Islam and Antisemitism

From the Religious Perspective and the History of Muslims rescuing Jews under Persecution

by Dr. Zahid Aziz

Chapter 7. Supporters of the State of Israel in the West

The vast majority of the supporters of the modern state of Israel in Western countries fall into three categories. The first, and possibly the largest, category consists of those who reject all religion. They have no belief in God or in the Bible. Far from honouring the prophets of Israel, as Muslims do, they hold that either these holy personages never existed and their lives are mere fiction, or that if they existed their claims of revelation from God were based on falsehood or delusions, and they intended to deceive their followers. Of course, they have the fullest right to hold and proclaim these beliefs about how all religions originated. It does, however, mean that while supporting the Jewish state of Israel they regard the Jewish religion as false and based on ignorance and superstition.

The second category consists of mainstream Christians. They believe, as a fundamental creed, that Jesus Christ was the only sinless being ever to exist. As a basic plank of this creed, they portray the prophets of the Jews as sinners who committed the most depraved acts of gross immorality. They delight in highlighting these alleged misdeeds, of murder, deceit and sexual misbehaviour, in order to prove the exclusive sinlessness and superiority of Jesus. In contrast, Muslims are taught by the Quran to believe as a fundamental of their religion that all the prophets of the Jews were thoroughly righteous and entirely innocent of sin.

Evangelical Christians:

The third category is that of evangelical Christians, quite prominent in the USA, who are looking forward to the second coming of Jesus. There was an interview in the publication European Affairs in 2007 on this subject¹ with an American-Israeli author, journalist and newspaper columnist Zev Chafets.² The title of this article is: Israel’s Most Devoted Ally: U.S. Evangelical Christians. In the introduction to the interview with Zev Chafets, Christian evangelicals are described as having

“unwavering — indeed, unquestioning — loyalty to Israel”.

Their core belief is that:

“the return of Jews to Israel is part of God’s unfolding design for Jesus to return, an event triggering the battle of Armageddon, mass conversion to Christianity and the end of the world … ironically a view that in earlier decades often put evangelicals at odds with Jews, sometimes in anti-Semitic ways”.

The introduction also says:

“Some Jews remain suspicious of evangelicals’ intentions because they see the evangelicals working for the Second Coming of Jesus and the battle of Armageddon as the signal for mass conversion, including of Jews, to Christianity.”

Zev Chafets himself says that the evangelicals’ commitment to Israel:

“is unquestioning. It comes from a religious conviction. … they see the country simply as the land where God sent his son and where he will reappear…”

He goes on to say:

“President [George W.] Bush personally is an evangelical who shares the special reverence for Israel. … People cite President Bush, who says he is acting to fulfill God’s will. That’s what he says and, I think, believes.”

Jews who reject Evangelical Christians:

The evangelical belief that Jews should convert to Christianity, and indeed that they will do so en masse in Israel when Jesus returns to this world, has infuriated many Jews. There is a Jewish newspaper in the USA by the name of Forward, which describes itself as a weekly whose

“unparalleled coverage of Jewish arts, culture and opinion have made it the most influential nationwide Jewish media outlet today”.³

In November 2013 it published an opinion article by a Rabbi, David Wolpe, entitled Why Jews Should Not Accept Jesus — Whatever George W. Bush Thinks.⁴ Under a photograph of the former President standing with an evangelical pastor, the caption says about Mr Bush:

“There’s nothing wrong with him expressing his Christian faith, but why should he encourage Jews to leave theirs?”

David Wolpe first discusses why Jews cannot accept Christian teachings. He mentions one such teaching as follows:

“The idea that eternal punishment would follow from rejecting Jesus seems downright evil. That someone could live a noble life and not be saved, when another could live a depraved and cruel life and through a true conversion of his heart at the end of life still be saved, is hard to tote up on the moral balance sheet.”

To this he adds the following as a possible example:

“A Nazi on his deathbed repents and goes to heaven and Anne Frank to hell?”

The learned Rabbi has clearly stated here that, according to the Christian church doctrine, Jewish victims of Nazi atrocities, who died as Jews, are doomed to eternal hell, but the door to heaven remained open for their persecutors if they should choose to acknowledge belief in the church doctrines.

This may be an extreme example of the application of the Christian doctrine but as the Rabbi points out:

“for centuries it was normative church doctrine and still endures among a large number of Christians”.

This doctrine is adhered to, at least on paper, by the most staunch of the supporters of the modern state of Israel, the evangelical Christians of the USA.

Rabbi Wolpe then refers to the atrocities of the Christians committed against the Jews in Europe over a period of centuries and writes that this makes it

“difficult to see certain aspects of Christian history in its historical garb in anything but a dark, forbidding light.”

About the Holocaust he writes:

“The chronicle of Christian antisemitism is one of the most gruesome, disheartening chapters in the human story. Even the most abominable tragedy, the systematic slaughter of millions in World War II, the Holocaust, cannot be entirely separated from centuries of Christian teachings of the abjectness of the Jew. As the theologian Elieser Berkowitz put it, the Nazis who killed Jews may not have been Christians, but they were all the sons and daughters of Christians.”

David Wolpe’s most telling comment is his agreement with the opinion of the Polish-American Rabbi, theologian and philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel. Wolpe writes:

Here we have the views of two Rabbis of the USA questioning how these most ardent supporters of the state of Israel can be friends of the Jews whom they want to cease to remain Jews.

Fate of Israel if Christians Evangelicals were Right:

We see that the most staunch supporters of the modern state of Israel in the USA are looking forward to a time when the Jews who have returned to Israel are no longer Jews. To make the Jews disappear, and be liquidated as members of the religion of their birth, is their hope, aim and objective in supporting the establishment of the state of Israel. If their dream were actually to be fulfilled, Israel would no longer be a “Jewish” state as there would be no Jew living in it!

The beliefs of the pro-Israel Christian movements, as expressed for example by the ‘One for Israel’ group, a charity based in Israel, are that after his second coming,

“Jesus will rule and reign from Jerusalem, and no one will be able to oppose Him … when Jesus returns, the world will but run by His rules, and He will punish the wicked to keep them in line.”⁵

Plain common-sense shows that, for this to happen, the present state of Israel and its governmental institutions would have to be permanently dismantled and demolished.

Foreign Policy decided by Scriptural Prophecies!

In 2020, when the President of the USA, Donald Trump, formally recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, an article entitled Why is Jerusalem so important to American Evangelical Christians? appeared in the UK newspaper The Independent, explaining the reasons for this. We quote below from it:⁶

We may point out here that it is not only evangelical Christians, but also a large number of Muslims who are looking forward to the return of Jesus to this world to lead them to a victory in war. In case of those Muslims who hold this belief, they say that he will descend in Damascus and will be joined by the Mahdi with his forces. If the United States can allow its foreign policy to be determined according to the beliefs of the evangelical Christians, in order to please and satisfy these groups, then it cannot object to a Muslim country’s government setting its policies to satisfy those Islamic groups which believe that Jesus will return to fight for Muslims!

The Quran’s Rational Teachings on Religious Differences:

In contrast with this, the sane and sensible teaching of the Quran is that differences among religions in general, with particular reference to differences of belief between Jews, Christians and Muslims, will remain till the end of this world and will only be settled by God in the life after death. Here are a few quotations from the Quran:

لِکُلٍّ جَعَلۡنَا مِنۡکُمۡ شِرۡعَۃً وَّ مِنۡہَاجًا ؕ وَ لَوۡ شَآءَ اللّٰہُ لَجَعَلَکُمۡ اُمَّۃً وَّاحِدَۃً وَّ لٰکِنۡ لِّیَبۡلُوَکُمۡ فِیۡ مَاۤ اٰتٰىکُمۡ فَاسۡتَبِقُوا الۡخَیۡرٰتِ ؕ اِلَی اللّٰہِ مَرۡجِعُکُمۡ جَمِیۡعًا فَیُنَبِّئُکُمۡ بِمَا کُنۡتُمۡ فِیۡہِ تَخۡتَلِفُوۡنَ ﴿ۙ۴۸﴾

“For everyone of you [nations] We appointed a law and a way. And if Allah had pleased He would have made you a single people, but that He might try you in what He gave you. So vie with one another in good works. To Allah you will all return, so He will inform you of that in which you differed.” (The Holy Quran, 5:48)

اِنَّ الَّذِیۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡا وَ الَّذِیۡنَ ہَادُوۡا وَ الصّٰبِئِیۡنَ وَ النَّصٰرٰی وَ الۡمَجُوۡسَ وَ الَّذِیۡنَ اَشۡرَکُوۡۤا ٭ۖ اِنَّ اللّٰہَ یَفۡصِلُ بَیۡنَہُمۡ یَوۡمَ الۡقِیٰمَۃِ ؕ

“Those who believe [i.e., Muslims] and those who are Jews and the Sabians and the Christians and the Magians and those who set up partners [with Allah] — surely Allah will decide between them on the day of Resurrection.” (The Holy Quran, 22:17)

وَ قَالَتِ الۡیَہُوۡدُ لَیۡسَتِ النَّصٰرٰی عَلٰی شَیۡءٍ ۪ وَّ قَالَتِ النَّصٰرٰی لَیۡسَتِ الۡیَہُوۡدُ عَلٰی شَیۡءٍ ۙ وَّ ہُمۡ یَتۡلُوۡنَ الۡکِتٰبَ ؕ کَذٰلِکَ قَالَ الَّذِیۡنَ لَا یَعۡلَمُوۡنَ مِثۡلَ قَوۡلِہِمۡ ۚ فَاللّٰہُ یَحۡکُمُ بَیۡنَہُمۡ یَوۡمَ الۡقِیٰمَۃِ فِیۡمَا کَانُوۡا فِیۡہِ یَخۡتَلِفُوۡنَ ﴿۱۱۳﴾

“And the Jews say, The Christians have no sound basis [for their beliefs], and the Christians say, The Jews have no sound basis, while they recite the [same] Book. … So Allah will judge between them on the day of Resurrection in that in which they differ.” (The Holy Quran, 2:113)

It is thus abundantly clear that the various kinds of Western supporters of the modern state of Israel, whom we have covered in this section, are antagonistic and hostile to the Jewish religion. Whether they are non-religious people, atheists, agnostics, mainstream Christians or evangelical Christians, they have no respect for the prophets and the religion of the Jews. They would rather have the Jewish religious traditions and their sacred figures consigned to the dustbin of history.

As against their attitude, it is the scripture of the Muslims which is respectful of the Jewish religious traditions, adopts a moderate and rational approach, and treats Jews with justice and humanity. In the end only the Quran will triumph and will be proved to be correct as well as beneficial to humanity as a whole.

Footnotes:

1. European Affairs, v. 8, no. 1, Spring 2007: Israel’s Most Devoted Ally: U.S. Evangelical Christians. Internet link: https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/ea/2007_spring/n.html ↩︎
2. He is introduced in the interview as an “American-Israeli who has held senior positions in successive conservative Israeli governments”. His books have won several awards in the USA. He was also Director of the Government Press Office in Israel during 1977–1982. ↩︎
3. See the link: https://forward.com/about-us/ ↩︎
4. See the link: https://forward.com/opinion/187446/why-jews-should-not-accept-jesus-whatever-george/ ↩︎
5. See the article Is Biblical Prophecy Coming True? at the link: https://www.oneforisrael.org/bible-based-teaching-from-israel/is-biblical-prophecy-coming-true/ ↩︎
6. Independent, 18 August 2020. See the link: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/jerusalem-history-explained-religion-evangelical-christians-donald-trump-a9676756.html ↩︎

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