The Attempted Vanquishing of Judaism

In a follow-up to my illustrative blog of the Temple Mount symbolically fettered/behind Islamic bars, I was directed to David Harounoff's review of Martine Gilbert's book on Jews in Arab lands (here) where David points out some very important observations - and lessons.  The book is entitled "In Ishmael’s House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands" (the books on my shelf on the subject is that by Norman Stillman and Andre Chouraqui) and Harounoff notes "the brutal choice offered many Jews in Muslim countries was mass conversion – or massacre".

More of his review:

Too often the cause of the enmity between the two peoples is presumed to be associated with the creation of Israel. Gilbert demonstrates the antagonism to be as ancient as Islam itself...the refusal of the Jews of Medina to accept him as a prophet led to their mass execution...the 7th century saw conquered Jewish communities annihilated or sold into slavery...subjected to inferior dhimmi status...compelled to wear distinctive clothing; subjected to an exclusive jizya tax; prohibited from employing Muslims or having sexual relations with Muslim women. Their movement was restricted and they were compelled to walk in the gutters. Another feature was the vanquishing of Judaic holy sites.

In an act that heralded the apparently intractable feud over the Old City, the 7th century Caliph Omar Ibn al-Kattab insisted that the Mosque of Omar be erected at the exact spot in Jerusalem where the Jewish Temple had stood 1,500 years earlier.

...Persian Shi’ite theocracy that ended in 1925 saw anti-Jewish hatred adopt racial features. Jews straying out of their ghettos during the 3-day muharram mourning period were likely to be killed. Jews were not permitted outdoors when it rained as it was thought the dirt they would shed would sully the feet of Muslims. In 1839, the Jews of the northern Persian city of Mashad were faced with the choice of mass conversion or massacre. Gilbert tells the moving story – sadly, one of many – of a 17-year-old girl, Sol Hachuel, who was publicly beheaded in Tangier in 1834 for refusing to convert. The Spanish consul described the tragedy as that of a Jew “entrapped by Islamic enmity toward the infidel.” [I noted that three eyars ago here]

...in 19th century Palestine. Pogroms, rivalling in intensity those of Tsarist Russia, took place in Hebron, Safed and Acre. Gilbert’s meticulous research has unearthed an article written for the New York Daily Tribune in 1854, where Karl Marx wrote that “nothing equals the misery and suffering of the Jews at Jerusalem…the constant object of Musselman oppression and intolerance.” Marx added: “Islamism proscribes the nation of the infidels constituting a state of permanent hostility between the Musselman and the unbeliever.”

...The most extreme manifestation came in the form of the Palestinian Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini. Banished from Palestine, and having fled Iraq where he unsuccessfully attempted to stage a pro-Nazi coup, the Mufti was granted refuge in Berlin. He succeeded in pressuring Hitler not to allow the transit of 4,000 Jewish children from Bulgaria to the safety of Palestine. He was instrumental in establishing an SS division, drawn from Muslim volunteers, who murdered most of Bosnian Jewry. Gilbert also reveals how the Mufti helped create an SS task force under the command of Colonel Walter Rauf who, with the help of Arab collaborators, were charged with planning the mass extermination of not only half a million Jews living in Palestine, but of the Jewish populations in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt...Gilbert recounts in often horrific detail the gradual ethnic cleansing of Jews across North Africa and Arabia...

He writes, though, that

The only Muslim state with a Jewish presence today is Iran.

I am fairly sure that there is a Jewish community in Morocco and smaller communities in Tunisia and a few in Yemen and maybe less in Syria still. This census has 10,400 Jews in Iran and 3,700 for Morocco & Tunisia combined, although after this year's events, who knows.
Getting back to the Temple Mount,

Caliph Omar the conquerer of Palestine in the 7th century asked his Jewish advisors where the Jewish Temple stood. He then ordered the construction of the Mosque of Omar directly on top of the Temple to symbolize the Islamic vanquishing over Judaism

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