Why Do So Many Muslims Hate Jews?
Why is there so much hatred?
I’ve read that Jews and Muslims both descend from Abraham and are both Semitic.
If that’s true, and I imagine that it must be, then why is there such hostility between them?
The historical interaction between Judaism and Islam started in the 7th century AD with the origin and spread of Islam in the Arabian peninsula.
Both Islam and Judaism share a common origin in the Middle East through Abraham, and both are considered Abrahamic religions.
There are many shared aspects between Judaism and Islam and Islam is similar to Judaism in its fundamental religious outlook, structure, jurisprudence and practice.
So why the animosity?
First off, It’s is important to understand that not all Arabs are Muslims, and not all Muslims are Arabs and in Indonesia and Malaysia for example there are significantly more non-Arab Muslims than there are Arab Muslims.
And secondly, it’s important to know that not all Arabs hate Jews, not all Muslims hate Jews, and not all Jews hate Arabs and Muslims.
If there is an explicit biblical explanation for the animosity, then it goes all the way back to Abraham.
Jews are descendants of Abraham’s son Isaac and Arabs are descendants of Abraham’s son Ishmael.
Ishmael’s mother was a slave (Genesis 16:1-16) whilst Isaac would inherit the blessings of Abraham (Genesis 21:1-3).
Ishaq/Ishak (Isaac) is viewed as a prophet in Islam, and is mentioned in a number of Qur’anic passages but as with many other Hebrew prophets, the Qur’anic references to Isaac assume the audience is already familiar with him and his stories, so there is little narrative about Isaac in the Qur’an.
I’m far from being an expert on this but as I understand it, Arabs trace their ancestry to Abraham through Ishmael, who was the son of Hagar an Egyptian.
Egyptians are descended from Ham, not Shem, who were the two of the sons of Noah.
Ishmael was married to two Egyptian women and they were both Hamites.
Arabic and Hebrew are both Semitic languages but Hamites are not Semites.
If I’m wrong about this then please correct me.
I don’t think decent has much to do about why there is animosity between the two. If you think about it, we are all descendants of Adam and Eve. I think it’s more to do with the political and religious issues that have caused the rift between the two groups of people. It’s common for people with totally different ideals to not only think differently but even discriminate one another. In the past for example, Samaritans were not in talking terms with the Jews because of their way of worship.