Antisemitism
For more than two thousand years anti-Semitism has plagued the Jews, however, the term has only been around for about thirty years (Strack 594). Due to the hateful accusations and of those who did not understand their religion, Jews, as a scorned people, gradually became more exclusive and intolerant of other religions. Because of Judaism's strict adherence to their own beliefs and unwillingness to consider any alternatives, Muslims and Christians have scorned and persecuted Jews. First, the Muslim's basis for anti-Judaism rests primarily on religious beliefs. Islam teaches that Allah, the Muslim god, requires that a good Muslim pray a ritual prayer five times per day, give a token of their income to charity, and if possible a pilgrimage to Mecca, their Holy City ("The Rise and Spread of Islam..."). "Muhammad himself was hostile to the Jews" (Rivkin 25) because he believed Allah to be the one true God and saw the Jewish Doctrine of the Trinity to be polytheistic. The Jews, however, rejected all divine worship except their own. Also, Jews had certain laws and customs concerning food and circumcision which further segregated them from the Muslims. All these differences gave rise to mutual rejection between these two groups.
o conclude, Muslims rejected the Jews for their religious beliefs and rejection of Islam, but, further, they hated them for their roles in the merchant world. Levanon, Yosef. "Anti-Semitism." The World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. Chicago: World Book Inc., 1993. As part of his rejection of the Jews, Muhammad abandoned certain Jewish customs, for example, Saturday as the Muslim holy day and Jerusalem as the Muslim holy city (Davies 329). The conversion of a Muslim to any other religion wa! rvices were utilizable by the ruling classes, a negative status when disintegrative forces in society undercut their usefulness" (Rivkin 25). The Jews, as in the Muslim culture, were forced the resort to money lending and, consequently, charging interest in order to make a living. The Christians, who already loathed the Jews, hated them to a greater extent because they had to pay them more money that they believed to be fair. In summary, the Jews were shunned for their rejection of Christianity, hated for what they had supposedly done, resented for the interest they charged, and used for their labor by the Christians of the tenth century. s strictly forbidden and punishable by death. The Jews were given the dhimmi status "meaning that they were not deserving of slaughter and could retain their religious practices in a limited form" ("The Spread of Islam to India..."). Just as slaves, the Jews did not possess full legal rights ("The Rise and Spread of Islam..."). These dhimmis were merely tole
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Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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