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Saudi academic says ‘Muhammad had good relations with the Jewish people’ in bid to normalize relations with Israel

Jul 24, 2020 2:00 pm By Christine Douglass-Williams

The “normalising of ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel” has obvious economic and political implications, despite the spin given to it by Professor Mohammed Ibrahim Alghbban from King Saud University in Riyadh, who is now justifying that relationship on the grounds that Muhammad “had good relations with the Jewish people.”

Saudi Arabia has been desperate, after being hit with an oil collapse, coronavirus and an expensive war with Yemen, in which the Saudis recently declared a unilateral cease-fire. So it is now “tossing lifelines.” Israel is a major and obvious target of this initiative. And Israel “is presenting itself as a willing and able partner.”

Professor Alghbban states that Muhammad “had good relations with the Jewish people, and his clashes with them were political, not religious.” This is an odd statement, aside from its obvious self-contradiction, since that politics and religion are inseparable in normative Islam, which is based on the Sharia, Islamic law. Alghbban wants to “bring the two nations closer,” and he’s doing it by ignoring the truth: the unfavorable verses about Jews in the Quran and Muhammad’s clear and unrelenting hostility toward and violence against the Jews. So how does terror-funding, Wahhabi Saudi Arabia pull off supporting its new friend Israel, a Jewish state with drastically opposing values, including a commitment to freedom, human rights and democracy? Does Saudi Arabia now condemn jihad terror? Is it backing away from Wahhabism? Will it allow synagogues to be built in Saudi Arabia and welcome Jews into the country? Saudi Arabia still does not even formally recognize Israel, and it still has a poor human rights record despite boasting about reforming.

The broader situation in the Middle East is that many major players are vying for regional hegemony, which leads each to form strategic relationships with countries it may not otherwise deal with — hence the “coziness” of Saudi Arabia with Israel. It has nothing to do with Muhammad having “good relations with the Jewish people,” which he did not, nor of a desire of Arabs to do so.

At the moment, there are multiple rivalries, pitting Turkey and Iran against Saudi Arabia; and Israel versus Iran. These enmities are being fought either through direct military confrontation as in Syria and Saudi Arabia, or through proxies as in Libya, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Smaller states like the UAE and Bahrain have sided with Saudi Arabia whereas others like Qatar are on Turkey’s side. Remaining neutral in these multiple and sometimes overlapping feuds is not easy.

Saudi Arabia’s clerics may be prepared to resort to the Islamic practice of dissimulation (taqiyya) for political and economic gain in normalizing ties with Israel. Although taqiyya as a concept originated among Shiites, it is also employed by Sunnis. Yet the new friendship is already beginning to unravel, as the Saudis have condemned Israel’s plans to assert its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Saudi Arabia has also reiterated its “steadfast stance toward the brotherly Palestinian people.”

“Saudi academic cites Prophet Muhammad in bid to normalise ties with Israel,” TRT World, July 15, 2020:

Small gestures have hinted at the development of a closer affinity between Saudi Arabia and Israel, but an academic article on the Prophet Muhammad confirms it further.
As Saudi Arabia’s relationship with Israel warms up, its people-to-people ties are supplementing its diplomatic gestures. Now, for the first time in history a Saudi academic has published a paper in an Israeli journal, with the aim to ‘bring the two nations closer’.

Professor Mohammed Ibrahim Alghbban from King Saud University in Riyadh, published a Hebrew article in Kesher, the journal of the Shalom Rosenfeld Institute for Research of Jewish Media and Communication, at Tel Aviv University.

Professor Raanan Rein, head of the Shalom Rosenfeld Institute, said the move was unprecedented and was driven by Alghbban’s aim to improve relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The Jerusalem post writes, “The Saudi professor said he wrote the article to improve Muhammad’s image among Israelis.”

“I hope that this academic cooperation is another step towards economic and political cooperation,” Rein added.

Alghbban’s article, “Contribution to Prophet Muhammad’s Image Improvement in the Eyes of the Israeli Public: Muhammad’s Alliances and Mail Exchanges with Jews from the Arabian Peninsula,” argued that the prophet had good relations with the Jewish people, and his clashes with them were political, not religious.

Islam, Judaism and Christianity have historically co-existed in synergy with each other and according to Rabbi Ben Abrahmson of the Al Sadiqin Institute, there is a clear process that can lead the way to reclaiming that historic synergy.

The normalising of ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel show no signs of a deeper process of mediation which requires forming credible bodies of mediation that all parties (including Palestinians) can trust and establishing a just judicial system and clear definition of citizenship.

Palestinians have so far not been a factor in the warming of ties between the two countries.

A wave

The Saudi academic’s paper comes after an increasing volume of calls in Saudi Arabia, along with those from other Gulf countries, to improve relations with Israel. Despite the fact that the Gulf States and Israel have no official diplomatic ties, the relationship between them has grown closer recently, mostly over their common enemy: Iran.

Another indication of the warming association, is the cooperation between Israeli and Emirati companies in the fight against coronavirus.

In June, reports emerged that Israel and Saudi Arabia met secretly last December regarding various issues, including Saudi representatives in the Islamic Waqf Council at the Al Aqsa Compound in Jerusalem.

The Islamic Waqf Council is a Jordanian-appointed body, which oversees Muslim sites in Jerusalem and claims exclusive authority over the Al Aqsa Compound – not subject to Israeli jurisdiction.

The talks took place following US President Donald Trump’s controversial Israel-Palestine plan, the so-called “deal of the century”.

Talking to Israel Hayom, senior Saudi diplomats said; “These are sensitive and secret discussions conducted with ambiguity and low intensity with a small team of diplomats and senior security officials from Israel, the US and Saudi Arabia as part of negotiations to progress the Deal of the Century.”….

 

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Filed Under: Islamic antisemitism, Israel, Muhammad, Saudi Arabia Tagged With: King Saud University, Professor Mohammed Ibrahim Alghbban, Riyadh


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Comments

  1. Red Pill says

    Jul 24, 2020 at 2:14 pm

    Nice joke Professor Mohammed Ibrahim Alghbban!

    • Jon wright says

      Jul 24, 2020 at 4:14 pm

      actually MUHAMUD had good relations with Jews in MECCA,of which there weren’t too many but in medina he killed 800 of them b/c they didn’t accept him as their prophet.

      • Terry Gain says

        Jul 24, 2020 at 6:27 pm

        In just one massacre Mohamed killed between 600 and 900 Jews at Khaybar, including the Jewish leader Kinana, before taking his wife Safiyah as a sex slave. This evil man is Islam’s role model.

    • mortimer says

      Jul 24, 2020 at 10:24 pm

      Reply to Red Pill: Mohammed Ibrahim Alghbban was speaking tongue-in-cheek.

      HE KNOWS HOW JEWS WERE TREATED IN YATHRIB. They were exterminated and enslaved.

      Hitler did the same as Mohammed on a larger scale.

  2. CogitoErgoSum says

    Jul 24, 2020 at 2:26 pm

    Of course while the Saudis and Israelis are patting each other on the back over their new ties of friendship the Saudis will be holding a knife ready to stab the Israelis. Allah will always have the last word on agreements between Muslims and the “People of the Book” and Allah says to fight those disbelieving people until they feel themselves humbled and pay the Jizya with willing submission to Islam (Koran 9:29). So, Israelis, what kind of Jizya are you willing to pay to show your humble submission to Islam? Keep in mind it may not necessarily have to be in the form of money. The Muslims are the ones who get to decide. Maybe your honor and dignity will be sufficient.

  3. A7E.Pilgrim says

    Jul 24, 2020 at 2:33 pm

    Truth stands by itself. One cannot change or modify the truth for it then becomes a lie. Lies are much easier to deal with. One can change a lie, modify a lie, or give it a new spin. It is still a lie.

    • Warren Raymond says

      Jul 24, 2020 at 7:11 pm

      You have no idea how many Jews are out there who will jump for joy when some Arab Moslem tells them fibs like this. They’re so full of hope & so deluded with this “why-can’t-we-all-just-get-along” crapola that they would rather turn against each other than face the threat.

      • mortimer says

        Jul 25, 2020 at 10:36 am

        Agree with WR. Muslims follow the tradition of Mohammed and the Koran. One chapter of the Koran is called ‘Repentance’ but actually means more ‘dissolution of vows and contracts’.

        It’s like Charlie Brown and the football.

        • David says

          Jul 25, 2020 at 11:11 am

          As we say in the UK, He is a proper Charlie! Reminds me of the ‘joke’ “Jump off the mantelpiece and I’ll catch you!”
          Mortimer, how on earth did you locate that video?

        • gravenimage says

          Jul 26, 2020 at 1:51 am

          Good point, Mortimer.

  4. Kepha says

    Jul 24, 2020 at 7:17 pm

    Politics.

    Interests will shift and alliances with them. However, there have been many who’ve noticed that Saudis with “real jobs” sometimes say good things about the Israelis when they think they can get away with it. One of my sincere hopes, though, is that all those descendants of the 1948 Arab refugees in the Gulf countries will get ways to naturalize. I’m also hoping that the jihadis might be losing some of their cachet as well. I may be disappointed, but I’m willing to hope.

    • mortimer says

      Jul 25, 2020 at 10:41 am

      We can hope, but international agreements to assimilate the migrants are necessary. Muslims are best relocated in other Muslim countries unless they want to leave Islam and assimilate in the West. In the past, Muslims partially assimilated and didn’t get fanatical about Islam.

      We’ve reached a point in the modern world where we are discovering more and more every day about real Islam. Islam simply must be debunked and Muslims should be encouraged to realize it is a hoax and death cult and ultimately abandon it.

      Once Muslims see the Koran is of human origin, they will leave Islam.

      • gravenimage says

        Jul 26, 2020 at 1:52 am

        How many Muslims have realized this? All too few…

  5. tim gallagher says

    Jul 24, 2020 at 9:26 pm

    It seems to me that Muslims like this professor will tell any lie at all if they think it will advance their immediate cause. They completely lack morality,(no surprise when you look at their concept of a perfect man, the low life scumbag, Muhammad), which would require a person to tell the truth, and they seem utterly cynical. Any bullshit that suits their purposes at the time will do. They have zero integrity.

    • James Lincoln says

      Jul 25, 2020 at 9:08 am

      tim gallagher says,

      “They have zero integrity.”

      Absolutely, tim.

      ZERO…

    • David says

      Jul 25, 2020 at 11:15 am

      Taqiyya Alert?

    • tim gallagher says

      Jul 25, 2020 at 9:06 pm

      James and David, my own rule of thumb is to assume that anytime Muslims are saying anything, especially if it is addressed to non-Muslims, they are bound to be lying, except when they are threatening to kill us non-Muslims or insulting us in some way. I prefer it when they get angry and let their mask slip and tell us the nasty truth, instead of telling us lies that seem aimed at keeping us slumbering away and not realising how evil and violent Islam is.

      • gravenimage says

        Jul 26, 2020 at 1:53 am

        +1

  6. gravenimage says

    Jul 24, 2020 at 9:44 pm

    Saudi academic says ‘Muhammad had good relations with the Jewish people’ in bid to normalize relations with Israel
    …………

    Uh…yeah..if you think that enslaving, raping, and committing genocide against the Jews constituted “good relations”…

    • David says

      Jul 25, 2020 at 11:15 am

      Aren’t there some verses in the Koran about appearing to be friendly, but in you heart is hatred?

      If Saudi is pretending also to be friendly to ‘palestinians’, why not take some into Saudi Arabia, and put them in all those tents they have there?

      • gravenimage says

        Jul 26, 2020 at 11:08 pm

        Yep.

  7. OLD GUY says

    Jul 25, 2020 at 11:23 am

    You can not believe tor trust he Saudi’s. They represent the Islamic world 100% and will say and do what ever it takes to strengthen their islamic position in the world.

  8. L Mayor says

    Jul 25, 2020 at 7:57 pm

    55 years ago, I attended a private high school in N.J. (as a boarding student) that had foreign students from several countries, among them, a prince Abdullah, who was a grandson of the (then) king of Saudi Arabia. This prince`s roommate, Saleh, was a son of the (then) Saudi finance minister. In late September of my sophomore year, in the early evening, as I was in my dorm room doing some reading, the door to my room slams open to allow the entrance of Abdullah and Saleh, neither of whom I`d ever met, but, who proceeded to scream anti Semitic invectives at me (in English) for several minutes, I was stunned, as I had no idea of the identity of the 2 people yelling at me, nor, why they would engage in such behavior.
    My roommate had set up the encounter as a practical joke, which he explained to me while the 2 Saudis were still engaged in yelling at me. Due to the volume of sound, I expected the dorm master, whose suite was only 2 rooms away, to quell the yelling, but, he was nowhere to be found. Having no alternative, I first asked the 2 Saudis to shut up. They refused. I then took out my baseball bat, started brandishing it as I walked towards them, while telling them what I was going to do to them if they didn`t immediately vacate the premises. As they saw that I appeared to be serious, cowards that they were, they backed up, then, quickly walked away, still screaming their Jew hating insults at me. I had read and heard that arabs/muslims hated Jews, but, this was my first experience of such hatred, which was made more telling by the fact that it came from a member of the royal family of Saudi Arabia and the son of the Saudi finance minister. In spite of the article from the Saudi national who appears to be suggesting a rapprochement between his country and Israel, please forgive me if I don`t buy it, as it appears to me that little has changed over the last 55 years in terms of arab/muslim feelings towards Jews and the Jewish state. Why? The teachings of the koran and the arab/muslim msm, which never misses an opportunity to vilify Jews and Israel. Until there would be major changes with both, no words to the contrary from arabs/muslims should be believed.

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