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Koran scholar: US will cease to exist in 2007 <--BS Warning
JPost.com » Middle East » Article-By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Mar. 29, 2005 3:22 | Updated Mar. 29, 2005 6:54
A thorough analysis of the Koran reveals that the US will cease to exist in the year 2007, according to research published by Palestinian scholar Ziad Silwadi.
The study, which has caught the attention of millions of Muslims worldwide, is based on in-depth interpretations of various verses in the Koran. It predicts that the US will be hit by a tsunami larger than that which recently struck southeast Asia.
"The tsunami waves are a minor rehearsal in comparison with what awaits the US in 2007," the researcher concluded in his study. "The Holy Koran warns against the Omnipotent Allah's force. A great sin will cause a huge flood in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans."
Silwadi, who is from the village of Silwad near Ramallah – the home of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal – is not a world-renowned scholar. He said he decided to publish the findings of his research "out of a sense of responsibility because what is about to happen is extremely shocking and frightening."
His fear, he said, is that the world economy, which relies heavily on the US dollar, would be deeply affected by the collapse of the US.
"It would be fair to say that the world would be better off with a US that is not a superpower and that does not take advantage of weak nations than a world where this country does not exist at all," he added."The world will certainly lose a lot if and when this disaster occurs because of the great services that American society has rendered to the economy, industry and science."
Silwadi said his study of the Koran showed that the US would perish mainly because of its great sins against mankind, including the Native Americans and blacks.
"As soon as the Europeans started arriving in the new world discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, they declared a war on the so-called Red Indians, the legitimate owners of the land," he wrote. "Then they began enslaving and humiliating Africans after kidnapping them from their countries and bringing them to America. Millions of blacks were brought to the US and treated with unprecedented harshness. Those who became ill during the journey were thrown overboard to feed the fish."
Silwadi pointed out that the US continued to commit war crimes and "ethnic cleansing" against humanity by becoming the first country to use nuclear weapons during World War II.
"International law penalizes such crimes," he said. "If these laws were not applied then, they are certainly implemented in heaven. If no one on earth is capable of punishing [the US], Allah was and remains able to do so. All these actions have been documented by Allah in a big archive called the Koran."
Silwadi said he reached the conclusion that several suras (chapters) in the Koran that talk about punishment for those who perpetrate heinous sins actually refer to the US.
As an example, he quotes in his study verse 40 of the Spider Sura, which states: "So each We [God] punished for his sin; of them was he on whom We sent down a violent storm, and of them was he whom the rumbling overtook, and of them was he whom We made to be swallowed up by the earth, and of them he whom We drowned; and it did not beseem Allah that He should be unjust to them, but they were unjust to their own souls."
Drawing parallels between Pharaoh and the US, who share the same "sin" of arrogance and excessive pride, Silwadi noted that the Koran mentions at least 12 times the fact that Pharaoh was punished by drowning for his evil deeds.
The Narrative Sura, he noted, clearly suggests that the US will drown in the sea: "And Firon [Pharaoh] said: O chiefs! I do not know of any god for you besides myself; therefore kindle a fire for me And he was unjustly proud in the land, he and his hosts, and they deemed that they would not be brought back to Us. So We caught hold of him and his hosts, then We cast them into the sea, and see how was the end of the unjust [verses 38-40]."
Explaining his theory about the approaching extinction of the US, the scholar went on to analyze many numbers and letters mentioned in the Koran. He said a careful reading and analysis of words appearing in the Opening and Yusuf suras show that the US will exist for only 231 years.
How did he reach that number? Silwadi said that by combing a number of suras hinting at US sins he reached the numbers 1776 (the year the US achieved independence) and 231. He added the two numbers and the result was 2007, the year when the US is expected to disappear.
In his lengthy study, which is being circulated in many Muslim countries, Silwadi noted that the US has often been compared to a tree that grows very quickly and bears fruit, but has no roots.
In an attempt to find a reference to this metaphor in the Koran, Silwadi said he counted 1776 verses from the beginning of the Koran until he reached verse 26 of the Ibrahim Sura, which states: "And the parable of an evil word is as an evil tree pulled up from the earth's surface; it has no stability."
Eight Kassam makers caught in West Bank
Members of Hamas preparing to launch a Kassam rocket into Israel.
Updated Mar. 29, 2005 4:29
By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH
In predawn raids conducted in and around Jenin on Monday morning, soldiers arrested eight Islamic Jihad fugitives, who were involved in attempts to build homemade Kassam-like rockets to fire into Israel.
It is the second raid in less than one month in which terrorists were caught attempting to build such rockets.
During Monday's raids conducted by the Maglan and Golani Egoz units, a soldier was lightly wounded when a bomb was detonated near troops. He was taken to Ha'emek Hospital in Afula.
According to security officials, the cell members had conducted several failed attempts to launch the rockets. The fugitives' arrests do not necessarily signify an increase in attempts by terror groups in Samaria to arm themselves with rockets, a security official said. "We are aware of their existence just as we are aware of the rockets in Gaza," an official said.
The officials were unable to confirm Palestinian reports that among the eight arrested were two family members, one of whom was freed in the recent release of 500 Palestinian security prisoners.
The other was said to have been part of a group of Palestinians permitted to return to the West Bank last month from the Gaza Strip, where they had been banished several years ago because of their involvement in terror activities.
In the previous raid, on March 5, security forces raided a bomb factory in Al-Yamun, west of Jenin, where Hamas members were building Kassam rockets. During the raid, soldiers discovered at least one completed Kassam rocket and estimated that two others had been test-fired. Security officials said at the time that Hamas cells were intensifying efforts to manufacture the rockets to threaten nearby communities like Afula, which is located 10 kilometers away.
Elsewhere on Monday, a Palestinian was lightly wounded when he did not stop to be inspected and was shot by a security guard, near the security fence close to Shekef, west of Hebron. He was taken to hospital in Hebron and Judea and Samaria police detained the guard for questioning.
At the Hawara checkpoint outside of Nablus, a Palestinian man was arrested after he refused to submit his identity papers for inspection and attempted to snatch a soldier's weapon. The IDF officer fired warning shots in the air and the suspect was arrested.
Earlier in the day, a firebomb was thrown at an Israeli bus near Ofra; no one was wounded in the attack.
In the Gaza Strip, shots were fired at an IDF post near Gadid; no one was wounded and no damage was reported.
On Monday evening, soldiers arrested an unarmed Palestinian who was spotted attempting to cross the Gaza security fence, north of the Kissufim crossing. He was handed over to security officials for questioning.