Did Muslims ever fear Israel?

Submitted by Infidel (Canada), Aug 28, 2006 at 02:34

In your article Dr. Pipes, you state that "in this mishmash of appeasement and retreat, Israel's enemies rapidly lost their fears and came to see Israel as a paper tiger".

I disagree with your analysis for the following reasons. The Muslims went to war against Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973. Do you really believe that they commenced those wars while fearing Israel? I believe that you have an excellent understanding of the Qur'an yet you are reticent in admitting that Muslims believe every word that is written in their holy book. Religious Jews believe every word of the Torah and a smattering of Christians believe every word of the Torah and the New Testament, but somehow we have difficulty believing that Muslims have the same or stronger belief regarding their holy book.

The writings below were posted on Aljazeera on August 11/06, under comments:

Whats wrong with you Muslims? You have set your sights to low. Don't you know that the world belongs to you. Instead of fighting the Jews, you need to fight the whole world. You should've had control over the whole world by now. Allah is angry because you have forgotten Hadith Volume 9, Book 85, Number 77

"You should Know that the earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle, and I want to exile you from this land, so whoever among you owns some property, can sell it, otherwise you should know that the Earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle."

The above quotes suggest to me that the Muslims have never feared Israel as they fervently believe that Allah is on their side and it's just a matter of time before they rule the world.

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Daniel Pipes replies:

It's a mistake to see every action Muslims take in terms of Islam. Specifically, the prior Arab-Israeli wars had limited religious content in them on the Arab side.