re: #14 CuriousLurker

Thank you for the context and explanation. I am confident it will be both helpful and edifying to those who read it and approach the subject with an open mind.

A quick note regarding the question you raise concerning how it can be that those who revere the same Patriarch could come to hate his desendants. Your question raises a theological problem that arises, in my view, from the fact that Islam claims not only to perfectly represent Allah’s will here on Earth, but that, as your explanation suggests, it ultimately does so by contrasting itself to the claims of the monotheistic religions that came before it. As with Christianity, Islam therefore defines itself to a certain extent as “not Jewish” and defines those adhering to Judaism as being necessarily opposed to the perfection represented by Islam. Both Christian and Muslim Jew-hatred thus have similar roots in that they define Judaism as being opposed to the perfection that they represent.

It is not by accident, therefore, that Hamas cites to a Hadith purporting to demonstrate Jews’ opposition to the Islamic Propht Muhammad as support for its genocidal platform. Jewish rejection of Islam, like Jewish rejection of Christianity, is a fundamental element of the Jew-hatred that motivate groups like Hamas. And Islamic claims to superiority — not in the racist sense, but in the sense of being the perfect embodiment of Allah’s will — provide the theological support to the Jew-hatred that groups such as Hamas promote.

So much for my “quick note”.