The diplomatic hullabaloo began with a post on the official Facebook page of the Israeli embassy in Singapore on Sunday that stated: “Israel is mentioned 43 times in the Quran. On the other hand, Palestine is not mentioned even once.”
The post continued: “Each and every archeological evidence – maps, documents, coins, link the land of Israel to the Jewish people as the indigenous people of the land.”
The post also featured this meme:
There’s nothing new or innovative about this post. Of course, Palestine is not mentioned in the Quran because Arabs didn’t start referring to themselves as Palestinians before the Zionist endeavor to reclaim Eretz Israel. They didn’t need to, they, like the vast majority of Arabs from India to Morocco were not even aware that the European colonial forces were dividing them into freshly-marked countries with puppet rulers. They were convinced they were Arabs.
Before we continue, there is one glaring inaccuracy in the post: according to the Torah, the Jewish people were not the indigenous people of the land. In the Torah and the Jewish sacred books that followed, the Israelites conquered the land from the Canaanites, the indigenous folks, as per the will of the Creator.
Anyway, Singapore was not amused, which is what this story is really about.
Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam ordered the embassy to take down the post, which they did immediately. Hey, in Singapore you get caned for spitting on the sidewalk.
Minister Shanmugam denounced the post, calling it “completely unacceptable,” and telling reporters on Monday that he was “very upset” when he became aware of it.
According to the Channel News Asia video below, Shanmugam said, “The post is wrong at many levels. First, it is insensitive and inappropriate. It carries the risk of undermining our safety, security, and harmony in Singapore. We look after the safety of everyone in Singapore – majority and minorities.” He pointed out that so far, the Jews in Singapore have “very little concern for their safety and security,” and such posts are likely to “inflame tensions and can put the Jewish community here at risk.”
And then he said something that was totally Zen: “The anger from the post can potentially spill over into the physical realm.”
Something to contemplate, preferably while in the lotus position.
Now, some facts, perhaps to confuse Minister Shanmugam.
Imam Abdul Hadi Palazzi, leader of the Italian Muslim Assembly and a co-founder and co-chairman of the Islam-Israel Fellowship, was asked close to 15 years ago what the Quran really has to say about the State of Israel, as opposed to what it says about Mohammad’s contemporary Jews and the Biblical Israelites.
Imam Palazzi set the record straight, saying, “The Qur’an cannot deal with the State of Israel as we know it today, since that State only came into existence in 1948, i.e. many centuries after the Qur’an itself was revealed. However, the Qur’an specifies that the Land of Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people, that God Himself gave that Land to them as heritage and ordered them to live therein. It also announces that – before the end of time – the Jewish people will come from many different countries to retake possession of that heritage of theirs. Whoever denies this actually denies the Qur’an itself. If he is not a scholar, and in good faith believes what other people say about this issue, he is an ignorant Muslim. If, on the contrary, he is informed about what the Qur’an and openly opposes it, he ceases to be a Muslim.”
As I mentioned above, faced with the choice of being right or smart, the Israeli embassy picked the latter, which is what diplomats should do. As for Shanmugam, all he wanted was industrial peace.
