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Introducing Muslim Zionism

(Forward) Einat Wilf, Ibrahim Al Rashidi and Maryam AlZaabi - We are a Jewish Zionist, an Arab Zionist and a Muslim Zionist. It is time to dispense with the idea that to be a proud Arab and Muslim one must be an anti-Zionist. The inculcation and dissemination of anti-Zionism in the Arab and Islamic world has resulted in a massive waste of valuable resources while trying to oust a people who were not at all foreigners and very much belonged in the region. Zionism is the political movement for the liberation and self-determination of the Jewish people in their ancient homeland. It asks that the Jews, as a people, should be able to govern themselves as an equal nation in the only land which ever formed the consistent and core part of their identity as a people and a nation. There is nothing in Arab history and in Islam that necessitates fierce opposition to this idea. Arab identity can and should stand on its own merits and has no real need to resort to the negation of Jews and their history. Zionism was never about replacing Arabs but about living with them and next to them as an equal nation and people. Historically, the golden age of Islamic rule is also the one in which Jews residing in the lands of Islam enjoyed a level of acceptance and tolerance that far surpassed that of Europe's at the time. Dr. Einat Wilf is a former member of the Israeli Knesset. Ibrahim Al Rashidi is of Emirati and Lebanese origins, currently living in Brazil. Maryam AlZaabi is an Emirati student at Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi.
2020-12-31 00:00:00
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