The Jews and Islam – #25

http://JewishHistory.org

Islam posited itself as the only true religion and that belief in Mohammed was necessary in order to gain entry into the world to come in order to save one’s immortal soul. Islam was an aggressive religion, a warrior religion. Mohammed himself was a warrior. Hundreds of thousands of pagans were converted to Islam by force and through coercion. The Jews and Christians resisted that. When Islam realized that it couldn’t control the entire world, it created the Dimmy System. It meant that non-Moslim were second-class citizens in Moslim society. Their houses of worship were limited, they needed special permission, they had to show deference to the Moslims but they were allowed to live. In certain societies they were even allowed to prosper. Therefore the Golden Age of the Jews in the Middle East and in the Middle Ages was under Moslim rule and not under Christian rule. Under the Christian rule Jews were persecuted unmercifully. The Dark Ages were not only Dark Ages for Europe but also for the Jews. The Church did not admire the Jewish stubbornness in not adoption Christianity, to put it mildly. And Jews were relegated to the position of being almost non-human beings. But according to the Moslims, Jews were only second-class citizens which is better than being a non-human being and therefore, overall, the Jews in the Moslim countries fared better than the Jews in the Christian countries.