Reorienting…
To The Family of Ibrahim/Avraham

• 1920-1948 Palestine defined by British Mandate as today's combined Yisrâ·eil and Hashemite Jordan – The British Mandate of 1922 was the first official recognition of "Palestine" since the fourth century C.E. Roman Empire, when the Levant became a neglected and indistinguishable region of other provinces.
       The only authority for the British Mandate was a blip on the historical record whose existence spanned only 26 years – the post-World War I League of Nations (1920.01.20 – 1946.04.18). The League of Nations thereupon transferred its non-existent "authority" to the U.N. (!) – a "second edition" feckless farce, still younger than many people, fobbing off consensus votes (resolutions) as if they decreed international law. Interestingly, Islam recognizes the jurisdiction of the British Mandate, the United Nations, the League of Nations and the Roman Empire on par with the Word of the Creator no more than Y^әhudim!!!
  
  
• 1516-1917 Turkish Ottomans – Before the post-WW-II British Mandate of 1922, the Levant was administered by the Turkish (Ottoman) empire as a portion of its Syrian province identifiable only as a "Y^әrushâlayim/al Quds Region." The Ottomans took control of the Levant from the Mamluks in 1516 when they defected from the Mamluks, effecting a peaceful transition of rule from Mamluk to Ottoman.
  
  
• 1250-1516 Egyptian Mamluks – who merged the areas of Egypt and the Levant into the Mamluk Sultanate. The Mamluks overthrew the Ayyubids, ca. 1250, to rule Y^әrushalayim. There is no record of any redefinition of provincial borders. They continued to identify the Levant only as a "Y^әrushâlayim/al Quds Region" in the province of Syria.
  
  
• 1187-1250 Kurdish Sunni-Muslim Ayyubids – defeated the Crusaders to rule the Levant. There is no record of any redefinition of provincial borders. They continued to identify the Levant only as a "Y^әrushâlayim/al Quds Region" in the province of Syria.
  
  
• 1099-1187 European Crusaders Rule the Levant – During their rule, the Crusaders called the area of ancient Yisrâ·eil the "Kingdom of Jerusalem," not "Palestine." The Crusaders captured Y^әrushalayim from the Seljuk Turks in 1099.
  
  
• 1076-1099 Turkish Sunni-Muslim Seljuks Rule the Levant – In 1076, under Jalal ad-Dawlah Malik Shah, Seljuk Turks captured Y^әrushâlayim. Except as the region of Y^әrushâlayim the area was undefined under Seljuk Sunni-Muslim Turkish rule, not a separate or distinct administered entity. The Seljuk Sunni-Muslim Turks conquered the Levant from Tunisian-Egyptian Shiite-Muslim Fatimid Khilaphah Rules.
  
  
• 970-1076 Tunisian-Egyptian Shiite-Muslim Fatimid Khilaphah Rules the Levant – Syrian Shiite-Muslims, known as the Fatimite Khilaphah (claiming descent from Muhamed's daughter, Fatima), conquered the region from Syria to Egypt. They apparently continued to refer to the Levant as a region of Syria.
  
  
• 750-970 Iraqi Sunni-Muslim Abassid Khilaphah Rules the Levant – the entire Levant appears to have been merely a region of the province of Syria.
  
  
• 661-750 Syrian Muslim Umayyad Khilaphah Rules the Levant – continued administering the Byzantine provincial entities, under which the entire eastern Mediterranean was identified as a single unit: "Holy Diocese of the East" (origin of the Arabic name "al-Quds" – "the Holy"), which the Umayyads claimed as part of Syria.
  
  
• 638-660 (Six Years after Muhamed's Death) Arab Muslims captured Y^әrushâlayim, Beginning Islamic Rule of the Levant – The Muslims continued the Greek Orthodox (Byzantine) Romans' provincial identities wherein the entire eastern Mediterranean was identified as a single unit: the "Holy Diocese of the East."
  
  
• 629-638 Roman Greek Orthodox Christian Byzantines, Second Rule of the Levant – Of course, continued the Greek Orthodox (Byzantine) Romans' provincial identities.
  
  
• 614-629 Persian Zoroastrian Sassanids conquer Y^әrushâlayim and Rule the Levant – (welcomed by Y^әhudim who had been oppressed by the Christians), apparently continued the Greek Orthodox (Byzantine) Romans' provincial identities.
  
  
• 325-614 C.E. Roman Greek Orthodox Christian Byzantines, First Rule of the Levant – The entire eastern Mediterranean was identified as a single unit: "Holy Diocese of the East."
  
  
• B.C.E. 135 – 324 C.E. Roman-occupied "Palestine"
  
  
• B.C.E. 63 – 135 C.E. Sovereign Nation of Yisrâ·eil/Y^әhudâh under Roman occupation, culminating in their obliteration of Judea-Yisrâ·eil and expulsion of the Y^әhudim in 135 C.E. – first establishing "Palestine"
  
  
• B.C.E. 1427 – 135 C.E. Sovereign Nation of Yisrâ·eil/Y^әhudâh – What is today Yisrâ·eil became the sovereign nation of Yisrâ·eil beginning with the conquest of Y^әhoshua ha-Navi Bin-Nun in B.C.E. 1427 (dated from the Santorini volcanic eruption, see my Chronology of the Tan"kh from the 'Big Bang'). Dawid ha-melekh conquered Y^әrushalayim, establishing Y^әrushalayim as the capital of Yisrâ·eil in B.C.E. 1024. Yisrâ·eil split into two nations, Yisrâ·eil and Y^әhudâh in B.C.E. 951 (Chronology). The Ten Northern Tribes of Yisrâ·eil were conquered and expelled by the Syrians, becoming the "Ten Lost Tribes" in B.C.E. 722, leaving Y^әhudâh as the lone Jewish nation with Y^әrushalayim remaining its capital. Though under Roman occupation from B.C.E. 63 to 135 C.E., Yisrâ·eil-Y^әhudâh remained distinct, identified as Y^әhudâh – for which Y^әhudim are named – and Yisrâ·eil, land of the Y^әhudim and-or Yisrâ·eilim.
       (The only pre-Roman mention of "Philistinian Syria" – was by Herodotus in B.C.E. 5^th century, referring to the Phoenicians who migrated from Pilos, Greece via Theros/Santorini – Greeks, not Arabs, and predating the birth of the first Arab by several centuries. These were the historical Pilos-tinians.
  
  
• From the beginning of recorded history until B.C.E. 1427 – the only identification of what is today Yisrâ·eil was known as K^әna·an a region of disparate enclaves – not a distinct nation or people – containing an assortment of small kingdoms and peoples that predated the first Arab and Y^әhudi by centuries.
       Beginning in B.C.E. 1427, the ancient record documents that Y^әhoshua ha-Navi Bin-Nun began the conquest of K^әna·an, Of the conquered K^әna·anim, all adult males were either killed in battle or enslaved (later to be freed and assimilated into Yisrâ·eil) while women and children were directly assimilated into Yisrâ·eil. Thus, all vestiges of the K^әna·anim were absorbed into Yisrâ·eil and the indigenous people of the Holy Land were, forever after, solely the Yisrâ·eil
  im, and later, the Y^әhudim .
  
  

While modern historians frequently superimpose "Palestine" into historical settings, this is a modern, but scholarly inaccurate and shoddy, shortcut when they mean "in what I today call…" i.e., the Holy Land or part of the Levant. Thus, the only official recognition of "Palestine" in the modern era refers to the combined area of today's Yisrâ·eil and Hashemite-Jordan, with no other historical basis since the Roman Empire – which Muslims don't recognize as religiously authoritative any more than Y^әhudim do!!!

Referring to the earliest extant manuscripts and documentation of the family of Avrâhâm, which Muslims must choose whether they will presume to contradict as a Displacement Theology, the Creator deeds the Holy Land to Yisrâ·eil.

Modern Muslim Terrorism

Several years ago, I first issued a call on our website for prominent Muslim leaders to condemn Islamic terrorism. To date, there has only been one response – from an American Muslim who insisted that Islamic terrorism didn't exist.

Today, prominent Muslim voices are emerging, unambiguously condemning Islamic terrorism and calling for dialogue, understanding and, hopefully, tolerance and respect. Those of us with a sense of responsibility must help amplify their voices.

	2008.02 – "An Open Letter: A Call To Peace, Dialogue and Understanding Between Muslims and Jews," from Muslim scholars from the Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations, part of the Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths, Cambridge.
Mona Eltahawy	Mona Eltahawy, Muslim journalist — BBC Doha Debates, this journalist crushed her opponents, demonstrating the most formidable voice for reason in the Islamic world to date.
Brigitte Gabriel	Brigitte Gabriel — Founder and President, American Congress for Truth (americancongressfortruth.com) and author of Because They Hate; Fox News guest commentator
Ed Husain	Ed Husain; British campaigner against fundamentalism and author of The Islamist
Arsalan Iftikhar	Arsalan Iftikhar, US human rights lawyer
Daisy Khan	Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement
Moez Masoud	Moez Masoud, Muslim 'televangelist'
Kamal Nawash	Kamal Nawash — Fox's O'Reilly Factor
Abdallah Schleifer	Abdallah Schleifer — BBC Doha Debates, this journalist was the only debater in Mona's league.

The most effective way that moderate conservatives — moderate Torah Y^әhudim, moderate Muslims and moderate Christians — can exert influence in the world is to join together in the realization that we all strive to serve the same Almighty One and, consequently, stressing tolerance and respect for each other's dignity, especially when disagreeing on points of theology.

Torah Y^әhudim, Muslims and Christians don't need to agree on every issue in order to

1. Become more active in negating the simplistic, hateful and violent heretics who exist in all three faiths — beginning with our own faith first,
   
   
2. Encourage increasing understanding of the enormity of that challenge to moderate conservatives in the other two faiths, thereby developing greater tolerance toward the moderate conservatives of other two faiths and
   
   
3. On an entire range of moral values that all three faiths share and social issues on which all three faiths can agree, moderate conservatives of each faith should reconcile with each other to work together in tolerance, cooperating to become a joint force in repairing the world — as befits children of the One Almighty.
   
   

Serving the One Almighty further dictates that, in areas of disagreement, discourse between us should be civil, respectful and tolerant; with no need to compromise on any point of truth. After all, whichever faith is true — logical, scientific and historically documented — will prevail in intelligent discourse. No amount of force or terror inflicted by fallible men can for long suppress truth in today's ever-shrinking global information highway, nor long impose a faith that isn't true. Scientists routinely disagree. Disagreement is healthy as long as logic, science, historical documentation, facts and civility rule. Violence and terror as heroic tools to further religious aims must be aggressively excised from each of the three faiths.

This is a particularly challenging objective at a time when gratuitous beheadings by Muslims evoke no response while a cartoon evinces world-wide Islamic violence and killings, when the Muslims of Iran join Hamas Muslims in their effort to eliminate Yisrâ·eil from the world in another Holocaust, while the misojudaic canard, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, continues to proliferate unabated on Islamic websites – decades after being exposed as false. The only counter that has been shown effective in combating The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, while the world practices avoidspeak (as they did prior to WW-II), is demonstrating how simply such charges can be applied to anyone – through the anonymous satire of (or pattern for?) it: The Protocols of Learned Sheikhs of Jihad!

The One Almighty is real. Basing faith on the truth of reality creates an unshakable foundation that inevitably leads to convergence in the One Almighty. Putting faith before truth and reality, by contrast, leads, first of all, to untrue and errant religion. Secondly, putting faith before truth and reality creates breeches, greater divergence, radicalism and conflict between the three faiths that claim to derive from Avraham. If you're confident that your religion is true, then ensure that truth and intelligent discourse, not violence nor terror, prevail in your religion. Whether it's a Jewish underground, Christian supremicists or Muslim terrorists, having to resort to violence and terror against non-combatants in the name of a religion is proof that their version of religion cannot withstand intelligent discourse, proof that they cannot defend their religion with truth — proof that it is a false interpretation of religion.

The path defined by documented history, fact, logic and science (e.g. physics and cosmology) is the only path that leads with certainty to the real Almighty of the real world. This remains true regardless whether one is a Jew beginning in Judaism, a Christian beginning in Christianity or a Muslim beginning in Islam. Documented history, fact, logic and science inexorably constrain every intelligent, rational and logical person to the same facts about the historically-documented teachings of the last historically-documented teacher shared by all three faiths springing from Abraham — Ribi Y^әhoshua of Nazareth.

Because he was the last historically-documented teacher shared by the three major faiths of Abraham, Ribi Y^әhoshua and his documented historical teachings — as contrasted with the documented anachronistic schismatic distortions of them redacted long after his death — represent the only key to reconciling Torah Y^әhudim, Muslims and Christians in the single Creator of all of the universe and of all mankind. Diplomats and politicians of the world are increasingly beginning to realize that the schisms that have since developed between these three faiths comprise the primary engine that drives a myriad of conflicts and terrorism in the world today. These conflicts aren't driven by poverty or human rights issues and cannot be solved by economic or democratic mechanisms. Coming to terms with the historically authentic, original, teachings of their last shared teacher is, therefore, essential, relevant and urgent to all three faiths, and is the unique key to resolving some of the most intractable conflicts in the world. When, soul by soul, these three faiths of Abraham converge toward a logical and scientific understanding of the historical documentation describing their last shared teacher of the One Almighty they will necessarily converge toward each other, healing the schisms in the family of Abraham, soul by soul, and unifying their vision — and the Name — of the Creator.

For all of these reasons, moderate conservative Torah Y^әhudim, Muslims and Christians should cooperate together in investigating and encouraging the application of documented history, fact, logic and science in our respective faiths.

You're invited to participate—blogback—in our Web Café to ask questions, discuss and support joint cooperation toward shared goals of Biblical interests and values through useful—civil—discourse serving to bring the Abrahamic faiths closer to the One — real and true — Almighty and, therefore, to each other.