Syrian Jihadi Transitional Gov't Reveals Its Attitude Towards Israel
The Hudaybiyah Treaty the prophet concluded with a rival clan was supposed to last 10 years, until he broke it.
Abu Mohammad al Jolani
On X (formerly Twitter), appeared a video of a purported ally of Syrian Islamist revolutionary Abu Mohammad al-Julani (a.k.a Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, offering insight into Syria’s transitional government’s policy towards Israel.
The unidentified bearded man in the video spoke in Arabic, as distributed by the Voice from the East account on X. Voice from the East commented that it is proof that Al-Julani wants to follow the example of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, who made a truce with his Arab enemies in the 7th century. At a place in the Arabian Peninsula called Hudaybiyah, Muhammad concluded the Hudaybiyah Treaty with his enemies that was intended to last ten years.
Voice from the East commented, “After 2 years, Muhammad realized that he was then strong enough to destroy his enemies so Muhammad attacked and destroy[ed] them…Israel and other enemies of radical Islam…beware!”
Voice from the East added that the Hudaybiyah Treaty was a “tactical ceasefire” proposed by Muhammad to the Quraysh clan of Mecca. “Muhammad leveraged the truce to spread Islam and ideologically conquer the region. Ultimately, he betrayed the Quraysh tribe by tricking them to break a clause in the agreement, slaughtered them, and took over Mecca,” the account said. Furthermore, Voice from the East noted: “This agreement serves as a model of diplomatic deceit for ‘strategic concessions,’ given that Islam forbids genuine peace agreements with ‘infidels.’”
Mecca had been Mohammad’s hometown but his religion was rejected by its inhabitants, and his followers persecuted by Quraysh tribesmen. In 622 CE, he and his followers migrated to the oasis at Medina. Mohammad continued to fight against Mecca, having decided that faithful Muslims should pray towards Mecca and the Kaaba instead of Jerusalem. Muhammad also attacked the Jewish town of Khaybar, establishing the practice of the jizya head tax that Jews and Christians were required to pay to their Muslim conquerors. The Banu Qurayza Jewish tribe, which lived at Medina, were judged to have betrayed Mohammad. The men were beheaded and women and girls enslaved in 627 CE.
The Quraysh clan were eventually conquered and converted to Islam in 630.
In Islam, especially in its Shiite variant, dissimulation of religious belief and intention has long been practiced. Called Taqiyya (Arabic: تقیة) or translated as 'prudence', it is the practice of hiding one's beliefs in the face of non-believers. Kitmān (lit. "action of covering, dissimulation"), a related tactic, which in practice means dissimulation by silence or omission when under threat of persecution or compulsion.