Jews have often lived in predominantly
Islamic nations. Since many national borders have changed over the fourteen centuries of
Islamic history, a single community, such as the Jewish community in
Cairo, may have been contained in a number of different nations over different periods.
Middle Ages reading the
Passover story in
Al Andalus, from the 14th century
Haggadah of
Barcelona. In the
Iberian Peninsula, under Muslim rule, Jews were able to make great advances in mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, chemistry and philology. This era is sometimes referred to as the
Golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula. Traditionally Jews living in Muslim lands, known (along with Christians) as
dhimmis, were allowed to practice their religion and to administer their internal affairs but subject to certain conditions. They had to pay the
jizya (a per capita tax imposed on free, adult non-Muslim males) to the Muslim government but were exempted from paying the
zakat (a tax imposed on free, adult Muslim males). A common misconception is that of the requirement of
distinctive clothing, which is a law not taught by the Qur'an or hadith but allegedly invented by the
Abbasid Caliphate in
early medieval Baghdad. Jews rarely faced martyrdom or exile, or forced compulsion to change their religion, and they were mostly free in their choice of residence and profession. They did, however, have certain restrictions placed upon them, listed in the
Pact of Umar. The Pact of Umar was a set of guidelines placed upon Jews in Islamic territories, many of them being very restrictive and prohibitive. However, compared to Jews of Western Christendom at the time, Jews under Islamic rule were generally treated with more compassion and understanding, rather than violence and abhorrence. This period of relative tolerance, political advancement and cultural peacefulness is a time that is referred to as a golden age. The notable examples of massacre of Jews include the killing or forcible conversion of them by the rulers of the
Almohad dynasty in
Al-Andalus in the 12th century. Notable examples of the cases where the choice of residence was taken away from them includes confining Jews to walled quarters (
mellahs) in Morocco beginning from the 15th century and especially since the early 19th century. Most conversions were voluntary and happened for various reasons. However, there were some forced conversions in the 12th century under the
Almohad dynasty of North Africa and
al-Andalus as well as in Persia. There is a view, held by the
Radvaz and
Ritva, that a Jew should be prepared to take his own life rather than convert to another religion, but the
Rambam, also known as
Maimonides, expresses that it is not necessary that a Jew take his own life if he is forced to convert but privately follows the Torah. Islam accepts converts, and spreading
Dawah to other religious adherents including Jews. In modern times, some notable converts to Islam from a Jewish background include
Muhammad Asad (b. Leopold Weiss),
Abdallah Schleifer (b. Marc Schleifer),
Youssef Darwish,
Layla Morad and
Maryam Jameelah (b. Margret Marcus). More than 200 Israeli Jews converted to Islam between 2000 and 2008. Historically, in accordance with traditional Islamic law, Jews generally enjoyed freedom of religion in Islamic states as
People of the Book. However, certain rulers did historically enact forced conversions for political reasons and religious reasons in regards to youth and orphans. A number of groups who converted from Judaism to Islam have remained Muslim, while maintaining a connection to and interest in their Jewish heritage. These groups include the
anusim or Daggataun of
Timbuktu who converted in 1492, when
Askia Muhammed came to power in
Timbuktu and decreed that Jews must convert to Islam or leave, and the
Chala, a portion of the
Bukharan Jewish community who were pressured and many times
forced to convert to Islam. In
Persia, during the
Safavid dynasty of the 16th and 17th centuries, Jews were forced to proclaim publicly that they had converted to Islam, and were given the name
Jadid-al-Islam (New Muslims). In 1661, an Islamic edict was issued overturning these
forced conversions, and the Jews returned to practicing Judaism openly. Jews in Yemen also had to face oppression, during which persecution reached its climax in the 17th century when nearly all Jewish communities in Yemen were given the choice of either converting to Islam or of being banished to a remote desert area, and which later became known as the
Mawza Exile. Similarly, to end a
pogrom in 1839, the Jews of
Mashhad were forced to convert
en masse to Islam. They practiced Judaism secretly for over a century before openly returning to their faith. At the turn of the 21st century, around 10,000 lived in
Israel, another 4,000 in New York City, and 1,000 elsewhere. (See
Allahdad incident.) In
Turkey, the
claimed messiah Sabbatai Zevi was forced to convert to Islam in 1668. Most of his followers abandoned him, but several thousand converted to Islam as well, while continuing to see themselves as Jews.
Reza Jabari, an Iranian flight attendant who hijacked the air carrier
Kish Air flight 707 between
Tehran and the resort of
Kish Island in September 1995, and landed in Israel converted to Judaism after serving four-and-a-half years in an Israeli prison. He settled among Iranian Jews in the Israeli Red Sea resort town of
Eilat. Another such case includes
Avraham Sinai, a former Hezbollah fighter who, after the Israel–Lebanon War ended, fled to Israel and converted from Islam to become a religious and practicing Jew.
Contemporary era , ratified by
Israel and
Egypt in September 1978, were a vital step forward in improving ties between
Jews and
Arab Muslims by making a breakthrough towards a resolution of the
Arab–Israeli conflict. From left to right: Egyptian president
Anwar Sadat, American president
Jimmy Carter, and Israeli prime minister
Menachem Begin.
Iran contains the largest number of
Jews within predominantly Muslim countries and
Uzbekistan and
Turkey have the next largest communities. Iran's Jewish community is officially recognized as a religious minority group by the government, and, like the
Zoroastrians, they were allocated a seat in the
Iranian parliament. In 2000, it was estimated that at that time there were still 30,000–35,000 Jews in Iran; other sources put the figure as low as 20,000–25,000. They cannot emigrate out of Iran, since the government only allows one family member to leave and be out of the country at a time. A Jewish businessman was hanged for helping Jews emigrate. In present times, the
Arab–Israeli conflict is a defining event in the relationship between Muslims and Jews. The State of Israel
was proclaimed on 14 May 1948, one day before the expiry of the British Mandate of Palestine. Not long after, five Arab countries—Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq—attacked Israel, launching the
1948 Arab–Israeli War. During the course of the hostilities, 711,000 Arabs, according to UN estimates,
fled or were expelled. The following decades saw a similar
Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries where 800,000–1,000,000 Jews were forcibly expelled or fled from Arab nations due to persecution.
Interfaith activities The Slovenian philosopher
Slavoj Žižek has argued that the term
Judeo-Muslim to describe the middle-east culture against the western
Christian culture would be more appropriate in these days, claiming as well a reduced influence from the Jewish culture on the western world due to the historical persecution and exclusion of the Jewish minority. (Though there is also a different perspective on Jewish contributions and influence.) A
Judaeo-Christian-Muslim concept thus refers to the three main monotheistic religions, commonly known as the
Abrahamic religions. Formal exchanges between the three religions, modeled on the decades-old Jewish–Christian interfaith dialogue groups, became common in American cities following the 1993 Israeli–Palestinian Oslo accords. The governments of Jordan and Qatar have been particularly active in fostering dialogue between Muslims and Jews, through conferences and institutes. Following 9/11, there was a breakdown in interfaith dialogue that included mosques, due to the increased attention to Islamic sermons in American mosques, that revealed "anti-Jewish and anti-Israel outbursts by previously respected Muslim clerics and community leaders." One of the country's most prominent mosques is the New York Islamic Cultural Center, built with funding from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia. Its imam, Mohammad Al-Gamei'a, disappeared two days after 9/11. Since 2007, the
Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, led by Rabbi
Marc Schneier and
Russell Simmons has made improving Muslim–Jewish relations their main focus. They have hosted the National Summit of Imams and Rabbis in 2007, the Gathering of Muslim and Jewish Leaders in Brussels in 2010 and in Paris in 2012, and three Missions of Muslim and Jewish Leaders to Washington D.C.. Each November the Foundation hosts the Weekend of Twinning which encourages Muslims and Jews, Imams and Rabbis, Mosques and synagogues, and Muslim and Jewish organizations to hold joint programming inspired by the commonalities between Muslims and Jews. The interview was published 4 October on a Web site affiliated with Cairo's Al-Azhar University, Islam's most respected theological academy. Immediately after 9/11, Imam Al-Gamei'a had presided over an interfaith service at his mosque. At the service the imam was quoted as saying, "We emphasize the condemnation of all persons, whoever they be, who have carried out this inhuman act." The Reverend James Parks Morton, president of the Interfaith Center of New York, who attended the service, called Imam Al-Gamei'a's subsequent comments "astonishing." "It makes interfaith dialogue all the more important," Reverend Morton said. – left to right: Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric – European Council President
Herman Van Rompuy – Rabbi
Marc Schneier – Imam Dr. Abdujalil Sajid Post 9/11 remarks made by Muslim leaders in Cleveland and Los Angeles also led to the suspension of longstanding Muslim–Jewish dialogues. Some Jewish community leaders cite the statements as the latest evidence that Muslim–Jewish dialogue is futile in today's charged atmosphere. John Rosove, senior rabbi of
Temple Israel of Hollywood, and other Jewish participants withdrew from the three-year-old Muslim-Jewish dialogue group after one of the Muslim participants, Salam al-Marayati of
MPAC, suggested in a radio interview that Israel should be put on the list of suspects behind the 11 September attacks. In Cleveland, Jewish community leaders put Muslim–Jewish relations on hold after the spiritual leader of a prominent mosque appeared in (a 1991) videotape ...aired after 9/11 by a local TV station. Imam Fawaz Damra calls for "directing all the rifles at the first and last enemy of the Islamic nation and that is the sons of monkeys and pigs, the Jews." The revelation was all the more shocking since Imam Damra had been an active participant in local interfaith activities. Good Jewish–Muslim relations continue in Detroit, which has the nation's largest Arab-American community. Jewish organizations there have established good relations with a religious group called the Islamic Supreme Council of North America. In Los Angeles, there has been a formation of an interfaith think tank through the partnership of neighboring institutions the
University of Southern California, The
Hebrew Union College, and Omar Foundation.
The Center for Muslim–Jewish Engagement has an extensive online resource center with scholarly works on similar topics from Muslim and Jewish perspectives. The Center of Muslim–Jewish Engagement has begun to launch an interfaith religious text-study group to build bonds and form a positive community promoting interfaith relations. ==Common aspects==