I live in Israel

Salamu Alikom everyone here

some of you might find it odd. but i'm a muslimah living in Israel.
there are about 20% palastinians here.
i'm not palastinian. i have a rare nation which is called Adyghe A.K.A Circassian.
we are about 4,000 population here in israel and we have two muslimish villages. the bigger one is much better than the other where they almost lost their way. our homeland was north caucasus, but we were banished from there after having a war with russia for 200 years around the year of 1884.
now we are spread all over the world. most of us got to the ottoman empire and we were setteled at it's boundaries because we were known as great warriors.

we are one of the oldest nations in the world. i heard awhile ago that at that time Egyptians would steal Circassian children to raise them as their warriors.
and some of the names of the kings there have meanings in my language.
but i don't know the validity of this story, i just thought that it's intresting

also if you watched the movie Narnia, there's a lion there that is called Aslan.
guess what Aslan means in my language. it means Lion.

anyway, the reason that i opened this topic is because i'm concerned.
as a muslimah living in israel, i have arab friends as well as jewish friends.
when i just met my jewish friends they had so many questions and so many misconceptions about Islam. After a year of studying with them one of them told me that because of me she started to look at islam in a different way. that she trusted me the most because of my dedication to islam and even asked me to pray for her. this girl was a warrior in the army and was an extremist muslim hater. at first she would say she wants all the muslims dead infront of me and stuff like that while we all sat together, but i remained patient. slowly she started to be more open to me and she saw how beautiful islam is, because i kept telling her why i can't do this and this with her because islam forbids me to do it and ofcourse i was also telling her the reasons for the rule.
she's not the only one. about 4 of my other friends told me how much the respected me the most. and they keep calling me untill this very day asking for my wellbeing.

i told this just to show you what a good 3ibadah can do to a person. even your "sworn enemies".

the reason i wrote from the beginning is because i see alot of Muslims commenting on Israeli forums- saying things like
"Islam Power! death to your mothers and children like the people in Gaza."

if i was not muslim and saw what they wrute there, i would never want to become a muslim.
were they not been taught the idea of islam? islam is peace. wishing people to die = not peace.

it's not that i support the jews, they are extremly wrong in alot of subjects.
i support the the muslims. but sometimes supporting is by explaining them the right way and not their actions.
still it doesn't mean i want the death of the jews.

islam is not about fighting with the Kafir.
islam is living in Harmony, with everyone. living in such a way that even the Kafirs would want to join you.
islam is beautiful. islam is being clean.

islam is compassion, whether to animals or human- men/women , black/white, poor/reach and muslim/kafir.

the death of the people in Gaza makes me cry aswell.
but wishing the suffer of others won't make us better than them.
our strength is our iman. our faith, our book and our guidance.
we were chosen by Allah to have the right path. alhamdulilah.
now it's on our shoulders to show how beautiful it is to the rest of the world.


also. i saw a documentry film made by an israeli. he took a video of the Gaza women who are in the israeli prison because they came here to suicide.
they have very wrong Shekhs there telling them that it will bring them to Heaven if they suicide for islam. should we not do something about it? how can we make them understand that they are just taking the shortcut to hell??

Greetings, sister

It is lovely to read your testimony.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences. I am sure it will be useful for us here in LI to read and understand.

Salaam

Beautiful post sis, jazaki Allah khair!

Aleykum selam,

How fascinating! I had never heard of your kind before. I love history, so this is something I want to know more of inshaAllah. I even saw just now that there have been Adyghens in my homecountry, Kosovo.

In Turkish "aslan" means "lion" aswell.

I love this part the most, 'cause I can relate to it:

it's not that i support the jews, they are extremly wrong in alot of subjects.
i support the the muslims. but sometimes supporting is by explaining them the right way and not their actions.
still it doesn't mean i want the death of the jews.

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WELCOME!

Excellent post!

and welcome sister..maybe i got what ur saying wrong but....

Whilst islam is about peace we should not just sit and let our enemies massacre us. Even in the time of Muhammed :arabic5: the muslims were insturcted to fight their enemies and Allah cast terror into their hearts

So, when you meet (in fight - Jihad in Allah's Cause) those who disbelieve, smite (their) necks till when you have killed and wounded many of them, then bind a bond firmly (on them, i.e. take them as captives). Thereafter (is the time) either for generosity (i.e. free them without ransom), or ransom (according to what benefits Islam), until the war lays down its burden. Thus [you are ordered by Allah to continue in carrying out Jihad against the disbelievers till they embrace Islam and are saved from the punishment in the Hell-fire or at least come under your protection], but if it had been Allah's Will, He Himself could certainly have punished them (without you). But (He lets you fight) in order to test some of you with others. But those who are killed in the Way of Allah, He will never let their deeds be lost.
47:4

Yes this by no means means we kill every person we meet SubhanAllah, but jihad does exist and there is jihad today in this world and whilst we must remember that we should live in peace with those who we are at peace with, it doesnt mean we should sit back and let our enemies attack.

Aren't there many instances of Circassian muslims fighting for the Israeli army against the Palestinians? How can you take as friends those who are usurping land from and committing genocide against your muslim brothers and sisters?

I went and asked my father more. He said he had met and knew some, calling those people Cherkes. He said they were tall, big and had blue eyes, reminding maybe of Russians or Chechens. My grandfather, may he rest in peace, was a Turkish-speaking teacher and taught Turkish, Albanian and Cherkess people in the city. My grandmother even speaks some words in your language.

JazakAllah kheyr to you, you made me learn something new today.

Assalamoalaikum,
i would agree with Amani, the tortures the jews have inflicted on the the palestinians almost mount up to those inflicted on the Prohpet Saw and his companions, almost...

they also retaliated, allah ash commanded to fight for our brotehrs ans sisters if hy are in need and if people try and supress you and do not let you pactice your religion freely...

Even then I think that its not acceptable in anyway to kill innocent people, I do not wish death for innocent kids and inncocent women ( as long as they don't participate in war..) but we should defnately strike back, unfprtunately we re sitting here and doing nothing..

If you can make a difference in how people look towards our religion or brotehrs and sisters in religion, then subhanAllah, why not.. you shouldn't be agressive towards people anyway if you do not have the strength and they will hurt you, or if you can reslve things by dialogue, but where dialogue fails.. force should be used too..

P.S welcome to the forums..

Oh wait, Cherkes! We call them "sharkasees" where I'm from, Syria; they're a significant minority there. Interesting!

Welcome to LI

Can I just ask, what iz it liike living in Israel? Have you ever felt liike movin away to some place else cuz of all the war and stuff? :?

I can't remember anybody gaining so many reputation points with their first post.
This sister's post must have struck a chord with many of us.

Salaam,

So if I understand correctly Circassians have been living in Palestine way before the occupation by Zionists? If so any families that were made to leave in 1948 or 1967?

Islam is a well-rounded religion it deals with every issue in life. Yes we are about harmony but anyone who tries to attack us should be stopped also. So sis Amani made a point there.

Aren’t you discriminated against? Or any other Palestinians whether Christian or Muslim? Because the amount of news everyday about how Palestinians are dealt with (well Israelis are occupiers in the end) especially in al Qudus shows things are not well there and they never have been.

salam everyone

Al-Zaara
you know what, since we are kind of losing our language, we are minority here after all, we might have taken the word Aslan from the turkish language when we arrived to the ottoman empire, silly me, i just never realized that!

thank you all for wellcoming me ^_^

Whilst islam is about peace we should not just sit and let our enemies massacre us. Even in the time of Muhammed the muslims were insturcted to fight their enemies and Allah cast terror into their hearts

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To tell you the truth, I don't think we can have peace with Israel. But it's not true that we have to make all of it's citizen our enemies. You see, I meet a lot of Jews that are defending the name of Arabs. They are barely sounded. Some don't even dare to say it outloud.
There's this Adyghe guy here which his job is to fix air-conditioners. He once was hired by a jew, and he accidently saw the "jew" which was hiding in some room doing Salat!
Yes, what you hear
After that , this Adyghe brother asked him if he's muslim. The Jew brother said he was, but was hiding it from the rest.
Also, there is this jewish family which was very religious that converted to islam too.
And I want you to see this:
http://www.atzuma.co.il/petition/oshradu/1/
maybe there aren’t a lot of people who want this, but even one person is good enough for me.

Now about having a war. we should definitely not sit and do nothing. First we should do our best to make peace and if it won't work, we should do our best to keep our rights. But only in the right way, if you want Allah to support you, you need to do it the right way.
Unfortunately I see too many wrong things in the way of Gaza's army.
Now I know the Israeli army, and i know that they do a lot but A LOT of wrong things. But it breaks my heart so much more to hear how the Muslim army is doing bad things as well... the Muslims represent my faith, my way.
And my dream is to be proud at them... i don't want to hear how the Hamas and the Fath are fighting each other. i don't like hearing how they killed the israeliens they captured after torturing them...
just like it says here:
", then bind a bond firmly (on them, i.e. take them as captives). Thereafter (is the time) either for generosity (i.e. free them without ransom), or ransom (according to what benefits Islam), until the war lays down its burden."
Our prophet pbuh said to treat them like orphans!
think that if they would have treat them like that, how would everyone look at them...everyone would see how beautiful our religion is. how much respect we would receive! How could the israeliens speak against that? Against such a divine act?

There's a rule in this war, not to fire at mosques and likewise not to fire at synagogues. Because of that rule, the Hamas are hiding their weapon in the mosque and they fire from there. The leaders hide inside hospitals and the warriors send their Katiushas while they are within the city, with the women and children. I judge them this harsh because they are muslims. I could judge the israeliens the same way and even worse, much worse, but I care more to correct my muslim brothers and sisters ways and not theirs. The Hamas is also treating it's citizen in a very bad way. So much that a muslim child helped an Israeli army go back safely. I have cried so much for the Gaza people, and I cried even more when I understood that their army who is supposed to be protecting them is only making it worse.

Yes this by no means means we kill every person we meet SubhanAllah, but jihad does exist and there is jihad today in this world and whilst we must remember that we should live in peace with those who we are at peace with, it doesnt mean we should sit back and let our enemies attack.

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Sister, the biggest Jihad is fighting your inner demons. When I see muslims coming to a public place like a mall or restaurant or a buss of children and suiciding there to kill as many people as they can, do you call it jihad? I hope not.
What is right in killing innocent defenseless people? Do you not see how wrong they perceive islam there? Do you know how many muslims living in israel they killed by doing it?

Aren't there many instances of Circassian muslims fighting for the Israeli army against the Palestinians?

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Indeed. I wish I could say that it's wrong, but they are. We live in such a small village, and we have such different opinions. some are very religious, some don't know what religion is all about. You see, when we were banished from Caucasia, we were pagans. We become muslim after arriving to the ottoman empire, where the Turkish showed us what islam is about. we fell inlove with it and converted, big alhamdulilah for that just thinking about it that I might have been a pagan now… I have to tell you that at the time of my mother, for example, they didn't know much about islam like this generation does. So some parents teached more of islam to their kids and some didn't. that's why we are pretty different people here. But I got to say that we are in a better situation now than we did then, we are less ignorant. Briefly, we are not such perfect muslims over here, I wish we were.

How can you take as friends those who are usurping land from and committing genocide against your muslim brothers and sisters?

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I believe I kind of explained myself already. The way I see it - all people are potential muslims.
I can't turn my back on them just because they are jews, just because their country is doing bad to my muslim brothers and sisters. No, it's my duty to make them realize what islam really is, and then they will have a choice whether change their way of thinking from wanting death to the terrorists they think we are or to wish for peace. It turned out, so far, with all of them that they didn't understand what islam is really about. the people here genuinely think that islam teaches violence. I see it as my complete responsibility to show them the real face of islam. And I'm doing it not by saying I think this and this. I tell them, this is what the Quran says or this is what our prophet pbuh said.
And sometimes I even see them nodding their heads while I explain things, agreeing with me. Isn't that beautiful? isn't it beautiful that this girl, who were an extreme muslim hater, is telling me everything that bothers her? opening her heart to me and crying? Because I'm muslim and she trusts me? isn't it the most beautiful thing to hear someone like her telling me that because of me and another arab friend of mine that she changed her view on muslims? if that is completable, would you still decide to see them as nothing but enemies?

I went and asked my father more. He said he had met and knew some, calling those people Cherkes. He said they were tall, big and had blue eyes, reminding maybe of Russians or Chechens. My grandfather, may he rest in peace, was a Turkish-speaking teacher and taught Turkish, Albanian and Cherkess people in the city. My grandmother even speaks some words in your language.

JazakAllah kheyr to you, you made me learn something new today."

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Well we don't all have blue eyes, mines are just green
And yes, we are also called Cherkes ))
Most people here think we are russians, but the russians see that something is different and they are confused haha
Our language is going and disappearing… not many still know this language, but I'm proud to be one of them!

Assalamoalaikum,
i would agree with Amani, the tortures the jews have inflicted on the the palestinians almost mount up to those inflicted on the Prohpet Saw and his companions, almost...

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W3alikum asalam wra7matu allaho wbarakato.
They are very wrong. I never said they weren't, please don't understand me in a wrong way. And I'm in no way saying we should sit in quiet. But we should understand the whole situation with a different angle first of all.
Lets say you were born a Jew (thank Allah you didn't , no offence jewish people here^_^). You see all these muslims coming and suiciding in your public places, killing mothers and children... even if you don't agree with the way the Israeli army is acting, would you not be angry, so angry on the muslims? it's the same way that now you are angry on the Jewish.
As a muslim, would you not want to make them realize what islam is really about? or just call them enemies and act to them as ones? Would you not want to show them how much we want peace? They are also people with brains, they are not that different from you. they are not animals. Allah has given them compassion too. They are just ignorant. So ignorant, and they don't realize it. But we are replying to their violence and barbarian acting the same way. So what will make them stop the israelien army from acting like it? i know what might stop OUR muslim army from acting like it, and it's Islam. What Allah wants.
Do you understand what I mean?

they also retaliated, allah ash commanded to fight for our brotehrs ans sisters if hy are in need and if people try and supress you and do not let you pactice your religion freely..

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i agree with that completely.

Oh wait, Cherkes! We call them "sharkasees" where I'm from, Syria; they're a significant minority there. Interesting!

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yes that's us

Welcome to LI

Can I just ask, what iz it liike living in Israel? Have you ever felt liike movin away to some place else cuz of all the war and stuff?

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i live in a nice village, surronded with Adyghe people... feels like living inside a bubble, doesn't feel like i'm actually from israel
it feels different going outside the village, and you can't not to feel this kind of warmth when you come back into this little bubble

that's why i'm not too tempted to leave. but i sometimes dream of living in a muslim country... surronded by righteous people, with less temptations and all... sounds like a beautifull dream. one of the reasons that i long for living in heaven so much... i cannot even imagine how peaceful it will be there.

I can't remember anybody gaining so many reputation points with their first post.
This sister's post must have struck a chord with many of us.

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you all are very warm and wellcoming mashaallah.

So if I understand correctly Circassians have been living in Palestine way before the occupation by Zionists? If so any families that were made to leave in 1948 or 1967?

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true, and no we weren't made to leave. we didn't even have to serve in the army at first.

Islam is a well-rounded religion it deals with every issue in life. Yes we are about harmony but anyone who tries to attack us should be stopped also. So sis Amani made a point there.

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sister , i never said anything against that, just against wishing the death of innocent people

Aren’t you discriminated against? Or any other Palestinians whether Christian or Muslim? Because the amount of news everyday about how Palestinians are dealt with (well Israelis are occupiers in the end) especially in al Qudus shows things are not well there and they never have been.

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there's defintely some kind of discrimination. though as circassian i'm less discriminated. actually, once my father was in a jewish shop, and he didn't have enough money. when the shopkeeper understood that he was Circassian, he said "Why didn't you say you're circassian?? i trust circassians, they never failed me before. so you can take what you want and bring me the money later". i heard about so many incidents like that and it feels amazing!!

but this hate between the Arabs and Jews is mutual. it was there from the begging.

הי
שלום
ברוך הבא
ליהנות השהיה

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are you jewish? cause it looks like you used some translating program

אכן, יש לי את זה.
השתמשתי בתרגום של "גוגל", ואני מאוד נבוך כעת, התועילי בטובך לסלוח לי?
אינני יהודי, ברם אני אוהב את השפה העברית ואת האותיות

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haha i knew it. it's ok, nothing to be embarassed about

LaIlahaIlaAllah said:

haha i knew it. it's ok, nothing to be embarassed about

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so you know how to speak/read hebrew?

Welcome to the forum Sister,

There are a number of Circassians living here in the USA mostly in New Jersey. My family spoke of knowing Cherkes in Lithuania and my Grandfather told stories of what great horsemen they were. My Grandfather was a Calvary Officer, First in the Lithuanian Army and later in Russia under Czar Nicholas, most of the soldiers in his companies were Cherkes.

EDIT: I made an error I just remember he fought against Czar Nicholas and the Russians. Now, I can't remember what country besides Lithuania he was a Calvary Officer in.