Islam and Antisemitism
From the Religious Perspective and the History of Muslims rescuing Jews under Persecution
by Dr. Zahid Aziz
Preface
Due to the political and military conflict between the state of Israel and its Muslim opponents, Islam is being portrayed as teaching antisemitism and hatred for Jews to its followers. This allegation is made directly as well as by insidious implication. In the absence of any Arab-Israeli political and military conflict, it is doubtful that any such charge of antisemitism would have been promoted and circulated against Islam.
These false accusations, whether arising out of ignorance or made as deliberate propaganda, have the effect of undermining the actual merits of the Muslim case and quest for justice in Palestine. What better way to devalue their case than to portray them as belonging to a religion which preaches the kind of antisemitism that the West can see in its own history!
However, the responsibility for spreading this allegation lies not only with the supporters of the state of Israel. Foolishly, some Muslims have picked up the antisemitic views published in Europe and the USA over the past centuries and propagated them in their own communities to demonise Jews as a people. Those Muslims have brought upon themselves the guilt of the West, allowing the latter to escape responsibility.
It is important to note that Islam’s opposition to hatred against Jews and maltreatment of them is based on the noble principles laid down in the Quran and taught by the Holy Prophet Muhammad some 1400 years ago. On the other hand, the new-found opposition to antisemitism in the modern West stems largely from its recoiling in horror at its own dark and brutal history of persecution of the Jews. That history culminated in the deployment of Western-invented industrial technology by Germany, perhaps the most culturally and scientifically advanced nation of the West, to kill millions of Jews in the Holocaust in the very heart of modern Western civilisation.
Part I of this book is largely based on sermons and talks I delivered following the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinians. Further information has been added to Part I, relevant to the title of this part, The Religious Perspective. Part II consists of details I have compiled from reliable and reputable sources relating to events and people, showing that Muslims came to the rescue of Jews under persecution, from the time of the Spanish expulsion five hundred years ago to the Second World War of the 20th century.
This book aims to show that the scripture of Islam, the Quran, and the Founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, do not preach any kind of hatred of Jews. In fact, they recognise the validity of the prophets and scriptures of the Jews and wish to create harmonious relations with the Jewish people, and require Muslims to come to their defence against antisemitism, whether it be verbal hate or physical persecution.
I have tried to show in this book that the Quran has given moderate, rational, humane and sympathetic teachings about the Jews and their religious history. Only these teachings can establish peace and harmony between Muslims and Jews. In contrast, as Section 7 of Part I shows, the Western supporters of the state of Israel have little regard for the religion of the Jews, and would rather that it ceased to exist in the modern world.
Zahid Aziz, Dr
September 2024