On November 2, 2020 a YouTube video appeared entitled Will You marry me, Dear Prince Fazza. The video was rather random, – showing Fazza cooking (with his money one would think he could hire a chef), shooting a rifle, working out at a gym , feeding birds, and lots os shots with he and children (not his own). None of it had anything to do with marriage and there were no women present and accountable in the entire filming. But, none the less, I responded on public comment saying: “How amusing! Under the faith you have to be a virgin when you marry and you are not. Whereas I am. So no thanks dear. “ Got a notification that Dear Prince Fazza loved my comment. But I made others: another amusing response would be to your Will You Marry me, is this. I thought you would never ask! Hahaha But you would shiver at the marriage contract I would make in the Muslim marriage. Alexis. This also got a notification that he loved the comment as well, Then, feeling in a bratty mood, I also wrote:
I cannot marry you even if you asked. You have to repent, believe and perform a charitable act according to the Quran. And then, unfortunately abdicate. It is a lot to ask but I am worth it. It would bring happiness – know it to be so. Allah does promise that to those that follow the faith. Alexis (aka Ayla)”. Again Dear Prince Fazza loved the comment. But another person hit the nail on the head: “Hang in there and you might try a better method, like showing up or calling her up in a video chat in either case, am really sorry 🧡🙏🏽be strong Hamdan. This is not a competition. It’s a real life and if you love that person than quit posting it and grab when you can” I would say that is great advice. However, it does appear that Hamdan has difficulties with making commitments – he just posts rather than perform. .
So this was all rather amusing. But I do definitely have a serious side as well. After reading the Quran I had questions about the relationship between Jews and Muslims, saying to myself:
Me: If I were Jewish and read this Quran I would become a Muslim real quick. It does not look good for non believers on the Day of Judgment.
Alter Ego: I agree with you. It looks like Hell Fire for the Jews particularly if they ignored a Messenger who clearly communicated that they should honour and obey Allah.
So off Alexis went to the Internet and found a treatise written and submitted by The Institute of Islamic Studies which answered so many questions and broadened my understanding.
This from the Introduction does clarify the situation. “Ethnic identities have sometimes been conflated with religious identities by both outsiders and insiders, complicating the task of analyzing intergroup and intercommunal relations. For example, Muslims have often been equated with Arabs, effacing the existence of Christian and Jewish Arabs (i.e., members of those religions whose language is Arabic and who participate primarily in Arab culture), ignoring non-Arab Muslims who constitute the majority of Muslims in the world. In some instances, relations between Arabs and Israelis have been understood as Muslim-Jewish relations, ascribing aspects of Arab culture to the religion of Islam and Israeli culture to Judaism. This is similar to what happened during the Crusades.”
Then this analysis: “Another important tool for analyzing Muslim-Jewish-Christian relations is the placement of ideas and behaviors in specific temporal and geographic contexts. Visions of the past have had a strong influence on each of the religions, and none more strongly than Islam. Many Muslims have as keen an awareness of the events around the time of the Prophet as they do their own time. It is important for a practicing Muslim to know what the Prophet did in his relations with Jews and Christians as a means of shaping their own behavior toward them. The Qur’an and the sunna of the Prophet are key guides for a Muslim in dealing with Jews and Christians, as they are in all areas of conduct.”
This Institute is located in London, interestingly, right in my old stomping ground, Aga Khan Centre10 Handyside St,King’s Cross, N1C 4DN United Kingdom. But I was not a Muslim when I lived in London, how inconvenient.
But here is the core problem. Muhammed, by the way was born in 570 CE, received his first revelation in 610 CE. “A central doctrine of Islam places Muhammad at the end of a chain of prophets from God, starting with Adam and embracing the major prophetic figures of Judaism and Christianity, including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Denial of this central idea by Jews and Christians is said to be a result of the corruption of the sacred texts, either inadvertently or on purpose. This disparity of perspective underlies much of what Muslims believe about their Jewish and Christian forebears, and conditions Islamic triumphalist views about the validity of Islam against the partial falsity of the other two traditions.”As Islam spreads to new places in the world, more and more Muslims are living as minorities in non-Muslim lands. This, too, has proved to be an intellectual challenge. Some Muslim states and organisations have tried to revive a notion of Dhimmi in reverse, seeking to be the protectors of the rights of Muslims in non-Muslim countries, as, for example, the Muslim World League and the Islamic Call Society. Linked to these ideas is the notion of the da‘wa, or the invitation to Islam to non-Muslims. The situation of minority Muslim communities in Africa, North America, and Asia, many of whom express Islam in ways different from those in Muslim-majority countries where Islam and indigenous cultures are intermixed, is prompting a form of inter-Muslim ecumenism parallel to the willingness of Muslims to participate in the essentially ecumenical dialogues with Jews and Christians, the aims of which are understanding without attempts at conversion.
For a few, in a quest to use the Islamic historical past to explain the present, the negative accounts of Judaism and Christianity became abstracted so as to conflate the past with the present Arab-Israeli and East-West conflicts; for example, biblical descriptions of Jews rebelling against God’s commands. Medinan Jewish opposition to the forming Muslim state and Israeli actions against Palestinians were read together as an eternal Jewish character, a view sometimes informed by Western anti-Semitic literature.
Admittedly this writing is complicated, intellectual and dense but it certainly explains a great deal and did answer almost all of the questions I had.
There is much made in these days about anti-Semitism. I assert that I am NOT anti-Semitic. I am Anti-Aggressor,(Israel), I am Anti-Arrogant (many the world over) but I am not Anti- Semitic . And if I were a woman living in Israel in the ultra-orthodox communities which refuse to abide by the restrictions of the Isreali government attempting to suppress the coronavirus – I would convert. Those women at the present time have no rights and privileges – none. Rights, privileges and respect have always been present for Muslim women – who can own property and conduct their own affairs. Hold office, take an active role in the political life of their countries. Oh, I guess I am Anti-Oppressor which is the complexion Ultra-Conservative Jewish men.
