Nuggets from "Judgment Day: Islam, Israel, and the Nations" by Dave Hunt

Nuggets from “Judgment Day: Islam, Israel, and the Nations” by Dave Hunt

In AD 628, Muhammad approached Mecca with some of his followers – all recent converts to this new religion of Islam. They longed to join in the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to the idol-filled Ka’aba, where a prominently displayed idol still represented Allah as the chief god among hundreds. Muhammad and his Muslim followers desired to renew the same superstitious rituals they had practiced before becoming Muslims and which their ancestors had followed for centuries. It would be the first time that Muhammad had attempted to join in the Hajj since he had fled Mecca.

The Meccans were still too strong for Muhammad and turned him away. Anxious to make peace, however, with this powerful and violent enemy, they entered into one of the most important agreements in Islamic history, the Treaty of Hudaybiya, a ten-year ceasefire called a “Hudna.” That document established Islam’s law of war and peace that set the precedent for future Islamic policy that remains to this day. No Muslim leader has the authority to go over Muhammad’s head to make genuine peace with non-Muslims. Only a Hudna can be entered into, and that for no longer than ten years. The purpose, following Muhammad’s example, is not to achieve a sincere end to hostilities but to deceive the enemy with the promise of peace in order to gain time and advantage to eventually conquer the unsuspecting “peace partner.” This was always Arafat’s intent, and since his death, continues to be the PLO’s purpose in the so-called “peace process” with Israel.