The Jewish Origins of Islam |
The Influence of Judaism on Islam
Islam
is a religion which has 1.5 billion followers. It can be translated as “submission.”
This religion was founded by a Bedouin called Mohammed (570-632). The
followers of Mohammed call him “The Prophet” and associate him with the
Jewish prophets found in the Hebrew Bible, including Moses, Abraham. Abraham’s
son Ishmael, and Jesus, who was also Jewish. Muslims celebrate a major
Holy Day called “The Sacrifice of Ishmael” on the last day of the lunar
year. The Jewish calendar is also lunar. That Holy Day is copied from the Jewish
religion, where it is called “The sacrifice of Isaac.” Since Abraham was the
father of Isaac and Ishmael, Ishmael is viewed as the son of Hagar and Abraham,
the first Jews (Genesis 16:3). Because
so much of Islam is copied from the Hebrew Bible, Muslims call Jews “The
People of the Book.” Muslims therefore have adopted numerous Jewish practices.
Muslims, like Jews, eat kosher food, and avoid such non-kosher food as pork.
The word “kosher” means “fit” to eat. A
kosher mammal is one which chews the cud and has a split hoof. There are also
animals which are not kosher, including some fish, Muslims
cover their heads with skull caps as Jews also do, calling this headgear “Kippas.”
The
Koran is the name of the Muslim scriptures. It contains numerous references to
the Hebrew Bilble, including many names of ancient Hebrew persons. Hebrew
and Arabic are both called “semitic” languages, as they are related to such
an extent that some of the words are the same, such as Melech, meaning king. Most
important is the Jewish and Islamic belief that God is one. Jews recite “Hear,
Israel, the Lord Our God is One.” Muslims
are Monotheists (From Latin mono,
meaning one, and Greek theos, meaning God) who find Christianity unacceptable on
the grounds that Christians refer to The Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit,” which seems like
polytheism to Muslims. Ancient
Jewish practice allowed Jewish men to have several wives. That is still true of
Islam, although it has been abolished in Judaism. Muslims
believe that the female gender is inferior to males and circumcise little girls
and force women to wear a cloth covering their faces, called a Hijab. Orthodox
Jewish women wear a “sheitel.” The sheitel is a wig
worn instead of natural hair. In Yiddish, “sheitel” means a wig. In
German, Scheitel means a parting of
the hair. Muslims do not allow women to be clergy, a custom no longer practiced
by reform and conservative Jews. There
are many more similarities between Judaism and Islam. Unfortunately,
Muslims believe that no one who believes in Judaism has the right to live.
Therefore Muslims have constantly attacked Jewish believers, finding the murder
of Jews a great achievement. Muslims reward those who kill Jews with money and
other gifts and praise such murder. Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and others are
also the targets of Muslim intolerance for anyone who does not practice Islam.
The result is that Muslims attack Israel, the Hindu people in India, and
Christians in Libya, as well as smaller groups of adherents to other religions.
Therefore our freedom of religion is foreign to Muslims, as are all of the
constitutionally guaranteed civil rights included in American laws. It
remains to be seen whether Muslims, recently arrived in the United States, can
assimilate our freedom and our democracy. De
religio non est disputandem Shalom u'vracha. |