The Palestinians can be victorious, once they understand Jihad properly. We should rephrase this: The Palestinians and the Israelí’s will be victorious, once both sides understand Jihad properly. Jihad is a spiritual crusade. It is an inner struggle to reach the point of perfect submission to God (= Islam), where you are willing to die in defense of Justice. This is the same as ‘crusade’. There is no difference.
Well, okay, maybe there is a theoretical difference. Christ forbade violence. When they came to arrest Christ, he stopped Peter, who wanted to defend Him by the sword. Peter hacked a Roman soldier’s ear off. Christ stopped him and instantly healed the soldier’s ear.
Mohamed, Peace be upon Him
Now, Mohamed followed this same rule up to the point when his inner circle of disciples pleaded with him to change it. They explained to Him that they were willing to die, but not without a fight, i.e. not without defending themselves. At first, Mohamed told them: ‘No!’. But in the end he relented, saying: ‘Okay, if you have to fight to defend God’s cause (= Justice), then do it. But spare their women and children, and only in defense and not out of proportion. And always be willing to make Peace’.
The Christian world may think that Mohamed was wrong here, but in fact the whole world, including the Christian world, has always followed more Mohamed’s rule than Christ’s rule of total non-violence. Of course, there have been many offensive wars also (like pre-emptive strikes), but these are definitely condemned by both Muslims and Christians and Jews.
So, let’s leave the question of whose rule is right aside for a minute. Ghandi proved in practice that Christ’s way of fighting – basically spelling out truth clearly – can work too. Martin Luther King proved it once more. If the Palestinians would but adopt this strategy, before long the Israeli’s would beg them to stop. For the Jews are already sick of war. They know they are hitting the Palestinians with the same stick that hit them during their ‘diaspora’, whatever that is.
The Jews don’t like what they are doing. They hate it. But the Palestinians constantly give them the justification to go on. So, they keep on hitting, giving the Palestinians justification to also hit back again. And the war goes on and on and on ….
You cannot fight tanks with stones
Now, these Palestinians youngsters are brave, throwing stones at tanks. But it will not work. Ghandi and King saw not only that violence is wrong in itself. They also saw that non-violence is a better strategy, if you are in a position of weakness. Not even suicide-bombs will do the trick, if violence is the game. It will cause damage and bloodshed. It will hurt the enemy. In practice it kills more civilians than soldiers, including women and children. But even if you succeed in killing a number of soldiers, you cannot win a war by means of self-destruction. There is only one feasible strategy, if you are up against an overpowering enemy. It’s Ghandi’s way.
Don’t think Ghandi’s way is easy. Don’t believe that you will win them over quickly. But in the end you will. After all, your ‘enemies’ are only people, just like you yourself. Everybody is born with a sense of Justice. If you demonstrate the injustice, those in power will eventually ‘see the light’. But you have to demonstrate the injustice. It may be a long struggle, but neither Mohamed, nor Christ said it was going to be short and easy. Who said it was easy? It’s not easy to blow up yourself either. Nor is it easy to fight your enemies on the battle-field. And it takes courage. So there is nothing unmanly about Ghandi’s way.
But who’s the enemy? We see only people.
We must laugh and enjoy life. For today’s video we have selected some ‘profound fun’, a new form of humor, which may shock, but if you are sincere, you have to see that the man is speaking the truth. Enjoy!