Imam Mohammad Tawhidi on Peace Between Jews and Muslims: Permissible and Achievable

Imam Mohammad Tawhidi is an Islamic scholar, educator, and vice president of the Global Imams Council (GIC), a global council of fourteen hundred Islamic scholars and faith leaders, both Sunni and Shia, from a wide array of Islamic sects and schools of thought. Tawhidi spoke to a June 9^th Middle East Forum Webinar (video) about the prospects for peace between Muslims and Jews. The following is a summary of the imam’s comments:

The Abraham Accords have created opportunities for peace in the Middle East between Muslims and Jews. Participating Middle Eastern rulers have seen that “seventy [plus] years of investing into the Palestinian cause was an absolute waste.” Instead, they chose an “open peace” with Israel. While further progress under the Accords is dependent on the U.S. administration in office, there has been renewed interest following positive changes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The KSA religious authorities are holding “discussions of peace in the region” as the country prioritizes its economy, trade, and security needs. “Peace already exists; it’s just the formalities of peace, and for it to be established.”

Even though it is not a signatory, the KSA defended the Accords. On three episodes on Arabia TV, the former Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Bandar bin Sultan, justified the Arab stance regarding the Palestinians. Although the Saudis continue to advocate on behalf of a Palestinian state, they are “on the verge” of considering it a hopeless cause if the Palestinians do not want peace. Mohammed bin Salman’s (MbS) priority is to maintain the KSA as the “country of Mecca and Medina” and to defend Islam’s interests. He will not risk harming his kingdom’s interests. His position will be “we can’t continue keeping our interest hostage because you guys do not want peace.” Despite all the aid the Arab world gives to Palestinians, there are still Palestinians who set pictures of the Saudi king ablaze on the Temple Mount.

The Palestinian push for two states ignores the fact that they “already have three states.” The first is Jordan, a country created by the British and headed by a king who is Saudi, not Jordanian. The second is Gaza, and the third is in the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority (PA). A state requires three essential elements: a head of state; a military (although there are countries that do not have an army and still maintain alliances with NATO, for example); and an economy. “The Palestinians have that in three different places.”

Also worth noting is that, although “Arabized,” Palestinians are not Arab. Arabs descended from an Arab tribe but living in Palestinian areas are indigenous to Arabia, not Judea. Consider the example of Egypt, which calls itself the Arab Republic of Egypt. Due to the spread of Islam, they are actually Arabized Africans, not descendants of Arab tribes in Yemen. Palestinians do not descend from Arab tribes; rather, they comprise “remnants” of nations that ruled over the land in the past, be they Romans, Turks, or Circassians.

Recently, there was an unprecedented development in the non-governmental clerical body of Sunni and Shia clerics headquartered in Najaf, Iraq, called the Islamic Fatwa Council (IFC). The IFC issued a fatwa [religious edict] against Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) franchise in Gaza which was designated a terrorist entity by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and throughout the Gulf. The fatwa holds Hamas accountable in global Muslim courts, and because it is Islamically legally binding, the fatwa will isolate and financially weaken Hamas. Even those who still support Hamas in the KSA and the UAE are “dealt with severely,” given that they are in violation of Islamic law. The toughest response to the fatwa by PA ambassadors was to voice disagreement; no one dared to seek its withdrawal because of the power of an Islamic decree. Those who do would have their standing as just leaders called into question because they will be publicly violating God’s law.

Unfortunately, the Gulf states have recently been pushed to restore relations with Iran, a dangerous and illegitimate regime that “should always be a red line.” Regardless of the relationship between the Gulf states and the U.S. that created such pressure, there should be no dealings with the Iranian regime. The last forty years of conflict between the Palestinians and the Jewish state have been “largely fueled by the regime and its propaganda.” The best-case scenario is a post-regime “democratic and free Iran that is friends with the Jewish people” to ensure stability in the region.

That is not to say there are no challenges to the Accords. Some members of the UAE’s ruling class are “not on board ideologically” regarding peace with Israel, despite the federal government’s issuance of a decree. Religious belief that peace between Muslims and Jews is illegitimate and impermissible drives the elite’s resistance. In this regard, although the Quran orders Muslims to obey their host countries’ laws when organizing daily matters, it is the ultimate authority dictating Muslims’ adherence to their religious principles. “Therefore, we need to always refer back to the Holy Quran because that is how you put the Islamist in a corner.” In the Quran, chapter five, verse twenty onwards clearly stipulates that God granted the Jews the “Holy Land known as Jerusalem and Sinai,” — lands even larger than present-day Israel.

Arab lands known as Arabia are where Arabs originated. Arabia begins at the Gulf of Oman and includes Oman, the KSA, the UAE, Yemen, up to the Jordan River. Across the Jordan River is Judea, the land of the Jewish people, which originally extended down to northern Egypt and included many bodies of water. God ordered Moses, His messenger and prophet, to enter and claim the land or risk losing the struggle of “truth versus falsehood.”

Islamists who reject God’s words in the Quran claim that, because some Jews at the time “refrained from entering the Holy Land out of fear they would be persecuted” by the tyrants who were then in control of Jerusalem, Jews are no longer “entitled” to the land. This “nonsense” claim is irrelevant. Whether or not a relative handful of Jews opted out has no bearing on the directive because Moses obeyed God’s command. The Jewish tribes entered, flourished, and established God’s temple in a Jewish commonwealth with Jerusalem as Judea’s capital. Moses led the tribes to their birthright, and he and his people “were indigenous to this Holy Land.”

Rejecting the “religious grant” God issued to Moses is akin to rejecting the Islamic prophet Mohammad’s legitimacy. The Islamic prophet was from the Quraish tribe in Mecca, and the other tribes there “submitted” to him, following God’s directive to him to claim Mecca as the capital of the Muslim world, the “ummah.” Islamists’ claim that the Holy Land does not belong to the Jewish people renders all of God’s Jewish prophets, acknowledged and accepted in the Quran, as “stateless,” thereby making the Islamist argument a weak one.

The Muslim World League (MWL), a Saudi government organization with a “troubling history,” has “transformed itself” by instituting positive changes and is now the Sunni guide for “what Islam should look like” in 2023 “and beyond.” The MWL’s Secretary General, Sheik Abdul Karim Al-Issa, codified his vision in the Charter of Makkah, which offers guidance to the global “ummah” based on principles about the true meaning of Islam, while also protecting Muslim communities from the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamists. The Charter, established by a coalition of Muslim scholars and issued from the holiest city in Islam, is recognized as mainstream in the Sunni world. It “paves the way for peace that is in line with the Holy Quran and the hadith in a way that is indisputable.”

Although Tawhidi’s message was considered “controversial” prior to 2020, it is now seen as “normal” owing to Muslim countries’ participation in the Accords. Tawhidi is committed to quote Quranic verses in support of his position because they are facts. “There’s nothing to fear when you are preaching for the truth.” The GIC seeks a genuine peace that makes “Father Abraham” proud of his offspring, both Arabs and Jews. It is “our vision to see a peace between Muslims and Jews that is founded upon the truth, not founded upon politics.”