By Abdul Masih —
A shia imam in Australia says the holy scriptures of Islam establish that the Holy Land belongs to Israel, not to the Palestinians.
“All the way up from the gulf to the Jordan River, that is Arabian land. On the other side of the Jordan River, that is the Judea we know in Islamic scriptures,” said Imam Muhammad Tawhidi. “That is what is referred to as the land of Moses, the land of David, of Daniel and Solomon and the land of the Torah. The cause (of freeing the Holy Land of Jews) is not an Arabic cause. It’s also not an Islamic cause.”
Tawhidi calls himself a third-generation Imam, ordained by Grand Ayatollah Shirazi and certified by seminaries in Qom and Karbala. Originally he was radicalized in Iran but eventually abandoned extremist ideas and immigrated to Australia where he was free to propagate reform in Islam.
Specifically, he criticizes the extremists — the Taliban, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps., the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas — who have captured the narrative and portray themselves as authentic Muslims. He says in Islamdom, the third generation of leaders have no patience for wasting time and money supporting Hamas terror.
“We have young leaders comign into the region. At one point they’re going to say, ‘Listen this problem was dealt with by our grandfathers and our fathers. We are not going to engage in this. Listen, we’ve given you a lot. We fought for you. We’ve done everything. We fed you. We’ve supported you. We’ve defended you. We’ve lost lives for you. But you guys (leaders who want to continue to fight Israel) want to stay the way you are, that is your problem. We will move on with the rest of the world into AI technology and the rapid transformation” of the economy.
Before the current Gaza War, Israel already fought five wars in self defense against Arab nations: the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the 1956 Suez Crisis, the 1967 Six-Day War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the 1982 Lebanon War.
Many Muslim nations are tired of being humiliated by Israel and want to move on from ideological hatred. Saudi Arabia is modernizing and diversifying its economy beyond petroleum, and the Crown Prince has cracked down on hardliner clerics who stir up terrorism. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords recognizing the legitimacy of Israel.
“The visionary leaders in the Middle East do not want to continue with this baggage that is a headache (of continuing to fight Israel)” Tawhidi says. Recently, Arab nations voted to condemn Hamas, a bold break from the past.
“Islam is not under threat. The Jews have not targeted Islam. Judaism does not have a teaching that Islam or Muslims need to be annihilated,” he adds. “About 20% of Israel’s population are Muslims. There are dozens and dozens of mosques (in Israel), 400 imams, all of whom enjoy freedoms in Israel. They are Muslims with Israeli passports, which means they can easily move to many countries in the west, but they choose to stay.”
As Iranian born, Tawhidi says the regime in Iran needs to be isolated — like North Korea’s regime is isolated — in order to support the Iranian people.
“Islamists are using the religion to further their own political agenda,” he says. “They are Islamist. They are terrorists. They are extremists. They blow, they kill, they behead, they hang, they shoot, they stone. They have nothing representative of Islam whatsoever.”
Unsurprisingly, extremist mosques and clergy do not recognize Tawhidi’s expertise in analyzing matters of Islam.
