Editing Antisemitism in Islam (section)

===Islamic remarks about Jews===
[[Leon Poliakov]],<ref name="EncJud">Poliakov</ref> [[Walter Laqueur]],<ref name="Laqueur192"/> and [[Jane Gerber]],<ref name="autogenerated1">Gerber, p. 78</ref> argue that passages in the Quran reproach Jews for their refusal to recognize [[Muhammad]] as a [[prophet]] of [[God]].<ref name="EncJud"/> "The Quran is engaged mainly in dealing with the sinners among the Jews and the attack on them is shaped according to models that one encounters in the New Testament."<ref name=autogenerated5>Uri Rubin, [[Encyclopedia of the Qur'an]], Jews and Judaism</ref> The Muslim holy text defined the [[Arab]] and Muslim attitude towards Jews to this day, especially in the periods when [[Islamic fundamentalism]] was on the rise.<ref name="Laqueur192"/>

Walter Laqueur states that the Quran and its interpreters have a great many conflicting things to say about the Jews. Jews are said to be treacherous and hypocritical and could never be friends with a Muslim.<ref name="Laqueur192"/>

Frederick M. Schweitzer and Marvin Perry state that references to Jews in the Quran are mostly negative. The Quran states that wretchedness and baseness were stamped upon the Jews, and they were visited with wrath from Allah, that was because they disbelieved in Allah's revelations and slew the prophets wrongfully. And for their taking [[usury]], which was [[Usury in Jewish Law|prohibited for them]], and because of their consuming people's wealth under false pretense, a painful punishment was prepared for them. The Quran requires their "abasement and poverty" in the form of the poll tax [[jizya]]. In his "wrath" God has "cursed" the Jews and will turn them into apes/monkeys and swine and idol worshipers because they are "infidels".<ref name=Schweitzer266 />

According to Martin Kramer, the Quran speaks of Jews in a negative way and reports instances of Jewish treachery against the [[Islamic prophet]] [[Muhammad]]. However, Islam did not hold up those Jews who practiced treachery against Muhammad as archetypes nor did it portray treachery as the embodiment of Jews in all times and places. The Quran also attests to Muhammad's amicable relations with Jews.<ref name=kramer/>

While traditional religious supremacism played a role in the Islamic view of Jews, the same attitude applied to Christians and other non-Muslims. Islamic tradition regards Jews as a legitimate community of [[monotheists|believers in God]] (called "[[people of the Book]]") [[Sharia|legally]] entitled to sufferance.<ref name=kramer/>

The standard Quranic reference to Jews is the verse {{qref|2|61–62}}.<ref>Lewis (1999) p. 128</ref> It says:

{{blockquote|And ˹remember˺ when you said, “O Moses! We cannot endure the same meal ˹every day˺. So ˹just˺ call upon your Lord on our behalf, He will bring forth for us some of what the earth produces of herbs, cucumbers, garlic, lentils, and onions.” Moses scolded ˹them˺, “Do you exchange what is better for what is worse? ˹You can˺ go down to any village and you will find what you have asked for.” They were stricken with disgrace and misery, and they invited the displeasure of Allah for rejecting Allah’s signs and unjustly killing the prophets. This is ˹a fair reward˺ for their disobedience and violations. Indeed, the believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabians—whoever ˹truly˺ believes in Allah and the Last Day and does good will have their reward with their Lord. And there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.|{{qref|2|61–62|c=y}} }}

However, due to the Quran's timely process of story-telling, some scholars argue that all references to Jews or other groups within the Quran refers to only certain populations at a certain point in history.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sanders |first1=Katie |title=Sean Hannity: The Koran says 'don't take Christians and Jews as your friends |url=https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/may/16/sean-hannity/sean-hannity-koran-says-dont-take-christians-and-j/ |website=[[Politifact]] |access-date=15 December 2019}}</ref> Also, the Quran praises some Jews in {{qref|5|69}}:
"Indeed, the believers, Jews, Sabians and Christians—whoever ˹truly˺ believes in Allah and the Last Day and does good, there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve."

The Quran gives credence to the Christian claim of Jews scheming against Jesus, " ... but God also schemed, and God is the best of schemers." ({{qref|3|54|b=y}}) In the [[Islamic views on Jesus' death|mainstream Muslim view]], the [[crucifixion of Jesus]] was an illusion, and thus the Jewish plots against him ended in failure.<ref name="Lewis 1999, p. 120">Lewis (1999), p. 120</ref> According to Gerber, in numerous verses ({{qref|3|63|b=y}}; {{qref|3|71}}; {{qref|4|46}}; {{qref|4|160–161}}; {{qref|5|41–44}}, {{qref|5|63–64}}, {{qref|5|82}}; {{qref|6|92}})<ref name="Gerber">Gerber, p. 91</ref> the Quran accuses Jews of [[tahrif|altering the Scripture]].<ref name="autogenerated1" /> According to [[Gabriel Said Reynolds]], "the Qur’ān makes 'the killing of the prophets' one of the principal characteristics of the Jews";<ref name="Reynolds 2012">{{cite journal |author-last=Reynolds |author-first=Gabriel Said |title=On the Qur'ān and the Theme of Jews as "Killers of the Prophets" |author-link=Gabriel Said Reynolds |date=April 2012 |url=https://www3.nd.edu/~reynolds/index_files/jews%20as%20killers%20of%20the%20prophets%20final.pdf |journal=Al-Bayan: Journal of Qur'an and Hadith Studies |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=9–32 |doi=10.11136/jqh.1210.02.02 |issn=2232-1969 |s2cid=162290561 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216004900/https://www3.nd.edu/~reynolds/index_files/jews%20as%20killers%20of%20the%20prophets%20final.pdf |archive-date=16 February 2017 |url-status=live |access-date=13 February 2021}}</ref> although the Quran emphasizes the killing of the [[Prophets in Judaism|Jewish prophets]] by the Israelites,<ref name="Fastenbauer 2020">{{cite book |author-last=Fastenbauer |author-first=Raimund |year=2020 |editor1-last=Lange |editor1-first=Armin |editor2-last=Mayerhofer |editor2-first=Kerstin |editor3-last=Porat |editor3-first=Dina |editor4-last=Schiffman |editor4-first=Lawrence H. |title=An End to Antisemitism! – Volume 2: Confronting Antisemitism from the Perspectives of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism |chapter=Islamic Antisemitism: Jews in the Qur’an, Reflections of European Antisemitism, Political Anti-Zionism: Common Codes and Differences |location=[[Berlin]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] |pages=279–300 |doi=10.1515/9783110671773-018 |doi-access=free |isbn=9783110671773}}</ref> Reynolds remarks that none of them were killed by the Israelites according to the [[Hebrew Bible|Biblical account]].<ref name="Reynolds 2012"/>

{{Blockquote
|text=If we look to Islamic tradition for the answer to this question we might come to the conclusion that Muhammad's rivalry with the Jews of Medina led him to develop increasingly hostile anti-Jewish polemic. This is the sort of conclusion suggested by the ''[[Encyclopaedia of Islam]]'' article on Jews by [[Norman Stillman]]. Speaking of the Medinan period of Muhammad's career, Stillman comments: "During this fateful time, fraught with tension after the Hidjra, when Muhammad encountered contradiction, ridicule and rejection from the Jewish scholars in Medina, he came to adopt a  radically more negative view of the people of the Book who had received earlier scriptures".<ref name="Reynolds 2012"/>
|author=[[Gabriel Said Reynolds]]
}}

But the Quran differentiates between "good and bad" Jews, adding to the idea that the Jewish people or their religion itself are not the target of the story-telling process.<ref name="Poliakov74" /> Rubin claims the criticisms deal mainly "with the sinners among the Jews and the attack on them is shaped according to models that one encounters in the New Testament."<ref name=autogenerated5 /> The Quran also speaks favorably of Jews. Though it also criticizes them for not being grateful for God's blessing on them, the harsh criticisms are only addressed towards a particular group of Jews, which is clear from the context of the Quranic verses, but translations usually confuse this by using the general term "Jews". To judge Jews based on the deeds of some of their ancestors is an anti-Quranic idea.<ref name="Tahir" />

[[Ali S. Asani]] suggests that the Quran endorses the establishment of religiously and culturally plural societies and this endorsement has affected the treatment of religious minorities in Muslim lands throughout history. He cites the endorsement of [[Pluralism (political philosophy)|pluralism]] to explain why violent forms of antisemitism generated in medieval and modern Europe, culminating in the Holocaust, never occurred in regions under Muslim rule.<ref>[http://www.twf.org/Library/Pluralism.html On Pluralism, Intolerance, and the Quran]. Twf.org. Retrieved on 2012-06-01.</ref>

Some verses of the Quran, notably {{qref|2|256}}, preach tolerance towards members of the Jewish faith.<ref name="Laqueur192">Laqueur, pp. 191–192</ref> According to Kramer, Jews are regarded as members of a legitimate community of believers in God, "[[people of the Book]]", and therefore [[Sharia|legally]] entitled to sufferance.<ref name=kramer/>

As one of the [[Five Pillars of Islam|five pillars of Islam]] Muslims perform daily [[Salat]] prayers, which involves reciting the first chapter of the Qur'an, the [[Al-Fatiha]].<ref name="Quran 4 U">{{cite web|url=http://www.quran4u.com/Tafsir%20Ibn%20Kathir/001%20Fatihah.htm |title=Tafsir Ibn Kathir (English): Surah Al Fatihah |work=Quran 4 U|access-date=8 December 2019}}</ref>  Most commentators<ref>{{cite book|author= Ayoub, Mahmoud M.|title=The Qur'an and Its Interpreters: v.1: Vol 1|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0873957274|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sIXpFtvp2JYC&q=%22those+who+have+incurred+Your+wrath%22%29+refers+to+the+Jews.&pg=PA49|page=49|quote=Most commentators have included the Jews among those who have "incurred" divine wrath and the Christians among those who have "gone astray"|year=1984|author-link=Mahmoud M. Ayoub}}</ref> suggest that the description, "those who earn Thine anger" in {{qref|1|7|c=y}} refers to the Jews. Israel Shrenzel, former chief analyst in the Arabic section of the research division of the [[Shin Bet]] and a current teacher in [[Tel Aviv University]]’s department of Arabic and Islamic studies wrote, "Given that there is contradiction between the content and message of the two groups of verses – those hostile to Jews and those tolerant toward them – the question is which group is to be adopted nowadays by the Muslim scholars and masses. The more dominant view adheres to the first group".<ref>{{cite journal| journal = Jewish Political Studies Review | volume = 29 | issue = 3–4 | url=http://jcpa.org/article/verses-and-reality-what-the-koran-really-says-about-jews/ |title=Verses and Reality: What the Koran Really Says about Jews |author=Shrenzel, Israel|date=4 September 2018 |access-date=8 December 2019}}</ref>

In 567, [[Khaybar]] was invaded and vacated of its Jewish inhabitants by the [[Ghassanid]] Arab Christian king [[Al-Harith ibn Jabalah]]. He later freed to the captives upon his return to the [[Levant]]. A brief account of the campaign is given by [[Ibn Qutaybah]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.islamport.com/b/5/adab/%df%ca%c8%20%c7%e1%c3%cf%c8/%c7%e1%e3%da%c7%d1%dd/%c7%e1%e3%da%c7%d1%dd%20005.html|title=Ibn Qutaybah: al-Ma'arif|access-date=11 October 2015|archive-date=9 September 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120909212342/http://www.islamport.com/b/5/adab/%DF%CA%C8%20%C7%E1%C3%CF%C8/%C7%E1%E3%DA%C7%D1%DD/%C7%E1%E3%DA%C7%D1%DD%20005.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> and potentially also mentioned in the sixth-century [[Harran inscription]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.islamic-awareness.org/History/Islam/Inscriptions/harran.html|title=Harran Inscription: A Pre-Islamic Arabic Inscription From 568 CE|website=www.islamic-awareness.org}}</ref> See Irfan Shahid's ''Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century'' for full details.<ref>[[Irfan Shahid]]: ''Byzantium and the Arabs in the sixth century'', p. 322</ref>

{{Main|Jewish community of Khaybar}}

In the 7th century, Khaybar was inhabited by Jews, who pioneered the cultivation of the oasis<ref>Yāqut, ''Šihāb al-Dīn ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Ḥamawī al-Rūmī al-Baġdādī'' (ed. Ferdinand Wüstenfeld), Mu’jam al-Buldān, vol. IV, Leipzig 1866, p. 542 (reprint: Ṭaharān 1965, ''Maktabat al-Asadi''); Hayyim Zeev Hirschberg, ''Israel Ba-‘Arav'', Tel Aviv 1946, p. 343 (Hebrew).</ref> and made their living growing date palm trees, as well as through commerce and craftsmanship, accumulating considerable wealth. Some objects found by the Muslims when they entered Khaybar — a [[siege engine|siege-engine]], 20 [[:wikt:bale#Etymology 3|bale]]s of [[Yemen]]ite cloth, and 500 cloaks — point out to an intense trade carried out by the Jews.  In the past some scholars attempted to explain the siege-engine by suggesting that it was used for settling quarrels among the families of the community.  Today most academics believe it was stored in a depôt for future sale, in the same way that swords, lances, shields, and other weaponry had been sold by the Jews to Arabs. Equally, the cloth and the cloaks may have been intended for sale, as it was unlikely that such a quantity of luxury goods were kept for the exclusive use of the Jews.{{Citation needed|date=February 2008}}

The oasis was divided into three regions: al-Natat, al-Shikk, and al-Katiba, probably separated by natural divisions, such as the desert, [[lava]] drifts, and swamps. Each of these regions contained several fortresses or redoubts containing homes, storehouses and stables. Each fortress was occupied by a separate family and surrounded by cultivated fields and palm-groves. In order to improve their defensive capabilities, the settlers raised the fortresses up on hills or [[basalt]] rocks.

Jews continued to live in the oasis for several more years afterwards until they were finally expelled by caliph [[Umar]]. The imposition of tribute upon the conquered Jews of the Khaybar Fortress served as a precedent.  Islamic law came to require exaction of tribute known as ''[[jizya]]'' from ''[[dhimmi]]s'', i.e. non-Muslims under Muslim rule.

For many centuries, the [[oasis]] at Khaybar was an important [[Caravan (travellers)|caravan]] stopping place.  The center developed around a series of ancient dams built to hold run-off water from the rain. Around the water catchments, [[date palm]]s grew.  Khaybar became an important date-producing center.

The words "humility" and "humiliation" occur frequently in the Quran and later Muslim literature in relation to Jews. According to Lewis, "This, in Islamic view, is their just punishment for their past rebelliousness, and is manifested in their present impotence between the mighty powers of Christendom and Islam." The standard Quranic reference to Jews is verse {{qref|2|61}}: "And remember ye said: "O [[Moses]]! we cannot endure one kind of food (always); so beseech thy Lord for us to produce for us of what the earth groweth, -its pot-herbs, and cucumbers, [[garlic]], [[lentil]]s, and [[onion]]s." He said: "Will ye exchange the better for the worse? Go ye down to any town, and ye shall find what ye want!" They were covered with humiliation and misery; they drew on themselves the wrath of Allah. This because they went on rejecting the Signs of Allah and slaying His Messengers without just cause. This because they rebelled and went on transgressing."<ref name="Lewis p128">Lewis (1999), p. 128</ref>

Two verses later we read: "And ˹remember˺ when We took a covenant from you and raised the [[Mount Sinai|mountain]] above you ˹saying˺, “Hold firmly to that ˹Scripture˺ which We have given you and observe its teachings so perhaps you will become mindful ˹of Allah˺.” Yet you turned away afterwards. Had it not been for Allah's grace and mercy upon you, you would have certainly been of the losers. You are already aware of those of you who broke the [[Shabbat|Sabbath]]. We said to them, “Be disgraced apes!” So We made their fate an example to present and future generations, and a lesson to the God-fearing."{{qref|2|63|b=y|s=y}}

The Quran associates Jews with rejection of God's prophets including Jesus and Muhammad, thus explaining their resistance to him personally. (Cf. Surah {{qref|2|87–91}}; {{qref|5|59}}, 61, 70, and 82.) It also asserts that Jews and Christians claim to be children of God (Surah {{qref|5|18}}), and that only they will achieve salvation (Surah {{qref|2|111}}). According to the Quran, Jews blasphemously claim that [[Ezra]] is the son of God, as [[Christians]] claim Jesus is, (Surah {{qref|9|30}}) and that God's hand is fettered (Surah {{qref|5|64}} – i.e., that they can freely defy God). Some of those who are Jews,<ref name="Yahud">Here the Quran uses an Arabic expression ''alladhina hadu'' ("those who are Jewish"), which appears in the Quran ten times. Stillman (2006)</ref> "pervert words from their meanings", (Surah {{qref|4|44}}), and because they have committed wrongdoing, God has "forbidden some good things that were previously permitted them", thus explaining Jewish commandments regarding food, Sabbath restrictions on work, and other rulings as a punishment from God (Surah {{qref|4|160}}). They listen for the sake of mendacity (Surah {{qref|5|41}}), twisting the truth, and practice forbidden usury, and therefore they will receive "a painful doom" (Surah {{qref|4|161}}).<ref name="Yahud"/> The Quran gives credence to the Christian claim of Jews scheming against Jesus, "... but God also schemed, and God is the best of schemers"(Surah {{qref|3|54}}). In the Muslim view, the [[crucifixion of Jesus]] was an illusion, and thus the supposed Jewish plots against him ended in complete failure.<ref name="Lewis 1999, p. 120"/> In numerous verses (Surah {{qref|3|63}}, {{qref|3|71}}; {{qref|4|46}}, {{qref|4|160–161}}; {{qref|5|41–44}}, {{qref|5|63–64}}, {{qref|5|82}}; {{qref|6|92}})<ref name="Gerber" /> the Quran accuses Jews of deliberately [[tahrif|obscuring and perverting scripture]].<ref name="autogenerated1" />