Misfit at the Mosque

Prof. Khaleel Mohammed is not a beloved figure among Muslim students in the U.S. and his views are very unusual in the Arab world. His main thesis is that the Holy Land was given to the Jews. He takes this from the Koran itself, and is prepared to do battle with anyone who disagrees with him. "O my people! Go into the holy land which Allah hath ordained for you. Turn not in flight, for surely ye turn back as losers," says the Prophet Moussa (Moses) to his people, the Children of Israel, in verse 21 of Sura 5, "The Table Spread." The word "ordained" is a translation of the Arabic katab, a strong imperative that implies compulsion, orders, and the determining of fate. "If Allah katab the Holy Land to the Jews, then it is theirs unless stated otherwise - and it is not stated otherwise in the Koran," explains Prof. Mohammed.

"The acts of terror that are being carried out by Palestinians inside Israel are not jihad because this is not their land," he says. Prof. Mohammed, 40, who currently teaches at San Diego State University, was born in Guyana, studied classical Islamic theology at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and completed a doctorate in Islamic law at McGill University in Montreal.

Misfit at the Mosque