Islamic–Jewish relations

The neutrality of this article is disputed

Comparison with Christianity

Muslims usually showed more tolerance for Jews in Islamic lands than Christians did in European nations. The slaughter and forced conversions of Jews was much more common among Christians. In past eras, Muslims frequently engaged in forced conversions and slaughter of non-monotheiests, but Islam generally forbade such actions against Jews (or Christians), as long as the non-Muslim monotheists surrendered claims of equality, and agreed to live as dhimmis under Islamic law. In such circumstance, Jews and Christians, repsected as monothesists, were treated with greater respect. In various places and times they were virtually equals in social stature to Muslims.

The Quran's statements about Jews

Both the Quran and the Torah claims Abraham (known as Ibrahim in the Quran) to be their first patriarch; the Quran denies that Abraham should be considerd a Jew, and instead labels him a Muslim. Most Jews consider this to be both an unhistorical usurpation of their own religious heritage, and in effect an anti-Semitic denial of their own legitimacy.

"Abraham was not a Jew, nor yet a Christian; but he was an upright man who had surrendered (to Allah), and he was not of the idolaters." (III - The house of Imran 67)

Islam mandates a limited level of tolerance for both Jews and Christians, as long as they agree to live under Islamic rule. Early verses in the Quran limit religious disputations with them to those occurring in a fair manner.

"And dispute ye not with the People of the Book, except with means better (than mere disputation), unless it be with those of them who inflict wrong (and injury): but say, 'We believe in the revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down to you; Our Allah and your Allah is one; and it is to Him we bow (in Islam).'" ( XXIX: The Spider: 46 )

After Muhammed's program to convert all Jews and Christians to Islam failed, he said that "Those who reject (Truth), among the People of the Book and among the Polytheists, will be in Hell-Fire, to dwell therein (for aye). They are the worst of creatures. Those who have faith and do righteous deeds,- they are the best of creatures." (XCVIII: The Clear Sign: 6-7)

When Muslim armies conquered nations, they felt no special need to force Jews (or Christians) to convert to Islam. Instead of forcing conversion on Jews and Christians, Islam imposed an official second-class citizenship, known as dhimmi (protected), which provided them a restricted set of rights.

As dhimmi, Jews faced a greater level of tolerance under Muslim rule than Jews under Christian rule (or Muslims under Christian rule.) They were provided with limited autonomy, and full rights to practice their religion. However, a broad series of restrictions were imposed on their behavior, and in some locales they were forced to wear clothes with certain colors signifying their dhimmi status. In all locales, Jewish men had to pay the Jizya, or dhimmi tax, though they were exempted from the Zakat, or Muslim tax.

Muhammed teaches that Muslims have the right to wage war against Jews and Christians.

"And those of the People of the Book who aided them - Allah did take them down from their strongholds and cast terror into their hearts. (So that) some ye slew, and some ye made prisoners. And He made you heirs of their lands, their houses, and their goods, and of a land which ye had not frequented (before). And Allah has power over all things." (XXXIII - The Confederates: 26-7)

These verses refer to actual historical events, specifically Mohammed's attack on the Jewish community of Khyber, and the attacks then waged on the Christian Arab tribes in the region.

Muslims consider Judaism as one of the divine faiths, and the greater number of their prophets are from the "Bani-Israel" tribe. (?huh? please explain this.)

Historic events of Islamic persecution of Jews

Around 700 CE, Jews were forcibly converted to Islam during the Arab conquest of North Africa. Around 970 CE Jews in Barcelona, Spain were massacred by local Muslims. All of their property was confiscated. Around 1000 CE Muslim pogroms in Egypt killed many Jews. Near this same time, during the Islamic Almohade control of Spain, many Jews were killed by Muslims. Many Jews were forced to convert to Islam. Others fled the country. In 1050 CE the Islamic community in Morocco began a series of pogroms against Jews that killed several thousand in the Jewish community.

Islamic claims that Jews are "the sons of pigs and apes

The Quran repeatedly mentions that Allah punished Jews by turning them into pigs and apes (quotes below). This idea was interpreted literally by the majority classical Islamic commentators on the Quran, and this idea has become reurgent among Islamic clerics in many parts of the middle-east today. Only one Islamic commentator (Mujahid bin Jaber Al-Maki (died circa 718-722) ever understood this idea metaphorically.

They are those whom Allah has cast aside and on whom His wrath has

fallen and of whom He has made some as apes and swine. (5:60)

You have surely known the end of those who from amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath, in consequence of which We condemned them: Be ye like apes, despised (2:65)

When, instead of amending, they became more persistent in the pursuit of that which they were forbidden, We condemned them: Be ye as apes, despised (7:166)

Al-Jahiz (d. 869), a nonth century Islamic author of The Book of Animals, writes that the mouse, cheetah, eel, white ant, and lizard were originally Jews. (See Al-Jahiz, Omar bin Bahar, Kittab Al-Hayawan. Cairo: Mustafa Al-Bai Al-Halabi and sons (1943), Col. I, p. 309.)

Al-Tabari, a 10th century Islamic commentator on the Koran, gives an interpretation of verses 5:112-115. He holds that apostles were punished by Allah by turning them into apes and pigs. Many Muslims hold that Allah still will use this form of punishment for Muslims who commit sins; this punishment is specifically linked to the idea that all Jews are sinners. The idea is that by threatening a non-observant Muslim with the punishment once given to the Jews, a Muslim will stop erring. (Uri Rubin, "Apes, Pigs, and the Islamic Identity," Israel Oriental Studies XVII (1997), pp. 93-102.)

In the Islamic Aghlabid dynasty (9th through 11th century, North Africa) Jews were forced to wear a path that an image of a monkey, and were also forced to afix said image to their homes; Christians were forced to wear a patch that had an image of a pig, and they were also forced to afix said image to their home. (F. Viré, "Kird," Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition.)

Many Muslims in the middle-east still believe that Jews were literally changed by Allah into pigs and apes.

"Allah did not mete out the punishment of transformation on any nation except the Jews. The significance of it is actual change in the appearance of the Jew and perfect transformation from human to bestial condition... from human appearance to the form of genuine apes, pigs, mice, and lizards..." (Source: The Hamas monthy publication Falastin Al-Muslima (London), September 1996, series of articles nu Ibrahim Al-'Ali, pp. 54-55.)

20th century anti-Semtism by Islamic clerics

The following sermon was delivered at the Sheik ’Ijlin Mosque in Gaza, Palestinian Authority, The speaker was Sheik Ibrahim Madhi, and it was broadcast on Palestinian Authority television. August 3, 2001

"We must all seek a role in the Jihad and the battle. We said and we still say: 'Even if we, the entire (Palestinian) people, stood in line and signed for the Jews that we want peace, they would not accept it. The Koran is very clear on this: The greatest enemies of the Islamic nation are the Jews, may Allah fight them...'

"All spears should be directed at the Jews, at the enemies of Allah, the nation that was cursed in Allah’s book. Allah has described them as apes and pigs, the calf-worshipers, idol-worshipers…”

"Whoever can fight them with his weapons, should go out [to the battle]; whoever can fight them with a machinegun, should go out; whoever can fight them with a sword or a knife, should go out; whoever can fight them with his hands, should go out; This is our destiny. The people who are the most hostile toward the believers are the Jews and the Polytheists... The Jews have exposed their fangs. Nothing will deter them, except the color of their filthy people’s blood; nothing will deter them except for us voluntarily detonating ourselves in their midst. They have nuclear power, but we have the power of the belief in Allah..."

"The Prophet [Muhammad] said: 'The Jews will fight you, and [Allah] will establish you as rulers over them...' We blow them up in Hadera, we blow them up in Tel Aviv and in Netanya, and in this way, Allah establishes us as rulers over these gangs of vagabonds…”

"Blessings for whoever assaulted a soldier... Blessings for whoever has raised his sons on the education of Jihad and Martyrdom; blessings for whoever has saved a bullet in order to stick it in a Jew’s head…"

The following sermon was also delivered at the Sheik ’Ijlin Mosque in Gaza, Palestinian Authority, The speaker was Sheik Ibrahim Madhi. June 8, 2001. In the name of Islam the speaker calls for suicide bombers to destroy not only all Jews, but also the United States and Great Britain.

"Allah is almighty. Had He wanted - He would have beaten them. But He tests you in suffering. We must prepare the ground for the army of Allah that is coming according to the [divine] predetermination. We must prepare a foothold for them. Allah willing, this unjust state will be erased - Israel will be erased; this unjust state, the United States, will be erased; this unjust state, Britain, will be erased - they who caused this people's Nakbah [the 1948 'catastrophe']..."

"Blessings to whoever waged Jihad for the sake of Allah; blessings to whoever raided for the sake of Allah; blessings to whoever put a belt of explosives on his body or on his sons' and plunged into the midst of the Jews, crying "Allahu Akbar, praise to Allah, There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger."'

"Just as the building collapsed over the Jews in their sinful dancing floor [referring to the collapse of a wedding hall in Jerusalem] - I pray to Allah that this oppressive Knesset will collapse over the heads of the Jews."

The following sermon was delivered at the Zayed bin Sultan Aal Nahyan mosque in Gaza, Palestinian Authority, The speaker was Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya. The speaker is an appointed member of the Palestinian Authority Fatwa Council, and is former acting Rector of the Islamic University in Gaza.

"Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are, fight them, wherever you are. Wherever you meet them, kill them. Wherever you are, kill the Jews, the Americans, who are like them, and those who stand by them. They are all in one trench against the Arabs and the Moslems. ... It is forbidden to befriend Israelis or to aid them. Don’t love them or enter into agreement with them, don’t help them or sign accords with them. Anyone who does this is one of them. This is the word of Allah, blessed be He. They, they are the terrorists. They should be slaughtered. They should be murdered. Such is the word of Allah."

The following examples of anti-Semitic hatespeech come from Muslims of the Americas (MOA). This group has been identified as an Islamist group that has ties to Al-Fuqra, widely considered an Islamic terrorist group. MOA's webiste contains a large amount of anti-Semitif material by Holocaust deniers, and other well known anti-Semites such as Michael Hoffman and David Duke.

"Jews are an example of human Satans. This is why Jews are the founders of Satan worship and Masonic lodges, and are now trying to take over the entire globe in which the global religion is to be Satanism….In the US there are now thousands of temples where Satan is worshipped. This Satanism has now become the ultimate tool in the hands of Zionists."