A New York University finance professor of mine in the early 1970s said, “Give me one set of numbers, and I will give you two sets of answers.” For most of my professional career, this has been true.
Going against that mantra, I am going to offer a few sets of numbers and only one set of answers. Because there is only one answer.
The “land” set of numbers. There are about 1.978 billion Muslims in the world out of approximately 8.2 billion people. Some 72% of Muslims live in countries where the Islamic religious symbol (a crescent moon) is on the national flag; Islam is the official state religion; and/or more than 70% of that country’s population identifies as Muslim.
The total land mass of these Islamic countries is 10.8 million square miles or 28.1 million square kilometers.
Christians number about 2.167 billion people. A little more 85% live in countries where either the Christian religious symbol (cross) is on the national flag, a Christian denomination is the official state religion and/or more than 70% of that country’s population identifies as Christian.
The total land mass of these Christian countries is 30 million square miles or 77.6 million square kilometers.
In comparison to the two largest religions in the world, there are only about 15.7 million Jews in the world. Nearly half, 49%, live in the only country where a Jewish religious symbol (the Star of David) is on its national flag, Judaism is the official state religion and/or more than 70% of that country’s population identifies as Jewish.
The total land mass of the sole Jewish country on the planet, Israel, is 10.85 thousand square miles or 37.7 thousand square kilometers.
That makes the Islamic lands 733 times larger than Israel.
The self-created “Palestinian refugee” set of numbers. This refugee population was the direct result of Arab nations not taking in their fellow Arabs who fled the area in 1948 after the war, and they started to wipe out the nascent Jewish state failed. Their own Muslim brothers and sisters kept them living in poor living conditions for generations in “refugee camps.”
At the end of World War II, there were approximately 3.5 million European Jews who were survivors of the Shoah and classified as refugees. In the early to mid-1950s, some 850,000 Jewish refugees were forcibly exiled from Arab lands, where they had lived for more than a thousand years. While there are still some living Jewish Holocaust survivors and those exiled from Arab lands, today none of them are still “refugees” because (per the accepted definition of a refugee) they, and therefore their descendants, have become citizens of the countries to which they have been relocated.
Yet, from the approximately 720,000 original Palestinian Arab refugees of 1948, they and their descendants, which numbers about 5.9 million, are still called “refugees.” They are given this status through the unique and previously unheard-of concept of “generational” refugees, and the actions of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
History is full of “population resettlement events.” Jewish history alone is full of upheaval and massive relocations from ancient times to today: Babylonian Empire exiles (597 and 586 BCE), Roman Empire exiles (66, 115 and 132 C.E.), the English expulsion of 1290, the Spanish Inquisition in 1478, the Holocaust, and the expulsion of Jews from Arab lands, to name a few. Therefore, the topic of resettlement is not new and should be explored as a solution for the Palestinian refugee crisis.
The “rightful claim to the land” numbers. Contemporaneous documentarians of history, repeated biblical references to and descriptions of the land, archaeological evidence, international law (U.N. Resolution 181), and even a published document from the Supreme Muslim Council, all support the fact that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jews.
The “religious law” numbers. There are no Jewish laws for land expansion. There has never been any empire-building in Israel’s history, ancient or modern. In fact, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin returned the vast Sinai Peninsula to Egypt during the 1978 Camp David Accords, even though it was legitimately captured land during a defensive war.
Compare that to the centuries of empire-building history of Christians, which has changed, and the expansionist history of Muslims, which has not changed and continues to this day.
There is a Jewish concept of dina d’malchuta dina, “the law of the kingdom or land is the law.” This principle is often discussed in Jewish legal contexts and refers to the idea that Jews should generally follow the laws of the country in which they reside, as long as they don’t contradict fundamental religious principles unlike Christianity and Islam, which seek to impose religious laws on the lands in which they reside.
Just two mentions in the Quran regarding disbelievers and world dominance illustrate the difference between the Jewish and Muslim approach: Al-Anfal 8:12, which says, “ … cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip” and At-Taubah 9:33, which says, “ … the religion of truth [Islam] to manifest it over all religion … .”
The “religious freedom” numbers. If there’s a question of religious freedom for the growing percentage of Muslims (18%) living in Israel, there is no need for concern. All citizens (Muslims, Christians, Druze, Baháʼí, etc.) enjoy freedom of religion, access to their religious sites, education, political representation, employment and more. This is guaranteed in Israel’s Declaration of Independence and its laws.
This is unlike the plight of non-Muslims living in many Islamic countries, who are subject to prejudicial and oppressed dhimmi status. Or as seen in the town of Bethlehem where the Christian population went from an overwhelming majority under Israeli control to around 10% under Palestinian Authority rule given to them in the 1993 Oslo Accords.
Additionally, the Muslim claim that Jerusalem is Islam’s third-holiest site is weak and vague. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Quran. The claim that Mohamed ascended from the Temple Mount is based on Quran references Sura Al-Isra (17:1) and Surah An-Najim (53:1-18). Yet these texts do not mention, allude or refer to Jerusalem, let alone Israel.
Counter that with the hundreds of times that Israel as a whole and cities like Jerusalem, Hebron, Jericho and other biblical landmarks that still exist today are mentioned throughout and repeatedly described in the Tanacḥ, the Jewish Bible.
One set of answers. Each set of numbers above highlights the irrefutable facts of history on one side, juxtaposed by the consistent inflammatory words of the Arab and Palestinian leaders preaching and indoctrinating over the past hundred years, which have led to ongoing terrorism, intifadas and the barbaric, inhumane actions of the current Iranian-backed Hamas war.
Radical Muslims are actively pursuing the genocide/slavery/dhimmi of all disbelievers (Jews, Christians, Hindus, et al.) with the goal of Islamic domination of rule and religion over the entire world. The numbers don’t lie. It is what they pray for.
