The Jewish roots of ‘Takfiri’ culture

This tribal intolerance of any creed other than the one accepted and embraced by the tribe (be that Israelite or Islamist) is what we could safely identify as one of the characteristics of ancient Arabian culture.

By Dr. Ashraf Ezzat

It all started after the chaotic and unanticipated shockwaves of protests in the Middle East, otherwise known as the Arab Spring. Even those who saw the Arab Spring coming never thought it would lead to war and destruction of such frightening scale. It is mind boggling; where all those fanatic (Muslim) warriors have been hiding?  They surely did not pop out of nowhere. Where did all those ‘Takfiri’ terrorists come from and what are the historical and cultural grounds that helped carve their (morbid) dogma and intolerance.  Is this culture of anathematizing anyone who subscribe to a different faith a new phenomenon or could we historically trace back its cultural/geographical roots?

Equally unanticipated began one of the biggest series of immigration in the wake of the lingering wars in Iraq, Libya and Syria.   Massive waves of immigrants set off on a perilous journey to Europe. Why specifically Europe? Because there was no other place safe in the Middle East while Europe was economically stable and practically next door.  Let’s be honest, wasn’t it Europe and its NATO (in coalition with the US) who started these shockwaves of destabilization and wars in the Middle East. After bombarding Libya and Iraq to the ground, it was not long before all hell broke loose in Syria.

You could look upon the fighting in Syria as a proxy war between different international powers. That would pass as a sound assessment, but make no mistake there is no end in sight for the Syrian war, simply because it is a war that is fueled/funded by ‘Takfiri’ culture.

I’m aware that many alternative media outlets view DAESH warriors as pawns remotely controlled by foreign intelligence. In reality undercover agents, even if they were pawns, don’t sign up for suicidal missions. Their top command figures don’t get assassinated by drone attacks  Professional intelligence officers don’t dig heels in and blow themselves up; only religious fanatics will most willingly do so.  Simply because they believe in a faith/dogma more lethal than air-to ground missiles; it is called ‘Takfir’. Blindly following the ‘alternative’ view won’t make you ‘different’ from the rest of the herd, but putting your brain cells to good use will.

European Politicians thought they could get away with their destruction of the Middle East, but the current crisis of Immigration certainly proved them not only wrong but also short sighted.  Historically, it may not be that frequent but when it takes place mass migration will often cause serious historical changes. History speaks of not only a change of demographics but also cultural and religious changes as well.

How on earth do you think a Jewish enclave had been established in (the predominantly Pagan) Palestine a couple of centuries before the tale of Christ took center stage?

The migration of thousands of Arabian Jews from Ancient Yemen and South Arabia to the land of Palestine and Syria is an obviously blatant example from the region’s ancient history. It was a gradual migration that started as early as 4^th century BC. Revisiting the ancient history that led up to this migration will help us deconstruct the myth of viewing Palestine as the homeland of the early Israelites.

Like the Syrian Muslims of today are fleeing war and insecurity, the Arabian Jews and Pagans from Ancient South Arabia migrated from their native land; Yemen.

Yes, that’s right; Ancient Yemen is the original homeland of Judaism and the Israelites.

What good history is if we don’t learn from it? And by history I don’t mean the distorted books you learned in school, nor the misleading Hollywood films you watched in your teens. As a matter of fact the whole western academic narrative about the history of the Ancient Near East (including the so called Biblical History) is so screwed up it needs a paradigm shift regarding its geographical premises.

The history of Ancient Arabia and Yemen has long been neglected (and somehow underrated) by western academia. However, in the late Nineteenth Century and during the first decades of the Twentieth Century began some fervent archeological excavations in Yemen.   Those archeological expeditions stepped up their work in Yemen as the Zionist Movement was getting closer to realizing its political dream of a homeland for (European) Jews. It is not that Yemen was the spot the Zionists were eyeing as their new homeland, but because the Rabbinical Authorities knew they needed some historical evidences to back their unlawful usurping of Palestine. The elders of the Zionist Movement knew damn well that only in Yemen could they dig out some (genuine) Jewish archeological finds.

Yemenite Jews transferred to Israel in 1949-1950 ‘Magic Carpet’ operation.

In Yemen they had dug and in Yemen they discovered extremely important Jewish finds. All of the (Jewish) archeological finds were then secretly transferred from Yemen to Israel, just as more than 50000 Yemenite Jews were secretly transferred to Tel Aviv back in 1949.

Fadel El Rubaie, the renowned Iraqi anthropologist and mythologist, speaks of the Yemenite island of Kamran as the original burial place of the Dead Sea scrolls. Also through his field work in Yemen, El Rubaie has frequently pointed to the fact that many ancient Jewish sites, like that of Or Salem (Yemenite Jerusalem) and Zion Mountain were plundered earlier in the first half of the Twentieth century.

In a Mossad operation dubbed ‘The Magic Carpet’, thousands of Yemenite Jews were airlifted to Israel by some 380 (secret) air flights which were made possible by the help of American and British planes. And by the same British and American support, the Israeli overtake of Palestine was facilitated.

Misinterpreting geography in the Jewish Scripture

 “And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem–the same is Jebus–and the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, were there” 1 Chronicles 11: 4

In that verse (whose geographical context often pass unnoticed) from the Chronicles (of the Yemenite Jews) it is unequivocally clear that the (real) land of Jerusalem was originally called (Jebus) as it was inhabited by the ‘Jebusites’. This bit of historical information is completely alien to modern day ‘Jeusalem’ In Palestine/Israel, whereas we could easily find the ancient fort city of ‘Yebos/Jebus’ in Yemen today. You can’t miss it, as it is now the UNESCO Heritage Site of Beit Bos (Jebus) to the South of Sanaa. Also if you employed some critical thinking you will find the following verse particularly interesting.

“So the LORD smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled” 2 Chronicles 14: 12

Why would the Lord (of the Israelites) bother and smite (destroy) the Ethiopians if his chosen people were up in Palestine? Separated by thousands of miles of land and waters, Ethiopia seemed quite an impossible foe to the Israelites. But it would not be that far-fetched notion if we interpreted the whole (Biblical) stories inside its original geography; Yemen. If you are not familiar with the geography of the Ancient Near East, Yemen would be as near to Ethiopia as Arizona to Mexico, whereas Palestine would be as far from Ethiopia as Canada form Mexico.

If that was the case, then why the Zionist Movement did not shift focus and chose ‘Yemen’ as their new homeland. Well, it was geopolitically out of the question if not impossible. Besides historically speaking Yemen (like Afghanistan) is one of the hardest places on earth to be conquered. Many have tried to control it throughout history, and they all failed. Armies of Alexander the Great swept through the whole Near Eastern territories, but never thought they could subjugate Yemen. The same thing happened with the Romans. What is historically referred to as the ‘Jewish-Roman Wars’ that kicked off in 167 BC by the Maccabees had actually taken place in ancient Arabia and Yemen.

The cruel landscape, augmented by a continuous tribal conflict, especially after the decline of the Ancient Incense Trade Route have turned the tribesmen of Ancient Yemen into militants and warriors.   Along with the Ancient Silk Road, the Incense Road (that cut across Ancient Yemen and the west coast of Ancient Arabia) had been the main international commercial high roads of the ancient world. The incense road carried textile, spices, gold, ivory and of course incense from the south shores of Yemen. After months in the Arabian Desert the camel caravans would have transported their valuable cargos to Egypt in the West and Mesopotamia in the East.   The ancient caravan trade was such a lucrative business that it was frequently plundered by Arabian militants.

Even the Babylonians and the Assyrians tried to secure that vital trade route against the Arabian militancy and frequent plundering. When the military raids proved inefficient to control the Yemenite Arabs, and amongst them were the Jews, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar thought that the only way he could control those Arabian militants was by population transfer. Hence in 587 BC began one of the earliest massive transfers of the Arabian population in south Arabia and North Yemen to Babylon, known in Jewish literature as the Babylonian Captivity.

If you come to think of it, the Babylonians must have been so desperate to proceed with such arduous and costly undertaking.  Transferring thousands of Arabian and Yemenite tribesmen all the way from the South-Western territories to the North-Eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula meant one thing. The warriors from Arabia and Yemen were posing a constant threat to the economic interests of actually both the Babylonians and the Egyptians. Most of the Ancient Egyptian military raids were also focused on controlling the Arabian/Hebrew frequent rebellion along the western coast of the Arabian Peninsula all the way down to Yemen.

And just as Babylon was not the Homeland of the Jews back then, Palestine is obviously not their current one.

Yemen and South Arabia have always been that lost homeland of the Israelites and the ancient (Arabian) Hebrew tribes.   In his highly acclaimed research and book ‘Bible came from Arabia’ Kamal Salibi, the late prominent historian at the American University in Lebanon elaborated on his new and paradigm shifting findings. If his work is built upon by serious and non-biased archeological excavations, Slaibi’s theory could drastically change the whole Biblical history as we know it.

But make no mistake; by these new revelations we don’t condone the validity of any (future) historical claims made by Modern Jews to the land of Yemen.

When we talk about Yemen as the homeland of the early Israelites we have to bear in mind that the Israelites as an ancient (Arabian) Yemenite Tribe has long gone extinct.

The Yemenite Jews of modern times are the descendants of converts to Judaism when Yemen re-embraced Judaism under the rule of Dhu Nuwas back in 520 AD.

The DAESH-like mentality of Ancient Hebrews

Dhu Nuwas should not be historically identified as a Yemenite King, but rather a Yemenite warlord and head of a militant group of warriors, if not terrorists. If we want to draw a modern parallel we could safely compare Dhu Nuwas’ militants to those of ISIL or DAESH. In that sense El Baghdadi would be the modern equivalent of Dhu Nuwas.

By that comparison we are not trying to defame any historical figures, rather we are trying to reveal one of the inherent characteristics of the Arabian/Hebrew culture; namely religious intolerance and violence.

This lingering culture of militancy is still equally demonstrable in the violent nature of Islamist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIL, as is the case with Orthodox Jewish groups of ‘Haredi’ in modern day Israel (many of whom are of Mizrahi -Arabic and Yemenite- origin by the way).

Over many decades, clouded with Bible-geared mindset, countless Western Orientalists have kind of erroneously decoded the history of the Ancient Near East. In their so called ‘academic’ scholarship they set off not to unearth the historical truth but to verify their (distorted) Biblical narrative.

Before Du Nuawas seized the rule in 522 AD, Yemen was controlled by the Akusmites (Ethiopians … sound familiar?), a Christian kingdom stretching over modern day Eritrea and Ethiopia.  After his Military rebellion, Du Nuawas and his Jewish warriors promptly began to destroy all the Christian Churches in Yemen. Could you discern the striking similarities here with DAESH and their persecution/elimination of Iraqi and Syrian Christians, and the destructions of their churches?

A painting depicting the Martyrs of Najran and below is an image of ISIL’s brutal beheading of innocent civilians

He then moved against Najrān, a Christian and Aksumite stronghold at the western South of Arabia. After accepting the city’s capitulation, Du Nuwas massacred those (Christian) locals who would not renounce Christianity. Actually the Arabian historical records speak of a horrible pogrom in which thousands of Christians were ‘beheaded‘ and burnt alive for refusing to convert to the ‘Judaism’ Du Nuwas professed by the edge of the sword. Estimates of the death toll from this ancient ‘Holocaust’ range up to 20,000 in some sources. The brutal massacre perpetrated by the (Yemenite) Jewish Dhu Nuwas had actually created shockwaves of fear that reached as far as the Roman palace in Constantinople.

A recent feature article by the title ‘Before Islam: When Saudi Arabia Was a Jewish Kingdom’ was published in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz. As ancient ‘Arabian’ inscriptions referring to the Jewish massacre of the Christians of ‘Najran’ have recently been discovered by a French archeological expedition in South of Saudi Arabia, the (Israeli) author was left wondering whether those Jewish militants headed by Dhu Nuwas were real Jews. The fact of the matter is that those earlier ruthless warriors (with their culture of unbending belligerence and intolerance) are the genuine Jews. The Haartez Journalist, as well as most of the modern Israeli settlers who are occupying Palestine, are actually the unreal ones.

In the view of modern scholars of the Late Antiquity History, Dhu Nuwas’s decision to compel conversion to Judaism on pain of death can only be explained in terms of his deep religious and cultural convictions. In other words; the Arabian and Yemenite Tribal culture of ‘Takfir’.

Maybe it has eluded many of us but when you come to think of it you would be amazed to find out that the greatest chunk of the Hebrew Bible is all about brutal raids and genocidal massacres.

This is what life in Ancient Arabia was like; a non-stop cycle of tribal conflict and raids. Story after story of tribal deadly raids, be that of Saul, David or Joshua, that left nothing behind but destruction and carnage. But to soften the blow, those stories were sold to us as Holy Wars of the Israelites.  And by inserting the Holy card in the narrative, we feel (unconsciously) prompted to turn off our critical thinking, if we ever had any.

Likewise, modern day Zionism has engulfed Palestine by striking the same holy and religious cord.  Millions of (gullible Western) believers would allow any madness to take form over Palestinian Land for the sake of realizing their distorted dream of the Second Coming of Christ.

The same rationale (of a second coming of a warrior savior) is currently employed by Daesh/ISIL in their Holy War against Infidels (Kafir). Followers of DAESH really believe they are fighting against apostates who deserve to be killed (slaughtered) in cold blood. And only after their defeat of the widespread apostasy could the new Islamic Caliphate (Kingdom of God) prevail over all nations.

Have you managed to discern the cultural parallel here or is too subtle to notice?

The very (dangerous) idea of Takfir (accusing followers of a different Sect or faith with apostasy punishable by brutal death) is not (as we have exposed) exclusively Islamic, but it goes a long way back to ancient Arabia and its Jewish tribes.

This tribal intolerance of any creed other than the one accepted and embraced by the tribe (be that Israelite or Islamist) is what we could safely identify as one of the characteristics of ancient Arabian culture.

We are once again not defaming any religion or their followers but we are digging deeper into the cultural roots of (religious) extremism and intolerance in both Judaism and Islam. In other words we are exposing the Arabian cultural and geographical origins of both Islam and Judaism. We do so while consciously throwing the cold ice in the face of Western Orientalists; who through their (distorted and biased) interpretation of the Biblical history have mislead generations of gullible and deluded believers. By believers I mean the millions who (blindly) bought into the Orientalists’ fake narrative, and who are still doing so till this very moment.

If you want to renounce falsehood and discover the true (Arabian) history of the Israelites and that of Ancient Egypt, you could read my book (Egypt knew no Pharaohs nor Israelites). Available now on Amazon.