Islamic Iran and the Jewish People

Editor

Islam’s position on the Jewish people is very clear. They are referred to as “People of the Book,” like the Christians. Muslims are called upon to live in peace with them as long as they do not threaten peace and security of the Muslims or the state they are living in. Throughout history, Muslims have strictly adhered to these lofty principles. Whenever the Jewish people suffered persecution in Europe, they found refuge among Muslims, hence the presence of Jewish communities in countries like Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran, etc.

While this should be public knowledge, the problem is that pro-Israeli groups conflate Zionism with Judaism. Given the West’s unremitting hostility to the Islamic Republic of Iran because of its determination to maintain its independence and dignity, it has been accused of every kind of misdemeanor. One vile Zionist allegation is that Islamic Iran and its leaders are “anti-Semitic.” This is a smear and ordinarily would not be worthy of a response but because of its seriousness it needs to be addressed.

This is what Imam Seyyed Ali Khamenei of Iran did in a public address on November 14 to Muslim ambassadors and participants at the Islamic Unity Conference. He pledged Islamic Iran’s unwavering support for Palestinian rights and called upon other Muslim countries to follow suit, describing Palestine as the greatest challenging facing the Muslim Ummah.

The Imam then touched on the subject of Zionist attempts to “distort” statements by the Father of the Islamic Revolution, the late Imam Khomeini and Iranian officials about the “elimination of Israel.” He explained, “We are in favor of Palestine and its independence and salvation, but the elimination of Israel does not mean the elimination of the Jewish people. We are not against them, as a large number of Jewish people live safely in our country. The elimination of Israel means the elimination of the fake Zionist regime. The Palestinian people — be they Muslim, Christian, or Jewish — who are the original inhabitants of that land, should be able to choose their own government,” the Imam elaborated.

For the record, Zionist Israel has been trying to entice the Iranian Jewish community to leave Iran and settle in Israel. The Zionist regime has even offered them tens of thousands of dollars in bribes. To their credit, the Jewish community in Iran has refused to go. They have their own member of parliament representing their specific interests in Iran’s Majlis along with a regular member of parliament for the larger constituency. Further, their places of worship are not only protected but they also receive government assistance in maintaining them.

Compare this with the Zionist mistreatment of the Palestinian people, the indigenous and innocent inhabitants of Palestine. While killing and brutalizing Palestinians, the Zionists indulge in vile propaganda that is designed to obfuscate because they cannot defend the horrific record of the Zionist regime. Pro-Israeli groups outside throw dirt at others hoping some of this would stick to those they accuse.

Our challenge to the Zionists is simple: if you think you are civilized, give the Palestinians the same rights that you enjoy. Then we will acknowledge that you are worthy of respect. Until then, you remain illegal occupiers of others’ land and they have every right to resist your colonization. Such resistance cannot be scandalized by the false allegation of anti-Semitism.

Abraham: A Role Model and Guide for Mankind

By Hujjatul Islam Dr Mohammad Ali Shomali

Abraham is one of those personalities about whom we will always have new things to discover. I think we have not yet been able to understand the greatness of this man in the Qur’an. The Prophet Abraham has a unique and central position in the Qur’an. He was chosen by God as a role model, as a standard for all mankind. In chapter 2, verse 124 we learn that Abraham is chosen by God as an Imam, that God tried and tested Abraham in all possible ways and that then God told him that now He was appointing him as a leader for all mankind. 

“And [mention, O Muhammad], when Abraham was tried by his Lord with commands and he fulfilled them. [God] said, “Indeed, I will make you a leader for the people.” [Abraham] said, “And of my descendants?” [God] said, “My covenant does not include the wrongdoers.” Qur’an 2:124 We should not regard him only as a leader for that era; from that time onwards, human beings have studied and followed him.. This is similar to the way in which the Qur’an in 3:96 introduces the Ka’aba as “the very first house ever built for humanity”. Abraham reached a point at which God was pleased. In the same way that this house was a house for all human beings for all time, Abraham is a leader for all mankind. Abraham is a point of reference. He is so important that he is accepted by all then and now. When we read the Qur’an we realise that at the time of the revelation of the Qur’an, Jews, Christians and Muslims all had great respect for Abraham. 

He was a source of authority and everyone wanted to justify their particular position by referring to him. It can be argued from the Qur’an that Abraham was the founder of Islam. Thus the Prophet Muhammad(s) reinstated the religion of Abraham whose core message was submission to God. The Qur’an says: “When His Lord said to him, ‘Submit’ he said: ‘I submit to the Lord of all the worlds.’ Abraham enjoined this upon his children……saying, ‘My children! God has chosen for you this religion (submission to the truth) do not die unless you are submissive to God. “(2:131 & 132) ‘Muslim’ signifies the person who bows in obedience to God, who acknowledges God alone as their Sovereign, Lord and Master and the only object of worship, devotion and service, who unreservedly surrenders themselves to God and who undertakes to live their life in accordance with the guidance that has come down from God. 

Islam is the appellation which characterises the above mentioned belief and outlook which constitutes the core and kernel of the religion of all the prophets who have appeared from time to time amongst different peoples since the very beginning of human life on earth. In Abraham’s life, we find something that can inspire all human generations regarding how to be submissive to God and at the same time how to treat people with care, mercy and love and how to be like a father for everyone while remaining totally devoted to God. Abraham was a man of deep thought. Faith should be accompanied with this kind of deep thought rather than close mindedness. He thought carefully about how people worshipped stars and the sun or the moon. However the Qur’an tells us that he was not satisfied with conventional knowledge; he was a man of aspirations. 

Abraham asked God, “Please show me the kingdom of earth” and “Please show me how You revive the dead.” Allamah Tabatabai said Abraham wanted to know how God revives the dead and not just how the dead are revived which showed the height of insight. Abraham was a hospitable man. According to Jewish literature, the house of Abraham had no walls! This might mean that there was no barrier between him and people who wanted to meet him. Islamic sources indicate that he was a person who always loved guests and if he had no guests he used to go outside to find people with whom he could share what God had given him. There is a story whereby once Abraham went out to find people whom he could invite to his house. On returning home he was surprised to find a young man in his house or coming out of his house. 

Abraham asked him with whose permission he had entered the house and he said with the permission of the Lord of the house. Abraham then realised this must be a person to whom God Himself had given permission. That angel then told Abraham; God has chosen someone as his friend and I have come here to tell this person the good news. Abraham never thought it was him. Such humbleness is the sign of a religious person. Abraham then said: “Who is the one who has been chosen as a friend by my Lord so I can serve him till I die?” The angel said: “Actually it is you!”. Abraham asked: “Why?” The angel then mentioned some of his good qualities saying: “You have never asked anyone other than God for help, but you never said no to people when they asked you for help.” 

When Abraham was thrown into a fire the Angel Gabriel went to offer to help him and Abraham replied: “From you, no.” which meant: My Lord knows my situation and there is no need to ask you for help. Another story goes that there was a time of starvation and Abraham had no food at home to provide for his family and people so he decided to go to his friend in Egypt to take some flour from him. However when he arrived there he could not find anything and returned with nothing. 

For a man like Abraham this was very embarrassing so just before reaching his town he filled his bags with soil and then went home and slept. When he got up he smelt fresh bread so he asked his wife where she obtained the flour for it. She replied that she made the bread with the flour his Egyptian friend had given them. Abraham then said, “Indeed it is from my Friend, but He is not Egyptian.”

Originally Published on Issue 33, March 2016

Jewish Power Rolls Over Washington

AIPAC gathering is full of lies and liars 

PHILIP GIRALDI

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has just completed its annual summit in Washington. It claims that 18,000 supporters attended the event, which concluded with a day of lobbying Congress by the attendees. Numerous American politicians addressed the gathering and it is completely reasonable to observe that the meeting constituted the most powerful gathering of people dedicated to promoting the interests of a foreign nation ever witnessed in any country in the history of the world.

There are a number of things that one should understand about the Jewish state of Israel and its powerful American domestic lobby. First of all, the charge that the actions of The Lobby (referred to with capital letters because of its uniqueness and power) inevitably involves dual or even singular allegiance based on religion or tribe to a country where the lobbyist does not actually reside is completely correct by definition of what AIPAC is and why it exists. It claims to work to “ensure that the Jewish state is safe, strong and secure” through “foreign aid, government partnerships, [and] joint anti-terrorism efforts…,” all of which involve the U.S. as the donor and Israel as the recipient.

Being a citizen of a country is not just an accident of birth. It requires loyalty to the interests of that country and to one’s fellow citizens. No two countries have identical interests, something that is particularly true when one is considering Israel, an ethno-religious autocracy, and the United States, where The Lobby works assiduously to compel American government at all levels to adopt positions that are beneficial to Israel and almost invariably harmful to U.S. interests. Asserting that the two nations have nearly identical interests is little more than a fraud.

Second, there is the claim that Israel benefits American security. That is also a lie. Washington’s relationship with Israel, which is now more subservient than it ever has been, is a major liability that is and always has been damaging to both American regional and global interests. The recent decisions to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights were ill-conceived and have been condemned by the world community, including by nearly all of America’s genuine close allies.

The harm done by the Israeli connection to policy formulation in Washington and to U.S. troops based in the Middle East has been noted both by Admiral Thomas Moorer and General David Petraeus, with Moorer decrying how “If the American people understood what a grip those people have got on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our citizens certainly don’t have any idea what goes on.” Petraeus complained to a Senate Committee that U.S. favoritism towards Israel puts American soldiers based in the Middle East at risk. He was quickly forced to recant, however.

Former CIA Deputy Director Admiral Bobby Inman has also rejected the claim that Israel is a security asset by observing that “Israeli spies have done more harm and have damaged the United States more than the intelligence agents of all other countries on earth combined… They are the gravest threat to our national security.” Inman was referring to American Jewish spy Jonathan Pollard, who stole for Israel an entire roomful of the most highly classified defense information. Israeli spies, including current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hollywood movie producer Arnon Milchan, also participated in the systematic theft of weapons grade uranium and nuclear triggers in the 1960s so Israel could secretly create a nuclear weapons arsenal. The FBI, for its part, in its annual counterintelligence report, consistently identifies Israel as the “friendly” country that spies most persistently against the U.S. FBI Agents have testified that there are very few prosecutions of the swarms of Israeli spies due to “political pressure.”

Third, there is the myth that the United States and Israel have “shared values,” which is meant to imply that both are liberal democracies where freedom and human rights prevail, beacons of light offering enlightened leadership in a world where tyranny threatens at every turn. This was stressed in the opening remarks last weekend by AIPAC Executive Director Howard Kohr, who described Israel as “A nation always striving to be better, more just and true to the message of its founders, a nation dedicated to freedom of religion for people of all faiths. We do our work for all to see. What unites our pro-Israel movement is the passion for bringing American and Israel closer for the benefit of both and the benefit of all. We look like America because we are America.”

Kohr is, of course, preaching to an audience that wants desperately to believe what he says in spite of what they have been able to see with their own eyes in the media when it dares to publish a story criticizing Israel. Jewish hypocrisy about one standard for Israel and Jews plus another standard for everyone else operates pretty much out in the open if one knows where to look. Zionist Organization of America’s Morton Klein, who once tweeted regarding a “filthy Arab,” was interviewed by journalist Nathan Thrall and asked why he believed it was “utterly racist and despicable” to support a “white nationalist” ethnic group but not racist for Israel to do the same. He responded “Israel is a unique situation. This is really a Jewish state given to us by God. God did not create a state for white people or for black people.” Senator Charles Schumer, the Democratic minority leader, who calls himself the Senate’s “shomer” or guardian for American Jews, had a slightly different take on it: “Of course, we say it’s our land, the Torah says it, but they don’t believe in the Torah. So that’s the reason there is not peace.”

But Kohr, Klein and Schumer all know as well as anyone that Israeli Jews, fortified by their conceit of being a “Chosen people,” are not interchangeable with contemporary Americans, or at least not “like” the Americans who still care about their country. There are hundreds of mostly Jewish pro-Israel organizations in America, having a combined endowment of $16 billion, that are actively propagandizing and promoting Israeli interests by ignoring or lying about the downside of the relationship. The University of Michigan affiliate of the Hillel International campus organization alone has a multistory headquarters supported by a budget of $2 million and a staff of 15. It hosts an emissary of the Jewish Agency for Israel, an Israeli government supported promotional enterprise.

So, what is the meaning of the “American” in AIPAC? Requiring a religious-ethnic litmus test for full citizenship and rights is Israeli, not American. Having local government admissions committees that can bar Israeli-Palestinian citizens based on “social suitability” would not be acceptable to most Americans. Demanding a unique Israeli right to exist while denying it to Israel’s neighbors; demolishing homes while poisoning Palestinian livestock and destroying orchards; shooting children for throwing stones; and inflicting death, terror and deprivation upon the imprisoned people of Gaza are all everyday common practice for the Israeli government.

Israel and AIPAC have relentlessly pursued their agenda while also corrupting the Congress of the United States to support the Israeli government with money and political cover. Israel and friends like Kohr routinely make baseless charges of anti-Semitism against critics while also legislating against free-speech to eliminate any and all criticism. This drive to make Israel uniquely free from any critique has become the norm in the United States, but it is a norm driven by Israeli interests and Israel’s friends, most of whom are Jewish billionaires or Jewish organizations that meet regularly and discuss what they might do to benefit the Jewish state.

And the fourth big lie is that the American people support Israel on religious as well as cultural grounds, not because mostly Jewish money has corrupted our political system and media. Indeed, many Christian fundamentalists have various takes on what Israel means, but their influence is limited. The Israel-thing is Jewish in all ways that matter and its sanitized Exodus-version that has been sold to the public is essentially a complete fraud nurtured by the media, also Jewish controlled, by Hollywood, and by the Establishment.

Mondoweiss reported recently that

“This weekend the New York Times breaks one of the biggest taboos, describing the responsibility of Jewish donors for the Democratic Party’s slavish support for Israel. Nathan Thrall’s groundbreaking piece repeats a lot of data we’ve reported here and says in essence that it really is about the Benjamins, as Rep. Ilhan Omar said so famously. The donor class of the party is overwhelmingly Jewish, and Jews are still largely wed to Zionism– that’s the nut.” Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national-security adviser to ex-President Barack Obama recounted in the article how “a more assertive policy toward Israel” never evolved “The Washington view of Israel-Palestine is still shaped by the [Jewish] donor class.”

And the support for Israel goes beyond money. The Times article included an October 2018

“Survey of 800 American voters who identify as Jewish, conducted by the Mellman Group on behalf of the Jewish Electoral Institute, 92 percent said that they are ‘generally pro-Israel.’ In the same poll — conducted after the United States closed the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington, moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, appointed a fund-raiser for the settlements as U.S. ambassador and cut humanitarian aid to Palestinians — roughly half of American Jews said they approved of President Trump’s handling of relations with Israel. On what is considered the most divisive issue in U.S.-Israel relations, the establishment of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a November 2018 post-midterm election poll of more than 1,000 American Jews that was commissioned by J Street, the pro-Israel lobby aligned with Democrats, found that roughly half said the expansion of settlements had no impact on how they felt about Israel. According to a 2013 Pew survey, 44 percent of Americans and 40 percent of American Jews believe that Israel was given to the Jewish people by God, [a] fact that Jews believe they have rights in historic Palestine that non-Jews do not.”

And one only has to listen to the AIPAC speeches made by leading members of the U.S. government establishment to appreciate the essential hypocrisy over the U.S. wag-the-dog relationship with the Jewish state of Israel. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer led the parade of Democrats on the first evening of AIPAC, thundering “When someone accuses American supporters of Israel of dual loyalty, I say: Accuse me, I am part of a large, bipartisan coalition in Congress supporting Israel—an overwhelming majority of the United States Congress. I tell Israel’s accusers and detractors: Accuse me.”

Well, Steny there is a certain irony in your request and to be sure you should be accused over betrayal of your oath to uphold the constitution against all enemies “domestic and foreign.” Hoyer is a product of the heavily Jewish Maryland Democratic Party machine that has also produced Pelosi and Senator Ben Cardin. Pelosi told the AIPAC audience about her father in Baltimore, a so-called Shabbos goy who would perform services for Jews on the sabbath and who would also speak Yiddish while at home with his Italian family. Cardin meanwhile has been the sponsor of legislation to make criticism or boycotting of Israel illegal, up to and including heavy fines and prison time.

Hoyer, widely regarded as one of the most pro-Israel non-Jewish congressman, also boasted to AIPAC about the 15 official trips to Israel he’s made in forty years in Congress, accompanied by more than 150 fellow Democrats. “This August, I will travel with what I expect will be our largest delegation ever—probably more than 30 Democratic members of Congress, including many freshmen.”

Steny Hoyer will be on an AIPAC affiliate sponsored trip in which any contact with Palestinians will be both incidental and carefully managed. He also clearly has no problem in spending the taxpayer’s dime to go to Israel on additional “codels” to get further propagandized. He is flat out wrong about Israel in general, but don’t expect him to be convinced otherwise, which may be somehow related to the $317,525 in pro-Israel PAC contributions he has received.

There was much more at the AIPAC Summit. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denounced “the pernicious myth of dual loyalty and foreign allegiance” while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, fresh from selling out U.S. interests on a visit to Israel, declared that“We live in dangerous times. We have to speak the truth. Anti-Semitism should and must be rejected by all decent people. Anti-Semitism – anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, and any nation that espouses anti-Zionism, like Iran, must be confronted. We must defend the rightful homeland of the Jewish people.”

Vice President Mike Pence, like Pompeo an evangelical Christian, piled on in his Monday prime time speech, declaring that “Anyone who aspires to the highest office of the land should not be afraid to stand with the strongest supporters of Israel in America. It is wrong to boycott Israel. It is wrong to boycott AIPAC. Anti-Semitism has no place in the Congress of the United States of America. Anyone who slanders this historic alliance between the United States and Israel should never have a seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee.”

Clearly, there is considerable evidence to support the theory that one has to be completely ignorant to hold high office in the United States. Rejecting Zionism and/or questioning Israeli policies is not anti-Semitism and the Jewish state is in fact no actual ally of the United States. Nor is there any mandate to defend it in its questionable “rightful homeland.” Furthermore, dual-loyalty is what the relationship with Israel is all about and it is Jewish money and political power that makes the whole thing work to Israel’s benefit.

But the good news is that all the lying blather from the likes of Steny Hoyer and Howard Kohr reveals their desperation. They are running scared because “the times they are a changing.” Sure, Congressmen will continue to be bought and sold and Jewish money and the access to power that it buys will be able to prevail in the short term in a conspiratorial fashion. But, in the long run, everyone knows deep down that loyalty to Israel is not loyalty to the United States. And what Israel is doing is evil, as is becoming increasingly clear. It is trying to convince Washington to make war on Iran, a country that does not threaten the U.S., while the willingness of the American people to continue to look the other way as Benjamin Netanyahu uses army snipers to shoot down unarmed demonstrators who are starving will not continue indefinitely. It must not continue and we Americans should do whatever it takes to stop it.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. 

WHY ABRAHAM IS AN EXCELLENT EXAMPLE FOR ALL ABRAHAMIC FAITHS

RABBI ALLEN MALLER

The Qur’an states, “You have an excellent example to follow in Abraham” (60:4) and “Follow the way of Abraham as people of pure faith” (3:95).

What makes Prophet Abraham according to three different religions’ Sacred Scriptures; the one “whom God chose to be His friend” (the Arabic Qur’an 4:125, the Hebrew Bible Isaiah 41:8, and the Greek New Testament James [the brother of Jesus] 2:23) so special?

For Jews and Christians, Abraham is the first monotheist. For Muslims, Adam was the first of many thousands of prophets of God (one Hadith says 124,000, another mentions 224,000) who called upon the people of their own tribe or nation to turn to the One God. There have also been about 315 messengers, who brought a unique set of laws to their own tribe or nation. Thus, according to Islam, God provided humans with Divine guidance and knowledge long before the birth of Abraham. So what makes Abraham such an excellent example?

All prophets divinely inspired by the one and only God are, of course, monotheists. Pious believers of any individual prophet “should not discriminate between any one of His prophets”  (Qur’an 2:285 & 4:152).

This is why prophet Muhammad is quoted to have said, “Prophets are brothers in faith, having different mothers. Their religion is, however, one.” 

All prophets have the same father, who is the One God whose inspiration gives birth to their prophethood. However, each prophet has a different mother i.e. a mother tongue, a motherland, and a target audience that he speaks to at a specific time in history. Thus, prophets are brothers in faithfulness to the One God but their Divinely inspired message differs because it must be appropriate for their motherland, their mother tongue, their own people, and the historical circumstances of their prophet’s lifetime.  

Therefore, not all monotheistic prophets are the same. “We have exalted some above others.” To some (Moses), God spoke directly (4:164); others He raised high in rank (4:163-6); to “Jesus, Mary’s son, We gave clear signs and supported him with the Holy Spirit.” (2:253). Also, “We have exalted some prophets above others (see 38:41-48) and gave the Zabur (Book of Psalms) to David” (17:55). 

Abraham (Qur’an 57:26), Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad all received a holy book. Abraham was the first of these five to receive a Sacred Scripture. All of the four others were among his descendants. Is this what makes Abraham so special that his name appears 69 times in the Qur’an, second only to Moses (136 times)? I do not think that being mentioned frequently is by itself why Abraham plays such an important part in all three Abrahamic religions.  

Abraham is especially famous for the numerous ways God tested him; especially the terrible tests of banishing his wife Hagar and his firstborn son Ishmael (Qur’an 2:124 & Genesis 9:9-21) and bringing his son to a special place as an offering to God (Qur’an 37:100-113 & Genesis 22:1-24).

Most Muslim commentators say the son, unnamed in the Qur’an, was Ishmael. Some Muslim commentators assert it was Isaac. Perhaps both participated in this test at different times, so that each son could produce descendants who, in time, would become a blessing for many other nations of the earth (Genesis 22:16-18 & Qur’an 4:163). In any case, Abraham’s test with his son became an iconic sign of faith and trust in God’s will for Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

In addition to his two sons, Abraham is unique in the numerous prophets God chose from among his descendants, whose names are recorded in the Bible and the Qur’an. With the exception of Noah, Balaam (and perhaps Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18), all Biblical prophets and most of the 25 prophets named in the Qur’an, are descendants of Abraham.

“We did grant the Family of Abraham the Book, the Wisdom, and a mighty (spiritual) kingdom.”

               (Qur’an 57:26)

One of the most insightful verses relating the special virtue of Abraham states, “Abraham was a community” (Qur’an 16:120). How can one person be an umma, an ongoing people/community? Muslim commentators offer many different glosses on this verse. One medieval commentator, Fakhr al-Din Razi (1149-1209) offered four different opinions.

His fourth opinion is that Abraham reached a unique level of faith and religion above the many prophets that preceded him. A similar view was also propounded by a Hassidic Rabbi, Levi Yitzkhok of Birditchev (1740-1809). Levi Yitzkhok and Fakhr al-Din Razi lived in totally different worlds in terms of time, space and culture; yet spiritually they seem very connected. Rabbi Levi Yitzkhok of Birditchev, in his Torah commentary Kidushat Levi, glosses Genesis 15:1 as follows:

“There are two kinds of God worshipers: one group worship due to their consciousness that there is a creator of everything (including good and bad), another group worships due to the ‘heavenly help’ they received for doing God’s will.”

Those who worship due to their conscious understanding really envision God. Those who worship due to ‘heavenly help’ envision God only to be like a judge; they do not worship with the devoted eyes of a lover. Worshippers with conscious understanding are able to influence others and give birth to ongoing outcomes.

Worshippers due to ‘heavenly help’ cannot influence others because when their faith doesn’t ‘pay off’ they despair in God. This is the meaning of the verse (15:1) “After these events the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision”. Abraham was now able to envision God in a new way because he himself had come to a new level of self-conscious worship. Thus, in verse 15:4 Abraham is told that (after decades of infertility) he will produce offspring due to his new self-consciousness.

Worshippers who benefit from heavenly help are literalists and pragmatists. Before Abraham, religious groups took their religious mythology literally because their religion was functional. Religious beliefs help reduce anxiety and depression; strengthen the immune system and thus help to heal as well as create cultural motifs that socialize the young by promising divine reward and punishment help enforce moral principles of fairness and reciprocity.

Before Abraham, people simply received these benefits and felt grateful to the Gods who bestowed them. They felt they had real spiritual experiences even though they worshiped multiple Gods and idols. When their Gods failed to deliver what they wanted, they begged, bribed, and propitiated other Gods.

This kind of functional religion is universal and helps account for the failure of 99.9% of the (124,000 or 224,000) prophets sent by God to establish ongoing communities of ethical monotheists. Few people remained loyal to the teachings of their religious leaders when, in later decades or generations, things turned against them. The few individuals who, in their own life, did remain faithful to the teachings of their prophet saw their own children or grandchildren turn away. As literalists, they could not interpret the hidden ways of God’s guidance when they suffered continual defeat or disappointment. This is why even the descendants of prophets like Noah and Ishmael did not remain an ongoing monotheistic community and after several generations reverted to idolatry and polytheism.

Abraham reached a higher level of religious self-conscious. Abraham realized that everything comes from God; both what we think is good and what we think is bad. We should not judge life from our very limited personal perspective. In the words of another Hassidic Rabbi, Moses of Kobryn,

“A suffering person should not say: ‘That’s bad. That’s bad.’ Nothing God imposes on a human is bad. But, it is all right to say: ‘That’s bitter!’ For there are some medicines that are made with bitter herbs.”

I am not a Muslim; I am a Reform Rabbi who first became interested in Islam when I studied it at a university (UCLA) 60 years ago. I have continued my study of Islam off and on for six decades and for some time I have considered myself to be a Reform Rabbi and a Muslim Jew. Actually, I am a Muslim Jew i.e. a faithful Jew submitting to the will of God, because I am a Reform Rabbi.

As a Rabbi, I am faithful to the covenant that God made with Abraham – the first Muslim Jew, and I submit to the commandments that God made with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai. Abraham was a Muslim (a believer who submitter to the One and Only God); and the grandfather of Prophet Yakub/Jacob and the great-grandfather of the 12 tribes (Banu Israel) from whom all Jews including converts are descendant.

As a Reform Rabbi, I believe we should not make religion difficult for people to practice. This is an important lesson that Prophet Muhammad taught 12 centuries before the rise of Reform Judaism in early 19th century Germany. In many ways, statements in the Qur’an about Orthodox Jewish beliefs and Ahadith relating Muhammad’s comments about Orthodox Judaism, and religion in general, prefigure the thinking of Reform Rabbis some 12-13 centuries later. Had the Jews of Medina been more open to his teachings, Reform Judaism would have started almost 14 centuries ago. Of the 13 million Jews in the world today, the majority, both in Israel and throughout the world, are no longer Orthodox.

The largest denomination of non-Orthodox Jews in the US and Canada, where over 6 million Jews live, is the Reform movement. As a Reform Rabbi, I offer a neo-Hassidic gloss of Razi’s opinion that Abraham was unique and exceptional by becoming himself a model spiritual-religious community. Thus, Abraham was willing to sacrifice his own life in Nimrod’s fire (Qur’an 21:68-71 and oral tradition in both Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sources); and also, after waiting for so many years until he finally had two sons. Abraham risked the terrible loss of a beloved son, not once but twice, because he had full trust in God.

Indeed, because Abraham had reached this level of religious consciousness he could be tested and would become an excellent example for all mankind. For rising up above ‘functional benefits’ religion, Abraham became the first prophet to establish an ongoing religious community among his immediate descendants: Jews who were believers; then by spiritual adoption – Christians who were believers; and last by reversion – Muslims who were believers.

As the Qur’an states: “God said I will surely make you the leader of humanity and Abraham asked ‘What about my offspring?’ God replied, ‘My pledge does not apply to those who do evil” (2:124). This was the legacy that Abraham be-quested to his sons as did Jacob when he said: “My sons, (who will become the Jewish community) God has chosen for you this way of life” (2:132)  

All three religions inherit the blessing of Abraham (2:134-137) and for all three religions the blessing applies to their respective believers but does not include those individuals who refuse to submit to the will of God as reflected in the prophet and book they were given (2:124). Thus, in all three communities, there are some who do not attain a level of spiritual consciousness and awareness that transcends the basic ‘heavenly help’ of literal reward and punishment for orthodox dogma and rule keeping. Those who do reach the level of Abraham, the friend of God, need to keep others from leading the community astray.

Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religious leaders should all learn humility from the excellent example of Prophet Abraham and we should all teach this humility to our followers. Then God’s blessing “I will make you (Abraham) an imam for all people.” (Qur’an 2:124  & Genesis 22:17-18) will be fulfilled.