ung. Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, warned that Muslim dishonour flowed directly from abandoning holy struggle. Osama bin Laden, echoing the same logic, framed his war against the West as an attempt to restore the dignity of a humiliated Islamic world, not out of hatred but out of perceived religious obligation.
Within this framework, the existence of Israel – and more specifically, the sovereignty of Jews over Jerusalem – becomes an unbearable theological insult. Under traditional Islamic rule, Jews had lived as dhimmis, tolerated but subordinated. Their rise to power, military success, and control over land once part of the Islamic ummah is experienced by many not merely as a political reversal but as a violation of divine order. Radical preachers have long invoked Qur’anic verses depicting Jews as cursed, weaponising ancient theological tropes to justify unrelenting hostility. Even the oft-repeated claim that ‘Al-Aqsa is in danger’, regardless of factual basis, taps into this deeper sense of cosmic disorder: that Muslim dignity itself has been defiled by the continued existence of Jewish sovereignty.
In this eschatological vision, Israel is not a permanent state to be grudgingly accepted, but a temporary aberration destined for destruction. Islamic eschatology, particularly hadiths that predict a final apocalyptic battle between Muslims and Jews, fuels the belief that Israel’s eradication is both inevitable and divinely mandated. For groups like Hamas, the establishment of Israel is akin to the Crusader states of the Middle Ages: a foreign intrusion that will, sooner or later, be swept away by righteous force. No political agreement, no matter how carefully negotiated, can override what is believed to be the arc of sacred destiny.
Thus, the Nakba is not merely a political grievance. It has been transfigured into a sacred wound, a living symbol of dishonour that demands redress through religious struggle. Under Islamic influence, the land of ‘Palestine’ is not just contested territory – it is a waqf, a sacred trust consecrated for Muslims until the end of time, inalienable by human agreement or negotiation. To recognise Israel’s legitimacy would be to acquiesce to a theological defeat as well as a political one.
This is why the Israeli conflict with the Palestinian Arabs is not merely a struggle over borders, rights, or resources, but a confrontation rooted in existential and theological perceptions of justice, honour, and destiny. Understanding this deeper religious framework is crucial to grasping why the conflict resists conventional solutions. Until the theological dimensions of the Nakba and its aftermath are acknowledged, diplomatic efforts will continue to founder against the unyielding belief that compromise is not only a betrayal of the past but an affront to the divine.
Yep – it's all about Islam.
