Hawk, you raise a good point -
The anti-semitic slant of (some) modern Islamic practice is at variance with history.
The Prophet's Hadith was, "Who ever causes harm to a Christian or a Jew, he actually harms me."
By the time of the prophet's death in 632 AD, Islam was in ascendancy throughout the world. But "People of the Book" were never subject to persecution. Or at least, that is one view...
"Muslims believe that God had previously revealed Himself to the earlier prophets of the Jews and Christians, such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Muslims therefore accept the teachings of both the Jewish Torah and the Christian Gospels. They believe that Islam is the perfection of the religion revealed first to Abraham (who is considered the first Muslim) and later to other prophets. Muslims believe that Jews and Christians have strayed from God's true faith but hold them in higher esteem than pagans and unbelievers. They call Jews and Christians the "People of the Book" and allow them to practice their own religions. Muslims believe that Muhammad is the "seal of the prophecy," by which they mean that he is the last in the series of prophets God sent to mankind. Muslims abhor the followers of later prophets. This attitude serves to explain the extreme Muslim animosity toward Bahais, followers of a nineteenth-century prophet, who in the Muslim mind is false."
pbs.org
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However, a significantly different (Hindu) view of the reality of Islam is taken here...
"There is a general misconception that Islam seeks friendly relations with the People of the Book, that is, the Jews and the Christians. In fact, Islam is as hostile to the members of these religious groups as it is to idolators such as the Hindus. However, this is another matter that the Jews and the Hindus suffered terribly at the hands of Islam, but the Christians, though initially bore its brunt, eventually succeeded in stemming its tide in their lands."
hindutva.org
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In any case, the attachment to Hitlerite thinking, and vicious anti-Semitism, has been a fact of life in the Middle East since before WWII. It has always been particularly strong in Egypt.
"Ambiguous Arab-Muslim attitudes to Hitler can be traced to his popularity in much of the Arab world both before and during the Second World War.
Political parties that imitated the Nazis were founded, such as the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and Young Egypt, replete with storm troopers, torch processions and Nazi slogans.
The most significant collaborator with Hitler was the Arab leader in Palestine, the Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin el-Husseini.
He sought German help to agitate against the Jews in the 1930s, then assisted the pro-Nazi coup in Iraq in 1941. He escaped to Berlin and met several times with Hitler, declaring a jihad against the Allied forces in numerous radio broadcasts in which he urged the killing of Jews.
His energetic pro-Nazi efforts included a Muslim SS unit in Bosnia, visits to death camps and interventions to send many thousands of Jews to the gas chambers. After the war he was a wanted war criminal who found sanctuary in Egypt, along with many other Nazi officials granted refuge in the Arab world.
Gamal Abdul Nasser was a member of Young Egypt and made no secret of his earlier Nazi sympathies when he became president of Egypt. Former Nazis served in his army and secret police, and his personal bodyguard was SS General Oskar Dirlewanger.
Sami al-Joundi, one of the founders of the ruling Syrian Ba'ath Party, recalled: "We were racists. We admired the Nazis. We were immersed in reading Nazi literature and books."
Even today, Hitler's Mein Kampf ranks high on the best-seller list among Palestinian Arabs..."
allafrica.com
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If you happen to be an atheist, or even an agnostic, your chances of peaceful coexistence with Islam aren't terribly good, either.
And if you're an animist, or believe in Salvation Through the Redemptive Power of Hubcaps, then don't go looking to Islam for tolerance.
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It remains to be seen what values will be accentuated, and which will be dropped, in Islam's internal debate. There is no question that some of current Islamic belief and practice is at variance with modern values of universal tolerance.
Regards,
Jim |
