On Tuesday I and my wife visited the Ann Frank Museum in Amsterdam. I assume most of you have heard of Ann Frank and her diary, written by this teenage girl while her Jewish family was hiding from the Nazi authorities during the German occupation of Holland in 1940-1944, in tiny rooms at the top of a house (which is now the museum).
At the end of the visit I happened to look at some of the Musuem's publications and found one about the history of anti-semitism. It has a section of two pages on the Islamic teachings and views about the Jews. The material given there can only be described as a disgusting and gross distortion and complete misrepresentation of Islam. The gist of it was that the Holy Prophet Muhammad preached a complete intolerance of all non-Muslims and he especially sought to kill Jews because they did not accept him. This is portrayed as his mission. Then it mentions Muslim history after his time and alleges that Muslims, following the teachings of Islam, continued to treat Jews in a humiliating and debasing way as inferior creatures.
I am sure that even any Western non-Muslim orientalist would shudder at this misrepresentation. There is not even the least attempt at any balance. Well-known facts are omitted such as:
Muslims are required to believe in the Jewish prophets who are highly revered in Islam,
Jewish scriptures are regarded as revelations from God,
the good among the Jews of the Holy Prophet's time are specifically praised in the Holy Quran,
it is a duty of Muslims to protect synagogues just like mosques,
Muslim men are allowed to marry Jewish women and actually the Holy Prophet married two Jewish women,
Jews and Muslims lived harmoniously in the Middle East, North Africa and Spain for centuries under Muslim rule, so much so that that period of Jewish history under Muslim rule is known as the "golden era" of Jewish history.
Inshalla, I intend to write a reply and send it to the museum. I will also point out to them that the very hatred and xenophobia which this Museum is meant to be a memorial against, and which this Museum regards as its duty to warn people against, they themselves are propagating the same against Muslims through this book. They are actually employing the same kind of false propaganda which they are denouncing in this book as having been used in antisemitic literature against the Jews.
Their misrepresentation of Islam is so loathsome that I cannot bear to read it again, except for the purpose of replying to it.
Later on, when the book moves on to modern times and the Arab-Israeli conflicts, it portrays Arabs as furthering the antisemitism which they had already been taught by Islam. An example of an antisemitic statement from an Arab leader about fifty yeas ago is: "There has been no disaster like the one that has struck the Palestinians". Why this statement is antisemitic is a total mystery. This section more or less makes it plain that to question or criticize the state of Israel is antisemitism.
It also claims that Arab leaders during the 1930s were "postive" towards Hitler. President Nasser is alleged to have come to power with the help of Nazis who had served in Hitler's regime. This seems rather bizarre as Nasser was a socialist and ally of the communist Soviet Union, and the Nazis regarded the communists and the Soviet Union as their worst enemies.
I have an issue of the Islamic Review (published from England) of 1940 in which an Englishman, a convert to Islam, who wants to join a British fascist party (because it is against the Jews) asks the editor if being a Muslim is consistent with joining this party. The editor in reply says that on the basis of Islamic teachings he totally condemns any party whose ideology is directed against a whole people, such as the Jews, and he also denounces the persecution of the Jews in Germany at that time as being totally against Islam. (Note that in 1940 the known persecution in Germany was only that of legal discrimination, and not the wholesale killing, but even that discrimination is condemned by the Muslim editor as entirely against Islamic teachings.)
At the end of the visit I happened to look at some of the Musuem's publications and found one about the history of anti-semitism. It has a section of two pages on the Islamic teachings and views about the Jews. The material given there can only be described as a disgusting and gross distortion and complete misrepresentation of Islam. The gist of it was that the Holy Prophet Muhammad preached a complete intolerance of all non-Muslims and he especially sought to kill Jews because they did not accept him. This is portrayed as his mission. Then it mentions Muslim history after his time and alleges that Muslims, following the teachings of Islam, continued to treat Jews in a humiliating and debasing way as inferior creatures.
I am sure that even any Western non-Muslim orientalist would shudder at this misrepresentation. There is not even the least attempt at any balance. Well-known facts are omitted such as:
Muslims are required to believe in the Jewish prophets who are highly revered in Islam,
Jewish scriptures are regarded as revelations from God,
the good among the Jews of the Holy Prophet's time are specifically praised in the Holy Quran,
it is a duty of Muslims to protect synagogues just like mosques,
Muslim men are allowed to marry Jewish women and actually the Holy Prophet married two Jewish women,
Jews and Muslims lived harmoniously in the Middle East, North Africa and Spain for centuries under Muslim rule, so much so that that period of Jewish history under Muslim rule is known as the "golden era" of Jewish history.
Inshalla, I intend to write a reply and send it to the museum. I will also point out to them that the very hatred and xenophobia which this Museum is meant to be a memorial against, and which this Museum regards as its duty to warn people against, they themselves are propagating the same against Muslims through this book. They are actually employing the same kind of false propaganda which they are denouncing in this book as having been used in antisemitic literature against the Jews.
Their misrepresentation of Islam is so loathsome that I cannot bear to read it again, except for the purpose of replying to it.
Later on, when the book moves on to modern times and the Arab-Israeli conflicts, it portrays Arabs as furthering the antisemitism which they had already been taught by Islam. An example of an antisemitic statement from an Arab leader about fifty yeas ago is: "There has been no disaster like the one that has struck the Palestinians". Why this statement is antisemitic is a total mystery. This section more or less makes it plain that to question or criticize the state of Israel is antisemitism.
It also claims that Arab leaders during the 1930s were "postive" towards Hitler. President Nasser is alleged to have come to power with the help of Nazis who had served in Hitler's regime. This seems rather bizarre as Nasser was a socialist and ally of the communist Soviet Union, and the Nazis regarded the communists and the Soviet Union as their worst enemies.
I have an issue of the Islamic Review (published from England) of 1940 in which an Englishman, a convert to Islam, who wants to join a British fascist party (because it is against the Jews) asks the editor if being a Muslim is consistent with joining this party. The editor in reply says that on the basis of Islamic teachings he totally condemns any party whose ideology is directed against a whole people, such as the Jews, and he also denounces the persecution of the Jews in Germany at that time as being totally against Islam. (Note that in 1940 the known persecution in Germany was only that of legal discrimination, and not the wholesale killing, but even that discrimination is condemned by the Muslim editor as entirely against Islamic teachings.)
