Do you remember there was a time when Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan spoke about carving another country from part of the US as a home for Black Muslims?
Here is a quote supporting that statement. It is from an article listed on
answering-islam.org.
"Over the past twenty years, Louis Farrakhan has generally remained true to older teachings of Elijah Muhammad. Farrakhan's newspaper, The Final Call, still reprints "What the Muslims Want" and "What the Muslims Believe" on the back pages of each issue, textually identical to what Elijah Muhammad printed in the 1960s. Reading these statements evokes memories of newspapers printed by the Black Panther Party or by other "Black Power" groups."
"According to these statements, the Muslims (i.e., members of the Nation of Islam) want freedom, justice, and equal opportunity for people of all color ("Want," items 1-3). They want reparations, preferably a large tract of land set apart from the United States and given to black people, plus "our former slave masters are obligated to maintain and supply our needs in this separate territory for the next 20 to 25 years" ("Want," item 4). They want the release of all black Muslims convicted of any federal crimes, and the release of all black people convicted of any capital crime requiring the death sentence ("Want," item 5). The Muslims are against racial integration ("Believe," item 9) and against interracial marriage or race mixing ("Want," item 10)."
(Sidebar)
"We want freedom for all Believers of Islam now held in federal prisons. We want freedom for all Black men and women now under death sentence in innumerable prisons in the North as well as the South."
"We want every Black man and woman to have the freedom to accept or reject being separated from the slave master's children and establish a land of their own."
—Elijah Muhammad
"What the Muslims Want," item 5
The quotation ends.
The partitioning mentioned is like what we find the EU and the US expecting Israel to do for people who are welcome to live in Israel already.
I want to try to make a point here that is important to me to clarify. In 1948, the Jews who left Europe, and the devastation that occurred to Jewish culture, came to the land known as Palestine to re-establish the Land of Israel. The Biblical Israel was to have been a Nation of Priests, and a Holy Nation. The Israel that was to be made in the Land of Canaan was to have been a land with God and God's Torah at the center of the life of the land.
In less than a thousand years, the people had determined they needed a flesh-and-blood leader to interface with the other nations of the world. They asked Samuel to make a King for Israel. God told Samuel, and then Samuel told the people that this move would be a bad thing. A king will require things that God does not require, and will put his authority above the authority of the prophets.
Still, they ended with a King.
The Kingdom was strong for a few kings. Soon, however, divisions in the people and the power structure caused deterioration of the Kingdom. This deterioration paved the way for a weakened nation to be overcome by other Kingdoms, resulting in the people being led into exile to other lands. Finally the Romans destroyed the Temple which existed on the Temple Mount and dispersed the Jews to many lands within the Roman Empire.
Almost two thousand years later, the Jews surviving the Holocaust in Europe came back to the land of their ancestors, not to create a Nation of Priests, and a Holy People, but to make another nation like the rest of the nations of the world. God, and the Torah are not at the head of the nation. The new nation's "kings" are Ministers of the Knesset, other Knesset members, and Prime Ministers and Presidents. This new nation will face similar difficulties interfacing with the nations of the world that their forebears faced three thousand years ago.
The thing is, we were told that if we did what God wanted, we would be protected by his power and authority. If we follow the dictates of our own hearts, eyes, and minds, we will be led astray. We will face difficulties for which we might not find solutions.
Here we are, modern day Jews living in Israel, expecting to be treated by the world as Israelis, much like Frenchmen, Americans, or Swedes, etc. The Israel that has Israelis as citizens is a nation like the other nations. We are supposed to be Jews, a Holy People, set apart to be God's people, living in the Holy Land, a Nation of Priests, a Holy Nation.
I believe that when that happens, we will be safe, under God's protection. When we begin to shine a light unto the nations, we will be that people we are supposed to be. At that time we will truly live in a Holy Land. At that time we will be a Holy People. At that time we will be able to look for Moshiach to be close at hand.
Before that time, we will face many difficulties. Most of these issues begin with an identity crisis. Are we Jews, Israelis, or a Holy People? Is this a worldly nation, Medinat Israel, or a Nation of Priests? Until we decide who we are, no others will know how to react to us. They will continue to see us as the people they ejected from Europe.
As we elect our governments, we define our identity as a nation.
It is my opinion that we need to become what we were always supposed to be. The people God selected for His purposes, to do His will, and live according to His guiding principles. I fail to do this well, and I suspect you probably also fail to do this well. For my part, I will strive, beginning today, to help elevate the world and its people to become all that God wants us to be.
I hope I have not stepped on your toes...
