Is tolerance for Judaism and Christianity at the heart of Islam?
Sheikh Mohammed Al-Issa discusses the Muslim World League’s mission and Islam’s relationship with other religions
“The Qur’an instructed Muslims to be righteous and benevolent to nonMuslims as long as they are peaceful and do not attack you or fight you. Muslims treated well the Jews who refused to enter Islam, starting with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, until our time,” said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa, secretary-general of the Muslim World League (MWL), a leading religious Muslim nongovernmental organization based in Makkah.
Sheikh Al-Issa has been leading by example since taking up that position in 2016, tirelessly traveling the world, forging relationships — with governments, religious institutions (including the Vatican), and NGOs (including the American Sephardi Federation and the American Jewish Committee) — and announcing historic initiatives to counter extremism, guarantee religious freedom and improve human welfare.
Most recently, Al-Issa called on members of different religions to unite against the COVID-19 pandemic, stating: “We want Muslims and all other citizens to be aiding one another in this time of common challenge, without discrimination for religion or race, for gender or ethnicity.” MWL today is drastically different than the organization it was even five years ago, when it was still an ally of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Despite Al-Issa’s exemplary humanitarian, educational and outreach efforts all over the world, including with Jewish communities, some remain skeptical about MWL’s agenda and Islam’s doctrinal teachings concerning other religions.
They variously claim that the essence of the religion eschews equal treatment for non-converts and that any attempts to disassociate from controversial interpretations is merely whitewashing, and they have tried to tie MWL’s actions to regional politics. Such criticisms are sorely mistaken. In an exclusive interview with this author, Al-Issa addressed these issues and other controversial topics forthrightly.
Does Islam have some unique issues that Christianity does not? Concerns are understandably compounded by the images of Islamist and terrorist organizations indoctrinating their followers and converts through deception or force.
Al-Issa responded that most religions except Judaism practice proselytization. That fact does not inherently signify a lack of respect or mean that practitioners of various religions should be locked in an illogical and endless struggle.
“We, as Muslims, respect, love, understand, cooperate, coexist and tolerate everyone. Our historically documented and verified actions demonstrate this, and we in the Muslim World League have played a major role in this aspect, pursuant to our Islamic values,” said Al-Issa.
“With our Jewish brothers, we concluded agreements and mutual cooperation, and we love them and respect them greatly, far from the problems of politics, as our principle is not to interfere in politics.”
Al-Issa emphasized that it is permissible to engage in normal business and friendly relations with members of other faiths, including Jews, as was the case in the Prophet Muhammad’s time. Political disagreements are separate from religious precepts. Moreover, he added, Islam considers Jews and Christians to be Peoples of the Book who are accorded privileges in jurisprudential proceedings.
At the same time, Islam respects other religions and guaranteed the rights of all people to religious choice.
But what about the Qu’ranic quotes, as well as hadiths and alleged accounts, that point to a conflict between Islam’s prophet and the Jews of Arabia?
Most modern-day discussions feature claims of enmity, persecution, and even a massacre resulting from the Jews’ refusal to convert to Islam. Nothing could be farther from the truth, according to Al-Issa. The Qu’ranic references criticizing Jews that some have taken to mean a generalized attack on all Jews actually admonish specific followers of Judaism who went “off the derech” — strayed from the faithful commitment to the letter and spirit of their own Abrahamic tradition, he said.
The Qu’ran speaks to different categories of people, but due to historical misinterpretations, mistranslations and at times deliberate distortions there is an appearance of a contradiction.
Those who focus on the allegedly anti-Jewish passages ignore how Muslims engaged in wrongdoing are castigated in a similar vein. Additionally, even when critical of specific Jews, the Qu’ran speaks positively of the legacy of Jacob and calls on the Jewish community not to depart from their historic mission. Contemporary audiences should look to the example of the Prophet himself, Al-Issa said.
“The Prophet, peace be upon him, stood out of respect to a passing Jewish funeral, lived next to a Jew and married Safiya, the daughter of Hayy bin Akhtab from Bani Al-Nadir. He told her: ‘You are the daughter of a prophet, your uncle is a prophet, and you are the wife of a prophet.’” Muhammad was referring to the fact that his wife was descended from Aaron and Moses, peace be upon them.
From this quote it follows that Muhammad not only respected Safiya’s Jewish heritage, but encouraged her to take pride and inspiration in her lineage.
Al-Issa also emphasized Muhammad’s signature achievement, the Madinah Charter, as an example of Islam’s position on religious existence put into practice as intended.
“The Prophet, peace be upon him, has signed the most important Islamic constitutional document, which is the Madinah Charter, which preserved religious and civil rights, as well as provided for Jews and others to live within Madinah in dignity as part of the ummah (community).” What about the idea that Muhammad and his followers slaughtered the Jews who refused to convert?
Due to misinterpretations and politicized stories by later clergy, many now believe there is inherent enmity towards Jews who do not become Muslims, and all outreach efforts by Muslims is, therefore, “fake news.”
Al-Issa firmly rejected this criticism: “Islam gives freedom to everyone in accepting or rejecting Islam, and there is an explicit verse considered one of the most important constitutional texts in Islam that says: ‘There shall be no compulsion in religion.’ And the position of Islam on the Jews who refuse to enter Islam, according to the Qur’an, is respecting their choice while preserving their dignity and their religious and civil rights, and living with them in peace.”
The conflicts that followed in subsequent generations, he affirmed, were entirely political, even though both the contemporaneous parties and future scholars frequently attribute clashes and persecutions to religion.
Religion is an expedient cover for power grabs and there is also “often confusion in terms and translations, or by the misunderstanding of Islamic religious texts. When the Qur’an discusses a topic related to a specific situation or religious group, some people will mistakenly interpret that as an attack on everyone or as a position against the existence of that religion.”
While the Qu’ran admonishes some specific groups of Jews, Christians or Muslims, it is wrong to extrapolate from what was meant for “a few followers of a particular religion in a specific time and place” for “all of the followers of that religion, everywhere, forever,” said Al-Issa. Islam’s original intent concerning the relations between Muslims and Jews is clear from the treatment of non-converts. As Al-Issa puts it: “Muslims treated the Jews who refused to enter Islam well, starting with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him until our time.
“The neighbor of the prophet was a Jew, whom he visited and whose hospitality he accepted,; he considered all the food of the Jews permissible for Muslims, permitted marriage to them, and built a family from a Jewish mother; and the Jewish community lived with Muslims in Madinah in peace.
Surveying thousands of years of Jewish life in the lands of Islam, it is easy and nevertheless wrong to present a single narrative.
There were periods of incredible coexistence, when Muslims and Jews worked together to achieve advances in trade, science, philosophy, and other fields.
At different times, there are instances of conflicts and persecutions. Al-Issa rejects any basis for bigotry in Islam, instead asserting that such instances were caused by motives divorced from religion. One Saudi columnist, impressed by MWL’s position and Al-Issa’s visit to Auschwitz, calls for wider recognition of the “Jewish tragedy” (the Holocaust) in the process of bridge-building.
Al-Issa is also working to undo decades of denial about women’s influence in Arab and Muslim societies.
At the end of the day, actions speak louder than words. Religions are a combination of doctrinal teachings and practices. Al-Issa’s hard work is leading the way in showing that a combination of correct beliefs and righteous actions can withstand even centuries of obscurantism and political hijackings.
It is up to each generation to return to the roots and to use history and knowledge as an inspiration for the building of tolerant, humane, respectful, and intellectually open societies.
The Qu’ran speaks positively of the legacy of Jacob and calls on the Jewish community not to depart from their historic mission.