Peace in the Name of Allah: Islamic Discourses on Treaties with Israel

262 Pages·2022·7.945 MB·English

by  Ofir Winter

Ofir Winter
Peace in the Name of Allah
De Gruyter Contemporary
Social Sciences
Volume 3
Ofir Winter
Peace in the
Name of Allah
Islamic Discourses on Treaties with Israel
ISBN 978-3-11-073512-3
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-073055-5
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-073065-4
ISSN 2747-5689
e-ISSN 2747-5697
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021947450
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Cover image: © Aharon Shevo. The book jacket design by the artist Aharon Shevo was based
on the commemorative coin in honor of the signing of the Abraham Accord between the United
Arab Emirates and Israel.
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
Contents
Preface IX
Introduction: Peace in Islam 1
Basic Concepts 3
Religion, Regime and Opposition 15
Egypt: Laying the Groundwork for Peace 23
Israel and Egypt: From Conflict to Peace 25
Sadat’s Initiative and the Islamist Anti-Peace Camp 41
Peace asan Islamic Decision 51
Non-Islamic Arguments in Favor of Peace 71
Conclusion 90
Jordan: Legitimizing a Warm Peace 93
The Hashemite Dynasty and the Jewish State: From Secret Contacts to a
Peace Treaty 95
The Islamists’ Arguments against Normalization 114
Jordan’s Religious Advocacy Campaign for Peace and
Normalization 124
Non-Religious Arguments in Favor of Peace and Normalization 139
Conclusion 152
The United Arab Emirates: Pioneering the Abraham Accords 154
The UAE’s Journey from Conflict to Peace with Israel 156
The Opponents of the Abraham Accords 176
Religious Arguments in Favor of Peace 188
Conclusion 203
Conclusion 205
Bibliography 211
Sourcesin Arabic 211
English and Other Languages 226
Index 239

To my beloved parents, Dafna and Jacob Winter

Preface
ThewaytotheSheikhZayedbinSultanAalNahyanMosqueinAbuDhabi,one
of the world’s largest and most magnificent Islamic houses of worship, passes
through a covered and airconditioned corridor called the Path of Tolerance.
All visitors to the mosque must traverse this underground passage, adorned
throughout with slogans celebrating Islam as the religion of tolerance, coexis-
tence,anddiversity,andwithphotosofinterfaithmeetingsheldunderthespon-
sorship of the Emiratigovernment. Inauguratedin November 2020,the passage
representsthestrategicdecisiontakenbytheleadershipofthistinybutwealthy
statetobecometheambassadorofmoderateandpluralisticIslam.Thisdecision
led,amongotherthings,totheAugust13,2020,declarationthatstunnedthein-
ternationalcommunity—theimminentsigningofapeaceagreementbetweenthe
UAEandIsraelcalledtheAbrahamAccords,afterthecommonforefatherofthe
Jews and Muslims.
One of the popular and charismatic imams at this mosque was Sheikh
Wasim Yusuf, a young Jordanian cleric born in 1981 who migrated to the UAE
in 2012 and was naturalized there two years later. Since he arrived in the UAE,
Yusuf hasbecomea darlingof the Emirati regime and one of its staunchestde-
fenders.Makingfrequentappearancesonlocaltelevisionandwith over1.5mil-
lion followers on Twitter,Yusuf preaches fervently against Islamic extremism.
But preaching tolerance is more straightforward than practicing it, and Yu-
suf’s story is a case in point. Following intense disputes with other Emirati
imams on social media, in February 2020, he was removed from his position
at the Sheikh Zayed Mosque and appointed imam of another mosque in Abu
Dhabi: the Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed the First Mosque, which is also large and
magnificent, although a Path of Tolerance does not lead to its gates.
UntilthesigningoftheAbrahamAccords,YusufwasvirulentlyhostiletoIs-
rael,Zionism,andtheJews.DescribingtheJewsastheeternalenemiesofIslam
whotriedtoassassinatetheProphetMuhammad,heblamedthemforeverycri-
sis and calamity that hasbefallen the Muslimworld and treatedIsrael as an il-
legitimate entity. However, once the peace agreement with Israel was an-
nounced, Yusuf, a loyal regime supporter, immediately became an ardent
advocate of this policy. Like other Emirati clerics, he echoed the leadership’s
conciliatory message that Islam mandates the peace agreement.Yusuf argued
that the agreement is compatible with the Islamic shariʿa, which commands
theleadertoensurethesecurityofhispeople,andharshlycondemnedtheMus-
limBrotherhoodclericswhowerecriticizingthismovebytheEmiratiregime.De-
scribingIslamasthereligionofpeace,hepassionatelyarguedthattheactivists
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110730555-001
X Preface
of political Islam, who precipitated the catastrophe of the Arab Spring, have
caused Islam greater harm than Israel ever did.
Yusuf’sshiftingattitudetowardIsraelshowshowIslamcanbeharnessed—
even by the very same preacher—for either opposing peace or for promoting it.
HisvideosinfavoroftheAbrahamAccordswerewidelycirculatedandevenap-
pearedontheArabic-languageFacebookpageoftheIsraeliForeignMinistry.The
detractors of the agreement inside and outside the UAE—for whom the peace
agreement with Israel was illegitimate and a betrayal of Islam and the values
andrulesthatthebelieversarecommandedtofollow—notedthesuddenreversal
in his position and accused him of hypocrisy.¹
The peace agreement between Israel and the UAE was the third agreement
signedbetweenanArabcountryandtheJewishstatesincethelatter’sfounding
in1948.ItwasprecededbytheEgypt-Israelpeacetreatyof1979andtheJordan-
Israelpeacetreatyof1994.InallthreeArabcountries,Islamicconceptsandar-
gumentsplayedacentralroleinthecampaignsforandagainstpeacewithIsra-
el.Eachoftheagreementswasaccompaniedbyaheatedpolemicinwhichboth
sides,thesupportersofpeaceanditsdetractors,defendedtheirpositionsusing
Quranicverses,Prophetictraditions,storiesfromthelivesoftheProphetandhis
companions, and applications—often controversial—of Islamic legal mecha-
nisms.While the regimes and the clerics loyal to them presented their support
fortheagreementsasafaithfulreflectionofthespiritofIslam,theiropponents,
especially representatives of political Islam, condemned the agreements as in-
compatible with God’s directives.The religious arguments cultivated by the re-
gimes and their loyalists reflected the centrality of Islam as a source of public
legitimacy in contemporary Muslim societies.They required a fundamental re-
versal that was not easy to justify since the regimes that were now calling for
peaceinthenameofAllahhadbeencalling,onlyafewyearsearlier,foruncom-
promising struggle against Israel, also in the name of Allah.
ThisbookoffersacomparativeexaminationofthecontrastingIslamicargu-
mentspresentedinEgypt,Jordan,andtheUAEbythesupportersandopponents
of the peace agreements with Israel.The book’s central thesis rejects the wide-
spread claim that “Islam” has an inherent, unchanging, and absolute position
 “Al-DaʿiyaWasimYusufYanshuruFatwabinBazBaʿdaIttifaqal-Salamal-Imaratial-Israʾili”
[Preacher Wasim Yusuf PublishesbinBaz’s Fatwafollowing theEmirati-IsraeliPeaceTreaty],
CNN (August 14, 2020), https://arabic.cnn.com/middle-east/article/2020/08/14/wassim-yousif-
peace-israel-uae-ibn-baz(accessedJuly1,2021);“DaʿiyaImaratilil-ʿArab:Unzuruli-Anfusikum
QablaAnTatʿanubil-Salam”[EmiratiPreachertotheArabs:LookatYourselvesbeforeSpeaking
EvilofPeace],IsraelForeignMinistryArabicFacebookPage(September21,2020),https://www.
facebook.com/watch/?v=455106128707966(accessedJuly1,2021).