Many Muslims do not hate Jews, and Islam as a religion does not command hatred of an entire people. Hatred between groups usually comes from politics, history, and prejudice, not from faith itself.
Islam and Jews in scripture
Islamic teaching presents Jews, along with Christians, as “People of the Book,” meaning they share a belief in the same God and a revealed scripture. Classical Islamic law and theology recognized Jews as a protected religious minority who could live under Muslim rule with their own religious courts and internal autonomy, in exchange for a special tax and secondary political status. Some Quranic and early Islamic texts do criticize certain Jewish groups in 7th‑century Arabia, often in the context of specific conflicts with Muhammad, but those passages refer to particular communities and behaviors rather than all Jews for all time.
Historical coexistence and conflict
For many centuries, large Jewish communities lived in Muslim‑majority societies such as Iraq, North Africa, and the Ottoman Empire. In several periods, especially early Islamic and some Ottoman eras, Jews experienced more security and opportunities than in many Christian European lands, even though they were still legally inferior as “dhimmis.” At other times, especially under more intolerant regimes like the Almohads in medieval North Africa and Spain, Jews faced persecution, forced conversion, and expulsions, showing that treatment varied widely across history and place.
Modern politics and rising hatred
In the last century, the Arab–Israeli conflict and, more broadly, the Israel–Palestine struggle have become the main driver of hostility, as many Muslims identify strongly with Palestinians and see Jewish Israelis as their oppressors. This political anger has often spilled over into religious or ethnic hatred of Jews in general, which is unjust and treats all Jews as if they were responsible for the actions of a state. In the 20th century, some Islamist movements also absorbed European antisemitic myths and conspiracy theories, blending them with religious language and making anti‑Jewish hatred seem religiously justified to some followers.
Not “Muslims vs. Jews”
Negative feelings go in multiple directions: there is both anti‑Jewish hatred among some Muslims and anti‑Muslim hatred among some Jews and others, and the same person can hold prejudices against both groups. Many Muslims and Jews reject this hostility, work together against antisemitism and Islamophobia, and emphasize shared values such as justice, charity, and the sanctity of life. When people say “Muslims hate Jews,” they erase this diversity, ignore the many Muslims who oppose antisemitism, and turn a political and historical problem into a blanket accusation about a whole faith community.
