The Arab Inquisition

The Reasons Beyond and Similarities Between Christian and Muslim Criticism of Judaism

The layman interested in worldly religious matters generally believes there to be a distinction between Christianity's and Islam's historical treatment of Jews and Judaism. He might argue, and not altogether illogically, that Islam was a far cry more just to Jews than Christendom ever was, that is to say, that Islam did not produce anything on the level of Inquisition, Crusade, or Concentration Camp. If he were to say this, then in this he would be absolutely correct. In the Muslim lands the Jew was subject to Islam's hierarchical pyramid, on which the Jew was near the bottom, but generally speaking he was relatively safe in his society and which cannot be argued for European Christendom.

But that this is generally true conceals an element of truth regarding Islam's outlook on Jews and Judaism. If we scratch the surface but a little we begin to see a set of similarities between the most negative of Christianity's viewpoints on Judaism and a strong correlative in Islam, especially in its contemporary expressions. We can rationalize then that similar behaviors will be produced forth from both Christianity and Islam owing to their similar ideologies regarding Judaism.

Consider:

"German historians and Bible-critics were motivated by animosity towards our people. For more than a century they labored, in vain, to tear apart our Scriptures and to destroy their authenticity; and they endeavored to belittle our entire past. Their bias against us, augmented by their knowledge that their religious books could not withstand scholarly criticism, caused them to fabricate countless reckless theories (107-124) against our Scriptures. They challenged and ridiculed every statement, they ascribed the latest possible date for their composition and they accused our prophetic writers of forgery and plagiarism."

*I took this quote from Avigdor Miller's book, "Rejoice O Youth!"

One can present many objections to this point, the first one being that the German Bible-critics were atheists whom also attempted to decompose Christian Scripture. But a cursory look at the history of Bible criticism shows that indeed many professed Christians were involved in that intellectual crusade to destroy Judaism. Nowadays we are accustomed to seeing a "different kind of Christian," not one whom believes that the essence of his religion is the destruction of Judaism. However, that some sixty years ago, or less, a Christian was likely not held up by any "liberal" preoccupation with respecting the Jews and it was to him that the end of Judaism was seen partially as a Christian religious duty. This "type" of Christian was very much like today's Jihadist Muslim, and therefore the parallel between Inquisitionist Christian and Jihadist Muslim is almost perfect.

Today, this type of Christian has gone "underground" and a new Christian has emerged, one whom loves and respects the Jewish people and whom sees their text as his own. The underground Christian continues to hate the Jew, but privately, and those who do not have realized the limits of criticizing Jewish Scripture if they are to maintain belief in their own religion. One result is a series of "pro-Jewish" Christian movements, such as "Jews for Jesus" and "Messianic Judaism," and are sugary attempts to accomplish an older Christian goal, albeit in an entirely different manner, of the decomposition of Judaism's parts and their rearrangement as Christianity. It is in Christianity's lifeblood to forever attempt this conversion and it will seek any means to do so; the price of failure is the end of Christianity. It follows that broken Jewish individuals make the best targets, given that the religious duty is to break down and rearrange Judaism into Christianity; a broken Jewish individual is easy to convert into a Christian. A broken Jew is like a mathematical equation, it (the individual) is reduced to its simplest form and converted into another form. If the parallel between the Inquisitive spirit and the Jihadist spirit is valid, then we have entered a time in which a broken Jew is also a sitting duck for conversion to Islam. It is possible that this is not the first time in history in which such a phase was apparent.

But a Muslim would offer a rebuttal against the statement, "They challenged and ridiculed every statement, they ascribed the latest possible date for their composition and they accused our prophetic writers of forgery and plagiarism." Firstly, he would argue, that they do not challenge and ridicule every statement, but only the statements that were falsified by Jews with hidden motives. One basic Muslim belief, and if you think I might be slandering Islam then ask a Muslim, is that there were Jews in history who falsified and corrupted certain texts of the original revelation that they received. The purpose, they continue, was to change documented history in their favor and also to cheat Ishmael and later his descendants out of their proper birthright. The rebuttal against this is that every stated truth in the Tanakh, the Jewish Scriptures, which did not serve to confirm Islam was explained away by Islam as having been falsified by Jews. This served the purpose of using "the Jews" to filter out whatever Muslims could not rectify as foundations of their faith, and so they simply proclaimed that those things were corruptions and conveniently ignored them.

Another Muslim rebuttal is that every Prophet in the Tanakh is recognized by Islam as one of their own Prophets, and therefore they would never do something as horrible and dispicable as accusing a Prophetic writer of forgery. They would even argue that for Christians to accuse the Prophets of this was one of the essential reasons that G-d sent the Prophet Muhammad to rectify their corruption. Rather, it was not the Prophets whom were guilty of forgery, but rather the Jews themselves whom saw purpose in altering the words of the Prophets for their own means. Therefore, everything in the Books of the Prophets with which Muslims disagree, they attribute to Jewish corruption and not to the actual text as written down by the Prophets themselves. Therefore, by editing the text of the Jewish Scriptures, Muslims have been able to create a text with which they fully agree and which can culminate perfectly in the Qur'an, but it involves committing the very forgery of which they accuse the Jews. Again, "For more than a century they labored, in vain, to tear apart our Scriptures and to destroy their authenticity; and they endeavored to belittle our entire past," also refers to Muslim treatment of the Tanakh. This is evidenced by the fact that Muslims refer to all Prophets and Forefathers/mothers as "Muslims," which pushes aside their Jewish identity and at the same time negates it.

Islam, and perhaps this is an inherited legacy of Arab culture, places high value on spiritual confidence and unbreakable resolution. (By the way, this is precisely why Arab and Muslim nations resent national foes, such as other countries, whom also exude this unbreakable resolution; it makes them difficult to defeat) Consider, "Their bias against us, augmented by their knowledge that their religious books could not withstand scholarly criticism, caused them to fabricate countless reckless theories (107-124) against our Scriptures." It is the psychologically confirmed behavior that a person whom is insecure in himself tends to lash out against others as a defense mechanism. Therefore, under the veneer of unshakeable spiritual confidence and total dedication to faith, Islam suffers from the secret fear that perhaps the Qur'an does not have a chance in hell of standing up to the authenticity of the Tanakh. It is that fear that inspires Islam to make sweeping proclamations that the Jews (although it never actually identifies which Jews) have corrupted large sections of the Torah - this is nothing more than an attack based in Islam's hidden fear that perhaps the Torah is superior to the Qur'an. Again, the greater the threat, the greater the fear, and the greater the fear, the greater the reaction. Hence, a large portion of the violence by Muslim groups and governments towards "Jewish projects," one of which is the State of Israel, and the other of which is, simply said, the Jewish People, is fear that the Torah is right and that therefore the Jews are doing the right thing. Islam today, like "the Christianity of old," first became accustomed to making literary attacks on Jewish Scripture and then soon moved into the realm of tangibles and began making physical attacks on Jews, not just in Israel but wherever they were. We have entered, and have been in, a Muslim Inquisition of sorts for some time now, given wings by technology and the ability to access and spread information with relative ease, a luxury that the Crusaders did not have. One earmark of danger in this Jihading spirit is the obsession with manipulating or erasing history; the denial of the Holocaust is one way to open up a possibility, G-d forbid, that it can happen again. The Crusades led to the Holocaust and now the Jihadists are denying the reality of that Holocaust but are behaving in the same way as the Crusaders. This should be a yellow light to the world, if it is sensitive. In the end, there is practically, basically, comparitively, and essentially no difference between Christianity and Islam in relation to Judaism.

Another similarity is the almost total absence of the "average Christian" in European Christendom to speak out against the horrors of the Crusades, Inquisitions, and the our own contemporary Holocaust. In almost the exact same way, today Muslims are not speaking out against the horrors being committed by Muslims involved in terrorism and murderous ideologies. They of course do sometimes say, only after being pushed to making such proclamations, that the actions of those Muslims are not it line and even antithetical to Islam, but their "gripe" is limited to words and not to actions. In other words, moderate Muslims (which is not a synonym for "peaceful") have fallen into the intellectual trap of explaining that Muslims whom commit acts of horror in the name of Islam are not really Muslims and therefore there is no reason to criticize them. If that were true, which I am to a degree willing to accept, then the real Muslims need to alienate the false Muslims, but that did not occur, which means that Muslims were not really interested in putting an end to Muslim terrorism, or at least were not able to or felt that they were not able to. This is the nature of terror; not only does it seek to put paralyzing fear into its target population, it also seeks to put fear into the hearts of those whom resist it, from its own people. Therefore, the same fear that acts on Israeli's to bend to the whims of Palestinian terror groups is the same fear that acts on moderate Muslims whom are afraid to speak out against other Muslim terror groups. A core of terror is created which paralyzes everybody and allows anything to happen, and everything that the terror group wishes. Slowly, slowly we see the re-emergence of a situation very similar to that of the pre-Holocaust reality, but in the name of Islam, not Christianity. I have Christian acquaintances whom apologize for the Crusades in the same way by saying that those people were not actually real Christians.

In truth, to a Muslim, there is no such thing as a Jew. Therefore, every Jewish endeavor is also null and void and subject to replacement by Muslim endeavors. There is so much within the Tanakh, Jewish Scriptures, that Muslims have to negate or ignore if their stated claims about the truth of Islam are to be credible. Therefore Islam must attack the authenticity of Jewish Scripture in order to survive, exactly in the same which Christianity had to. I am not here to find a way for Islam to create a way to juxtapose itself with Judaism peacefully; I have found that to be a basically useless endeavour coming from a Jew. Only Islam is able to create such a reality and comes down its will to do so. So, to use the prior quoted statement, Muslim "historians and Bible-critics were motivated by animosity towards our people," and are. This is a phase of not a Spanish, but an Arab Inquisition.