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The Jews and Islam - #25
In order to save one's Immortal Soul, Islam was an aggressive religion, a warrior religion. Muhammad himself was a warrior, and hundreds of thousands of pagans were converted to Islam by force and by coercion. The Jews resisted that, as did the Christians. Therefore, when Islam realized that it was not going to control the entire world, at least at that period of time, the question became: what do you do with the Jews, and what do you do with the Christians? Islam created a system called the Dhimmi system. The Dhimmi system meant that non-Muslims were second-class citizens in the Muslim society. Their houses of worship were limited, they needed special permission, and they had to show deference to the Muslims, but they were allowed to live. In certain Muslim societies they were even allowed to prosper and to rise to great heights.
Therefore, the Golden Age of Jews in the Middle East and in the Middle Ages was under Muslim rule, and not under Christian rule. Under Christian rule the Jews were persecuted unmercifully. The Dark Ages were not only dark ages for Europe; they were dark ages for the Jews. The Church did not admire Jewish stubbornness in not adopting Christianity, to put it mildly, and Jews were relegated to the position of being almost non-human beings. According to the Muslims, the Jews were only second-class citizens, which is better than being a non-human being. Overall, the Jews in the Muslim countries fared better than the Jews in the Christian countries.
Thanks for watching. My name is Bar El Wine. For more on Jewish history, go to jewishhistory.org.