EL, Allu, Elli, God & Allah

By Dr. Mohiuddin Waseem

After the visit of Ariel Sharon to the Al-Aqsa mosque in September 2000, the CNN broadcasted an interview covering the opinions of Jewish settlers living close to the borders of the Palestinian Authority. One of the residents commented on the situation by stating, “This (Israel) is a reality and that (pointing towards Palestine) a prophecy”.

The statement served as a revelation to me to appreciate the fact that in the Holy Bible alone no less than three hundred times the word Philistine is used and almost always with animosity and in conflict with the Jews (Israel). Not only that, but the Bible tells us that a single Jew can kill hundreds of Philistines as is told in the stories of Samson and Shamgar (Holy Bible, Judges: Chapters 15 & 3).

I am surprised at the convenience with which western scholars find the roots of Muslim terrorism in the Holy Qur’an and overlook the state-sponsored terrorism committed by the Israeli Government. Without going into the details of the Aegean origin of ancient Philistine and their pagan religious practices it will be sufficient to say that current Palestinians are essentially Arabs in ancestry and worship the same, one and the only true God variously known as El in Hebrew, Allu in Babylonian, Elli in Aramaic and Allah in Arabic languages. People should realize that Biblical Philistine is a story of the past, which has no bearing to modern-day Palestine, except a little resemblance in the names. The area was renamed as Palestina by Roman emperor Hadrian in 130-135 AD when he utterly crushed the Bar Koch bar’s revolt (second Jewish War) and expunged the name Judea, to rub the noses of the defeated rebels in the Latinized name of their ancient Philistine enemies. To the Palestinian my message is very simple and that is if they want to live with dignity they should change the name of their state to something like Beth-El (house of El) or Beth-David (house of David) etc. They should also change the name of Gaza to something else, making sure that it should be Jewish friendly according to their psyche. In this way they will be able to divert the unnecessary “transference” and prevent death and sufferings of their people.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published at PakistanLink.com You can access the article at http://www.pakistanlink.com/Opinion/2002/April/12/06.html