In the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical film, The King and I, actress Deborah Kerr sang, “Getting to know you, getting to know all about you…” Knowing the collaborative history of Arabs, Jews, and Christians in the Middle East helps the reader better understand current events.
First, the Palestinians
The Palestinian people are an Arab ethno-nationalist group residing primarily in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Israel, Jordan, and parts of southern Lebanon and Syria. Significant Palestinian communities are located in other countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United States, which is home to about 85,000 people of Palestinian descent, according to a 2013 U.S. Census figure. — Excerpt: Who Are The Palestinians?
The downtown center of Jerash, Jordan, lies 53.5 miles northeast of Jerusalem. Jerash is symbolically called a “refugee camp.” Visit the city of Jerash, Jordan, with Google Earth to get up close and personal with the modernity of this so-called ‘refugee camp.’
Jerash, a city devoid of tents and temporary dwellings, is called a refugee camp to signify they fully expect to kill or remove all the Jews and take over all the land from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranian Sea.
Palestinian Population Distribution
| PALESTINIAN HOST COUNTRIES | POPULATION |
| West Bank/Judea and Samaria | 2,345,000 |
| The Gaza Strip | 800,636 |
| Israel | 2,080,000 |
| Jordan | 584,000 |
| Lebanon | 489,292 |
| Syria | 500,000 |
| United States of America | 143,620 |
Around 12% live in Illinois. Almost 10% live here, in Texas. All the numbers exclude illegal aliens that have probably slipped in over our northern and southern borders.
Religious Affiliations
There are 1.9 million Palestinian citizens of Israel (as of December 2019), comprising 21% of Israel’s population. 83% of Palestinian citizens of Israel are Muslim, 9% are Christian, and 8% are Druze, according to Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel. Most Palestinian citizens of Israel live in three areas: the Galilee in the north, the so-called “Little Triangle” in the center of the country, and the Negev desert (Naqab to Palestinians) in the south. — IMEU Fact Sheet: Palestinian Citizens of Israel
Islam, Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, The Islamic State …. what does it all mean? 2016 article titled Understanding Islamic State: where does it come from and what does it want? provides some explanations.
Ostensibly, the Islamic State (ISIS) are Sunni Muslims who hate the Shi’a Muslims of Iran. Recently, ISIS-K carried out a murderous assault on a Music Hall in Moscow. Subsequently, Vladimir Putin blames Ukraine for the ISIS attack. Look elsewhere for a logical explanation. I have none.
Arabic Ancient Written History
“Arabic literacy began in the 1st century BC, around 800 BC, when the western two-thirds of Arabia saw the flowering of a large number of literate cultures in both the north and the south, using a family of alphabets unique to Arabia. This happened not only in the settled areas, but among the nomads who, however, used writing purely as a pastime.” Source: Ancient Arabia and the written word
“The books of the Bible, or Tanakh, are the founding texts of the Jewish people. Scholars believe the books of the Bible were written over a long period of time, dating some as early as the period of King David and King Solomon (around 1000 BCE), and others as late as the second century BCE.” Source: Ancient Jewish Texts
Hebrew texts chronicle Middle-Eastern civilization from before 4000 BC.
The Quran contains references to more than fifty people and events also found in the Bible…The Islamic methodology of tafsir al-Qur’an bi-l-Kitab (Arabic: تفسير القرآن بالكتاب) refers to interpreting the Qur’an with/through the Bible. This approach adopts canonical Arabic versions of the Bible, including the Tawrat (Torah) and the Injil (Gospel), both to illuminate and to add exegetical depth to the reading of the Qur’an. Notable Muslim mufassirun (commentators) of the Bible and Qur’an who weaved biblical texts together with Qur’anic ones include Abu al-Hakam Abd al-Salam bin al-Isbili of Al-Andalus and Ibrahim bin Umar bin Hasan al-Biqa’i. Excerpts from Wikipedia: Biblical and Quranic narratives
The latest book of the Old Testament was written hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ. Muhammad was born in 570 AD, died in 632 AD. Muhammad claimed to have been visited by the angel Gabriel in 610. Muhammad began to preach publicly in 613. His flight from Mecca to Medina in 622 marked the beginning of the Islamic religion. Source: Britannica: Muhammad Summary
Ancient engravings in the soft sandstone of the mountain passes around Bir Hima bear Arabic petroglyphs dated to the year 469 or 470 BC…the earliest ancient inscriptions using this pre-Islamic stage of Arabic script had been dated at least half a century later, and had all been found in Syria, which had suggested that the alphabet used to write the Koran had been developed far from the birthplace of Islam and its prophet…the Arabic text, scrawled on a large rectangular stone, is simply of a name, “Thawban (son of) Malik,” followed by the date…Underwhelming? Well, there is the matter of the large, unmistakably Christian cross that decorates the head of this inscription. The same cross systematically appears on the other similar stelae dating more or less to the same period…Further consternation may have arisen when realizing that these texts are not only the legacy of a once-numerous Christian community, but are also linked to the story of an ancient Jewish kingdom that once ruled over much of what is today Yemen and Saudi Arabia…Learn more: Before Islam: When Saudi Arabia Was a Jewish Kingdom
The video below is a footnote to Islamist hatred of Israelis.
30 AD
1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 There appeared to them tongues as of fire, being distributed and resting on each of them, 4 and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
5 Now dwelling in Jerusalem were Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 When this sound occurred, the crowd came together and were confounded, because each man heard them speaking in his own language. 7 They were all amazed and marveled, saying to each other, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 How is it that we hear, each in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the regions of Libya near Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own languages the mighty works of God.” 12 They were all amazed and perplexed, saying to each other, “What does this mean?” Acts 2:1-12 MEV
The above text from Acts chapter 2 records the presence of Arabs who were Jewish proselytes. The crosses on the sandstone carvings mentioned above confirm there were Arab Christians on the Arabian penissula from 30 AD to 613 AD, 589 years before the genesis of Islam. For unknown years, there was a large body of Arabs who were Jewish proselytes.
2024 AD
Therefore, one realizes the Jewish holy writings were well known to Arabs hundreds of years before Muhammad began Islam.
Today, estimates of 10 to 15 million Arab Christians are found in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Learn more from Wikipedia: Arab Christians.
Judaism preceded Islam thousands of years and Christianity preceded Islam hundreds of years.
There is no question about the origins of the names of Jews in the Qur’an. This information came from the Old and New Testaments.
Application
Before joining the pack on condemning Israel’s IDF for deaths of civilians in Gaza, keep in mind the tenets, the hadiths of Islam.
“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (the Boxthorn tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews. (related by al-Bukhari and Muslim).” — Islam Stack Exchange, Context for “there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him”
“…there is a substantial majority of American Muslims who, potentially, are open to opposing a hate message, open to having a better relationship with their Jewish neighbors. They see no contradiction whatsoever, as Muslims, in having better relations with Jews, but they don’t know how.” — The Times of Israel, September 9, 2015, Everything you always wanted to know about Islam, but were afraid to ask
The ultimate arbiter of Muslim-Jewish-Christian relationships is the Holy Bible.
- Anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. — 1 John 4:8
- Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. — Romans 12:21
- Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. — Psalm 122:6
- Pray for governing officials “to be obedient to God”that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty.” — 1 Timothy 2:1-6
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and John White is the Author of Life. He is the basis for love. He is love.
Soli Deo Gloria
John White
Rockwall, Texas
John N. White 