The Arabs and other enemies of Israel could have been far more successful in their campaigns against Israel if they could only get along among themselves. The wild “donkeyness” among them caused them to constantly fight each other. They had nothing to bind them together as a single unit against a common enemy. Enter the religion of Islam. It provided the glue.
A man named Muhammad was born around 570. He was of the Arab Quraysh tribe from Mecca. He claimed to be a direct descendant of Abraham through Ishmael. Muhammad, along with his father-in-law Omar, established the religion of Islam. Muhammad was supposedly born in Mecca and spent his youth traveling with the Meccan camel caravans through Syria and Arabia. At the age of forty, while meditating in a cave at Mt. Hira, as the legend goes, he beheld the angel Gabriel.
Gabriel supposedly declared him to be the only prophet of god. The god was Allah, the monotheistic god of Islam. Islam teaches that with the angel’s guidance, Muhammad dictated the Qur’an, the Islamic holy book. In fact, it was after his death that a series of his sayings were put together into the Qur’an.
Muhammad began to preach for the god Allah. Islam means “submission to the will of the one god.” Eventually, Muslims were expelled from Mecca, and they moved to a city that they named Medinat-Nabi, meaning “the city of the prophet.” It is Medina today and is located in Saudi Arabia.
Eventually, Muhammad led a conquest and overtook Mecca and set up shop there. He died at age sixty-two. Mecca and Medina became the most important cities of the Muslim faithful.
The Qur’an calls for the destruction of both Jews and Christians. The following quotes are taken directly from the Qur’an:
“And the Jews say: The Christians do not follow anything [good] and the Christians say: The Jews do not follow anything [good] while they recite the [same] book. Even thus say those who have no knowledge, like what they say; so Allah shall judge between them on the day of resurrection in what they differ” (The Qur’an, Cow 2:113).
“O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people” (The Qur’an, Dinner Table 5:51).
“And the Jews say: Uzair [Isaiah] is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!” (The Qur’an, Immunity 9:30).
The Qur’an also calls for Muslims to make Islamic converts of both Jews and Christians, claiming if these groups convert to Islam, they shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve. Those who will not be converted, however, are to be beaten or killed.
“Surely those who believe and those who are Jews and the Sabians and the Christians whoever believes in Allah and the last day and does good—they shall have no fear nor shall they grieve” (The Qur’an, Dinner Table 5:69).
“Surely those who believe, those who wage jihad in God’s cause—they are the ones who may hope for the mercy of God” (The Qur’an, Sura 2:218).
It is obvious that both Jews and Christians are in the crosshairs of the Qur’an and the Muslim faith.
When Muhammad died, there was a vacuum of leadership. The Muslims elected Muhammed’s second convert, his father-in-law, Abu Bakr. He was given the title of “caliph,” a high position in Islam. There was a group that disagreed with this decision, and they elected Ali, Muhammad’s adopted son. He was the father of Muhammad’s two grandsons, Hassan and Hussein. A small war broke out over this, and many caliphs died, with the exception of one.
At the time of the war, Islam split between the Sunnis, who went with Abu Bakr, and the Shiites, who followed Ali. These became the two branches of Islam. The second Sunni caliph, Omar (634–644), was the leader who built the mosque over the Dome of the Rock, which is on the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem. For the next hundred years, Islam began to expand quickly into Iraq, Iran, and many parts of Asia. They quickly became a world religion. The conflict between the Sunnis and the Shiites continues.
In 732, a group of Arab Muslims, the Mongolian Turks, almost conquered the world. After victories in much of Asia, they came up through Europe and France to Bordeaux and then on to Tours. A general named Abdah Al Raman led the Muslims. They were met by the Spanish army and a Spaniard named Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer). They clashed in the famous Battle of Tours. Charles Martel stopped the Muslims at that point.
Most Muslims say they believe in Jesus. If you were to ask them if they believe that Jesus will return one day, again they would answer yes. That, however, is where the similarities end. Islam teaches that Jesus was a Muslim. They believe he will one day return to help convert the world to Islam. Muslims believe that they will someday control the entire world and that the world will be Muslim.
Though there are many factions among the Muslim faithful, the one thing that they all agree on is the ultimate destruction of the nation of Israel.
Muslims are not really interested in the land of Palestine. Their main desire is to exterminate the Jews.
Islamic nations have befriended many Western nations because their technology is needed to retrieve and refine Arabian oil. This began in the early seventies. These same Islamic nations fell out with the West when the West befriended Israel during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The fact that America sent weapons and other equipment into Israel caused much anger in the Islamic world. That fact has never been forgotten.
History has shown that the only thing the radical Arab Muslims submit to is greater power. They are an opportunistic people who exploit weaknesses in other nations. The Arabs and other enemies of Israel now have a common religion, Islam, a bond that may pull them together as a unit against Israel in the last days.
The Arab bloc today includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Jordan. When you look at a map, you will see that these antagonists literally surround the small nation of Israel. They are very divergent in many ways, but they all have one thing in common: their hatred of Jews and Christians.
I am indebted to Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum and his book, Footsteps of the Messiah, for many of my views of prophecy. I call to mind a section of his book simply entitled “The Arab States.”[i] He began this small section by quoting Psalm 83:1–8. It is a powerful psalm that names in detail the Arab bloc:
Do not keep silent, O God! Do not hold Your peace, and do not be still, O God! For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; and those who hate You have lifted up their head. They have taken crafty counsel against Your people and consulted together against Your sheltered ones. They have said, ‘Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.’ For they have consulted together with one consent; They form a confederacy against You: The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagrites; Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them; They have helped the children of Lot. (Psalm 83:1–8)
It is the goal of the Arab states to “cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” This truth is plain and simple. Amazingly, in this psalm, God names those Arab states that surround Israel this very day:
- Edom is located in southern Jordan.
- The Ishmaelites are located in Saudi Arabia.
- Moab is located in central Jordan.
- The Hagrites refers to Egypt.
- Gebal is Lebanon.
- Ammon is located in northern Jordan.
- Amalek is located in the Sinai Peninsula.
- Philistia is on the Gaza Strip.
- Tyre is in Lebanon.
- Assyria includes Iraq and parts of Syria.
This is the group of antagonists that God will use to squeeze His people until they turn back to Him.
[i] Fruchtenbaum, Arnold. Footsteps of the Messiah. Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries, 2002, 489.