Over 20,000 people, mostly women and children, have died as a result of Israel’s deadly and inhumane attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip, which began on October 7 following the surprise military action of Hamas. Though Israel has been subjugating Palestinia
n people since 1948, when it usurped their lands, its ongoing genocidal war has brought to light the ingratitude of the Jewish nation toward the Muslims of the Middle East, particularly Palestinians. Even though Jews were persecuted and expelled by the Christian West, they were sheltered and protected by Muslims in their lands.
Highlighting the history of the persecution of Jews at the hands of Christians and the ingratitude of Jews to the Palestinians, A. Faizur Rahman said Israel’s war on Palestine is a travesty of history.
In an article on the topic, Faizur Rahman said, “One of the most horrifying aspects of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza – which the secretary general of the Norwegian refugee council considers “among the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age” – is that it is being unleashed on a nation that is innocent of the atrocities Jews suffered in the past.
“It was the Christian West – the biggest patron of Israel today – that had historically tyrannized the Jews. Historian Gerard Sloyan points out in his essay, ‘Christian Persecution of Jews over the Centuries’, that modern anti-semitism originated in “the church’s preaching and its catechising”. Arno Mayer argues in his book ‘Why did the heavens not darken?’ that the attack on Jews during the First Crusade (1096–999) “set a disastrous precedent, depositing a fatal poison in the European psyche and imagination”.”
According to him, Muslims have always stood by Jews and permitted them to settle down in the lands they ruled after the expulsion of Jews from France, Spain, and England by the kings and queens of the West. In order to grant them permission to return to France, the French king even levied taxes akin to Jizya.
To top it all, even Christian leaders, Popes John XXII and Innocent III, pushed a wedge between Christians and Jews. They were permitted to settle in their territory by the Muslims during these years. Jews were able to live in peace under Islamic rule at its height. Following the slaughter of the Jews by the Christians in Spain in 1492, the Ottoman king Sultan Bayazid permitted the Jews to relocate within his empire. Jews had eighteen Talmudic colleges and twenty-one synagogues throughout the Ottoman Empire, he added.
Even before that, they enjoyed religious freedom in Baghdad in the 8th century. The Jews had 23 synagogues.
As the Quran commands Muslims to treat Jews well as the People of the Book, Muslims gave them land and protection during the Middle Ages, when Christians persecuted and drove Jews out of western nations. In the 1930s, German leaders were advised to send Jews to Palestine by Jerusalem-based Muslim scholar Amin al Husseini.
Adolph Hitler was yet another German ruler who persecuted the Jewish community. Six million Jews are thought to have died during the Holocaust, which took place during World War II. Numerous Jews were shielded by Muslims during the Holocaust.
Faizur Rahman’s article’s main points are as follows:
- The Christian West tyrannized Jews historically.
- Pope Innocent III forbade any social transactions between Christians and Jews in 1215.
- In 1242, 20 cartloads of Talmud were burned.
- Philip Augustus expelled Jews from France in 1182.
- King Edward banished Jews from England in 1290.
- Philip IV expelled them again from France in 1306.
Noted journalist and expert on West Asian affairs, Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan underlined that Jewish history is replete with misdemeanors and treason. During the Prophet Muhammad ﷺperiod, they used to wage war against Islam by inciting Arab tribes. Speaking with Radiance, Dr. Khan said that despite this treachery, Muslims opened their doors when Jews were persecuted and thrown out of Christian lands. Jews enjoyed full religious and social freedom without any iota of discrimination in the Islamic world, and even they were appointed to important positions like adviser and diplomat by the Muslim rulers, he added.
The origins of the Jewish community in the Islamic world can be found in Arabia in the early seventh century, when several Jewish tribes prospered and worked with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
According to Prof. Saadane Benbabaali, the period of Arab Muslim rule over the Iberian Peninsula was arguably the only time in European history when Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived relatively peacefully together, producing a common culture and harmonious society. Prof. Benbabaali is an Algerian academic whose ancestors came from what is now the southern Spanish region of Andalusia. Even Jewish historians describe the Muslim rule in Andalusia’s as a veritable “Golden Age” for the Jewish community.
Dr. Khan pointed out that works by Jewish authors published before 1948 made it clear that Muslims and Muslim rulers treated Jews very well and did not discriminate against them in any way. Jewish authors called Andalusia the Golden Period for them, where a great scholar named Maimonedes (Musa ibn Maimun) was born and wrote the Midrash, which is a philological method of interpreting the literal meaning of biblical texts. The Jewish community admits that because of the freedom they enjoyed in Andalusia, Maimonedes wrote this masterpiece, and then an adage was in vogue: “From Moses to Moses, nobody likes Moses,” he added. He cited an example of a Jewish writer who wrote a highly provocative and mischievous book but he was not killed or expelled from Andalusia.
On hatred developed against Jews in the Islamic world, Dr. Khan pointed out that it was developed after Israel was created in 1948. He said the Jews who were expelled had held double nationality and cited his first-hand experience in Cairo, where he had stayed during his studies. There was an exclusive locality of Jews in the city who used to create mischief; they were asked to leave their respective countries based on their nationality, Dr. Khan added.
Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef said that Muslims and Arabs are not anti-Semitic.
“The narrative that is being promoted by Western as well as mainstream Indian media that anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian rallies and demonstrations that took to the streets in major cities and capitals of the world, and in some Muslim countries too, in the wake of the Israeli war on Gaza are basically triggered by anti-Semitic moods and anti-Jewish hatred. This is a big lie. There has not been religious animosity between Muslims and Jews. Muslims and Jews have always lived side by side amicably and peacefully, not only in Palestine but all over the world. There are more religious similarities between Islam and Judaism than between Islam and Christianity. In fact, it was Western Christianity, wherein Jews had been constantly met with hate and the utmost cruelties, culminating in the form of the Nazi Germany Holocaust”.
Speaking with Radiance, Dr. Ghitreef, a research associate with Idara Tahzibul Akhlaq AMU Aligarh, said it is established history that during the Spanish Inquisition, thousands of Jews and thousands of Muslims were condemned to death, and subjected to religious persecution, forced deportation, ruthless killing, looting, and burning alive. The end was their forced expulsion from their homes to the Ottoman Empire. It was always a Muslim land that welcomed them and gave them shelter, safety, freedom, dignity, and all kinds of opportunities. In history books, it is reported that even certain Jewish religious leaders have been receiving great favor, honor, respect, and portfolios in social and governmental positions to be envied by many Muslims, from Muslim caliphs and sultans. Jewish scholars and researchers have always received a great welcome, rewards, and respect from Muslim high echelons of power. All the great historians, for example, H.A.R. Gibb, Arnold Toynbee, and others, confirm this fact in their acclaimed works.
It was Zionism that created an unbridgeable rift between the two communities. Because Zionists are hell bentupon wiping out Palestinians from their homeland, Palestine. On this sinister plan, they have been working actively since 1948 with the criminal connivance of America and the West. That is why emotions are very charged in Muslim masses nowadays and not otherwise, Dr. Ghitreef added.
Echoing his views, a noted journalist based in Ankra, Iftikhar Gilani said that if Jews exist in the world today, it is only because of Muslim rulers. Except for the Battle of Khyber, there has been no war fought between Jews and Muslims in 1,400 years.
Jews owe their existence to Salahudin Ayubi and the Ottoman Empire. From his visit to Israel, he said my experience is that it is an apartheid state, like exclusive roads for Jews that the Palestinian ‘people’ cannot use.
Jews have never historically been persecuted by Muslims; rather, it has always been White Christians who have killed and disenfranchised Jews, leading to Hitler’s ultimate solution. But it is ironic that the Christian West is defending Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinians while standing by Israel in the face of its worst aggression in Gaza. The Israeli people are determined to drive out Palestinians from Palestine.