End of Days

It is highly important to understand how a civilization sees the end of days. In Christianity and in Judaism, we know exactly what is the vision of the end of days.

In Judaism, it is going to be as in Isaiah -- peace between nations, not just one nation, but between all nations. People will not have any more need for weapons and nature will be changed -- a beautiful end of days and the kingdom of God on earth.

Christianity goes as far as Revelation to see a day that Satan himself is obliterated. There are no more powers of evil. That's the vision.

I'm speaking now as a historian. I try to understand how Islam sees the end of days. In the end of days, Islam sees a world that is totally Moslem, completely Moslem under the rule of Islam. Complete and final victory.

Christians will not exist, because according to many Islamic traditions, the Moslems who are in hell will have to be replaced by somebody and they'll be replaced by the Christians.

The Jews will no longer exist, because before the coming of the end of days, there is going to be a war against the Jews where all Jews should be killed. I'm quoting now from the heart of Islamic tradition, from the books that are read by every child in school. The Jews will all be killed. They'll be running away and they'll be hiding behind trees and rocks, and on that day Allah wil give mouths to the rocks and trees and they will say, "Oh Moslem come here, there is a Jew behind me, kill him." Without this, the end of days cannot come. This is a fundamental of Islam.

Is There a Possibility to End This Dance of War?

The question which we in Israel are asking ourselves is: What will happen to our country? Is there a possibility to end this dance of war?

The answer is, "No. Not in the foreseeable future." What we can do is reach a situation where for a few years we may have relative quiet.

But for Islam, the establishment of the state of Israel was a reverse of Islamic history. First, Islamic territory was taken away from Islam by Jews. You know by now that this can never be accepted, not even one meter. So everyone who thinks Tel Aviv is safe is making a grave mistake. Territory, which at one time was dominated by Islamic rule, now has become non-Moslem. Non-Moslems are independent of Islamic rule; Jews have created their own independent state. It is anathema.

And (this is worst of all) Israel, a non-Moslem state, is ruling over Moslems. It is unthinkable that non-Moslems should rule over Moslems.

I believe that Western civilization should pull together and provide mutual support. Whether this will happen or not, I don't know. Israel finds itself on the front lines of this war. It needs the help of its sister civilization. It needs the help of America and Europe. It needs the help of the Christian world. One thing I am sure about, this help can be given by individual Christians who see this as the road to salvation.  

Moshe Sharon is professor of Islamic History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Ruth King

Fear Not Your Enemies

"Fear not your enemies, for they can only kill you. Fear not your friends, for they can only betray you. Fear only the indifferent, who permit the killers and betrayers to walk safely on the earth."
     -- Edward Yashinsky, a Yiddish poet who survived the Holocaust only to die in a Communist prison in Poland.

April 19th is the sixty-first anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The revolt coincided with Passover and deserves to be commemorated during the retelling of the Jewish exodus from Egypt.

In November 1940, the Jewish population of Warsaw was forcibly located inside an area designated to house all Jews. By the middle of the month, their previous homes were given to local Poles, usually as a reward for their cooperation in rounding up Jews. Jewish men, women and children began to die from disease, beatings, torture, or execution. Nonetheless, crowding increased as Jews from neighboring villages were herded into the squalid homes of the ghetto. Conditions became increasingly unbearable. Then the systematic transports to the concentration camps began. Between July and September of 1942, 300,000 Jews were transferred. By early 1943, the population of Jews in the ghetto was reduced to 56,000. Those who did not die were sent to the extermination camps.

A resistance group had begun to form in the ghetto as early as 1942. Members used smuggled guns and manufactured homemade explosives, sporadically attacking the Germans. The Germans began to accelerate the transports and empty the ghetto of its threadbare and emaciated Jews. Finally, on April 19th, 1943, the coordinated uprising began and the Jews held off the Germans for almost a month. The Germans, stunned by the power and vigor of the revolt, called for reinforcements and tanks. On May 16th, the Germans began to torch the entire ghetto and the revolt was crushed. Eight thousand Jews were shot and the rest sent to the extermination

April 2004               - 11 -               Outpost