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implications. Let’s examine the gist of some of the actual theological differences
that do exist in the three-way relationship among Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam. How much do these theological differences really matter in the politics of
the ancient and medieval Middle East? When we look more closely, we note a
constant repetition of certain basic arguments about the nature of monotheism
that pervade the region and the culture. We note that Islam, rather than
transforming the area theologically, ended up adopting a posture of balance
between the other two faiths, reinforcing a kind of theological continuity.
Popular modern theories that Islam represents some kind of disruptive cultural
and theological force alien to Judeo-Christian belief, or that it laid a groundwork
for later anti-Western feeling, is to utterly remove it from its cultural and
historical contexts. Islam, in fact, represents and extends some of the deepest
cultural, philosophical, and religious trends of the Middle East, including quite
guarded attitudes toward the West. Islam did not create these trends; take Islam
away and the trends still remain. Let’s look at how these three religions regarded
each other.

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The Jewish Perspective on Christianity and Islam
Judaism’s critique of Christianity clearly influenced a number of later Christian
heresies—and the theology of Islam, as well. First, and perhaps the single most
sensitive issue for the entire Middle East, was the all-important issue of the
nature of the Messiah: while Christians believed that Jesus was the Messiah
whose coming was foretold in the Old Testament, Jews rejected Jesus as being
that Messiah. In the eyes of some Christians, Jews are the worst heretics of all,
because they actually deny what was supposedly foretold in their own scriptures
—the coming of the Messiah. Jewish scholars largely reject that argument,
claiming that it is quite clear that Jesus was not that Messiah prophesied in the
Old Testament. They claim that the true Messiah needed to fulfill a number of
specific messianic prophesies in order to be recognized as the Messiah: he had to
be born of the male line of King David (Jesus was purportedly begotten by God);
he must fulfill the Law of the Torah (Jesus clearly did not do so and indeed
sought to change the Law). The true Messiah would also usher in an era of world
peace when hatred and oppression will cease to exist—which did not happen.
The Old Testament expected the Messiah to fulfill these revelations immediately
and not after a “Second Coming,” to which there is no reference in the Old
Testament. Jews also did not accept the idea that mankind can be saved through
the sacrifice of Jesus, or by anyone else, but only through righteous living, as
prescribed by Jewish Law.
Judaism furthermore castigates Jesus as having taken Jewish monotheism and
corrupted it, dividing Jews against themselves and weakening Judaism. The
great medieval Jewish philosopher and theologian Maimonides, who lived in
Muslim Spain, minced no words:
The first one to have adopted this plan [to wipe out any trace of the
Jewish nation] was Jesus the Nazarene, may his bones be ground to
dust… He impelled people to believe that he was a prophet sent by God to
clarify perplexities in the Torah, and that he was the Messiah that was
predicted by each and every seer. He interpreted the Torah and its precepts
in such a fashion as to lead to their total annulment, to the abolition of all
its commandments and to the violation of its prohibitions. The sages, of
blessed memory, having become aware of his plans before his reputation
spread among our people, meted out fitting punishment to him.

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Thus, from a Jewish perspective, these arguments refute the Christian
argument that Jews willfully rejected the Messiah prophesied for them in the Old
Testament; these critiques suggest that it was abundantly clear to Jewish scholars
that Jesus did not meet the qualifications of the Messiah prophesied for them.
Islam actually strikes middle ground on this issue by acknowledging Jesus as
a great Prophet of God, who did commit miracles and was indeed born of the
Virgin Mary. The nineteenth chapter of the Qur’an is entitled “Mary” [Miriam in
Arabic]; she is mentioned more often than any other woman in the Qur’an—
more often than in the New Testament itself; she is the most revered female
figure in Islam.
However, according to Islam, Jesus was not God himself, nor the literal Son
of God, but rather a divinely inspired human prophet. God is strictly One. And
for Muslims, any denial of Jesus as a great prophet violates the beliefs of Islam
itself; Muslims, for example, regularly declare works of art that are insulting to
Jesus to be blasphemous. The Qur’an refers variously to Jesus as “the Word of
God,” as “the Spirit of God,” and as a “Sign of God.” There are no disparaging
remarks about Jesus in the Qur’an. Thus, in a world without Islam, the much
harsher Jewish critique of Jesus, as expressed in Judaism, still stands.
Judaism likewise does not accept Muhammad as a prophet. Nonetheless, the
relationship between Islam and Judaism is striking, far closer in spirit than that
between either of those faiths and Christianity. Both Judaism and Islam are
fiercely monotheistic, and both proclaim the unity of God several times in daily
prayers. Both Jews and Arabs are Semitic peoples who have long shared much
common space, common history, and speak languages that are closely related.
Both Islam and Judaism are strongly law-based; personal salvation is attained
through personal fulfillment of the law in life. Both have community law courts
for the adjudication of many issues in accordance with religious law. Judaism
insisted that God could not be portrayed or personified, and that he did not
possess human form. Islam firmly follows that same precept that God is not
anthropomorphic. Thus to both Jews and Muslims, Christian art is shocking, if
not blasphemous, with its unconstrained, direct, and detailed portrayal of God in
various styles—usually as an old white man with a white beard in white robes—
and with the proliferation of paintings of Jesus in a huge variety of diverse
physiognomies and cultural affiliations.
Both Judaism and Islam share many regulations about the ritual of foods,
slaughter of animals, prohibition of pork, and ritual cleanliness—indeed, Islam
derived them mostly from Judaism but vastly simplified the complex Jewish
Kosher laws. Oriental Jews (Sephardim) have been influenced in their practice
of their religion through long centuries of living together with Muslims. And

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while in the bloody history of humanity Jews, too, have suffered at various
points while living in Muslim societies, Jewish scholars would be near
unanimous in agreeing that Jewish communities and culture have fared far better
over the centuries under Islam than under Christianity. The creation of the state
of Israel in 1948, establishing a homeland for the Jews after the horrific
experience of the Holocaust in Europe—but coming at terrible expense to the
Palestinians—represents a dramatic and sad turning point in what is now a tense
and angry relationship between Jews and Muslims. Indeed, that strained
relationship is now entirely geopolitical, fought over questions of territory and
relationships with the new Israeli state.

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