United for Al-Quds: A Day-Long Program of Six Major San Francisco Bay Area Islamic Organizations

By Hasan Zillur Rahim

(Author’s note: In Arabic, Jerusalem is known as al-Quds al-Sharif, which means “the Noble Sacred Place.” Al-Quds is short for al-Bayt al-Muqaddas, ‘the Sacred House.’ The Aqsa mosque, which in Arabic means ‘the farthest mosque,’ is located in al-Quds and is the third holiest mosque in Islam.)

Major Islamic organizations of the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Muslim Community Association, American Muslim Alliance, San Francisco Muslim Community Center, Oakland Islamic Center, and South Bay Islamic Association, held a day-long conference on May 16 on the status and sanctity of al-Quds and the Palestinian fight for justice and freedom. Speakers at the conference, entitled “United for Al-Quds,” traced the history of Jerusalem, the significance of the sacred city in Muslim history and thought, and the moral imperative for supporting Palestinians as they confront Israel and its allies in righting the wrong inflicted on them half a century ago.

The conference was not about the past but about the present and the future. It was about the challenges facing Muslims today to restore the sacred city of Jerusalem to its rightful owners. It was about Palestinians and their right to recover the homeland stolen from them 50 years ago. It was about neutralizing the disastrous influence of the Israeli government on all branches of the U.S. government, particularly the legislature. And it was about taking practical steps to mobilize Muslim political power in the United States to return sanity and ethics to the foreign and domestic policies of this country.

In the wake of the so-called “Fifty Years of Independence” celebration by Israel and its allies in the United States, the al-Quds conference was particularly timely—a forceful and at times poignant reminder that Israel was created by uprooting the peoples of Palestine. The conference demonstrated that as long as this injustice continues and Palestinians are without a homeland of their own, the Middle East will never know peace.

Hatem Bazian, a doctoral candidate in Islamic studies and political science at the University of Berkeley, recited for his audience of over 1,200 the Qur’anic verse linking Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) with Jerusalem, the al-Aqsa mosque, the “Night Journey” (Isra), and the Prophet’s subsequent “Ascension to the Heaven” (Miraj): “Limitless in His glory is He Who transported His subject (Muhammad) by night from the Inviolable House of Worship (at Makkah) to the remote House of Worship (at Jerusalem)—the environs of which We had blessed—so that we might show him some of our involvement (in human affairs): for, surely, He alone is all-hearing, all-seeing.” (Qur’an 17:1) It is on this journey that the Creator defined for the Prophet the five canonical prayers for Muslims. To believe in the sanctity and sacredness of al-Quds and al-Aqsa is therefore an integral part of a Muslim’s faith, said Bazian.

Giving the lie to the Zionist propaganda that Jews were the original inhabitants of Palestine, Bazian drew upon historical facts to prove that the land, in fact, belonged to Palestinians long before the first Jewish settler ever made his appearance. The first secular World Zionist Congress met as early as 1897 to draw up plans to carve a homeland for Jews out of Palestine. The Balfour Declaration of 1917, given final form by the World Zionist Congress, pledged British support for establishing just such a homeland for Jews. At that time, more than 90 percent of the population of Palestine were Arabs. And in 1922, the League of Nations gave legitimacy to the designs of the Zionists by supporting the creation of a Jewish nation where Palestinians dwelled for centuries. The Balfour Declaration, in fact, became a part of the mandate of the League of Nations.

In this manner, the treachery against Palestinians began in earnest almost a century ago, explained Bazian. When Britain acquired the mandate to rule Palestine, militant Jews were given free rein to join the British in administering Palestine. Thus the control of the military, economic and political infrastructure of Palestine gradually passed into the hands of Zionists. Jewish companies, for example, controlled the distribution of water and electricity throughout Palestine in the 1920s. The Zionist Legion was integrated into the British army.

In 1922, the Jewish population of Palestine numbered about 80,000, while Palestinians numbered 700,000. Through aggressive resettlement of Jews and forced displacement of Palestinians—as many as 8,000 Jews were streaming into Palestine every month from 1936 to 1939—the Jewish population had increased to 600,000 by 1948.

The Zionists had fulfilled their dream and Israel came into being, with direct support from the West. Palestinians lost their homeland and freedom and became the most dispossessed people on earth.

But this is not the end of the story. It is up to us Muslims, Bazian said, to widen our mental boundaries and devise a practical strategy to help create a homeland for Palestinians. Israel and its Western allies may exult in military might and diplomatic shenanigans, but as long as Muslims remain focused on the injustice done to Palestinians and support them in their just fight for freedom, Palestinians too should be celebrating their independence in the near future.

A Compelling Agenda

Dr. Agha Saeed, professor of political science at the California State University at Hayward and founder of the American Muslim Alliance (AMA), with more than 70 chapters throughout the United States, emphasized that it is the duty of American Muslims to fight Zionism, not with rhetoric but with a clear and compelling agenda. It is the lack of a political agenda and internal cohesion that is hurting Muslims most in the United States, Dr. Saeed explained. To redress the situation, he articulated a plan that would utilize the growing number of Muslims in the United States—estimated at 6 to 8 million—to form a political constituency that any aspiring politician seeking office would have to recognize.

How is it, Dr. Saeed asked, that Israel has been so consistently successful in flouting world opinion by denying Palestinians a homeland of their own? It is because the Israeli lobby recognized long ago that the real power base in the United States lay with the media and the Congress. And so major American Jewish organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) worked tirelessly to take control of these two bastions of power. Now, even if the president or the secretary of state are to ever acknowledge the legitimate rights of Palestinians, American Zionists can manipulate the media and Congress to defeat any policy favoring Palestinian self-rule. The furor over Hillary Clinton’s recent remark that “it will be in the long-term interests of the Middle East for Palestine to be a state,” and the baseless protest by over 80 members of Congress that President Clinton was leaning on Binyamin Netanyahu to make concessions to Yasser Arafat, only underscores the Zionist strategy and power.

How can Muslims neutralize the Zionist influence on the Congress of the United States? Dr. Saeed’s answer: By defining a strategy based on Muslim numbers. There are 11 major states, such as New York, California, and Pennsylvania, that contribute 270 seats to Congress, enough to form a majority in the legislative branch of the United States government. If members of all the major Muslim organizations in the United States agree to vote uniformly in just these 11 major states, it can make the difference in electing politicians who will favor legitimate American and Muslim interests over Zionist-inspired issues. It’s that simple.

At this time, however, Zionists seem to be three steps ahead of us, said Dr. Saeed. Their strategy in neutralizing Muslims in America is to divide us by planting confrontational issues among ourselves. They question our fidelity, keep us on the defensive through stereotyping, lies and deceit, and relentlessly use the media to portray us as terrorists. But most of all, they see to it that congressmen from the major states either deliver on their agenda or risk losing their seats. As Dr. Saeed sees it, if Muslims understand the Zionist strategy and take a proactive approach based on their own agenda, Zionists will fail and Muslims will win.

The future of Palestine lies at the heart of Islam.

Palestine, Dr. Saeed asserted, is not an Arab but an Islamic issue. The future of Palestine and al-Quds lies at the heart of Islam. All young Muslims must be made aware of this so that they can grow up with this sacred sense of responsibility and act upon it. Generational continuity on this issue is more urgent than ever.

Dr. Saeed commented on an article that appeared in the 75th anniversary issue of Foreign Affairs by Prof. Fuad Ajami of the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, who often expresses in Zionist-leaning U.S. publications viewpoints that conform with the hopes and desires of the Israel lobby. In his article, entitled “The Arab Inheritance,” Dr. Ajami charged that a) the Arab inheritance of secularism is lost and b) the new generation of Palestinians consists of “sons without fathers.” Why? Because they demonstrate an “uncompromising” attitude toward their occupiers.

Like his Zionist colleagues, Professor Ajami doesn’t tell us that the loss of secularism was occasioned by four important factors: a) foreign domination and, in some cases, foreign occupation; b) internal oppression; c) manifest failure of secular Arab forces; and d) numerous military victories, aided by the West, of the religiously defined state of Israel.

Professor Ajami contemptuously dismisses “the boys of the intifada,” but fails to note that the loss of secularism has been accompanied by a loss of fear. Dr. Ajami harps on the culture of violence but seems ignorant of the culture of fearlessness. Traveling recently in the West Bank, Professor Saeed witnessed at first hand this fearlessness among unarmed Palestinians who took on Israeli occupiers brandishing guns.

Like Palestinians, we too must overcome the fear of Israel and its lobbies, Dr. Saeed said. This means, for instance, not merely agonizing over Israeli influence on the media and the Congress, but connecting our anguish with a bold ethical and moral strategy.

Dr. Saeed gave deeply disturbing examples of how Israeli government policies end up as official policies of the government of the United States. He cited from the Israeli Defence Doctrine (Klieman and Pedatzur: Rearming Israel: Defence Procurement Through the 1990s, p. 23): “Being able to open, maintain, and, if possible, to widen a qualitative superiority over any combination of potential regional adversaries stands out in sharp relief as the centermost pillar of the Israeli military thinking, and so as the key to the next generation of strategic modernization programs.” Dr. Saeed then noted that statements of policies of the 1992 Republican Party Platform (p. 107), 1996 Republican Party Platform (p. 85), and 1996 Democratic Party Platform (p. 71) all contained exactly the same words vis-á-vis Israel: “qualitative superiority over any combination of potential regional adversaries…”

Another example of a planted idea is that of Jerusalem being the undivided capital of Israel. Israel began suggesting it in 1991. Now U.S. senators and congressmen captive to the Israeli lobby mouth the phrase as if it were an American invention.

According to Professor Saeed, however, Zionism has lost its spell as an ideology. What's more, Muslims are beginning to free themselves from imported ideological frameworks. But he cautioned that much work remained to be done, especially by Muslims in the United States. Dr. Saeed outlined his achievable agenda as follows: a) Recognize that Israel has succeeded in subverting global American interests in favor of its own immoral racial agenda by concentrating on the two main bastions of power in the United States: Congress and the media.

Muslims can use their strength in numbers to neutralize such influences by focusing on 11 key states and voting as a unified group on pro-American and pro-Islamic policies and against any Zionist-inspired issues, Dr. Saeed said. Every eligible Muslim has to vote in every election for this to succeed. b) There must be community-wide consensus among Muslims, to be led by visionary Muslim scholars in the United States. c) There has to be unity of purpose and division of labor among national Muslim political organizations so that our focus never shifts from real issues and our efforts are not duplicated. d) A coordinating Muslim Council should therefore be created to bring all the major Muslim political organizations under one umbrella to act as a coherent unit on major issues. e) A generation of young Muslim leaders must be trained to mold public opinion and to become effective political activists. And finally, f) Muslims must ensure the centrality of al-Quds in the emerging consensual Muslim-American agenda.

Imam Amir Abdul-Malik Ali, leader of the Oakland mosque, stressed the importance of indigenous Muslims and immigrant Muslims complementing, rather than contradicting or neutralizing, each other's work. He observed that Zionists succeed in what they do because they keep the spotlight away from themselves so that they can continue to formulate policies behind the scenes that favor Israel but are detrimental to the interests of the United States. “Our task is to make sure we keep the spotlight focused on the Zionists and their allies so that they are exposed,” Imam Ali declared.

Speaking as an African-American, Imam Ali noted that Zionists take every opportunity to attach themselves to the Black movement whenever it is expedient for them. “But as an oppressed people, we can never side with the oppressor,” Imam Ali said. “Al-Quds belongs to Muslims. Any strategy we define must have this central truth at its core.”

Imam Abu-Qadir Al Amin, leader of the San Francisco Muslim Center, said that he identifies with the oppressed Palestinians because of the oppression his people, the African-Americans, had to endure, and continue to endure, in this country. “The Qur’an demands of me to take a stand for justice. As a Muslim, I take sides with my Palestinian brothers and sisters who suffer injustice day in and day out at the hands of Israelis.” The worst kind of occupation, Imam Amin said, was occupation of the mind. The Zionists try to occupy our minds with their beliefs, their mentality, and their interests. We must always be on guard. The best safeguard against occupation of the mind is to have a clear, proactive agenda of our own.

Imam Amin felt that many Americans were simply unaware of Israeli oppression and the sufferings of Palestinians. It is up to us to inform them of the truth. Once informed, he had no doubt most of them will side with us, he said. “That is why it is necessary to make strategic alliances with those who are not of our belief but who respect us for our sense of justice, our social conscience, and our moral and ethical view of life.”

The most poignant moment came when two young Palestinians, victims of Israeli brutality, were introduced to the conference attendees.

Salam Safi, 9, is from the Al-Amari Refugee camp. She was badly burned on her face, head, and hands when Israeli soldiers broke into her home chasing her brother and kicked an open flame into the bed on which she was sleeping. She was brought to the Shriners Hospital in Sacramento by Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) in 1997 for plastic surgery. Surgeons have been using tissue expanders on her head to slowly replace the hair she lost in the fire. They are also preparing to operate on her skull where an unhealed injury has left her brain exposed.

Badwan Abu-Mayaleh, 16, is from Hebron. He was shot in the head during clashes with the IDF in June 1997. He suffered nerve damage that paralyzed the right side of his body. He also has lost the power to speak. Doctors have operated on him to close an opening in his skull. He is currently undergoing physical, speech, and occupational therapies. He, too, was brought to the United States for medical treatment by PCRF.

A conference such as this is a wake-up call for any thinking Muslim. It is easy to give in to the status quo, to feel helpless, to intellectualize the sufferings of Muslims across the oceans and do nothing. But that would be to deny our faith.

Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan acknowledged in a speech at Haifa in 1967: “There is not one single place built in this country [Israel] that did not have a former Arab population.” And Jewish philosopher Martin Buber wrote in 1961 to his fellow Jews: “Only an internal revolution can have the power to heal our people of their murderous sickness of causeless hatred. It is bound to bring complete ruin upon us. Only then will the old and young in our land realize how great was our responsibility to those Arab refugees in whose towns we have settled Jews who were brought from afar; whose homes we have inherited, whose fields we now sow and harvest; the fruit of whose gardens, orchards and vineyards we gather; and in whose cities that we robbed, we put up houses of education, charity, and prayer while we babble and rave about being the ‘people of the book’ and a ‘light unto the nations.’”

The “United for Al-Quds” conference ended with the following unanimously adopted resolution, drafted by CAIR and read by Fouad Khatib, president of CAIR, California:

“This conference of Muslims of the San Francisco Bay Area recognizes that Palestine is an inheritance and a responsibility of the entire Islamic world. It further recognizes that Palestine was surreptitiously stolen from Muslims.

“Islam seeks to unite mankind, not divide it. This spirit was best demonstrated by Muslims when Palestine was under their rule.

“This conference, therefore, determines that restoration of peace and justice for all in Palestine, and restoration of the Muslim heritage of Palestine, are the collective responsibilities of not merely Arabs or Palestinian Arabs but of the entire Muslim world.

Hasan Zillur Rahim is the editor of IQRA, the national magazine of the South Bay Islamic Association.