Palestine and Anti-Zionism
For Ustadh Salem Azzam the Palestinian Cause was the central Cause of the Muslim Ummah and the liberation of Palestine and in particular that of Jerusalem was of utmost priority for all Muslims. He believed that the greatest threat to World Peace was the force of International Zionism. The most effective way to combat the Zionist menace was via the unity of the Muslim Ummah and the revival of its Islamic spirit and the awakening of its Islamic consciousness.
Introduction
When Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David Accords in 1978 surrendering his nation to the Zionist Entity and recognising its illegal usurpation of Palestine, Ustadh Salem Azzam took it upon himself to declare Sadat a traitor. Despite Saudi Arabia and Egypt’s relationship at the time and the fact that Ustadh Salem was still a diplomat at this time he felt it a moral and religious duty to declare openly his opposition to Sadat’s betrayal of Islam and the Ummah. He further believed that Egypt’s treachery would bring about the future treachery of other Arab Regimes.
In response to the Camp David Capitulations, Ustadh Salem Azzam convened the Jerusalem Conference in 1979 affirming the rights of Palestinians to all of historic Palestine, bringing together pro-Palestinian voices and publishing a book entitled ‘Jerusalem, The Key to World Peace’. For Ustadh Salem Azzam, the issue of Zionism was not be resolved via capitulations or a Two-State Solution but rather by embracing Palestine in its entirety back into the bosom of the Islamic Ummah. The Islamic Council further published Ismail al-Faruqi’s work ‘Islam and the problem of Israel’. Ustadh Salem Azzam publicly affirmed the need to defend the ‘Three Noes’ of the Khartoum Resolution. These were: No peace with Israel, No negotiation with Israel, No recognition of Israel.
When Sadat betrayed the ‘Three Noes’ and the whole of the Muslim Ummah and when Imam al Khomeini was victorious in his Islamic Revolution which was to the dismay of the Zionist Entity, Ustadh Salem convened a meeting in Westminster Hall on April 7th 1979 to welcome the Islamic Revolution. Behind Ustadh Salem and the panel was a large sign stating, ‘Down with the Sadat-Begin Treaty’ and ‘Hail the Islamic Republic of Iran’. The Hall was decorated with portraits of Khomeini and Ustadh Salem had produced a poster of Sadat marked with the Star of David with the ominous title ‘The Outcast’.
Throughout his life Ustadh Salem had defended the glorious Palestinian Resistance and never relinquished his dedication and belief in the necessary and inevitable collapse of the unjust colonial Zionist entity. When the founder of HAMAS Sheikh Ahmad Yassin was arrested by the Zionist occupation, Ustadh Salem Azzam wrote to Amnesty International attempting to try to support a campaign for his release. For Ustadh Salem, Palestine was not nationalist cause but rather the cause of the Muslim Ummah that he sought to champion.
Gallery - From 1979 Conference against Camp David Accords
