The caliphate, you will recall, is the goal of all the jihadist striving. Many jihad movements, including “peaceful” ones like Hizb-ut-Tahrir, have identified 1924 — the year the caliphate was abolished by the secular Turks — as the beginning of all the troubles of the Islamic world. They see restoration of the caliphate as key to the restoration of the unity of the Islamic umma, to the restoration of Sharia within it, and to the resumption of offensive jihad operations against non-Muslim countries. And now we hear these caliphate dreams from Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, declaring that the caliphate will be established in Jerusalem.
This underscores the fact that despite all the wrangling over territory and refugees (both real and trumped-up), Israel is facing the same jihad that the rest of the non-Muslim world is facing. The movement worldwide has the same aspirations and same motives. That is one reason why all those who oppose Sharia on human rights grounds, and who believe in the equality of dignity of all people, need to stand with Israel and oppose the jihad. Of course, Israel itself, like the embattled states of Western Europe, and like the United States, has not recognized the nature of the opponent it faces, and thus has not taken proper steps to defend itself. One may only hope that statements like this one, which are distressingly common, may open some eyes both there and elsewhere.
“Israeli Arab eyes Jerusalem,” from the JTA, with thanks to Teri:
An Israeli Arab leader said Jerusalem will become an international Islamist capital. “Jerusalem will soon be the capital of a Moslem Arab Caliphate, and all efforts by the Israeli establishement to Judaize the city will amount to nothing,” Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, told a weekend rally in Kafr Kassem. Salah, who was briefly accused by Israeli authorities of funding Palestinian terrorist groups, also said the Jewish State was planning to replace the Al-Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem with a Third Temple as part of a “plot” hatched in coordination with the United States.