….May Allah be pleased with Pope Francis
When Allah revealed to his messenger, Muhammad [PBUH] in Quran chapter 5 verse 82 that ‘’……and you will find the nearest of them in affection to the believers those who say ‘’we are Christians’’.
That is because among them are priests and Monks and they are not arrogant’’, he was making reference to Christians like Catholic Pontiff, Pope Francis I. At a time the world is being torn apart along sectarian lines as a result of the raging war between Israel and Hamas led Palestine with religious leaders across the Christian and Muslims divides taking sides according to their sentiments, the Bishop of Rome has chosen to take side with humanity irrespective of religious affiliations. While some Muslim leaders saw nothing wrong in the mass killing of defenceless and unarmed Israeli men, women and children by Hamas on the 7th of October 2023 with many of their followers expressing support for the deadly attacks, Pope Francis, the leader of the largest denomination in Christendom lovingly expressed his disapproval.
In expressing his disapproval of what has been described as the deadliest loss of civilian lives in the history of the State of Israel in modern times, the Pope said, ‘’I follow with apprehension and pain what is happening in Israel…I express my solidarity with families of the victims.’’ And in acknowledgement of the cycle of violence that has defined the relationship between Israel and Palestine since 1948, Pope Francis had this to say, ‘’war is defeat. All war is a defeat. Let us pray for peace in Israel and Palestine’’. And when the expected retaliatory attacks on Israel started to take its toll the defenceless and unarmed Palestinian men, women and Children that have come under heavy bombardments is receiving is receiving the support of some Christian leaders with prominent ones offering prayers for the ‘’victory of Israel’’ the Holy Father has once again lived up his high calling as the Vicar of Christ Jesus, the Prince of Peace on Earth, when he admonished believers to take ‘’only one side’’ in the on-going war between Israel and Palestine, the side of ‘’peace, prayer and total dedication’’.
Addressing a gathering in St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis bemoaned the desperate situation in Gaza and expressing his concern about the possibility of a region wide expansion of the theatre of conflict in the Middle East. He said ‘’the victims are increasing and the situation in Gaza is desperate’’ and ‘’may, please everything, everything be done to avoid a humanitarian disaster, and it’s possible that this war might grow. War does not solve any problems. It only sows death and destruction. It increases hatred and multiplies revenge. War destroys the future’’. And indeed, religiously motivated hatred among people of the three dominant Abrahamic faiths is growing, setting the world on the edge of a Third World War.
The conflict between Israel and Palestine over land and territorial sovereignty between its predominantly Jewish and Arab peoples has gotten entangled with religion, hence making the longest running international border dispute unresolvable. The religious entanglement has to do with the ownership of the ancient city Jerusalem and the control of the holy sites situated within. The Al-aqsa Mosque, which is considered the third holiest site for Muslims was built on the ruins of the Temple of Solomon, which is the holiest site in Judaism following the Muslim conquest of Christian Byzantine controlled Palestine in 638 AD. And within the precincts of the old Jerusalem city is the Holy Church of Sepulchre, the holiest site in Christendom as it is believed to be the place where Jesus Christ was first buried after his crucifixion. Jerusalem, which was ancient city of the Jewish people, had not known respite from foreign conquest for several millennia following Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Arab, Ottoman, British and recently Jewish Reconquista and current domination, in their quest of a national homeland after thousands of years in the diaspora.
With Muslims laying claim to Jerusalem as one of their holy lands and a growing Orthodox Jewish influence among the Israeli people and government, the Jewish state of Israeli, which was originally secular in nature is not taken a more than a passing interest in the city of David as its ancestral possession. The current stand of Israel having Jerusalem as its ‘’undivided capital’’ in an attempt to recreate the Biblical Kingdom of Judea and Samaria, has not only set Islam on collision course with Judaism but has jeopardized the two state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital of the future State of Palestine. And this is why the conflict between Israel and Palestine is taking a dangerous dimension with religious sentiments having the potential of global escalation of the crisis in the Middle East.
Religion as a subjective interpretation of faith has become a major enabler of war, corruption and destruction of human kind. Whereas, God created man in his image of love and peace, men have recreated God in their imagination as vile, petty, haughty, angry, and difficult to please, hateful, murderous and destructive. As a result of their limited understanding of God’s limitless essence, men have disfigured the true faith of God that was supposed to preserve humankind into ugly religions that are rapidly destroying humankind in the name of God. Over the ages, they waged ‘’holy’’ wars of conquest of lands and peoples in the name of God and designated such blood stained lands as ‘’holy’’. As no war is holy, no land conquered by warfare can be holy. Many Muslims are no longer practicing Islam just as Many Christians and Jews are no longer practicing Christianity and Judaism respectively. At the core of Christianity, Islam and Judaism is humanity but the main motivation for the Christian, Muslim and Jewish religion is now the destruction of humanity as by the support for killings along sectarian lines in the ‘’holy land’’.
Unknown to many but known to Pope Francis, every rocket fired into Israel by Hamas militants has a high probability of hitting an Arab Muslim as they make up 18 per cent of the population. And for those Muslims who are praying for the victory of Hamas against Israel, a number of Arab Muslim citizens of Israel were killed in the attacks on Israel. Similarly, for every bomb dropped in Gaza, about 2 per cent of its population that are Christians are likely to fall victims. And for those Christian leaders who prayed to God to give Israel victory in the war with Palestine, some of its bombs landed on Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza, killing scores of Christians taking refuge there. For being a strong voice of reason in a world that is unreasonable, may Allah be pleased with his humble servant, Pope Francis, Vicar of Jesus Christ, his anointed Prophet.
To resolve the age long Israeli/Palestinian conflict of land and territorial integrity, it will be useful to detoxify the issues in contention of divisive religious sentiments and put the dignity of the humanity of Israelis and their Palestinian brethren in focus as clearly shown in the example of Pope Francis. In continuing with the efforts of his predecessors in modern times, Pope Francis has worked hard to return the Christianity back from the religion of Constantine the Great Conqueror to the Faith of Christ Jesus, which has the love and peace of humankind as its main purpose. Today, the Catholic church under his leadership greatly epitomizes in words and deeds a commitment to humanity irrespective of religion, race and ethnicity as preached and practiced by Christ Jesus, hence earning the honour of being ‘’holy’’ in the sight of God.
To deny Jews the right of return by the Arab Muslim inhabitants of Palestine was a costly mistake that was steep in racial hatred and religious bigotry that was unbecoming of a people of faith. The continuous occupation and expansion of settlements in Palestinian territories by the Jewish state of Israel is equally borne out racial hatred and religious bigotry that is unbecoming of a people that were ‘’chosen’’ by God. Jerusalem like any other place on earth belongs to those who reside therein including, Jews, Muslims, Christians and atheist and not the exclusive preserve of any particular group as all should be allowed to worship at their sacred sites without let or hindrance. As the most Islamic, Jewish and Christian states are not the ones dominated by Muslims, Jews and Christians but those that are plural, secular and democratic, where equity, fairness and justice reigns supreme without prejudice to creed, race and ethnicity, the world must come together and resolve the Israeli/Palestine conflict along the two state solution. Two democratic states of Palestine and Israel, that are plural, secular and democratic, wherein Arabs and Jews will have equal rights of democratic citizenship in line with original covenant between God and Abraham, their father.
