Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JDN who wrote (254470)	5/12/2002 3:33:15 PM
From: Scumbria	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

What is Arab Islamic tradition and history when it comes to treaties and peace-making? The 'Hudibiyya' and 'Salah a-Din' Agreements Mohammed, the 7th century founder of Islam, once signed a 10-year peace treaty with the enemy tribe of Koreish. However, after only two years into the treaty, Mohammed's military position improved whereupon he tore up this "Hudibiyya Agreement" and slaughtered the Koreishites. Salah a-Din (Saladin) was the Muslim leader who, after a cease-fire, declared a jihad against the Crusaders and captured Jerusalem If a PA (Palestinian Authority) cabinet minister were to compare the Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and the Palestinian people to the Hudibiyya Agreement, he would be suggesting that the treaty were only a temporary truce. Not only have cabinet ministers done just that... so has the leader of the Palestinian people! Speaking to a rally of his Fatah movement in Ramallah just last November 16, 1998, Yasser Arafat said, "When we chose the peace of the brave [the Oslo and Wye Accords], we chose it with trust in the Prophet who agreed to the treaty of Hudibiyya..." On numerous previous occasions (and certainly to be continued in the future), both Arafat and other senior PA officials have assured Arab audiences that their treaties with Israel are only "temporary truces" rather than genuine, permanent peace agreements. Address to a rally in Ramallah broadcast on official Palestinian Television, November 15, 1998: "We chose the peace of the brave out of faith in the prophet, in the Khudaibiya agreement." Newspaper interview, Al-Quds, May 10, 1998: Question: Do you feel sometimes that you made a mistake in agreeing to Oslo? Arafat: No . . . no. Allah's messenger Mohammad accepted the al-Khudaibiya [Hudibiyya] peace treaty and Salah a-Din accepted the peace agreement with Richard the Lion-Hearted." Interview on Egyptian Orbit TV, April 18, 1998: Question: How do you explain that you occasionally ask the Palestinian street not to explode? Arafat: When the prophet Muhammad made the Khudaibiya [Hudibiyya] agreement, he agreed to remove his title "messenger of Allah" from the agreement. Then, Omar bin Khatib and the others referred to this agreement as the "inferior peace agreement." Of course, I do not compare myself to the prophet, but I do say that we must learn from his steps and those of Salah a-Din. The peace agreement which we signed is an "inferior peace". The conditions [behind it] are the intifada, which lasted for seven years. Question: For practical reasons, do you now suggest to maintain quiet despite everything? Arafat: Yes, I suggest we maintain quiet. We respect agreements the way that the prophet Muhammad and Salah a-Din respected the agreements which they signed. But, you may say, what about the Camp David Peace Accords? Mubarak annulled them 10 years after they were signed, as mandated by the tenets of Islam in the Koran: 'You may sign a peace treaty with your enemy, the infidel, but only for 10 years. When he's weakened, you must take back in blood what you previously lost.' The Arab states have broken over 350 agreements between themselves in this century. Contracts and agreements are meaningless in the Middle East, a simple fact the West and Israel have been slow to learn. - Emanuel A. Winston, Middle East analyst & commentator yahoodi.com