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By Dr. Dmitry Radyshevsky
The Abrahamic Accords will remain shallow and easily reversible with the change of geopolitical factors, if they will have only the military-economic walls and a declarative roof of the common ancestry of Abraham. They need to stand on the deep and strong religious basis – literally, on the fundamental theology of religious Muslim Zionism.
Muslim Zionism as a core faith element of Islam is not less fantastic than a super-powerful Christian Zionism was just 50 years ago. Today the latter has hundreds of millions of followers and has, in particular, defined the entirety of Trump’s Israel policy, including the Abrahamic Accords. The core of Muslim Zionism has to be a Quran-based conviction of the Arab (and Persian) masses that Israel was restored by Allah, not to corrupt the Moslem countries with the perverted Western ways, but to strengthen their service to Allah: to lead by example in waging a war of Greater Jihad, strengthening and above all – sanctifying their nations, by combining holiness and freedom, tradition and modernity, respect for God and respect for man.
In parallel Israel has to vigorously debate, enlisting support of Islamic scholars and influencers, that Palestinian, Iranian and Muslim Brotherhood’s anti-Zionism is a heresy from the point of view of fundamental teachings of Quran and Hadith.
It’s a theological uphill battle, but we will win this battle because Truth – both according to Judaism and Islam – is on our side. There is no other way. For the Abrahamic Accords to have deep roots, it has to appeal to the core beliefs of the Arab (and eventually Persian) street, not only to the current (and ever shifting) political interests of the Arab elites, dressed in the sweet talk about our common father Abraham.
Military, economic, and political circumstances can change very quickly. Religious beliefs, once they take root, are very hard to change. This is the greatest challenge and mission of Israel: to prove to our Muslim brothers through the Quran-based public diplomacy and primarily by example, that restoration of Israel is Allah’s will and promise, and that for Israel serving HaShem-Allah, pursuing holiness is much more important than being
friendly with the West by adopting Western perversions.
Without becoming a part of Islamic fundamental theology – which is the corner stone of the deeply religious Muslim societies, even in the most advanced Gulf states, there is always a risk that Muslim fundamentalists will again shake the ground by portraying Israel as a Little Satan, an agent of the American Big Satan, and the whole structure of the new diplomacy will collapse.
However, if Israel will start being seen by the Muslim world as a true leader of a true Jihad (which doesn’t preclude exposing Palestinian narrative as anti-Islamic, and forging a military alliance against Iran, leader of a false Jihad), the Abraham Accords will eventually turn the Middle East into an Abrahamic Empire with its power center in Israel.
Along with many other Israeli experts, I was arguing for decades that the root of the Israeli-Muslim conflict is a religious one, thus the solution can be only faith-based. All the resources of the “peace process” should have been channeled into a theological process, supporting Islamic Reformation. That would have re-interpreted the Quran, making its practical implementation compatible with modernity. Had human rights and religious freedom been reloaded, in such a manner, then reformed Islam could have found a path in the Quran itself to provide a solid basis for Islamic Zionism – then we would have achieved peace much earlier.
In this new theology of Islam, the answers to the following fundamental questions must and definitely can be found, and substantiated by the Quran:
- Why hatred of Israel is nothing but heresy from the point of view of traditional Islam, as Jews are the protected “people of the Book”.
- Why Allah promised and wills the restoration of Israel.
- What is the true Quranic solution to the Palestinian problem.
- Why Islam must give full equality to religious minorities (competition in faith will only strengthen Islam).
- What the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem will mean for the Arabs, and what Mecca will remain for them.
- What spiritual blessings the re-union of Isaac and Ishmael will bring to the entire world.
In the subsequent columns we’ll explore answers to these main tenets of the emerging Muslim Zionism.
Dr Dmitry Radyshevsky is a Moscow-born Harvard-educated Israeli-American theologian, political analyst and writer. Author of “Universal Zionism” and “The New Maccabees”. He’s the founder of Jerusalem Summit – a think-tank dedicated to uniting the free world around Jerusalem and developing a joint strategy against the twin dangers: “Man without God” of Post-Liberalism and “God without man” of totalitarian states’ Statism and Islamism.
Ken`s new book The Multifront War is now available in 190 countries via Amazon and also on BNs in the US. Buy it now!
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