that such acts are frowned upon by the Quran.
"Of the Muslims who volunteer to serve in the IDF, half request to go to combat units." - Israel Today
— Taking Back the Narrative (@TBTN_Israel) February 15, 2023
While Arabs are not conscripted into the Israeli military, Druze and Circassian Muslims are (neither group is Arab).
- https://t.co/aj04AWZBcH
Taking Back the Narrative pic.twitter.com/f9IPEGnJGU
It is both off-putting, unsettling, and frankly sacrilegious for the Palestinian terrorists to continue randomly targeting uniformed Israeli troops while claiming to do so in the name of Allah. Perhaps it is time for the Muslim community worldwide to finally internalize that the Palestinian cause is not a religious one and that the integrity of the Islamic faith is not at risk by the State of Israel. In fact, if anyone is putting the teachings of Islam near the fire pit, it is Palestinian terrorism which seeks to intertwine their personal, secular nationalistic methods of killing with a religion that would not, and could not back such heinous and uncalled-for acts.
