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In short, Muslims brought civilization to Jerusalem and all of Palestine. Instead of holding beliefs that showed no respect for other peoples' sacred values and killing people simply because they followed a different faith, Islam's just, tolerant, and moderate culture brought peace and harmony to the region's Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities. Muslims never resorted to campaigns of forced conversions, although some non-Muslims who saw that Islam was the true religion did convert of their own free will.
This peace and harmony lasted as long as Muslims ruled in the region. However, at the end of the eleventh century, an external conquering force from Europe entered the region and plundered the civilized land of Jerusalem with a barbarity and savagery that had never been seen there before. These invaders were the Crusaders.
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(The invasion)
Wonderful sights were to be seen. Some of our men (and this was more merciful) cut off the heads of their enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that they fell from the towers; others tortured them longer by casting them into the flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. But these were small matters compared to what happened at the Temple of Solomon, a place where religious services are normally chanted ... in the Temple and porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins.
In 2 days, the Crusader army killed some 40,000 Muslims in the barbaric manner just described.The peace and harmony in Palestine, which had lasted since Umar, ended in a terrible slaughter.
The Crusaders made Jerusalem their capital and established a Latin Kingdom stretching from Palestine to Antioch. But their rule was short-lived, for Saladin gathered all of the Muslim kingdoms under his banner in a holy war and defeated the Crusaders at the battle of Hattin in 1187. After this battle, the two leaders of the Crusader army, Reynald of Chatillon and King Guy, were brought into Saladin's presence. He executed Reynald of Chatillon, who had become infamous for the terrible savagery he had committed against Muslims, but let King Guy go, as he had not committed similar crimes. Palestine once again saw the true meaning of justice.
Three months after Hattin, and on the very same day that Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had been taken from Mecca to Jerusalem for his night journey through the heavens, Saladin entered Jerusalem and freed it from 88 years of Crusader occupation. In contrast to the Crusaders' "liberation" of Jerusalem, Saladin did not touch one Christian in the city, thereby turning aside their fear that they would all be massacred. He merely ordered all Latin (Catholic) Christians to leave Jerusalem. The Orthodox Christians, who were not Crusaders, were allowed to stay and worship as they chose.
Saladin and his army treated the Christians with great mercy and justice, and showed them more compassion than their own leaders had.
Crusader savagery and Muslim justice once more revealed a historic truth: An administration built upon the principles of Islam allowed people of different faiths to live together. This fact continued to be demonstrated for 800 years after Saladin, particularly during the Ottoman period.
In 1514, Sultan Selim captured Jerusalem and the surrounding area, and some 400 years of Ottoman rule in Palestine began. As in other Ottoman states, this period would enable Palestine to enjoy peace and stability despite the fact that adherents of three different faiths were living alongside each other.
The Ottoman Empire was administered by the "nation (millet) system," the fundamental feature of which was that people of different faiths were allowed to live according to their own beliefs and legal systems. Christians and Jews, which the Qur'an calls the People of the Book, found tolerance, security, and freedom in Ottoman lands.
The history of Islam, which reflects the morality that God teaches Muslims in the Qur'an, is full of just, merciful, humble, and mature rulers. Since Muslim rulers fear God, they cannot behave in a corrupt, proud, or cruel manner. Of course there were Muslim rulers who became corrupt and departed from Islamic morality, but they were exceptions to and deviations from the norm. Thus Islam proved to be the only belief system that has produced a just, tolerant, and compassionate form of government for the last 1,400 years.
The land of Palestine is a testament to Islam's fair and tolerant governance, and bears the influence of many different faiths and ideas. As reported earlier, the governments of the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, Umar, Saladin, and the Ottoman sultans were such that even non-Muslims consented to them. This period of fair administration lasted until the twentieth century when, with the end of Muslim rule in 1917, the region was plunged into chaos, terror, bloodshed, and war.
Indeed, Palestine never witnessed another "humane" administration once Ottoman rule ended. Between the two world wars, the British crushed the Arabs with their divide-and-conquer strategy and simultaneously empowered the Zionists, who would later prove antagonistic even to them. Zionism incurred the Arabs' wrath, and, from the 1930s on, Palestine became the scene of clashes between the two groups. Zionists formed terrorist groups to fight the Palestinians, and, shortly thereafter, began attacking the British as well. Once Britain threw up its hands and abandoned its mandate over the region in 1947, the clashes turned into war and the Israeli occupation and massacres (which continue to this day) began in earnest.
In order for the region to enjoy "humane" rule once again, Jews must abandon Zionism and its goal of a "Palestine exclusively for the Jews," and accept the idea of sharing the land with Arabs on equal terms. Arabs, for that matter, must abandon such un-Islamic goals as "driving Israel into the sea" or "putting all Jews to the sword," and accept the idea of living together with them. According to Said, this means reviving the Ottoman system, which is the only solution that will allow the region's people to live in peace and harmony. This system may create an environment of regional peace and security, just as it did in the past.
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Read the book in the link and you'll see it the same way I do now. There's no reason for Jews to hate Muslims or vice versa. We've been friendly for 1,400 years in Palestine, today's "no man's land". The racist ideology of Zionism must be stopped.
