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From: bes@tybalt.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Questions regarding Israel
Message-ID: <1990Oct24.214836.7874@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 24 Oct 90 21:48:36 GMT
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Mr. Gordon writes:

"  I have some fundamental questions regarding Islam's attitude 
   towards Israel.
 
   1. I know that some prophets mentioned in the Bible (old testament)
   are also honored by Islam. Now, many of these prophets prophesied
   the return of the Jews (or Israelites) to their land. What is the
 " attitude of Islam towards these prophecies?

I don't know about the nature of such prophecies in the Jewish
Bible.  But assuming that such prophecies exist, then Moslems are
not bound to accept them as valid since the Islamic view of the Bible
(as it exists today) is that it is not entirely the word of God.   Moslems
believe that there once existed a "Taurah" which was revelation from God 
to Moses.
But this revelation suffered changes through time so that what is
left today isn't pure.

He further writes:

   2. This is a highly theoretical question. I know that Islam's
   attitude towards Israel is basically negative. However, since the 
   start of Zionism, the Muslims have been unable to prevent the 
   success of this movement. My question is related to the fact that
   (as I understand it) the meaning of Islam is fundamentally a 
   submission of one's will to God. Is it theoretically possible for
   Islam to consider Israel's existence as (a part of) the will of
   God? In other words, could the (relative) success of Zionism - in 
   the face of strong opposition - be considered by Islam to be the 
   result of God's will?

Unfortunately, there is a lot of evil in this world that neither
Moslems nor others have been able prevent, no matter how hard they
have tried.  That doesn't at all mean that, God forbid, it's God
who wills such evil and that therefore pious people should submit
to the evil.

Behnam Sadeghi