Looking for Peace in the Land of the Prophets

ISBN 978 - 977 - 6332 - 27 - 0

Inspired directly by his visit to some of those Palestinians wounded in the Israeli onslaught on Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, Looking for Peace in the Land of the Prophets tries to tell things as they are.

Jerusalem has always been a litmus test for the condition of Muslims. When they have been strong, united and faithful to God's Will, Jerusalem and Palestine have been in their hands. When weak and divided, like today, the land blessed by Allah has been in the hands of others. In this book Idris Tawfiq calls upon Muslims to wake up and to tell the world the truth about Palestine which has been covered up for sixty years.

To those who are not Muslim, the book tells things as they are, in the hope that all people of goodwill can see how important Jerusalem and Palestine have always been to Muslims and how central they are to their faith. There can be no peace in the land of the Prophets without justice for its people. (Read a review of this book below)

The chapters of this small book are as follows:
• Palestine, the Land of the Prophets

• Making the Desert Bloom

• The Night Journey and Ascension

• Where are the Crusaders Now?

• Al-Aqsa Mosque

• The Promised Land

• The Massacre of the Palestinian People

• Seizing the Land of Palestine

• Capital of Arab Culture

• The Land of Islam is Not for Sale

• Peace in the Land of the Prophets

All of Idris Tawfiq's books can be obtained from the publisher:

High Life Books

Contact us at admin@idristawfiq.com

The story of Jerusalem and Palestine

 Book Review by Manal Abdul Aziz

Egyptian Mail December 15^th 2009 

"Just to mention the name of Jerusalem, Al-Quds, sends both a thrill of excitement and a sense of sadness through every Muslim. Associated as it is with all the Prophets of Islam, and the place where even some of them were born or died, Jerusalem has a special place in every Muslim’s heart, more so because the city is now under Occupation."

 With these words, the British writer Idris Tawfiq begins his latest book “Looking for Peace in the land of the Prophets”.

 Unlike the gentle style of his previous books, especially the “Ask about Islam” series, Tawfiq is more ardent in this book. He reveals the true inner anger of a Muslim thinker sensing real injustice being practised against the original inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Palestine by the Israeli occupation and the world powers supporting them.

 The British writer, who refuses to recognise the state of Israel himself, blames the UK and the United Nations for giving away Palestine to Israel, as compensation for the Holocaust the Jews suffered under Nazi rule. 

Although considering the Nazi practices as despicable crimes, Tawfiq states that “the wickedness of the Holocaust does not justify the taking of someone else’s home and birthright to give in compensation for the suffering of those people. For this is what happened. Neither the British government nor the UN had any right to grant a homeland to anyone, Jewish or otherwise, in Palestine or anywhere else, on land which did not belong to them.” 

Tawfiq’s anger also extends to the Western mass media that deceives the world over the Palestinian cause and the actual victim of this conflict.

 “One of the aims of writing this book is to tell the real story of Jerusalem and Palestine from the perspective of Muslims, both to those who are Muslim and to those who are not,” he writes.  

He also emphasises how the Israeli leaders speak of peace, while all the time portraying themselves as victims of threats of aggression on all sides. “Yet their actions are not peaceful.” 

 The intention of the writer, who spent some of his life as a Catholic priest, was to make clear how the Israeli state was founded on terror and it has perpetrated terror ever since.

 In the seventh chapter of this book entitled “The massacre of the Palestinian People, he reviews the black history of many of the Israeli leaders who committed and participated in barbaric massacres of the Palestinian people. They came to occupy senior positions, such as president, prime minister, ministers of defence and foreign affairs, and some of them been awarded the Nobel peace prize.” 

“How can a civilised nation appoint such men to serve as the head of its government? Does it not tell us something about the nature of the State itself? Does it not suggest that the entire national psyche is one of aggression?” the author asks. 

 He continues: “Made up of over seventy disparate different nationalities, speaking a variety of languages and with varying degrees of religious affiliation and practice, the State of Israel has used terror to ensure its existence. Its repeated massacres of innocent civilian men, women and children are crimes that the world must one day confront. There can be no peace without such a confrontation.” 

Actually one of the main direct causes of penning this book was the writer’s visit to some injured Palestinians while they were hospitalised in Cairo after the Gaza barbaric offensive of January 2009.

 “It was really the sight of nine-year-old Yehya, though, that was the real inspiration for this book. He is the one who has caused these words to be written,” Tawfiq declares.

 “Little Yahya was waiting in Cairo’s Nasser Institute for his twenty-sixth operation. He had not been harmed in the latest aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza Strip. Nine years earlier, while still in his mother’s womb, his frail little body had been damaged irreparably by the poison gas which had been dropped on his mother’s home from gunships in the sky. What kind of a nation can do that to ordinary civilians?” 

The author relates: “I made a promise that day, to the heroic young men I met in the hospital, who had lost limbs and suffered terrible wounds as a result of the slaughter in the Gaza Strip. Wherever I would travel to in the world to speak about Islam in the future, I would tell their story”.

 In order to do so, he chose to narrate the story from its very beginning deep back in history to prove the presence of original inhabitants of the Holy Land other than the Jews. 

 The temporary presence of the Children of Israel, although a gift from Allah in the early stages of history was conditional on their honest compliance to His orders.  But when they disobeyed Him, Allah used the powerful Babylonians and then the Romans to drive the Children of Israel out of the land because of their unfaithfulness. 

 Throughout the eleven chapters of his book, Idris Tawfiq is eager to review the old and modern history of the conflict in detail revealing sincere work and referenced research.

 Before concluding his book with some recommendations over the way to obtain peace in the Holy Land, he narrates the stories of some of the injured Palestinians he met in Cairo following the Gaza massacre.

 “So let us return to that hospital on the banks of the Nile, where the sick and wounded from the Israeli onslaught on Gaza were being cared for. Their story needs to be told if we are to speak about Jerusalem, Their story is indeed the story of Jerusalem and Palestine, the land of Prophets,” he writes.

 “With the whole of the Gaza Strip blockaded from the rest of the world by land, sea and air, its people unable to obtain even the most basic necessities to live by, it is the story of people being denied food and medicine, having to tunnel like rats under the ground to find the basic necessities of life,” Tawfiq stresses..“But it is also the story of great faith under oppression, which is also the story of Jerusalem and Palestine.” 

“The world needs to have its eyes opened to the reality of Israel. Only then will there be a possibility of real and lasting peace, based on justice,” he affirms.