Debunking Hateful Propaganda about Jews & Muslims
A viral meme claims Jews and Muslims have warred for thousands of years, but the facts prove this myth dangerously false—and the exact opposite as true
by QASIM RASHID
I have long, and proudly, worked on interfaith coalition building. When extremists attacked a Jewish cemetery near my mosque in Philadelphia, I was proud to activate my mosque community to help with clean up. When I was asked to speak at the funeral of a Holocaust Survivor and serve as a pallbearer, I considered it my distinct honor. Whenever I’ve been invited to Seders and Synagogues to break bread or speak on interfaith harmony, I’ve embraced the opportunities. These moments of unity and solidarity are important to a healthy society, in significant part because unfortunately, provocateurs have long tried to drive a wedge between Muslims and Jews with varying degrees of success. Let’s Address This.
For example, not too long ago I received this meme from a Jewish friend. They sent it not to antagonize me—quite the contrary. They sent it as a heads up and request to provide context for those who might fall victim to this dangerous misinformation.
The meme depicts two women speaking to one another. The first woman says:
By the time I received this meme it had been shared thousands of times across social media, fueled by popular celebrities with large platforms. At a time of immense antisemitism and Islamophobia, such memes do nothing to advance peace and understanding, but create immense fear to advance hate and violence. It is a dangerous misrepresentation of history and creates anti-Muslim hate and antisemitic hate—not to mention the complete erasure of Palestinian Christians.
This dangerous meme is a perfect example of why I launched this platform, to combat media misinformation and uphold universal human rights, so people have a reliable, trusted source from which to glean information and set the record straight. So, with so much to unpack here, let me dive right in. Let’s Address This, and if you value this content, I hope you’ll consider subscribing to support this work.
Let’s start from the beginning. In 622 C.E., the Founder of Islam, Prophet Muhammad, left Mecca after a dozen years of brutal persecution. He traveled some 220 miles by foot and arrived in Medina, a city state that was predominantly Jewish with a growing Muslim population. As part of the new government he helped establish, he ratified the landmark Constitution of Medina, sometimes known as the Charter of Medina. Established in 622, the Constitution of Medina was history’s first secular Constitution. It mandated separation of religion and state and united the Muslims and Jews as one alliance. It comprised of 57 Articles, including these two gems most relevant to our discussion:
The Charter went on to explicitly confirm the humanity of Jewish people as equal to Muslims (Article 42), and the obligations of Muslims to protect not only Jews, but even allies of the Jews who were not explicitly mentioned in the Charter (Article 34). This ironclad commitment would soon be put to the test as war would impose itself on Medina. Accordingly, when Medina was subsequently attacked in the following years, for example in what is now known as the Battle of the Ditch, history records that Prophet Muhammad and the Muslims actively defended Jews from attack and being killed, and protected Medina’s unified sovereignty and sanctity.
Meanwhile, some 600 miles away and six years later in 629, Byzantine Christians conquered Jerusalem and forcibly expelled all Jews from this holy city. A massacre of Jews ensued. Going forward, Jews were forbidden from settling in Jerusalem and were forced, by some accounts, to live at least 3 miles outside the city walls.
This atrocity against Jews was not committed by Arabs or Muslims—as they had an alliance with Jews and remained steadfast in that alliance—but by the Byzantines.
Prophet Muhammad died in 632, and his death tested whether the alliance he made with Jews, and the promise of protection of Jews from harm, would remain in tact? That question was emphatically answered in 638 when the Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem and retook it from the Byzantine Christians. As among his first orders of business, Umar reopened Jerusalem for Jews to reenter and live peacefully and without persecution. The restrictions in movement and residency that the Byzantines had imposed upon the Jewish people were also lifted. Likewise, Christians were allowed to remain in Jerusalem provided they did not engage in war. Subsequently, Jews, Muslims, and Christians live in relative peace under Muslim rule for the next 461 years. Soak that in for a moment. The United States has only existed for 248 years. But for nearly double the existence of the United States, Jews and Christians lived peacefully under Muslim rule in Jerusalem.
That unity continued until the Crusaders retook Jerusalem from the Muslims in 1099. Horrifyingly, another massacre ensued, again not committed by Arabs or Muslims, but of Muslims and of Jews at the hands of the Christian Crusaders.
From 1099-1187, the First Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and committed a well documented massacre of the previous Jewish and Muslim residents of Jerusalem.