juan cole has written a post along the lines of something that i have almost written several times (though cole's, of course, is much better than anything i could ever do)--debunking the myth that muslims have always hated the jews.
it comes up all the time when i talk to people about the middle east or my studying arabic. there seems to be a sense that anything in the middle east must be ancient. but the modern israeli-arab conflict (or, as some people on all different sides see it: jews vs. muslims) is really nothing more than a dispute over real estate with roots in the 19th century. while people assume the conflict somehow dates back to biblical times (never mind that islam did not exist 3000 years ago and most of the ancestors of the palestinians were probably jews back then), it's really a fairly modern phenomenon that started when european notions of nationalism began creeping into the middle east, tearing apart the multi-ethnic/multi-religious countries like the ottoman empire.
the fact remains for most of the fourteen centuries, beginning with the rise of islam until the present, jews were much better off in the muslim world than in christian europe. it was only in the last 300 years or so that jews gained many basic rights in european countries, like the right to practice their religion freely. many of those same rights jews had enjoyed for centuries under muslim rulers. don't get me wrong, jews were not equal to the majority religion under law in either place until very recently. but islamic law guarantees judaism a protected status that did not exist in most of europe at the same time. and it was only in the last century or so that the position of jews in the muslim world began lagging behind the position of their cousins in europe.
just something to remember before you ask me why i am learning the language of my "traditional enemies"
