Intifada
By Walid From Bethlehem, Israel
My birth took place in Bethlehem, Israel, on one of the holiest days of Islam - the birthday of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. My father, a Palestinian Muslim, taught English and Islamic studies in the Holy Land. He married an American woman during his studies in the United States in 1956. Fearing the likely negative impact of the American way of life on our family, my parents left the USA in 1960 to live in Bethlehem. A change of job brought my family to Saudi Arabia, then back to the Holy Land, this time to the lowest place on earth, Jericho.
I shall never forget the first song I learned in school entitled, "Arabs our beloved and Jews our dogs." I repeated the words without even knowing the meaning of the word 'Jew'! As I grew up in the Holy Land I lived through several battles between the Arabs and the Jews. The Six Day War, which took place while I lived in Jericho, resulted, among other things, in the capture of old Jerusalem by the Jews. This brought great disappointment to all my fellow Arabs and Muslims around the world.
During the war, the American Council in Jerusalem offered my family evacuation assistance, but my father refused because he loved his country. How I remember that war. The noise of the bombing and shelling that continued day and night for six days; the looting of shops and houses by the Arabs in Jericho, and the many who fled East in fear to cross the Jordan River. On the seventh day a Rabbi by the name of Goren blew a ram's horn on the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem declaring the victory. Many Jews claimed it represented a parallel with Joshua from ancient history, who conquered Jericho after encircling the city. To my father in Jericho, it seemed like the end of the world. During the war he used to listen to Jordanian radio. He reassured us, from what he heard, that the Arabs were winning - but in the end it turned out to have been mere propaganda.
When we moved back to Bethlehem, my father enrolled us in an Anglican-Lutheran school, since they had a particularly good English course. My brother, my sister and I felt isolated as the only Muslims in the school. Being half American, when the teachers would beat us, the other students simply laughed. When the Bible class started, I always left the room and stayed outside. One day, I walked into the Bible class and the class bully shouted, "We don't want this half-American half-Muslim in here! " I refused to leave, so the teacher requested me to sit down. That act changed the school's policy and from then on the school allowed Muslims to study the Bible - something I did for the next three years.
My father then transferred me to the Government school where the teachers instructed me in the way of Islam. Among other things, I learned that one day, in fulfilment of an ancient prophecy by Muhammad, a battle would rage, resulting in the capture of the Holy Land and the slaughter of all the Jews. The prophecy is from Muhammad's Book of Traditions:
"The day of judgment shall not come to pass until a tribe of Muslims defeat a tribe of Jews." (Narrated by Abu Hurairah, Sahih Muslim, Hadith #6985; Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 4, #177)
When Muhammad was asked where this would take place, he said: "In Jerusalem and the surrounding nations." Believing in Muhammad's prophecy, I decided to dedicate my life to 'Jihad' or 'Holy War' as the means to obtain either victory or martyrdom. In Islam, martyrdom constitutes the only way a Muslim can guarantee salvation and entrance into heaven. The Qur'an states:
"And reckon not those who are killed in Allah's way as dead; nay, they are alive (and) are provided sustenance from their Lord" (Surah 3:168).
During school riots against what we called 'the Israeli occupation', I would prepare speeches, shout slogans and write anti-Israeli graffiti, all in an effort to provoke students into throwing rocks at the armed Israeli soldiers. We shouted, "No peace or negotiations with the enemy! Our blood and our souls we sacrifice to Arafat! Our blood and our souls we sacrifice to Palestine - death to the Zionists! " I vowed to fight my Jewish enemy, believing I was doing God's will on earth. I remained true to my word, participating in riots in schools, on the streets, and even on the holy Temple mount site in Jerusalem, called by Arabs Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa. All through High School I stayed at the forefront of the riot instigators.
Nothing could change my heart. I embodied the typical extreme Muslim fundamentalist ready to die for Islam. I would even pose with a sad face for my School picture, as if I knew that my martyrdom could come at any moment. I often risked being killed during youth protests and clashes with the Israeli Army, as I threw rocks and Molotov cocktails fighting in the Palestinian Intifada or 'uprising'. Of course, to die fighting the Jews would ease Allah's anger towards my sin, but I possessed no certainty that my good deeds would outweigh my bad deeds on judgment day. How I longed to secure a good spot in heaven with beautiful wide-eyed women to fulfil my most intimate desires!
Once, in a Bethlehem theatre, I watched a film called 21 Days in Munich. The moment we saw the Palestinians throwing grenades into the helicopter killing the Israeli athletes, hundreds of viewers clapped and yelled "Allahu akbar! " (Allah is great). During our Islamic studies in Bethlehem High School we asked our lecturer if Muslims could rape Jewish women after a victory at war. He responded, "The women captured in battle have no choice in the matter, they are concubines and they need to obey their masters. Having sex with slave captives is not a matter of choice for them." As it is written in the Qur'an:
"Forbidden to you are...all married women, except those taken prisoners in war: (this) is Allah's ordinance to you" (Surah 4:23-4).
That Muhammad married 14 wives including several slave girls from his victorious battles presented no problem to us. In another passage the Qur'an says:
"O prophet; we have made lawful to thee thy wives whom thou hast given their dowries, and those whom thy right hand possesses out of those whom Allah has given to thee as prisoners of war" (Surah 33:50).
In an attempt to change the hearts of Palestinians, Israeli TV would show World War II Holocaust documentaries. The policy failed. I sat eating my meals, watching and cheering the Germans. Once our School took us for a week to a Jewish camp on the coast of Eshdod, to encourage us to mingle with other Jewish schools. That failed too. We mocked every teacher who spoke to a Jew.
My mother, on the other hand, tried to teach me what she called 'God's plan'. She spoke to me about Bible prophecy; she said that the return of the Jews to Palestine fulfilled the foretold plan of God. She viewed this as a miracle in our generation for the world to see that "His will shall be done." She also told me about many future events prophesied in the Bible, but nothing she said had any effect on me. My heart remained set exclusively on fighting the Jews. My mother, under the influence of an American Missionary couple, secretly underwent baptism after she became a Christian.
Due to frequent trips to museums in Israel with my mother, I fell in love with archaeology. It fascinated me. In my many arguments with my mother I would bluntly tell her that the Jews and Christians stood guilty of corrupting the Bible. She responded by taking me to the Scroll Museum in Jerusalem and showing me the scroll of Isaiah, still intact. This
I lived in Israel throughout the Six Day War, the PLO resistance, the Jordanian black September civil war, the bloody wars in Lebanon and the war of Yom Kippur. Despite all the loss of life on the Palestinian side, we still hoped for that one victory that would rid us of Israel forever. Finally, I ended up being thrown in prison by the
Israeli Army. My mother went to the American Council in Jerusalem to try to have me released. She became so anxious and worried that her hair began falling out. Meanwhile, in prison, I learned so much more about the art of terrorism that, upon my release, I became more fanatical than ever.
When I graduated from high school, my parents sent me to the United States for higher education. I immediately involved myself with many anti-Israeli social and political events. My favourite joke at the time? "Do you know why I hate Hitler? Because he didn't finish the job." With Hitler as my idol, and Muhammad as my prophet, I pursued my life with scant regard for anyone except fellow Muslims. I believed that one day the whole world would submit to Islam - if not through peaceful means, then by war. With one billion Muslims in the world, I believed that it could happen. Although living far away in America, thoughts of the thousands of Muslims who had died in the last 20 years in countries like Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, lingered freshly in my mind. Thoughts of revenge consumed me.
However, despite the harsh, angry, violent exterior, underneath I nursed a constant fear of the repeated and frequent threats of hell fire for this sin and that, contained throughout the Qur'an. I longed to reach out to my Maker and say, "I am sorry, please forgive me and give me another chance." I always wondered about my destiny. I felt sure that, at the end, my sins would heavily outweigh my good deeds. All I could see before me was a life full of sin and having to face death 'hoping the best' that I would find the love and mercy of my Maker at the end.
Sometime in 1992, I read a fascinating book entitled Armageddon, Appointment with Destiny by Grant Jeffrey. He explained many detailed Biblical prophecies about Jesus: his birth, life, death and resurrection and the re-creation of the state of Israel. All of the prophecies, written before the birth of Jesus, came to pass just as the Bible predicted! Jeffrey explained the tremendous odds against so many detailed prophecies actually coming true. I could not refute his reasonings and eventually came to the firm conclusion that the Bible must have had a divine origin - God Almighty.
Then the struggle began. The more discovered, the more puzzled I became. How could the Bible be false, corrupted by the Jews, if the very land in which I grew up represented a veritable archaeological 'book', with every dig only further confirming the truth of the Bible? I just had to read the Bible for myself, to discover the true identity of Jesus Christ. I started reading what Jesus claimed for Himself. I found, for example, that Jesus said:
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" (Revelation 1:8).
Jesus Christ also said (to the Jews):
"Truly, truly I say to you; before Abraham existed I AM [God]" (John 8:58).
These statements reminded me of amazingly similar claims made by Muslims for Muhammad. We believed him to be the intercessor for us on the day of judgment and the world's last and final prophet and saviour. If Muhammad's claims were true, then who was Jesus? That question troubled me a good deal. Jesus and Muhammad might both be wrong. But one thing was certain - both could not be right. Was either of them the true Redeemer and Intercessor for mankind? Vowing to make a decision for 'the truth', I stayed up late, night after night, examining the Qur'an and the Bible, comparing notes. At some point during my study, I prayed: "God, you are the Creator of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, Moses, and Jacob, you are the beginning and the end, you are the truth, the only truth, the Maker of the true Scripture, the one and only word of God. I suffer to find your truth, I want to do your will in my life, I long for your love and in the name of the truth I ask. Amen."
I wanted real gold and had no desire to settle for a cheap imitation. One factor constantly gave me faith to believe in the Qur'an. I knew that it contained modern scientific facts, written a thousand years before their discovery. Did the Bible contain such things too? I spent a month, using a computer program, searching for scientific facts in the Bible. I found that all the scientific facts in the Qur'an, and many more, were already in the Bible hundreds, in some cases thousands, of years before the Qur'an saw the light of day - such as the fact that the earth is round (Isaiah 40:22); hangs on nothing (Job 26:7); has a water cycle (Ecclesiastes 1:7) and mountains at the bottom of its seas (Jonah 2:6), to name but a few.
However, when I compared the stories in the Qur'an with the Bible and archaeology, I found it had many serious errors. My belief in the 'miraculous' Qur'an began to crumble. I felt the sinking sand under me. Through my study of the Bible, I confirmed that hundreds of detailed and unique prophecies had been fulfilled to the letter. Since God is the only one who holds the key to the future and only the Bible reveals the future - not the Qur'an - I knew at that moment that I would be a fool to know all of this and continue worshipping anyone else than the God of the Bible. When I prayed that prayer about truth, I really thought that God would lead me to the Qur'an, but that did not transpire. God says in the Bible:
"For I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying: My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure" (Isaiah 46:9-10).
Why had I never been exposed to this kind of evidence before? With the help of the Bible, the blindness fell away from my eyes. I came to view sin as the source of all man's problems and the Devil as man's worst enemy (not the Jews!). I saw my need of salvation. The word 'truth' stuck in my heart day and night. I learned that Jesus, the man from my hometown, was a Jew and that my hometown, 'Beth-Lechem', means 'house of bread'. Jesus said:
"I am the Bread of Life, he who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst" (John 6:35).
Jesus came from the enemy of my people - the Jews. Yet, He died for my sin! I had never heard of an enemy who died for another enemy and loved him so much that he allowed Himself to be beaten, spat on, mocked and finally crucified. Long before his death on the cross Jesus said:
"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44).
Christ, a man of supreme love, practised what He preached. The truth was in front of my very eyes - Jesus Christ is the truth! I called on Him to save me and He answered. I was blind and sought the truth, and now I see. I was bound but now I am free! Christ said:
"I am The Way, The Truth and The Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6) and "If the Son [the Lord Jesus] therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36).
My way of thinking, my feelings and my goals in life changed from that point in time. Thank God for real repentance. Then, amazingly, I began to feel for the Jewish people. All the hatred left me. The desire to see them hurt vanished. Instead of laughing at images of the Holocaust on TV, I weep. Knowledge of the truth was a blessed transfer for me. From believing in Hitler to believing in Christ; from believing lies to knowing the truth; from being spiritually sick to being healed; from living in darkness to seeing the light; from hate to love and from evil works to God's grace through Christ. I have repented and accepted the risen Christ as my Lord and Saviour; to Him I have submitted. Jesus said: "Come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).