The second surprising revelation (actually, not so surprising) of our tour of the Muslim Quarter was the reason why Jews from the Jewish Quarter, when no more room was left there, sought housing in the Muslim Quarter and not in the Christian Quarter or the Armenian Quarter:
Jews got along much better with Muslims than they did with Christians. Why?
Firstly, the Muslim religion is much closer to Judaism than it is to Chritianity, many of whose beliefs are, in the eyes of both Muslims and Jews, suspect of being idolatrous. Both Judaism and Muslims are bound by legal systems supposedly of Divine origin. Muslims will eat meat slaughtered by Jews but not by Christians.
Secondly, Jews in Muslim lands, though not exactly living in Paradise, were persecuted much less in these countries than they were in Christian lands (where persecution began in the time of Emperor Constantine, at the beginning of the 4th century CE). |
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