The Synagogue Was Attacked and Our Children Were Watching
8 min read
8 min read
9 min read
His childhood dream was to destroy Israel and become a hero across the Muslim world. Then he started asking questions.
“Salaam Aleikum. Shabbat Shalom. My name is Ibraheem1 and I’m a religious Muslim originally from the Caucasus region.”
His audio message was addressed to me and my family, Israelis and Diaspora Jews, and it was a sincere voice of support in the midst of war and rising global antisemitism.
“As a religious Muslim, wallahi, I love Israel, I love the Jewish people, and inshallah I will have the opportunity to visit this great nation one day.”
I met Ibraheem on a social language-learning app where I was helping some people practice Hebrew. He was clearly intelligent and curious, a young man willing to interact with Jews, Zionists and Israelis without prejudice. In the wake of October 7th, it was indeed a welcome change.
But it was not always this way for him.
“As is the case with the vast majority of Muslims around the globe,” he explained, “I was extremely antisemitic, hating anything related to Israel, hating anything Jewish. I imagined the Israeli Jews to be people who were building a prosperous country for themselves on the blood and suffering of countless Palestinian Muslims.
“My hatred was so strong that I had a childhood dream in which in which I assassinate the dictator or whoever’s in charge of Israel, rescuing my Muslim brothers and sisters from Jewish oppression. I destroy Israel once and for all and I become the hero, known by everyone in the Muslim ummah.”
As a teenager, Ibraheem began to question his assumptions. Is Israel really an oppressive regime for Muslims?
As a teenager, Ibraheem began to question his assumptions. Is Israel really an oppressive regime for Muslims? He decided to look into it himself.
“I discovered on Freedom House that Israel is a free country. Not ‘Not Free.’ Not even ‘Partly Free.’ Actually ‘Free,’ with a surprisingly high score. This caused me to have a lot of doubts about Israel being a purely oppressive force against Muslims.
“But I ignored my doubt and kept hating Israel and the Jews.”
However, Ibraheem’s intellectual integrity and curiosity got the better of him.
“I wasn’t really sure who exactly the Jews were. They were just people I was supposed to hate and I wanted to know why. This caused me to do a lot of research about Jews and Israel.
I no longer hated Jews. Now, I began to hate my own stupidity.
“I discovered that there are two million non-Jewish citizens in Israel, most of them Arab Muslims, living peacefully and with the same civil rights as Jewish Israelis. Road signs are in Hebrew, Arabic and English, and there are mosques which regularly call Muslims to prayer. There are Muslim members of Knesset and Arab parties that take part in parliamentary elections. There is an independent judiciary that rules in favor of minority rights and there are even Muslim prayer rooms in the parliament building. What I thought I knew was all nonsense.
“I no longer hated Jews. Now, I began to hate my own stupidity.”
Ibraheem has not abandoned his empathy for the people in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority.
“They are definitely suffering, but not because of Israel. The plight of the Palestinians is that they’re ruled by terror groups that don’t care about any innocent life, any civilian life – Jewish or Muslim.”
He recognizes that “there are bad apples in every tree,” but “the vast majority of Israeli soldiers are fighting bravely for their country not because they hate what’s in front of them, but because they love what’s behind them.”
Ibraheem then suggested a thought experiment: “Even if Israel was an evil, oppressive country hell bent on killing Muslims and making their lives miserable, it would still be the least of our problems as a Muslim ummah and as humans. Far more Muslims have died and suffered in places like Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq – over 30,000 people were killed in less than a month in Iran.”
There have been many stories of truth-seekers finding their way toward support of Israel. But as a devout Eastern European Muslim, Ibraheem brings another, unexpected element to this journey.
The Quran confirms repeatedly that this land belongs to the Jewish people.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with Jewish people living in their own ancestral land, which Allah, subhanna wata’ala, assigned to them. The Quran confirms repeatedly that this land belongs to the Jewish people. No one has the right to take it away from them, to prevent them from living in their own land or forming their own country.”
In fact, as Ibraheem noted, “the children of Israel are actually obligated to dwell in the land that God has chosen for them, according to Allah’s command. They are warned not to turn back or they will become the losers.”
And who has been losing to the Israelis for over 100 years? Those trying to prevent them from living in their land.
“I don’t know if it’s divine intervention or the intelligence of the Jewish people, but almost all of Israel’s wars were successful acts of self-defense. Israel won and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.”
Given his historical research and his understanding of the Quran, Ibraheem now calls himself a “Muslim Zionist.”
“The vast majority of Muslims think they are very good Muslims by hating Israel, but it’s quite the opposite. If you are anti-Zionist, if you hate Israel, if you don't believe the Jewish people have the right to self-govern and live peacefully in their own ancient land, then you are a bad Muslim.”
Ibraheem was hesitant about explicitly sharing his views for a long time, even in online forums.
“I held back my true opinions about Israel and Jewish people because almost all the Muslims around me and those I meet online hate Israel or have negative opinions about Jews. However, after many positive interactions with Israelis, I finally decided to identify as a Muslim Zionist. Why should I waste my time on an application intended to be a place for learning about different cultures if I am not going to be open and honest about who I really am and what my real opinions are?”
I have become hated by the majority of the Muslim brothers and sisters I encounter online.
Then came the chat rooms. He titled them “I am a Muslim Zionist. Ask Me Anything.” and invited the world in.
The reactions were swift and unforgiving.
“I have become hated by the majority of the Muslim brothers and sisters I encounter online. I am often called a coward, insane, a psychopath, and threatened with eternal hellfire. But thankfully, I haven’t yet received any serious death threats and, inshallah, I never will.”
There are those who come into the “Muslim Zionist” chatrooms for honest debate, and others who are genuinely curious. For many people, Ibraheem is likely the first Muslim they meet who is also openly Zionist.
“When I express my views in other Muslim or Middle Eastern chatrooms, I am mostly either immediately kicked out or interrupted, shouted down, called an F-word – and then kicked out. Even when I am tolerated in a Muslim chat, they do their best to convince me to hate Jews or Israel. But this has also been somewhat true in discussions with anti-Zionist atheists who think that Jews are dangerous people who want to control us.”
Ibraheem has also found a new community of allies.
“I have received unconditional love and support from all of my Jewish and Israeli friends. They accept me for who I am and don’t ever try to change my opinion about religion. Pro-Israel Christians also like and respect me, but they often think that I will soon leave Islam because I am a Zionist. And I cannot convince them that I am not a Zionist despite being a Muslim; I am a Zionist because I am a Muslim.”
Despite his online activities, Ibraheem still hasn’t revealed his Zionist views to anyone in real life. He believes the personal cost would be very high: “If I do, the first people to turn against me would be my own family members.”
Ibraheem is not alone in his Islam-based pro-Zionist stance. Recently, he has been buttressing his persuasive analysis with a list of seven Muslim scholars and intellectuals.
In addition, as noted by a visitor to one of Ibraheem’s chatrooms, the second largest political party in Indonesia until 2024 was both explicitly Muslim and pro-Israel. In 2024 and 2025, members of the Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa (PKB; National Awakening Party) faced domestic backlash for visiting Israel or engaging with pro-Israel organizations.
In the audio message he shared with my family, Ibraheem concluded, “One day in the future, inshallah – this will sound like a fantasy and maybe people will laugh at this, but I have a very strong hope – all the Muslims will rid themselves of their un-Islamic hatred of Jews and Israel.”
“And I wish all the people in Israel – Muslim, Jewish, Christian and others – a great future, a bright future, a stable, peaceful environment in which all people can live side by side like brothers.”
