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Heresy in Judaism

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Jewish heretics (minim, from minuth Hebrew for "heretic") are Jewish individuals (often historically, philosophers) whose works have, in part or in whole, been condemned as heretical by significant persons or groups in the larger Jewish community based on the classical teachings of Judaism and derived from Halakha (Jewish religious law).


Contents  [hide]
1 Mishneh Torah 1.1 Minim
1.2 Epicorsim
1.3 One who denies Torah
2 Talmudic definition of heresy
3 On legal status
4 Classes of heretics
5 Jews accused of heresy
6 See also
7 References

Mishneh Torah[edit]
Minim[edit]
Hilchot Teshuva Chapter 3 Halacha 7[1]
Five peoples who can be classified as heretics (Hebrew "Minim").
One who denies the existence of God or the ruler of the world
One who says there are two or more rulers of the world
One who accepts there is one Master of the world but maintains He has a body or a form
One who denies that He is the sole First Being and Creator of all existence
One who serves entities that serve as intermediary between him and the eternal Lord such as stars, constellations or any other entity
According to Hilchot Teshuva 3:6 Minim do not have a portion in the world to come. Their souls are cut off and they are judged for their sins.[2]
The Birkat haMinim is a malediction on heretics. The belief that the curse was directed at Christians was sometimes cause for persecution of Jews. Modern scholarship has generally evaluated that the Birkat haMinim probably did originally include Jewish Christians before Christianity became markedly a gentile religion.[3]
Epicorsim[edit]
Hilchot Teshuva Chapter 3 Halacha 6[4]
Three peoples who can be classified as Epikoros
One who denies the existence of prophecy and communication from God to the hearts of men
One who disputes the prophecy of Moses
One who denies the Creator is aware of other deeds
According to Hilchot Teshuva 3:6 Epicursim do not have a portion in the world to come. Their souls are cut off and they are judged for their sins.[5]
One who denies Torah[edit]
See also: Antinomianism
Hilchot Teshuva Chapter 3 Halacha 8[6]
Three peoples who can be classified as 'One Who Denies Torah'
One who denies that even one verse or one word of Torah is from God. Including those who say: "Moses made these statements independently"
One who denies Torah's interpretation, the oral law or disputes the authority of its spokesmen as did Tzadok and Beitus
One who says that though the Torah came from God, The Creator has replaced one mitzvah with another one and nullified the original Torah, like the Arabs (Muslims) and the Christians
According to Hilchot Teshuva 3:6 "Those who deny Torah do not have a portion in the world to come. Their souls are cut off and they are judged for their sins".[7]
Talmudic definition of heresy[edit]
The Greek term for heresy, αἵρεσις, originally denoted "division," "sect," "religious" or "philosophical party," is applied by Josephus (B. J. ii. 8, § 1, and elsewhere) to the three Jewish sects—Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes (comp. Acts v. 17, xxvi. 5, and, with reference to the Christian sect, the αἵρεσις of the Nazarenes, xxiv. 5, 14; xxviii. 22). In the sense of a schism to be deprecated the word occurs in I Cor. xi. 19, Gal. v. 20, and particularly in II Peter ii. 1; hence αἱρετικὸς ("heretic") in the sense of "factious" (Titus ii. 10). The specific rabbinical term for heresies, or religious divisions due to an unlawful spirit, is "minim" (lit. "kinds [of belief]"; the singular "min," for "heretic" or "Gnostic," is coined idiomatically, like "goy" and "'am ha-areẓ"; see Gnosticism). The law (Deut. 14:1) "Ye shall not cut yourselves" (לא תתגדדו) is interpreted by the Rabbis: "Ye shall not form divisions [לא תעשו אגודות אגודות], but shall form one bond" (after Amos ix. 6 [A. V. "troop"]; Sifre, Deut. 96).
Besides the term "min" (מין) for "heretic," the Talmud uses the words "ḥiẓonim" (outsiders), "apikoros," and "kofer ba-Torah" (R. H. 17a), or "kofer ba-ikkar" (he who denies the fundamentals of faith; Pes. xxiv. 168b); also "poresh mi-darke tzibbur" (he who deviates from the customs of the community; Tosef., Sanh. xiii. 5; R. H. 17a). Of all these it is said that they are consigned to Gehinnom for all eternity (Tosef., Sanh. l.c.; comp. ib. xii. 9, apparently belonging to xiii. 5: "He who casts off the yoke [of the Law], and he who severs the Abrahamic covenant; he who interprets the Torah against the halakic tradition, and he who pronounces in full the Ineffable Name—all these have no share in the world to come").
The Mishnah (Sanh. x. 1) says the following have no share in the world to come: "He who denies that the Torah is divinely revealed [lit. "comes from Heaven"], and the apiḳoros." R. Akiba says, "also he who reads heretical books" ("sefarim ḥiẓonim"). This is explained in the Talmud (Sanh. 100b) to mean "sifre Ẓeduḳim" (Sadducean writings); but this is an alteration by the censor of "sifre ha-Minim" (books of the Gnostics or Heretics). The Biblical version, "That ye seek not after your own heart" (Num. xv. 39), is explained (Sifre, Num. 115; Ber. 12b) as "Ye shall not turn to heretic views ["minut"] which lead your heart away from God" (see Maimonides, Yad, Akkum, ii. 3). In summarizing the Talmudic statements concerning heretics in Sanh. 90-103, Maimonides (Yad, Teshubah, iii. 6-8) says:

The following have no share in the world to come, but are cut off, and perish, and receive their punishment for all time for their great sin: the minim, the apikoresim, they that deny the belief in the Torah, they that deny the belief in resurrection of the dead and in the coming of the Redeemer, the apostates, they that lead many to sin, they that turn away from the ways of the [Jewish] community. Five are called 'minim': (1) he who says there is no God and the world has no leader; (2) he who says the world has more than one leader; (3) he who ascribes to the Lord of the Universe a body and a figure; (4) he who says that God was not alone and Creator of all things at the world's beginning; (5) he who worships some star or constellation as an intermediating power between himself and the Lord of the World.

 The following three classes are called 'apiḳoresim': (1) he who says there was no prophecy nor was there any wisdom that came from God and which was attained by the heart of man; (2) he who denies the prophetic power of Moses our master; (3) he who says that God has no knowledge concerning the doings of men.
 The following three are called 'koferim ba-Torah': (1) he who says the Torah is not from God: he is a kofer even if he says a single verse or letter thereof was said by Moses of his own accord; (2) he who denies the traditional interpretation of the Torah and opposes those authorities who declare it to be tradition, as did Zadok and Boethus; and (3) he who says, as do the Nazarenes and the Mohammedans, that the Lord has given a new dispensation instead of the old, and that he has abolished the Law, though it was originally divine.
It is noteworthy, however, that Abraham ben David, in his critical notes, objects to Maimonides characterizing as heretics all those who attribute corporeality to God, and he insinuates that the cabalists are not heretics. In the same sense all Biblical critics who, like ibn Ezra in his notes on Deut. i. 2, doubt or deny the Mosaic origin of every portion of the Pentateuch, would protest against the Maimonidean (or Talmudic; see Sanh. 99a) conception of heresy.
On legal status[edit]
The status of heretics in Jewish law is not clearly defined. While there are certain regulations scattered throughout the Talmud concerning the minim, the nearest approach to the English term "heretic," these are mostly of a haggadic nature, the codes taking little cognizance of them. The governing bodies of the Synagogue frequently exercised, from motives of self-defense, their power of excommunication against heretics. The heretic was theoretically excluded from a portion in the world to come (Maimonides, Yad, Teshubah, iii. 6-14), he was consigned to Gehenna, to eternal punishment (R. H. 17a; comp. Ex. R. xix. 5; compare D. Hoffmann, Der Schulchan Aruch und die Rabbinen über das Verhältnis der Juden zu Andersgläubigen, 2d ed., Berlin, 1894), but the Jewish courts of justice never attended to cases of heresy; they were left to the judgment of the community.
There are, however, in the rabbinic codes, laws and regulations concerning the relation of the Jew to the heretic. The sentiment against the heretic was much stronger than that against the pagan. While the pagan brought his offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem and the priests accepted them, the sacrifices of the heretic were not accepted (Ḥul. 13b, et al.). The relatives of the heretic did not observe the laws of mourning after his death, but donned festive garments, and ate and drank and rejoiced (Sem. ii. 10; Yad, Ebel, i. 5, 6; Yoreh De'ah, 345, 5). Scrolls of the Law, tefillin, and mezuzot written by a heretic were burned (Giṭ. 45b; Shulḥan 'Aruk, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 39, 1; Yoreh De'ah, 281, 1); and an animal slaughtered by a heretic was forbidden food (Ḥul. 13a; Yoreh De'ah, 2, 5). Books written by heretics did not render the hands impure (Yad, She'ar Abot ha-Ṭum'ot, ix. 10; comp. Yad iv. 6; see Tumah); they might not be saved from fire on the Sabbath (Shab. 116a; Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 334, 21). A heretic's testimony was not admitted in evidence in Jewish courts (Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ, 34, 22; see Be'er ha-Golah ad loc.), and if an Israelite found an object belonging to a heretic, he was forbidden to return it to him (Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ 266, 2).
Classes of heretics[edit]
The "mumar le-hachis" (one who transgresses as to anger), as opposed to the "mumar le'teavon" (one who transgresses to indulge), was placed by some of the Rabbis in the same category as the minim (Ab. Zarah 26a; Hor. 11a). Even if he habitually transgressed one law only (for example, if he defiantly violated one of the dietary laws), he was not allowed to perform any religious function (Yoreh De'ah, 2, 5; SHaK and Pitḥe Teshubah, ad loc.), nor could he testify in a Jewish court (Sanh. 27a; Yad, 'Edut, x. 3; Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ, 34, 2). One who violated the Sabbath publicly or worshiped idols could not participate in the "eruv chazerot" (Er. 69a; Yad, Erubin, ii. 16; Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 385, 3), nor could he write a bill of divorce (Shulḥan 'Aruk, Eben ha-'Ezer, 123, 2).
One who would not permit himself to be circumcised could not perform the ceremony on another (Yoreh De'ah, 264, 1, Isserles' gloss). While the court could not compel the mumar to divorce his wife, even though she demanded it, it compelled him to support her and her children and to pay her an allowance until he agreed to a divorce (Eben ha-'Ezer, 154, 1, and Pitḥe Teshubah, ad loc.). At his death those who are present need not tear their garments (Yoreh De'ah, 340, 5, and Pitḥe Teshubah, ad loc.). The mumar who repented and desired readmittance into the community was obliged to take a ritual bath, the same as the proselyte (Yoreh De'ah, 268, 12, Isserles' gloss, and Pitḥe Teshubah, ad loc.; comp. Sefer Ḥasidim, ed. Wistinetzki, §§ 200-209). If he claimed to be a good Jew, although he was alleged to have worshiped idols in another town, he was believed when no benefit could have accrued to him from such a course (Yoreh De'ah, 119, 11, and Pitḥe Teshubah, ad loc.).
Jews accused of heresy[edit]
See also: Censorship by religion § Censorship by Jewish religious authorities
The present section lists individuals who have been declared heretical, independent of the particular criteria applied in the assessment. The list below is intended to be inclusive, and thus contains both individuals who have been fully excommunicated, as well as those whose works alone have been condemned as heretical. (The list is in chronological order.)
Kórach: considered a heretic by the Talmudic Sages
Jesus
Elisha ben Abuyah: heretical Talmudic Sage.
Anan ben David: His works reject the Oral Torah.
Maimonides: His works condemned and burned by Solomon of Montpellier and Yonah Gerondi (who, it should be noted, later publicly repented of his actions)
Gersonides: His works condemned by Shem Tov ibn Shem Tov
Abraham Abulafia: His works condemned by Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet.
Shabbethai Zvi: The famous "false messiah" who converted to Islam
Jacob Frank: A second wave "failed Messiah" who later converted to Christianity
Baruch Spinoza: Excommunicated in the Netherlands for his pantheistic views
Moshe Haim Luzzatto: Excommunicated in Italy for teachings regarding the messianic era
Jonathan Eybeschutz: Charged with the Sabbatean heresy by Jacob Emden
Shneur Zalman of Liadi: Charged with heresy by the Vilna Gaon
Chassidism: For believing in the powers of the Tzaddik [8] and the immortality of the Rebbe
David Zvi Hoffman: His work Mar Samuel judged to contain heresies by Samson Raphael Hirsh
Mordecai Kaplan: Excommunicated by Union of Orthodox Rabbis following the publication of his Sabbath Prayer Book.
Louis Jacobs: Prevented from becoming British Chief Rabbi and removed from his pulpit due to his published views.
See also[edit]
Anthropomorphism in Kabbalah
Heresy
Heresy in Orthodox Judaism
Apostasy in Judaism
Jewish philosophy
Jewish principles of faith
Jewish religious movements
Jewish schisms
Jewish skeptics
Criticism of Kabbalah
Tinok shenishba
Wissenschaft des Judentums
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Hilchot Teshuva". Mishneh Torah. Moznaim Publications.
2.Jump up ^ "Hilchot Teshuva". Mishneh Torah. Moznaim Publications.
3.Jump up ^ The Cambridge History of Judaism: The late Roman-Rabbinic period pp291-292 ed. William David Davies, Louis Finkelstein, Steven T. Katz - 2006
4.Jump up ^ "Hilchot Teshuva". Mishneh Torah. Moznaim Publications.
5.Jump up ^ "Hilchot Teshuva". Mishneh Torah. Moznaim Publications.
6.Jump up ^ "Hilchot Teshuva". Mishneh Torah. Moznaim Publications.
7.Jump up ^ "Hilchot Teshuva". Mishneh Torah. Moznaim Publications.
8.Jump up ^ http://www.myjewishlearning.com/beliefs/Theology/Thinkers_and_Thought/Doctrine_and_Dogma/Heresy.shtml
 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Heresy and Heretics". Jewish Encyclopedia. 1901–1906.
The JE cites the following sources:
Krauss, Begriff und Form der Häresic nach Talmud und Midraschim, Hamburg, 1896;
Goldfahn, Ueber den Ursprung und die Bedeutung des Ausdruckes, in Monatsschrift, 1870.
  


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Heresy in Judaism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Part of a series on
Criticism of religion

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Jewish heretics (minim, from minuth Hebrew for "heretic") are Jewish individuals (often historically, philosophers) whose works have, in part or in whole, been condemned as heretical by significant persons or groups in the larger Jewish community based on the classical teachings of Judaism and derived from Halakha (Jewish religious law).


Contents  [hide]
1 Mishneh Torah 1.1 Minim
1.2 Epicorsim
1.3 One who denies Torah
2 Talmudic definition of heresy
3 On legal status
4 Classes of heretics
5 Jews accused of heresy
6 See also
7 References

Mishneh Torah[edit]
Minim[edit]
Hilchot Teshuva Chapter 3 Halacha 7[1]
Five peoples who can be classified as heretics (Hebrew "Minim").
One who denies the existence of God or the ruler of the world
One who says there are two or more rulers of the world
One who accepts there is one Master of the world but maintains He has a body or a form
One who denies that He is the sole First Being and Creator of all existence
One who serves entities that serve as intermediary between him and the eternal Lord such as stars, constellations or any other entity
According to Hilchot Teshuva 3:6 Minim do not have a portion in the world to come. Their souls are cut off and they are judged for their sins.[2]
The Birkat haMinim is a malediction on heretics. The belief that the curse was directed at Christians was sometimes cause for persecution of Jews. Modern scholarship has generally evaluated that the Birkat haMinim probably did originally include Jewish Christians before Christianity became markedly a gentile religion.[3]
Epicorsim[edit]
Hilchot Teshuva Chapter 3 Halacha 6[4]
Three peoples who can be classified as Epikoros
One who denies the existence of prophecy and communication from God to the hearts of men
One who disputes the prophecy of Moses
One who denies the Creator is aware of other deeds
According to Hilchot Teshuva 3:6 Epicursim do not have a portion in the world to come. Their souls are cut off and they are judged for their sins.[5]
One who denies Torah[edit]
See also: Antinomianism
Hilchot Teshuva Chapter 3 Halacha 8[6]
Three peoples who can be classified as 'One Who Denies Torah'
One who denies that even one verse or one word of Torah is from God. Including those who say: "Moses made these statements independently"
One who denies Torah's interpretation, the oral law or disputes the authority of its spokesmen as did Tzadok and Beitus
One who says that though the Torah came from God, The Creator has replaced one mitzvah with another one and nullified the original Torah, like the Arabs (Muslims) and the Christians
According to Hilchot Teshuva 3:6 "Those who deny Torah do not have a portion in the world to come. Their souls are cut off and they are judged for their sins".[7]
Talmudic definition of heresy[edit]
The Greek term for heresy, αἵρεσις, originally denoted "division," "sect," "religious" or "philosophical party," is applied by Josephus (B. J. ii. 8, § 1, and elsewhere) to the three Jewish sects—Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes (comp. Acts v. 17, xxvi. 5, and, with reference to the Christian sect, the αἵρεσις of the Nazarenes, xxiv. 5, 14; xxviii. 22). In the sense of a schism to be deprecated the word occurs in I Cor. xi. 19, Gal. v. 20, and particularly in II Peter ii. 1; hence αἱρετικὸς ("heretic") in the sense of "factious" (Titus ii. 10). The specific rabbinical term for heresies, or religious divisions due to an unlawful spirit, is "minim" (lit. "kinds [of belief]"; the singular "min," for "heretic" or "Gnostic," is coined idiomatically, like "goy" and "'am ha-areẓ"; see Gnosticism). The law (Deut. 14:1) "Ye shall not cut yourselves" (לא תתגדדו) is interpreted by the Rabbis: "Ye shall not form divisions [לא תעשו אגודות אגודות], but shall form one bond" (after Amos ix. 6 [A. V. "troop"]; Sifre, Deut. 96).
Besides the term "min" (מין) for "heretic," the Talmud uses the words "ḥiẓonim" (outsiders), "apikoros," and "kofer ba-Torah" (R. H. 17a), or "kofer ba-ikkar" (he who denies the fundamentals of faith; Pes. xxiv. 168b); also "poresh mi-darke tzibbur" (he who deviates from the customs of the community; Tosef., Sanh. xiii. 5; R. H. 17a). Of all these it is said that they are consigned to Gehinnom for all eternity (Tosef., Sanh. l.c.; comp. ib. xii. 9, apparently belonging to xiii. 5: "He who casts off the yoke [of the Law], and he who severs the Abrahamic covenant; he who interprets the Torah against the halakic tradition, and he who pronounces in full the Ineffable Name—all these have no share in the world to come").
The Mishnah (Sanh. x. 1) says the following have no share in the world to come: "He who denies that the Torah is divinely revealed [lit. "comes from Heaven"], and the apiḳoros." R. Akiba says, "also he who reads heretical books" ("sefarim ḥiẓonim"). This is explained in the Talmud (Sanh. 100b) to mean "sifre Ẓeduḳim" (Sadducean writings); but this is an alteration by the censor of "sifre ha-Minim" (books of the Gnostics or Heretics). The Biblical version, "That ye seek not after your own heart" (Num. xv. 39), is explained (Sifre, Num. 115; Ber. 12b) as "Ye shall not turn to heretic views ["minut"] which lead your heart away from God" (see Maimonides, Yad, Akkum, ii. 3). In summarizing the Talmudic statements concerning heretics in Sanh. 90-103, Maimonides (Yad, Teshubah, iii. 6-8) says:

The following have no share in the world to come, but are cut off, and perish, and receive their punishment for all time for their great sin: the minim, the apikoresim, they that deny the belief in the Torah, they that deny the belief in resurrection of the dead and in the coming of the Redeemer, the apostates, they that lead many to sin, they that turn away from the ways of the [Jewish] community. Five are called 'minim': (1) he who says there is no God and the world has no leader; (2) he who says the world has more than one leader; (3) he who ascribes to the Lord of the Universe a body and a figure; (4) he who says that God was not alone and Creator of all things at the world's beginning; (5) he who worships some star or constellation as an intermediating power between himself and the Lord of the World.

 The following three classes are called 'apiḳoresim': (1) he who says there was no prophecy nor was there any wisdom that came from God and which was attained by the heart of man; (2) he who denies the prophetic power of Moses our master; (3) he who says that God has no knowledge concerning the doings of men.
 The following three are called 'koferim ba-Torah': (1) he who says the Torah is not from God: he is a kofer even if he says a single verse or letter thereof was said by Moses of his own accord; (2) he who denies the traditional interpretation of the Torah and opposes those authorities who declare it to be tradition, as did Zadok and Boethus; and (3) he who says, as do the Nazarenes and the Mohammedans, that the Lord has given a new dispensation instead of the old, and that he has abolished the Law, though it was originally divine.
It is noteworthy, however, that Abraham ben David, in his critical notes, objects to Maimonides characterizing as heretics all those who attribute corporeality to God, and he insinuates that the cabalists are not heretics. In the same sense all Biblical critics who, like ibn Ezra in his notes on Deut. i. 2, doubt or deny the Mosaic origin of every portion of the Pentateuch, would protest against the Maimonidean (or Talmudic; see Sanh. 99a) conception of heresy.
On legal status[edit]
The status of heretics in Jewish law is not clearly defined. While there are certain regulations scattered throughout the Talmud concerning the minim, the nearest approach to the English term "heretic," these are mostly of a haggadic nature, the codes taking little cognizance of them. The governing bodies of the Synagogue frequently exercised, from motives of self-defense, their power of excommunication against heretics. The heretic was theoretically excluded from a portion in the world to come (Maimonides, Yad, Teshubah, iii. 6-14), he was consigned to Gehenna, to eternal punishment (R. H. 17a; comp. Ex. R. xix. 5; compare D. Hoffmann, Der Schulchan Aruch und die Rabbinen über das Verhältnis der Juden zu Andersgläubigen, 2d ed., Berlin, 1894), but the Jewish courts of justice never attended to cases of heresy; they were left to the judgment of the community.
There are, however, in the rabbinic codes, laws and regulations concerning the relation of the Jew to the heretic. The sentiment against the heretic was much stronger than that against the pagan. While the pagan brought his offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem and the priests accepted them, the sacrifices of the heretic were not accepted (Ḥul. 13b, et al.). The relatives of the heretic did not observe the laws of mourning after his death, but donned festive garments, and ate and drank and rejoiced (Sem. ii. 10; Yad, Ebel, i. 5, 6; Yoreh De'ah, 345, 5). Scrolls of the Law, tefillin, and mezuzot written by a heretic were burned (Giṭ. 45b; Shulḥan 'Aruk, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 39, 1; Yoreh De'ah, 281, 1); and an animal slaughtered by a heretic was forbidden food (Ḥul. 13a; Yoreh De'ah, 2, 5). Books written by heretics did not render the hands impure (Yad, She'ar Abot ha-Ṭum'ot, ix. 10; comp. Yad iv. 6; see Tumah); they might not be saved from fire on the Sabbath (Shab. 116a; Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 334, 21). A heretic's testimony was not admitted in evidence in Jewish courts (Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ, 34, 22; see Be'er ha-Golah ad loc.), and if an Israelite found an object belonging to a heretic, he was forbidden to return it to him (Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ 266, 2).
Classes of heretics[edit]
The "mumar le-hachis" (one who transgresses as to anger), as opposed to the "mumar le'teavon" (one who transgresses to indulge), was placed by some of the Rabbis in the same category as the minim (Ab. Zarah 26a; Hor. 11a). Even if he habitually transgressed one law only (for example, if he defiantly violated one of the dietary laws), he was not allowed to perform any religious function (Yoreh De'ah, 2, 5; SHaK and Pitḥe Teshubah, ad loc.), nor could he testify in a Jewish court (Sanh. 27a; Yad, 'Edut, x. 3; Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ, 34, 2). One who violated the Sabbath publicly or worshiped idols could not participate in the "eruv chazerot" (Er. 69a; Yad, Erubin, ii. 16; Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 385, 3), nor could he write a bill of divorce (Shulḥan 'Aruk, Eben ha-'Ezer, 123, 2).
One who would not permit himself to be circumcised could not perform the ceremony on another (Yoreh De'ah, 264, 1, Isserles' gloss). While the court could not compel the mumar to divorce his wife, even though she demanded it, it compelled him to support her and her children and to pay her an allowance until he agreed to a divorce (Eben ha-'Ezer, 154, 1, and Pitḥe Teshubah, ad loc.). At his death those who are present need not tear their garments (Yoreh De'ah, 340, 5, and Pitḥe Teshubah, ad loc.). The mumar who repented and desired readmittance into the community was obliged to take a ritual bath, the same as the proselyte (Yoreh De'ah, 268, 12, Isserles' gloss, and Pitḥe Teshubah, ad loc.; comp. Sefer Ḥasidim, ed. Wistinetzki, §§ 200-209). If he claimed to be a good Jew, although he was alleged to have worshiped idols in another town, he was believed when no benefit could have accrued to him from such a course (Yoreh De'ah, 119, 11, and Pitḥe Teshubah, ad loc.).
Jews accused of heresy[edit]
See also: Censorship by religion § Censorship by Jewish religious authorities
The present section lists individuals who have been declared heretical, independent of the particular criteria applied in the assessment. The list below is intended to be inclusive, and thus contains both individuals who have been fully excommunicated, as well as those whose works alone have been condemned as heretical. (The list is in chronological order.)
Kórach: considered a heretic by the Talmudic Sages
Jesus
Elisha ben Abuyah: heretical Talmudic Sage.
Anan ben David: His works reject the Oral Torah.
Maimonides: His works condemned and burned by Solomon of Montpellier and Yonah Gerondi (who, it should be noted, later publicly repented of his actions)
Gersonides: His works condemned by Shem Tov ibn Shem Tov
Abraham Abulafia: His works condemned by Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet.
Shabbethai Zvi: The famous "false messiah" who converted to Islam
Jacob Frank: A second wave "failed Messiah" who later converted to Christianity
Baruch Spinoza: Excommunicated in the Netherlands for his pantheistic views
Moshe Haim Luzzatto: Excommunicated in Italy for teachings regarding the messianic era
Jonathan Eybeschutz: Charged with the Sabbatean heresy by Jacob Emden
Shneur Zalman of Liadi: Charged with heresy by the Vilna Gaon
Chassidism: For believing in the powers of the Tzaddik [8] and the immortality of the Rebbe
David Zvi Hoffman: His work Mar Samuel judged to contain heresies by Samson Raphael Hirsh
Mordecai Kaplan: Excommunicated by Union of Orthodox Rabbis following the publication of his Sabbath Prayer Book.
Louis Jacobs: Prevented from becoming British Chief Rabbi and removed from his pulpit due to his published views.
See also[edit]
Anthropomorphism in Kabbalah
Heresy
Heresy in Orthodox Judaism
Apostasy in Judaism
Jewish philosophy
Jewish principles of faith
Jewish religious movements
Jewish schisms
Jewish skeptics
Criticism of Kabbalah
Tinok shenishba
Wissenschaft des Judentums
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Hilchot Teshuva". Mishneh Torah. Moznaim Publications.
2.Jump up ^ "Hilchot Teshuva". Mishneh Torah. Moznaim Publications.
3.Jump up ^ The Cambridge History of Judaism: The late Roman-Rabbinic period pp291-292 ed. William David Davies, Louis Finkelstein, Steven T. Katz - 2006
4.Jump up ^ "Hilchot Teshuva". Mishneh Torah. Moznaim Publications.
5.Jump up ^ "Hilchot Teshuva". Mishneh Torah. Moznaim Publications.
6.Jump up ^ "Hilchot Teshuva". Mishneh Torah. Moznaim Publications.
7.Jump up ^ "Hilchot Teshuva". Mishneh Torah. Moznaim Publications.
8.Jump up ^ http://www.myjewishlearning.com/beliefs/Theology/Thinkers_and_Thought/Doctrine_and_Dogma/Heresy.shtml
 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Heresy and Heretics". Jewish Encyclopedia. 1901–1906.
The JE cites the following sources:
Krauss, Begriff und Form der Häresic nach Talmud und Midraschim, Hamburg, 1896;
Goldfahn, Ueber den Ursprung und die Bedeutung des Ausdruckes, in Monatsschrift, 1870.
  


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Heresy in Christianity

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When heresy is used today with reference to Christianity, it denotes the formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Christian faith[1] as defined by one or more of the Christian churches.[2] It should be distinguished from both apostasy and schism,[2] apostasy being nearly always total abandonment of the Christian faith after it has been freely accepted,[3] and schism being a formal and deliberate breach of Christian unity and an offence against charity without being based essentially on doctrine.[4]
In Western Christianity, heresy most commonly refers to those beliefs which were declared to be anathema by any of the ecumenical councils recognized by the Catholic Church.[citation needed] In the East, the term "heresy" is eclectic and can refer to anything at variance with Church tradition. Since the Great Schism and the Protestant Reformation, various Christian churches have also used the concept in proceedings against individuals and groups deemed to be heretical by those churches.
The Catholic Church distinguishes between "formal heresy" and "material heresy". The former involves willful and persistent adherence to an error in matters of faith and is a grave sin and produces excommunication.[2] "Material heresy" is the holding of erroneous opinions through no fault of one's own and is not sinful. Protestants fall in this second group[3] while the Eastern Orthodox are considered to be schismatic but are recognised as churches.[5]
Historical examination of heresies focuses on a mixture of theological, spiritual, and socio-political underpinnings to explain and describe their development. For example, accusations of heresy have been levelled against a group of believers when their beliefs challenged, or were seen to challenge, Church authority. Some heresies have also been doctrinally based, in which a teaching was deemed to be inconsistent with the fundamental tenets of orthodox dogma.
The study of heresy requires an understanding of the development of orthodoxy and the role of creeds in the definition of orthodox beliefs. Orthodoxy has been in the process of self-definition for centuries, defining itself in terms of its faith and changing or clarifying beliefs in opposition to people or doctrines that are perceived as incorrect. The reaction of the orthodox to heresy has also varied over the course of time; many factors, particularly the institutional, judicial, and doctrinal development of the Church, have shaped this reaction.[citation needed] Heresy remained an officially punishable offence in Roman Catholic nations until the late 18th century. In Spain, heretics were prosecuted and punished during the Counter-Enlightenment movement of the restoration of the monarchy there after the Napoleonic Era.[citation needed]


Contents  [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Anathema
3 First millennium 3.1 Early Christian heresies 3.1.1 21st century views on early Christian heresies
3.2 Early suppression of heresies
3.3 Christology
3.4 Emergence of creeds and Christian Orthodoxy
3.5 Ecumenical councils
4 Second millennium 4.1 Middle Ages
4.2 Late Middle Ages and Early Modern
4.3 Last execution of a heretic
4.4 Modern Roman Catholic response to Protestantism
4.5 Eastern Orthodox response to heresy
5 See also
6 References
7 Further Reading

Etymology[edit]
The word heresy comes from haeresis, a Latin transliteration of the Greek word originally meaning choosing, choice, course of action, or in an extended sense school of thought[6] then eventually came to denote warring factions and the party spirit by the first century. The word appears in the New Testament and was appropriated by the Church to mean a sect or division that threatened the unity of Christians. Heresy eventually became regarded as a departure from orthodoxy, a sense in which "heterodoxy" was already in Christian use soon after the year 100.[7]
Anathema[edit]
Main article: Anathema § Religious usage
Since the time of the apostles, the term anathema has come to mean a form of extreme religious sanction beyond excommunication, known as major excommunication.[8] The earliest recorded instance of the form is in the Council of Elvira (c. 306), and thereafter it became the common method of cutting off heretics.
In the fifth century, a formal distinction between anathema and excommunication evolved, where excommunication entailed cutting off a person or group from the rite of Eucharist and attendance at worship, while anathema meant a complete separation of the subject from the Church.
First millennium[edit]
Early Christian heresies[edit]
See also: Early Christianity
In his book Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton asserts that there have been substantial disagreements about faith from the time of the New Testament and Jesus. He pointed out that the Apostles all argued against changing the teachings of Christ as did the earliest church fathers including Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr and Polycarp (see false prophet, the antichrist, the gnostic Nicolaitanes from the Book of Revelation and Man of Sin).
The development of doctrine, the position of orthodoxy, and the relationship between the various opinions is a matter of continuing theological debate. Since most Christians today subscribe to the doctrines established by the Nicene Creed, modern Christian theologians tend to regard the early debates as a unified orthodox position (see also Proto-orthodox Christianity and Paleo-orthodoxy) against a minority of heretics. Other scholars, drawing upon, among other things, distinctions between Jewish Christians, Pauline Christians, and other groups such as Gnostics and Marcionites, argue that early Christianity was fragmented, with contemporaneous competing orthodoxies.[9]
In the middle of the 2nd century, three unorthodox groups of Christians adhered to a range of doctrines that divided the Christian communities of Rome: the teacher Marcion; the pentecostal outpourings of ecstatic Christian prophets of a continuing revelation, in a movement that was called "Montanism" because it had been initiated by Montanus and his female disciples; and the gnostic teachings of Valentinus. Early attacks upon alleged heresies formed the matter of Tertullian's Prescription Against Heretics (in 44 chapters, written from Rome), and of Irenaeus' Against Heresies (ca 180, in five volumes), written in Lyon after his return from a visit to Rome. The letters of Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna to various churches warned against false teachers, and the Epistle of Barnabas accepted by many Christians as part of Scripture in the 2nd century, warned about mixing Judaism with Christianity, as did other writers, leading to decisions reached in the first ecumenical council, which was convoked by the Emperor Constantine at Nicaea in 325, in response to further disruptive polemical controversy within the Christian community, in that case Arianist disputes over the nature of the Trinity.
21st century views on early Christian heresies[edit]
The development of doctrine, the position of orthodoxy, and the relationship between the early Church and early heretical groups is a matter of academic debate. Walter Bauer proposed a thesis that in earliest Christianity, orthodoxy and heresy do not stand in relation to one another as primary to secondary, but in many regions heresy is the original manifestation of Christianity. Scholars such as Pagels and Ehrman have built on Bauer's original thesis. Drawing upon distinctions between Jewish Christians, Gentile Christians, and other groups such as Gnostics, they see early Christianity as fragmented and with contemporaneous competing orthodoxies.[10]
The Pattern of Christian Truth: A Study in the Relations between Orthodoxy and Heresy in the Early Church, written by H. E. W. Turner, is one of many scholarly responses to the concept of early Christian origins as being ambiguous. Turner's response was in objection to Bauer's. In 2006, Darrell Bock[11] addressed Walter Bauer's theory, stating that it does not show an equality between the established church and outsiders including Simon Magus. In The Cambridge History of Christianity Volume 1,[12] Origins to Constantine, Walter Bauer's hypothesis was addressed again; this time in the introduction of the book it states each article addressed the uniqueness of each early Christian community but stated that the tenets of the mainstream or Catholic Church insured that each early Christian community did not remain isolated. The Russian philosopher Aleksey Khomyakov stated that the very church was the idea of submission and compromise of the individual to God through the idea of catholic or the Russian equivalent sobornost. Russian Orthodox theologian Father Georges Florovsky addressed the concept of sobornost as the concept of Orthodox Christianity after rejecting the World Church Council as being Catholic or orthodox simply because it expressed unity in Christ. Florovksy stating as an apology that the very tenet of Catholic or sobornost was the original church's response (through the patristic works of the early fathers) to the idea that there were multiple orthodoxies and no real heresies.
Early suppression of heresies[edit]
Main article: History of Christian thought on persecution and tolerance
Before 313 AD, the "heretical" nature of some beliefs was a matter of much debate within the churches, and there was no true mechanism in place to resolve the various differences of beliefs. Heresy was to be approached by the leader of the church according to Eusebius, author of The Church History. It was only after the legalisation of Christianity, which began under Constantine I in 313 AD that the various beliefs of the Church began to be made uniform and formulated as dogma through the canons promulgated by the General Councils. Each phrase in the Nicene Creed, which was hammered out at the Council of Nicaea, addresses some aspect that had been under passionate discussion prior to Constantine I, and closes the books on the argument, with the weight of the agreement of the over 300 bishops, as well as Constantine I in attendance. [Constantine had invited all 1800 bishops of the Christian church (about 1000 in the east and 800 in the west). The number of participating bishops cannot be accurately stated; Socrates Scholasticus and Epiphanius of Salamis counted 318; Eusebius of Caesarea, only 250.] In spite of the agreement reached at the council of 325 AD, the Arians, who had been defeated, dominated most of the church for the greater part of the 4th century, often with the aid of Roman emperors who favoured them.
Irenaeus (c. 130–202) was the first to argue that his "orthodox" position was the same faith that Jesus gave to the apostles, and that the identity of the apostles, their successors, and the teachings of the same were all well-known public knowledge. This was therefore an early argument supported by apostolic succession. Irenaeus first established the doctrine of four gospels and no more, with the synoptic gospels interpreted in the light of John. Irenaeus' opponents, however, claimed to have received secret teachings from Jesus via other apostles which were not publicly known. Gnosticism is predicated on the existence of such hidden knowledge, but brief references to private teachings of Jesus have also survived in the canonic Scripture as did warning by the Christ that there would be false prophets or false teachers. Irenaeus' opponents also claimed that the wellsprings of divine inspiration were not dried up, which is the doctrine of continuing revelation.
The first known usage of the term 'heresy' in a civil legal context was in 380 by the "Edict of Thessalonica" of Theodosius I. Prior to the issuance of this edict, the Church had no state-sponsored support for any particular legal mechanism to counter what it perceived as 'heresy'. By this edict, in some senses, the line between the Catholic Church's spiritual authority and the Roman State's jurisdiction was blurred. One of the outcomes of this blurring of Church and State was a sharing of State powers of legal enforcement between Church and State authorities, with the state enforcing what it determined to be orthodox teaching.
Within five years of the official 'criminalization' of heresy by the emperor, the first Christian heretic, Priscillian, was executed in 385 by Roman officials. For some years after the Protestant Reformation, Protestant denominations were also known to execute those whom they considered heretics.
Christology[edit]
Main article: Christology
The earliest controversies were generally Christological in nature; that is, they were related to Jesus' (eternal) divinity or humanity. The orthodox teaching, as it developed, is that Christ was fully divine and at the same time fully human, and that the three persons of the Trinity are co-equal and co-eternal.
This position was challenged in the 4th century by Arius. Arianism held that Jesus, while not merely mortal, was not eternally divine and was, therefore, of lesser status than God the Father (John 14:28). Trinitarianism held that God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit were all strictly one being with three hypostases. Many groups held dualistic beliefs, maintaining that reality was composed into two radically opposing parts: matter, usually seen as evil, and spirit, seen as good. Docetism held that Jesus' humanity was merely an illusion, thus denying the incarnation. Others held that both the material and spiritual worlds were created by God and were therefore both good, and that this was represented in the unified divine and human natures of Christ.[13]
Emergence of creeds and Christian Orthodoxy[edit]
Main article: Creed
Urgent concerns with the uniformity of belief and practice have characterized Christianity from the outset. In the three centuries between the crucifixion and the First Council of Nicaea in 325, the religion was at times an illegal, underground movement spreading within the urban centres of the Roman Empire, a process bolstered through merchants and travel through the empire. The process of establishing orthodox Christianity was set in motion by a succession of different interpretations of the teachings of Christ being taught after the crucifixion, though Christ himself is noted to have spoken out against false prophets and false christs within the Gospels themselves: Mark 13:22 (some will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples), Matthew 7:5-20, Matthew 24:4, Matthew 24:11 Matthew 24:24 (For false christs and false prophets will arise). On many occasions in Paul's epistles, he defends his own apostleship, and urges Christians in various places to beware of false teachers, or of anything contrary to what was handed to them by him. The epistles of John and Jude also warn of false teachers and prophets, as does the writer of the Book of Revelation and 1 John. 4:1, as did the Apostle Peter warn in 2 Peter. 2:1-3. Due to this, in the first centuries of Christianity, churches had locally begun to make a statement of faith in line with mainstream Christian doctrine a prerequisite for baptism. The reason for this demand was to insure that new converts would not be followers of teachings that conflicted with widely accepted views of Christianity such as Gnosticism and other movements that later were considered heretical by church leaders. These statements of faith became the framework for ecumenical creeds such as the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed. It was against these creeds that teachings were judged in order to determine orthodoxy and to establish teachings as heretical. The first ecumenical and comprehensive statement of belief, the Nicene Creed, was formulated in 325 at the First Council of Nicaea.
Ecumenical councils[edit]
Main article: First seven Ecumenical Councils
Several ecumenical councils were convened. These were mostly concerned with Christological disputes. The councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (382) condemned Arian teachings as heresy and produced a creed (see Nicene Creed). The First Council of Ephesus in 431 condemned Nestorianism and affirmed the Blessed Virgin Mary to be Theotokos ("God-bearer" or "Mother of God"). Perhaps the most significant council was the Council of Chalcedon in 451 that affirmed that Christ had two natures, fully God and fully man, distinct yet always in perfect union. This was based largely on Pope Leo the Great's Tome. Thus, it condemned Monophysitism and would be influential in refuting Monothelitism.
1.The First Ecumenical Council was convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine at Nicaea in 325 and presided over by the Patriarch Alexander of Alexandria, with over 300 bishops condemning the view of Arius that the Son is a created being inferior to the Father.
2.The Second Ecumenical Council was held at Constantinople in 381, presided over by the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, with 150 bishops, defining the nature of the Holy Spirit against those asserting His inequality with the other persons of the Trinity.
3.The Third Ecumenical Council is that of Ephesus in 431, presided over by the Patriarch of Alexandria, with 250 bishops, which affirmed that Mary is truly "Birthgiver" or "Mother" of God (Theotokos), contrary to the teachings of Nestorius.
4.The Fourth Ecumenical Council is that of Chalcedon in 451, Patriarch of Constantinople presiding, 500 bishops, affirmed that Jesus is truly God and truly man, without mixture of the two natures, contrary to Monophysite teaching.
5.The Fifth Ecumenical Council is the second of Constantinople in 553, interpreting the decrees of Chalcedon and further explaining the relationship of the two natures of Jesus; it also condemned the teachings of Origen on the pre-existence of the soul, etc.
6.The Sixth Ecumenical Council is the third of Constantinople in 681; it declared that Christ has two wills of his two natures, human and divine, contrary to the teachings of the Monothelites.
7.The Seventh Ecumenical Council was called under the Empress Regent Irene of Athens in 787, known as the second of Nicaea. It supports the veneration of icons while forbidding their worship. It is often referred to as "The Triumph of Orthodoxy"
8.The Fourth Council of Constantinople was called in 879. It restored St. Photius to his See in Constantinople and condemned any alteration of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.
However, not all of these Councils have been universally recognised as ecumenical. In addition, the Catholic Church also has convened numerous other councils which it deems as having the same authority, making a total of twenty-one Ecumenical Councils recognised by the Catholic Church. The Assyrian Church of the East accepts only the first two, and Oriental Orthodoxy only three. Pope Sergius I rejected the Quinisext Council of 692 (see also Pentarchy). The Fourth Council of Constantinople of 869–870 and 879–880 is disputed by Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Present-day nontrinitarians, such as Unitarians, Latter-day Saints and other Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses, reject all seven Councils.
Second millennium[edit]
Middle Ages[edit]
From the late 11th century onward, heresy once again came to be a concern for Catholic authorities, as reports became increasingly common. The reasons for this are still not fully understood, but the causes for this new period of heresy include popular response to the 11th-century clerical reform movement, greater lay familiarity with the Bible, exclusion of lay people from sacramental activity, and more rigorous definition and supervision of Catholic dogma. The question of how heresy should be suppressed was not resolved, and there was initially substantial clerical resistance to the use of physical force by secular authorities to correct spiritual deviance. As heresy was viewed with increasing concern by the papacy, however, the "secular arm" was used more frequently and freely during the 12th century and afterward.
Late Middle Ages and Early Modern[edit]
In later years, the Church instituted the Inquisition, an official body charged with the suppression of heresy. This began as an extension and more rigorous enforcement of pre-existing episcopal powers (possessed, but little used, by bishops in the early Middle Ages) to inquire about and suppress heresy, but later became the domain of selected Dominican monks under the direct power of the Pope. The Inquisition was active in several nations of Europe, particularly where it had fervent support from the civil authority. The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) was part of the Catholic Church's efforts to crush the Cathars. It is linked to the movement now known as the Medieval Inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition was particularly brutal in its methods, which included the burning at the stake of many heretics. However, it was initiated and substantially controlled by King Ferdinand of Spain rather than the Church; King Ferdinand used political leverage to obtain the Church's tacit approval.[citation needed] Another example of a medieval heretic movement is the Hussite movement in the Czech lands in the early 15th century. The last person to be burned alive at the stake on orders from Rome was Giordano Bruno, executed in 1600 for a collection of heretical beliefs including Copernicanism, belief of an unlimited universe with innumerable inhabited worlds, opinions contrary to the Catholic faith about the Trinity, divinity of Christ, and Incarnation.
Last execution of a heretic[edit]
The last case of an execution by the Catholic Church was that of the schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoll, accused of deism by the waning Spanish Inquisition and hanged to death 26 July 1826 in Valencia after a two-year trial.[14] Eight years later in 1834, Spain, the last remaining government to still be providing the Catholic Church with the right to pronounce and effect capital punishment, formally withdrew that right from the Church. The era of such absolute Church authority had lasted some 1,449 years, from 385 AD through to 1834 of the 19th century. The number of people executed as heretics as sentenced by various church authorities is not known; however it most certainly numbers into the several thousands. Coincidentally, the first heretic executed had been a Spaniard, Priscillian; the most notorious organization known for the persecution of heretics had been based in Spain, the Spanish Inquisition, and the last heretic executed had been a Spaniard, Cayetano Ripoll. Thus, the era of the execution of heretics by the Catholic Church (or by any other major Christian denomination) had finally come to an end.
Modern Roman Catholic response to Protestantism[edit]
Main article: Roman Catholic teachings on heresy
Well into the 20th century, Catholics defined Protestants as heretics. Thus, Hilaire Belloc, in his time one of the most conspicuous speakers for Catholicism in Britain, was outspoken about the "Protestant heresy". He even defined Islam as being "a Christian heresy", on the grounds that Muslims accept many of the tenets of Christianity but deny the divinity of Christ.
However, in the second half of the century, and especially in the wake of Vatican II, the Catholic Church, in the spirit of ecumenism, tended to diminish the effects of Protestantism as a formal heresy by referring to many Protestants who, as material heretics, "through no fault of their own do not know Christ and his Church",[15] even though the teachings of Protestantism are indeed formally heretical from a Catholic perspective. Modern usage in ecumenical contexts favors referring to Protestants as "separated brethren". In his book The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood, Pope Benedict XVI wrote that:

The difficulty in the way of giving an answer is a profound one. Ultimately it is due to the fact that there is no appropriate category in Catholic thought for the phenomenon of Protestantism today (one could say the same of the relationship to the separated churches of the East). It is obvious that the old category of ‘heresy’ is no longer of any value. Heresy, for Scripture and the early Church, includes the idea of a personal decision against the unity of the Church, and heresy’s characteristic is pertinacia, the obstinacy of him who persists in his own private way. This, however, cannot be regarded as an appropriate description of the spiritual situation of the Protestant Christian. In the course of a now centuries-old history, Protestantism has made an important contribution to the realization of Christian faith, fulfilling a positive function in the development of the Christian message and, above all, often giving rise to a sincere and profound faith in the individual non-Catholic Christian, whose separation from the Catholic affirmation has nothing to do with the pertinacia characteristic of heresy. Perhaps we may here invert a saying of St. Augustine’s: that an old schism becomes a heresy. The very passage of time alters the character of a division, so that an old division is something essentially different from a new one. Something that was once rightly condemned as heresy cannot later simply become true, but it can gradually develop its own positive ecclesial nature, with which the individual is presented as his church and in which he lives as a believer, not as a heretic. This organization of one group, however, ultimately has an effect on the whole. The conclusion is inescapable, then: Protestantism today is something different from heresy in the traditional sense, a phenomenon whose true theological place has not yet been determined.[16]
Some of the doctrines of Protestantism that the Catholic Church considers heretical are the belief that the Bible is the only source and rule of faith (sola scriptura), that faith alone can lead to salvation (sola fide), that the Pope does not have universal jurisdiction over the whole Church, that the Catholic Church is not "the sole Church of Christ", and that there is no sacramental and ministerial priesthood received by ordination, but only a universal priesthood of all believers.[17]
Eastern Orthodox response to heresy[edit]
Some Eastern Orthodox consider the following council to be ecumenical, although this is not universally agreed upon:
1.The Fifth Council of Constantinople was actually a series of councils held between 1341 and 1351. It affirmed the hesychastic theology of St. Gregory Palamas and condemned the philosopher Barlaam of Calabria.
2.In addition to these councils there have been a number of significant councils meant to further define the Eastern Orthodox position. They are the Synods of Constantinople in 1484, 1583, 1755, 1819, and 1872, the Synod of Iaşi (Jassy), 1642, and the Pan-Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem, 1672.
Within the Eastern Orthodox Church, the role of the ecumenical councils was to better define the Orthodox canon of faith, however the Eastern Orthodox Church authorities are not known to have authorized the use of violence in the persecution of heretics with nearly the frequency of their Western counterparts. Some individual examples of the execution of Orthodox heretics do exist, however, such as the execution of Avvakum in 1682. Far more typically, the Eastern Orthodox response to a heresy would rather be (and still is) to merely "excommunicate" the individuals involved.
See also[edit]
Heresy in the 20th century
Heterodoxy
History of Christianity
Infallibility of the Church
List of Christian heresies
List of people burned as heretics
Radical Christianity
Roman Catholic teachings on heresy
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ J.D Douglas (ed). The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church Paternoster Press/ Zondervan, Exeter/Grand Rapids 1974, art Heresy
2.^ Jump up to: a b c Cross & Livingstone (eds) Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 1974 art Heresy
3.^ Jump up to: a b Prümmer, Dominic M. Handbook of Moral Theology Mercer Press 1963, sect. 201ff
4.Jump up ^ Cross & Livingstone (eds) Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 1974 arts apostasy,schism
5.Jump up ^ Adam, Karl. The Spirit of Catholicism, Image Books, 1954, p.159
 Vatican II, Unitatis Redintegratio, 14
6.Jump up ^ Oxford English Dictionary
7.Jump up ^ Jostein Ådna (editor), The Formation of the Early Church (Mohr Siebeck 2005 ISBN 978-316148561-9), p. 342
8.Jump up ^ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/major%20excommunication
9.Jump up ^ e.g., Bauer, Walter (1971). Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity. ISBN 0-8006-1363-5.; Pagels, Elaine (1979). The Gnostic Gospels. ISBN 0-679-72453-2.; Ehrman, Bart D. (2003). Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. New York: Oxford. ISBN 0-19-514183-0.
10.Jump up ^ Ehrman, Bart D. (2003). Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. New York: Oxford. ISBN 0-19-514183-0.
11.Jump up ^ Bock, Darrell L. The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities / ISBN 978-0-7852-1294-2
12.Jump up ^ Cambridge History of Christianity Volume 1, Origins to Constantine Series: Cambridge History of Christianity by Frances M. Young ISBN 978-0-521-81239-9 Published February 2006
13.Jump up ^ R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004) p. 58
14.Jump up ^ "Daily TWiP - The Spanish Inquisition executes its last victim today in 1826". 26 July 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
15.Jump up ^ http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/847.htm CCC 847
16.Jump up ^ Pope Benedict XVI (1993). The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood. Ignatius Press. p. 88. ISBN 9780898704464.
17.Jump up ^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12495a.htm Protestantism
Further Reading[edit]
Clifton, Chas S. (1992). Encyclopedia of Heresies and Heretics. New York: Barnes and Noble Books. ISBN 0-7607-0823-1.
Slade, Darren M. (January 2014). "Arabia Haeresium Ferax (Arabia Bearer of Heresies): Schismatic Christianity’s Potential Influence on Muhammad and the Qur’an" (PDF). American Theological Inquiry 7 (1): 43-53.


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Heresy in Christianity

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When heresy is used today with reference to Christianity, it denotes the formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Christian faith[1] as defined by one or more of the Christian churches.[2] It should be distinguished from both apostasy and schism,[2] apostasy being nearly always total abandonment of the Christian faith after it has been freely accepted,[3] and schism being a formal and deliberate breach of Christian unity and an offence against charity without being based essentially on doctrine.[4]
In Western Christianity, heresy most commonly refers to those beliefs which were declared to be anathema by any of the ecumenical councils recognized by the Catholic Church.[citation needed] In the East, the term "heresy" is eclectic and can refer to anything at variance with Church tradition. Since the Great Schism and the Protestant Reformation, various Christian churches have also used the concept in proceedings against individuals and groups deemed to be heretical by those churches.
The Catholic Church distinguishes between "formal heresy" and "material heresy". The former involves willful and persistent adherence to an error in matters of faith and is a grave sin and produces excommunication.[2] "Material heresy" is the holding of erroneous opinions through no fault of one's own and is not sinful. Protestants fall in this second group[3] while the Eastern Orthodox are considered to be schismatic but are recognised as churches.[5]
Historical examination of heresies focuses on a mixture of theological, spiritual, and socio-political underpinnings to explain and describe their development. For example, accusations of heresy have been levelled against a group of believers when their beliefs challenged, or were seen to challenge, Church authority. Some heresies have also been doctrinally based, in which a teaching was deemed to be inconsistent with the fundamental tenets of orthodox dogma.
The study of heresy requires an understanding of the development of orthodoxy and the role of creeds in the definition of orthodox beliefs. Orthodoxy has been in the process of self-definition for centuries, defining itself in terms of its faith and changing or clarifying beliefs in opposition to people or doctrines that are perceived as incorrect. The reaction of the orthodox to heresy has also varied over the course of time; many factors, particularly the institutional, judicial, and doctrinal development of the Church, have shaped this reaction.[citation needed] Heresy remained an officially punishable offence in Roman Catholic nations until the late 18th century. In Spain, heretics were prosecuted and punished during the Counter-Enlightenment movement of the restoration of the monarchy there after the Napoleonic Era.[citation needed]


Contents  [hide]
1 Etymology
2 Anathema
3 First millennium 3.1 Early Christian heresies 3.1.1 21st century views on early Christian heresies
3.2 Early suppression of heresies
3.3 Christology
3.4 Emergence of creeds and Christian Orthodoxy
3.5 Ecumenical councils
4 Second millennium 4.1 Middle Ages
4.2 Late Middle Ages and Early Modern
4.3 Last execution of a heretic
4.4 Modern Roman Catholic response to Protestantism
4.5 Eastern Orthodox response to heresy
5 See also
6 References
7 Further Reading

Etymology[edit]
The word heresy comes from haeresis, a Latin transliteration of the Greek word originally meaning choosing, choice, course of action, or in an extended sense school of thought[6] then eventually came to denote warring factions and the party spirit by the first century. The word appears in the New Testament and was appropriated by the Church to mean a sect or division that threatened the unity of Christians. Heresy eventually became regarded as a departure from orthodoxy, a sense in which "heterodoxy" was already in Christian use soon after the year 100.[7]
Anathema[edit]
Main article: Anathema § Religious usage
Since the time of the apostles, the term anathema has come to mean a form of extreme religious sanction beyond excommunication, known as major excommunication.[8] The earliest recorded instance of the form is in the Council of Elvira (c. 306), and thereafter it became the common method of cutting off heretics.
In the fifth century, a formal distinction between anathema and excommunication evolved, where excommunication entailed cutting off a person or group from the rite of Eucharist and attendance at worship, while anathema meant a complete separation of the subject from the Church.
First millennium[edit]
Early Christian heresies[edit]
See also: Early Christianity
In his book Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton asserts that there have been substantial disagreements about faith from the time of the New Testament and Jesus. He pointed out that the Apostles all argued against changing the teachings of Christ as did the earliest church fathers including Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr and Polycarp (see false prophet, the antichrist, the gnostic Nicolaitanes from the Book of Revelation and Man of Sin).
The development of doctrine, the position of orthodoxy, and the relationship between the various opinions is a matter of continuing theological debate. Since most Christians today subscribe to the doctrines established by the Nicene Creed, modern Christian theologians tend to regard the early debates as a unified orthodox position (see also Proto-orthodox Christianity and Paleo-orthodoxy) against a minority of heretics. Other scholars, drawing upon, among other things, distinctions between Jewish Christians, Pauline Christians, and other groups such as Gnostics and Marcionites, argue that early Christianity was fragmented, with contemporaneous competing orthodoxies.[9]
In the middle of the 2nd century, three unorthodox groups of Christians adhered to a range of doctrines that divided the Christian communities of Rome: the teacher Marcion; the pentecostal outpourings of ecstatic Christian prophets of a continuing revelation, in a movement that was called "Montanism" because it had been initiated by Montanus and his female disciples; and the gnostic teachings of Valentinus. Early attacks upon alleged heresies formed the matter of Tertullian's Prescription Against Heretics (in 44 chapters, written from Rome), and of Irenaeus' Against Heresies (ca 180, in five volumes), written in Lyon after his return from a visit to Rome. The letters of Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna to various churches warned against false teachers, and the Epistle of Barnabas accepted by many Christians as part of Scripture in the 2nd century, warned about mixing Judaism with Christianity, as did other writers, leading to decisions reached in the first ecumenical council, which was convoked by the Emperor Constantine at Nicaea in 325, in response to further disruptive polemical controversy within the Christian community, in that case Arianist disputes over the nature of the Trinity.
21st century views on early Christian heresies[edit]
The development of doctrine, the position of orthodoxy, and the relationship between the early Church and early heretical groups is a matter of academic debate. Walter Bauer proposed a thesis that in earliest Christianity, orthodoxy and heresy do not stand in relation to one another as primary to secondary, but in many regions heresy is the original manifestation of Christianity. Scholars such as Pagels and Ehrman have built on Bauer's original thesis. Drawing upon distinctions between Jewish Christians, Gentile Christians, and other groups such as Gnostics, they see early Christianity as fragmented and with contemporaneous competing orthodoxies.[10]
The Pattern of Christian Truth: A Study in the Relations between Orthodoxy and Heresy in the Early Church, written by H. E. W. Turner, is one of many scholarly responses to the concept of early Christian origins as being ambiguous. Turner's response was in objection to Bauer's. In 2006, Darrell Bock[11] addressed Walter Bauer's theory, stating that it does not show an equality between the established church and outsiders including Simon Magus. In The Cambridge History of Christianity Volume 1,[12] Origins to Constantine, Walter Bauer's hypothesis was addressed again; this time in the introduction of the book it states each article addressed the uniqueness of each early Christian community but stated that the tenets of the mainstream or Catholic Church insured that each early Christian community did not remain isolated. The Russian philosopher Aleksey Khomyakov stated that the very church was the idea of submission and compromise of the individual to God through the idea of catholic or the Russian equivalent sobornost. Russian Orthodox theologian Father Georges Florovsky addressed the concept of sobornost as the concept of Orthodox Christianity after rejecting the World Church Council as being Catholic or orthodox simply because it expressed unity in Christ. Florovksy stating as an apology that the very tenet of Catholic or sobornost was the original church's response (through the patristic works of the early fathers) to the idea that there were multiple orthodoxies and no real heresies.
Early suppression of heresies[edit]
Main article: History of Christian thought on persecution and tolerance
Before 313 AD, the "heretical" nature of some beliefs was a matter of much debate within the churches, and there was no true mechanism in place to resolve the various differences of beliefs. Heresy was to be approached by the leader of the church according to Eusebius, author of The Church History. It was only after the legalisation of Christianity, which began under Constantine I in 313 AD that the various beliefs of the Church began to be made uniform and formulated as dogma through the canons promulgated by the General Councils. Each phrase in the Nicene Creed, which was hammered out at the Council of Nicaea, addresses some aspect that had been under passionate discussion prior to Constantine I, and closes the books on the argument, with the weight of the agreement of the over 300 bishops, as well as Constantine I in attendance. [Constantine had invited all 1800 bishops of the Christian church (about 1000 in the east and 800 in the west). The number of participating bishops cannot be accurately stated; Socrates Scholasticus and Epiphanius of Salamis counted 318; Eusebius of Caesarea, only 250.] In spite of the agreement reached at the council of 325 AD, the Arians, who had been defeated, dominated most of the church for the greater part of the 4th century, often with the aid of Roman emperors who favoured them.
Irenaeus (c. 130–202) was the first to argue that his "orthodox" position was the same faith that Jesus gave to the apostles, and that the identity of the apostles, their successors, and the teachings of the same were all well-known public knowledge. This was therefore an early argument supported by apostolic succession. Irenaeus first established the doctrine of four gospels and no more, with the synoptic gospels interpreted in the light of John. Irenaeus' opponents, however, claimed to have received secret teachings from Jesus via other apostles which were not publicly known. Gnosticism is predicated on the existence of such hidden knowledge, but brief references to private teachings of Jesus have also survived in the canonic Scripture as did warning by the Christ that there would be false prophets or false teachers. Irenaeus' opponents also claimed that the wellsprings of divine inspiration were not dried up, which is the doctrine of continuing revelation.
The first known usage of the term 'heresy' in a civil legal context was in 380 by the "Edict of Thessalonica" of Theodosius I. Prior to the issuance of this edict, the Church had no state-sponsored support for any particular legal mechanism to counter what it perceived as 'heresy'. By this edict, in some senses, the line between the Catholic Church's spiritual authority and the Roman State's jurisdiction was blurred. One of the outcomes of this blurring of Church and State was a sharing of State powers of legal enforcement between Church and State authorities, with the state enforcing what it determined to be orthodox teaching.
Within five years of the official 'criminalization' of heresy by the emperor, the first Christian heretic, Priscillian, was executed in 385 by Roman officials. For some years after the Protestant Reformation, Protestant denominations were also known to execute those whom they considered heretics.
Christology[edit]
Main article: Christology
The earliest controversies were generally Christological in nature; that is, they were related to Jesus' (eternal) divinity or humanity. The orthodox teaching, as it developed, is that Christ was fully divine and at the same time fully human, and that the three persons of the Trinity are co-equal and co-eternal.
This position was challenged in the 4th century by Arius. Arianism held that Jesus, while not merely mortal, was not eternally divine and was, therefore, of lesser status than God the Father (John 14:28). Trinitarianism held that God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit were all strictly one being with three hypostases. Many groups held dualistic beliefs, maintaining that reality was composed into two radically opposing parts: matter, usually seen as evil, and spirit, seen as good. Docetism held that Jesus' humanity was merely an illusion, thus denying the incarnation. Others held that both the material and spiritual worlds were created by God and were therefore both good, and that this was represented in the unified divine and human natures of Christ.[13]
Emergence of creeds and Christian Orthodoxy[edit]
Main article: Creed
Urgent concerns with the uniformity of belief and practice have characterized Christianity from the outset. In the three centuries between the crucifixion and the First Council of Nicaea in 325, the religion was at times an illegal, underground movement spreading within the urban centres of the Roman Empire, a process bolstered through merchants and travel through the empire. The process of establishing orthodox Christianity was set in motion by a succession of different interpretations of the teachings of Christ being taught after the crucifixion, though Christ himself is noted to have spoken out against false prophets and false christs within the Gospels themselves: Mark 13:22 (some will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples), Matthew 7:5-20, Matthew 24:4, Matthew 24:11 Matthew 24:24 (For false christs and false prophets will arise). On many occasions in Paul's epistles, he defends his own apostleship, and urges Christians in various places to beware of false teachers, or of anything contrary to what was handed to them by him. The epistles of John and Jude also warn of false teachers and prophets, as does the writer of the Book of Revelation and 1 John. 4:1, as did the Apostle Peter warn in 2 Peter. 2:1-3. Due to this, in the first centuries of Christianity, churches had locally begun to make a statement of faith in line with mainstream Christian doctrine a prerequisite for baptism. The reason for this demand was to insure that new converts would not be followers of teachings that conflicted with widely accepted views of Christianity such as Gnosticism and other movements that later were considered heretical by church leaders. These statements of faith became the framework for ecumenical creeds such as the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed. It was against these creeds that teachings were judged in order to determine orthodoxy and to establish teachings as heretical. The first ecumenical and comprehensive statement of belief, the Nicene Creed, was formulated in 325 at the First Council of Nicaea.
Ecumenical councils[edit]
Main article: First seven Ecumenical Councils
Several ecumenical councils were convened. These were mostly concerned with Christological disputes. The councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (382) condemned Arian teachings as heresy and produced a creed (see Nicene Creed). The First Council of Ephesus in 431 condemned Nestorianism and affirmed the Blessed Virgin Mary to be Theotokos ("God-bearer" or "Mother of God"). Perhaps the most significant council was the Council of Chalcedon in 451 that affirmed that Christ had two natures, fully God and fully man, distinct yet always in perfect union. This was based largely on Pope Leo the Great's Tome. Thus, it condemned Monophysitism and would be influential in refuting Monothelitism.
1.The First Ecumenical Council was convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine at Nicaea in 325 and presided over by the Patriarch Alexander of Alexandria, with over 300 bishops condemning the view of Arius that the Son is a created being inferior to the Father.
2.The Second Ecumenical Council was held at Constantinople in 381, presided over by the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, with 150 bishops, defining the nature of the Holy Spirit against those asserting His inequality with the other persons of the Trinity.
3.The Third Ecumenical Council is that of Ephesus in 431, presided over by the Patriarch of Alexandria, with 250 bishops, which affirmed that Mary is truly "Birthgiver" or "Mother" of God (Theotokos), contrary to the teachings of Nestorius.
4.The Fourth Ecumenical Council is that of Chalcedon in 451, Patriarch of Constantinople presiding, 500 bishops, affirmed that Jesus is truly God and truly man, without mixture of the two natures, contrary to Monophysite teaching.
5.The Fifth Ecumenical Council is the second of Constantinople in 553, interpreting the decrees of Chalcedon and further explaining the relationship of the two natures of Jesus; it also condemned the teachings of Origen on the pre-existence of the soul, etc.
6.The Sixth Ecumenical Council is the third of Constantinople in 681; it declared that Christ has two wills of his two natures, human and divine, contrary to the teachings of the Monothelites.
7.The Seventh Ecumenical Council was called under the Empress Regent Irene of Athens in 787, known as the second of Nicaea. It supports the veneration of icons while forbidding their worship. It is often referred to as "The Triumph of Orthodoxy"
8.The Fourth Council of Constantinople was called in 879. It restored St. Photius to his See in Constantinople and condemned any alteration of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.
However, not all of these Councils have been universally recognised as ecumenical. In addition, the Catholic Church also has convened numerous other councils which it deems as having the same authority, making a total of twenty-one Ecumenical Councils recognised by the Catholic Church. The Assyrian Church of the East accepts only the first two, and Oriental Orthodoxy only three. Pope Sergius I rejected the Quinisext Council of 692 (see also Pentarchy). The Fourth Council of Constantinople of 869–870 and 879–880 is disputed by Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Present-day nontrinitarians, such as Unitarians, Latter-day Saints and other Mormons, and Jehovah's Witnesses, reject all seven Councils.
Second millennium[edit]
Middle Ages[edit]
From the late 11th century onward, heresy once again came to be a concern for Catholic authorities, as reports became increasingly common. The reasons for this are still not fully understood, but the causes for this new period of heresy include popular response to the 11th-century clerical reform movement, greater lay familiarity with the Bible, exclusion of lay people from sacramental activity, and more rigorous definition and supervision of Catholic dogma. The question of how heresy should be suppressed was not resolved, and there was initially substantial clerical resistance to the use of physical force by secular authorities to correct spiritual deviance. As heresy was viewed with increasing concern by the papacy, however, the "secular arm" was used more frequently and freely during the 12th century and afterward.
Late Middle Ages and Early Modern[edit]
In later years, the Church instituted the Inquisition, an official body charged with the suppression of heresy. This began as an extension and more rigorous enforcement of pre-existing episcopal powers (possessed, but little used, by bishops in the early Middle Ages) to inquire about and suppress heresy, but later became the domain of selected Dominican monks under the direct power of the Pope. The Inquisition was active in several nations of Europe, particularly where it had fervent support from the civil authority. The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) was part of the Catholic Church's efforts to crush the Cathars. It is linked to the movement now known as the Medieval Inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition was particularly brutal in its methods, which included the burning at the stake of many heretics. However, it was initiated and substantially controlled by King Ferdinand of Spain rather than the Church; King Ferdinand used political leverage to obtain the Church's tacit approval.[citation needed] Another example of a medieval heretic movement is the Hussite movement in the Czech lands in the early 15th century. The last person to be burned alive at the stake on orders from Rome was Giordano Bruno, executed in 1600 for a collection of heretical beliefs including Copernicanism, belief of an unlimited universe with innumerable inhabited worlds, opinions contrary to the Catholic faith about the Trinity, divinity of Christ, and Incarnation.
Last execution of a heretic[edit]
The last case of an execution by the Catholic Church was that of the schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoll, accused of deism by the waning Spanish Inquisition and hanged to death 26 July 1826 in Valencia after a two-year trial.[14] Eight years later in 1834, Spain, the last remaining government to still be providing the Catholic Church with the right to pronounce and effect capital punishment, formally withdrew that right from the Church. The era of such absolute Church authority had lasted some 1,449 years, from 385 AD through to 1834 of the 19th century. The number of people executed as heretics as sentenced by various church authorities is not known; however it most certainly numbers into the several thousands. Coincidentally, the first heretic executed had been a Spaniard, Priscillian; the most notorious organization known for the persecution of heretics had been based in Spain, the Spanish Inquisition, and the last heretic executed had been a Spaniard, Cayetano Ripoll. Thus, the era of the execution of heretics by the Catholic Church (or by any other major Christian denomination) had finally come to an end.
Modern Roman Catholic response to Protestantism[edit]
Main article: Roman Catholic teachings on heresy
Well into the 20th century, Catholics defined Protestants as heretics. Thus, Hilaire Belloc, in his time one of the most conspicuous speakers for Catholicism in Britain, was outspoken about the "Protestant heresy". He even defined Islam as being "a Christian heresy", on the grounds that Muslims accept many of the tenets of Christianity but deny the divinity of Christ.
However, in the second half of the century, and especially in the wake of Vatican II, the Catholic Church, in the spirit of ecumenism, tended to diminish the effects of Protestantism as a formal heresy by referring to many Protestants who, as material heretics, "through no fault of their own do not know Christ and his Church",[15] even though the teachings of Protestantism are indeed formally heretical from a Catholic perspective. Modern usage in ecumenical contexts favors referring to Protestants as "separated brethren". In his book The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood, Pope Benedict XVI wrote that:

The difficulty in the way of giving an answer is a profound one. Ultimately it is due to the fact that there is no appropriate category in Catholic thought for the phenomenon of Protestantism today (one could say the same of the relationship to the separated churches of the East). It is obvious that the old category of ‘heresy’ is no longer of any value. Heresy, for Scripture and the early Church, includes the idea of a personal decision against the unity of the Church, and heresy’s characteristic is pertinacia, the obstinacy of him who persists in his own private way. This, however, cannot be regarded as an appropriate description of the spiritual situation of the Protestant Christian. In the course of a now centuries-old history, Protestantism has made an important contribution to the realization of Christian faith, fulfilling a positive function in the development of the Christian message and, above all, often giving rise to a sincere and profound faith in the individual non-Catholic Christian, whose separation from the Catholic affirmation has nothing to do with the pertinacia characteristic of heresy. Perhaps we may here invert a saying of St. Augustine’s: that an old schism becomes a heresy. The very passage of time alters the character of a division, so that an old division is something essentially different from a new one. Something that was once rightly condemned as heresy cannot later simply become true, but it can gradually develop its own positive ecclesial nature, with which the individual is presented as his church and in which he lives as a believer, not as a heretic. This organization of one group, however, ultimately has an effect on the whole. The conclusion is inescapable, then: Protestantism today is something different from heresy in the traditional sense, a phenomenon whose true theological place has not yet been determined.[16]
Some of the doctrines of Protestantism that the Catholic Church considers heretical are the belief that the Bible is the only source and rule of faith (sola scriptura), that faith alone can lead to salvation (sola fide), that the Pope does not have universal jurisdiction over the whole Church, that the Catholic Church is not "the sole Church of Christ", and that there is no sacramental and ministerial priesthood received by ordination, but only a universal priesthood of all believers.[17]
Eastern Orthodox response to heresy[edit]
Some Eastern Orthodox consider the following council to be ecumenical, although this is not universally agreed upon:
1.The Fifth Council of Constantinople was actually a series of councils held between 1341 and 1351. It affirmed the hesychastic theology of St. Gregory Palamas and condemned the philosopher Barlaam of Calabria.
2.In addition to these councils there have been a number of significant councils meant to further define the Eastern Orthodox position. They are the Synods of Constantinople in 1484, 1583, 1755, 1819, and 1872, the Synod of Iaşi (Jassy), 1642, and the Pan-Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem, 1672.
Within the Eastern Orthodox Church, the role of the ecumenical councils was to better define the Orthodox canon of faith, however the Eastern Orthodox Church authorities are not known to have authorized the use of violence in the persecution of heretics with nearly the frequency of their Western counterparts. Some individual examples of the execution of Orthodox heretics do exist, however, such as the execution of Avvakum in 1682. Far more typically, the Eastern Orthodox response to a heresy would rather be (and still is) to merely "excommunicate" the individuals involved.
See also[edit]
Heresy in the 20th century
Heterodoxy
History of Christianity
Infallibility of the Church
List of Christian heresies
List of people burned as heretics
Radical Christianity
Roman Catholic teachings on heresy
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ J.D Douglas (ed). The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church Paternoster Press/ Zondervan, Exeter/Grand Rapids 1974, art Heresy
2.^ Jump up to: a b c Cross & Livingstone (eds) Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 1974 art Heresy
3.^ Jump up to: a b Prümmer, Dominic M. Handbook of Moral Theology Mercer Press 1963, sect. 201ff
4.Jump up ^ Cross & Livingstone (eds) Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 1974 arts apostasy,schism
5.Jump up ^ Adam, Karl. The Spirit of Catholicism, Image Books, 1954, p.159
 Vatican II, Unitatis Redintegratio, 14
6.Jump up ^ Oxford English Dictionary
7.Jump up ^ Jostein Ådna (editor), The Formation of the Early Church (Mohr Siebeck 2005 ISBN 978-316148561-9), p. 342
8.Jump up ^ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/major%20excommunication
9.Jump up ^ e.g., Bauer, Walter (1971). Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity. ISBN 0-8006-1363-5.; Pagels, Elaine (1979). The Gnostic Gospels. ISBN 0-679-72453-2.; Ehrman, Bart D. (2003). Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. New York: Oxford. ISBN 0-19-514183-0.
10.Jump up ^ Ehrman, Bart D. (2003). Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. New York: Oxford. ISBN 0-19-514183-0.
11.Jump up ^ Bock, Darrell L. The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities / ISBN 978-0-7852-1294-2
12.Jump up ^ Cambridge History of Christianity Volume 1, Origins to Constantine Series: Cambridge History of Christianity by Frances M. Young ISBN 978-0-521-81239-9 Published February 2006
13.Jump up ^ R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004) p. 58
14.Jump up ^ "Daily TWiP - The Spanish Inquisition executes its last victim today in 1826". 26 July 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2013.
15.Jump up ^ http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/847.htm CCC 847
16.Jump up ^ Pope Benedict XVI (1993). The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood. Ignatius Press. p. 88. ISBN 9780898704464.
17.Jump up ^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12495a.htm Protestantism
Further Reading[edit]
Clifton, Chas S. (1992). Encyclopedia of Heresies and Heretics. New York: Barnes and Noble Books. ISBN 0-7607-0823-1.
Slade, Darren M. (January 2014). "Arabia Haeresium Ferax (Arabia Bearer of Heresies): Schismatic Christianity’s Potential Influence on Muhammad and the Qur’an" (PDF). American Theological Inquiry 7 (1): 43-53.


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Bid‘ah

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Heresy in Islam)
Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the Arabic term. For the city, see Bida, Nigeria.

Text document with red question mark.svg
 Some or all of this article's listed sources may not be reliable. Please help this article by looking for better, more reliable sources, or by checking whether the references meet the criteria for reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged or deleted. (August 2012)
Part of a series on Islam
Usul al-fiqh

Fiqh
Taqlid ·
 Ijma ·
 Madhhab ·
 Qiyas ·
 Urf ·
 Bid‘ah ·
 Madrasah ·
 Ijazah ·
 Istihlal ·
 Istihsan
 
Ahkam
Sawab ·
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 Fard ·
 Mustahabb ·
 Mubah ·
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 Grand Mufti ·
 Hafiz ·
 Hujja ·
 Hakim ·

Imam ·
 Khatib ·
 Marja' ·
 Mawlānā ·
 Mawlawi ·
 Mufassir ·
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In Islam, Bid‘ah (Arabic: بدعة‎) refers to any innovations in religious matters. Linguistically the term means "innovation, novelty, heretical doctrine, heresy".[1] In contrast to the English term "innovation", the word bid'ah in Arabic generally carries a negative connotation, but it can also have positive implications. It has also been used in classical Arabic literature (adab) as a form of praise for outstanding compositions of prose and poetry.[2]
Any innovations in worldly matters – such as science, medicine and technology – are generally acceptable and encouraged; but bid'ah within the religious practice is generally considered a sin.


Contents  [hide]
1 According to Sunni Islam 1.1 In worldly matters
1.2 In religious matters 1.2.1 Traditional view
1.2.2 Modern discourse

2 According to Shia Islam
3 References
4 Further reading
5 External links 5.1 Sunni view
5.2 Shi'a view


According to Sunni Islam[edit]
In early Islamic history, bid'ah referred primarily to heterodox doctrines (as evidenced below). However, in Islamic law, when used without qualification, bid'ah denotes any newly invented matter that is without precedent and is in opposition to the Qur'an and Sunnah.[3]
Scholars (most prominent of which is Imam Shafi) generally have divided bid'ah into two types: innovations in worldly matters and innovations in religious matters.[4] Some have additionally divided bid'ah into lawful and unlawful innovations, the details of which are discussed below.[5]
Introducing and acting upon a bid‘ah in religious matters is a sin and considered one of the enormities in Islam that is obligatory to immediately desist and repent from.[6]
In worldly matters[edit]
Some Sunni Muslim scholars have divided bid‘ah in worldly matters into two types:[citation needed]
1.Innovations that are purely good - these are permissible under Islamic law. This can include anything from inventions such as watches, to customs and culture, given they don't violate Sharia.
2.Innovations that are purely evil - these are forbidden under Islamic law. Examples of this type of bid'ah include alcohol,[7] or, in modern times, the discovery and synthesis of new intoxicants.
In religious matters[edit]
Traditional view[edit]
Religious innovation means inventing a new way of worshipping God that was not originally included in the message revealed to and propagated by Muhammad, and that opposes established forms. There is much criticism of bid'ah in the Quran[citation needed] and Sunnah, according to Sunni Islam.
Ali ibn Abu Talib said; "He who innovates or gives protection to an innovator, there is a curse of Allah and that of His angels and that of the whole humanity upon him."[8][9] `Abd Allah ibn `Umar said: "Every innovation is misguidance, even if the people see it as something good.[10]"
Ibn Abbas also said: "Indeed the most detestable of things to Allaah are the innovations."[11] Sufyan Al-Thawri mentions: "Innovation is more beloved to Iblees than sin, since a sin may be repented for but innovation is not repented for[12]". He also said, "Whoever listens to an innovator has left the protection of Allaah and is entrusted with the innovation[13]".
Al-Fudayl bin 'Iyaad mentions: "I met the best of people, all of them people of the Sunnah and they used to forbid from accompanying the people of innovation[14]". Hasan al-Basri mentions: "Do not sit with the people of innovation and desires, nor argue with them, nor listen to them".[15] Ibraaheem ibn Maysarah mentions: "Whoever honours an innovator has aided in the destruction of Islam."[16]
Al-Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Barbahari mentions: "The innovators are like scorpions. They bury their heads and bodies in the sand and leave their tails out. When they get the chance they sting; the same with the innovators who conceal themselves amongst the people, when they are able, they do what they desire."[17] Abu Haatim said: "A sign of the people of innovation is their battling against the people of Narrations."[18] Abu 'Uthmaan as-Saaboonee said: "The signs of the people of innovation are clear and obvious. The most apparent of their signs is their severe enmity for those who carry the reports of the Prophet."[19] Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen, a prominent modern-day scholar, wrote: "And there is no such thing in Islam as bid’ah hasanah (good innovation)."[20]
When a religious innovation is implemented, it is generally felt[who?] that the innovator is assuming that the Sunnah is not good enough, that he must resort to something "better." Even though this statement would be an admission of disbelief [21] - there are some innovations that contain shirk and there are some which allow someone to remain a Muslim, while his action is rejected (regardless of any sincerity it might have had).[22]
Modern discourse[edit]
The criterion that qualifies a particular action as a bid`ah in the religion is a debate amongst Sunni scholars. There are some who argue for a definition that entails anything not specifically performed or confirmed by Muhammad. Arguing for this position, Muhammad ibn Salih al-Munajjid, a famous Saudi Arabia scholar declares:

[H]ow can there be any such thing as bid’ah hasanah (“good innovation”) when the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Every bid’ah is a going astray and every going astray is in Hell-fire”. So, if anyone says that there is such a thing as bid’ah hasanah, he can only be insisting on going against the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).... It (referring to a spontaneous form of dhikr in the prayer by a Companion recorded in the hadith literature) was not even considered to have been a correct action until after the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) had approved it, and not before. But how on earth could this innovator obtain the approval of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) after he has passed away?"
—Muhammad ibn Salih al-Munajjid, Islam-QA: "There is no such thing as bid'ah hasana in Islam"[23]
Calls within Sunni Islam in the modern era have been made for a reassessment of the traditional view, especially by practitioners of Sufism. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah writes:

[B]id‘a could take on various shades of meaning. When used without qualifying adjectives, it tended to be condemnatory, as, for example, in the statement, “bid‘a must be avoided.” Nevertheless, bid‘a was not always something bad. In certain contexts, especially when qualified by adjectives, bid‘a could cover a wide range of meanings from what was praiseworthy to what was completely wrong, as, for example, in the caliph ‘Umar’s statement below, “what an excellent bid‘a is this!”
—Umar Faruq Abd-Allah, Innovation and Creativity in Islam, 2
Despite the general understanding of standing scholarly disagreements (ikhtilaf), the notion of lawful innovation is a polarizing issue in the Islamic world. A practical example of this is the debate over the permissibility of the mawlid or commemoration of Muhammad's birthday. All scholars agree that such celebrations did not exist in the early period of Islamic history, and yet mawalid commemorations are a common element in Muslim societies around the world. Even so, Sunnis scholars are divided between emphatic unconditional condemnation[24] and conditional acceptance[25] of the celebration with the former insisting it is a bid'ah and thus automatically unlawful, while the latter argues it nonetheless is contextually permissible.
According to Shia Islam[edit]
According to Shia Islam the definition of bid'ah is anything that is introduced to Islam as either being fard, mustahabb, makruh or haram that contradicts the Qur'an or hadith. Any new good practice introduced that does not contradict the Qur'an or hadith is permissible. However, it is not permissible to say that a new good practice (that does not contradict the Qur'an or hadith) is obligatory, highly recommended or "sunnah" proper. Hence, the Shi`a stance mirrors the body of Sunni scholars who proffer the idea of "bid'ah hasana". As a general rule in Shi'a jurisprudence, anything is permissible except whatever is prohibited through divine revelation (i.e. the Qur'an or hadith).[26]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Wehr, Hans (1994). Arabic-English Dictionary. Spoken Language Services, Inc. p. 57.
2.Jump up ^ Al-Shatibi, Ibrahim ibn Musa. al-I`itsam. pp. 1:49.
3.Jump up ^ al-Masri, Jamaluddin ibn al-Manzur. Lisan al-‘Arab. pp. 8:6.
4.Jump up ^ Al-Qawaa'id wal-Usool al-Jaami'ah wal-Furooq wat-Taqaaseem al-Badee'ah an-Naafi'ah by Abd ar-Rahman ibn Naasir as-Sa'di
5.Jump up ^ al-Nawawi, Yahya ibn Sharif. Tahzib al-Asma’ wal-Lughaat. pp. 1:22–23.
6.Jump up ^ al-Dhahabi, Muhammad ibn Ahmad. Kitab al-Kaba'ir.
7.Jump up ^ Fat-hul Baari by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (vol.2, p. 443)
8.Jump up ^ Sahih Muslim, 9:3601
9.Jump up ^ Sahih al-Bukhari, 8:80:8747
10.Jump up ^ Abu Shaamah (no. 39)
11.Jump up ^ al-Bayhaqee in as-Sunan al-Kubraa (4/316)
12.Jump up ^ al-Laalikaa'ee - Sharh Usool I'tiqaad Ahlis-Sunnah wal-Jamaa'ah (no. 238)
13.Jump up ^ Abu Nu'aym in al-Hilyah (7/26) and Ibn Battah (no.444)
14.Jump up ^ al-Laalikaa'ee - Sharh Usool I'tiqaad Ahlis-Sunnah wal-Jamaa'ah (no.267)
15.Jump up ^ Sunan ad-Daarimee (1/121)
16.Jump up ^ al-Laalikaa'ee - Sharh Usool I'tiqaad Ahlis-Sunnah wal-Jamaa'ah (1/139)
17.Jump up ^ Tabaqaatul-Hanaabilah - Volume 2, Page 44
18.Jump up ^ Sharh Usool I'tiqaad Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa'ah - al-Laalikaa'ee - Volume 1, Page 179
19.Jump up ^ Abu 'Uthmaan as-Saaboonee, The 'Aqeedah of the (Pious) Predecessors - Page 101
20.Jump up ^ Al Muttaqoon -> Question And Answers On Bid’ah (Innovation)
21.Jump up ^ Microsoft Word - Explanation of The Nullifiers of Islaam.doc[dead link]
22.Jump up ^ Islam Question and Answer - Does a good intention intercede for one?
23.Jump up ^ http://islamqa.com/en/ref/205
24.Jump up ^ Bin Baz, Abd al-Aziz. "Warning Against Bid'ahs: Ruling on Celebrating the Prophet's Mawlid and Other Events". Fatawa Bin Baz. Retrieved 30 September 2011.[dead link]
25.Jump up ^ Bin Bayyah, Abdullah. "On Celebrating the Prophet's Birthday".
26.Jump up ^ Answering-Ansar.org :: Bidah (Innovation)[dead link]
Further reading[edit]
Abdullah, 'Umar Faruq, "Heaven", in Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God (2 vols.), Edited by C. Fitzpatrick and A. Walker, Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, 2014, Vol I, pp. 251-254.
External links[edit]
Sunni view[edit]
The Perfection of the Sharia and an Exposition of the Reprehensible Innovations That Have Crept Into Islam
Innovation in Light of the Perfection of the Shari'ah
Shaykh ‘Uthaymeen on innovations[dead link](redirects to survey)
Expounding Bid'ah
Bid’ah: a Detailed Explanation from Living Islam
Innovation and Creativity in Islam by Dr. Umar Fard Abd-Allah[dead link] (404)
Shi'a view[edit]
Introduction to Bid'ah from the Shia website Answering Ansar[dead link] (password restricted)
Detailed Explanation of the Shi'a view on Bid'ah[dead link] (password restricted)
  


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Bid‘ah

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from Heresy in Islam)
Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the Arabic term. For the city, see Bida, Nigeria.

Text document with red question mark.svg
 Some or all of this article's listed sources may not be reliable. Please help this article by looking for better, more reliable sources, or by checking whether the references meet the criteria for reliable sources. Unreliable citations may be challenged or deleted. (August 2012)
Part of a series on Islam
Usul al-fiqh

Fiqh
Taqlid ·
 Ijma ·
 Madhhab ·
 Qiyas ·
 Urf ·
 Bid‘ah ·
 Madrasah ·
 Ijazah ·
 Istihlal ·
 Istihsan
 
Ahkam
Sawab ·
 Halal ·
 Fard ·
 Mustahabb ·
 Mubah ·
 Makruh ·
 Gunah ·
 Haram ·
 Batil ·
 Fasiq
 
Theological titles
Ulama ·
 Faqīh ·
 Grand Imam of Al-Azhar ·
 Grand Mufti ·
 Hafiz ·
 Hujja ·
 Hakim ·

Imam ·
 Khatib ·
 Marja' ·
 Mawlānā ·
 Mawlawi ·
 Mufassir ·
 Mufti ·
 Muhaddith ·
 Mujaddid ·
 Mujtahid ·
 Qadi ·
 Sheikh ·
 Shaykh al-Islam ·
 Ustad
 
v ·
 t ·
 e
   
In Islam, Bid‘ah (Arabic: بدعة‎) refers to any innovations in religious matters. Linguistically the term means "innovation, novelty, heretical doctrine, heresy".[1] In contrast to the English term "innovation", the word bid'ah in Arabic generally carries a negative connotation, but it can also have positive implications. It has also been used in classical Arabic literature (adab) as a form of praise for outstanding compositions of prose and poetry.[2]
Any innovations in worldly matters – such as science, medicine and technology – are generally acceptable and encouraged; but bid'ah within the religious practice is generally considered a sin.


Contents  [hide]
1 According to Sunni Islam 1.1 In worldly matters
1.2 In religious matters 1.2.1 Traditional view
1.2.2 Modern discourse

2 According to Shia Islam
3 References
4 Further reading
5 External links 5.1 Sunni view
5.2 Shi'a view


According to Sunni Islam[edit]
In early Islamic history, bid'ah referred primarily to heterodox doctrines (as evidenced below). However, in Islamic law, when used without qualification, bid'ah denotes any newly invented matter that is without precedent and is in opposition to the Qur'an and Sunnah.[3]
Scholars (most prominent of which is Imam Shafi) generally have divided bid'ah into two types: innovations in worldly matters and innovations in religious matters.[4] Some have additionally divided bid'ah into lawful and unlawful innovations, the details of which are discussed below.[5]
Introducing and acting upon a bid‘ah in religious matters is a sin and considered one of the enormities in Islam that is obligatory to immediately desist and repent from.[6]
In worldly matters[edit]
Some Sunni Muslim scholars have divided bid‘ah in worldly matters into two types:[citation needed]
1.Innovations that are purely good - these are permissible under Islamic law. This can include anything from inventions such as watches, to customs and culture, given they don't violate Sharia.
2.Innovations that are purely evil - these are forbidden under Islamic law. Examples of this type of bid'ah include alcohol,[7] or, in modern times, the discovery and synthesis of new intoxicants.
In religious matters[edit]
Traditional view[edit]
Religious innovation means inventing a new way of worshipping God that was not originally included in the message revealed to and propagated by Muhammad, and that opposes established forms. There is much criticism of bid'ah in the Quran[citation needed] and Sunnah, according to Sunni Islam.
Ali ibn Abu Talib said; "He who innovates or gives protection to an innovator, there is a curse of Allah and that of His angels and that of the whole humanity upon him."[8][9] `Abd Allah ibn `Umar said: "Every innovation is misguidance, even if the people see it as something good.[10]"
Ibn Abbas also said: "Indeed the most detestable of things to Allaah are the innovations."[11] Sufyan Al-Thawri mentions: "Innovation is more beloved to Iblees than sin, since a sin may be repented for but innovation is not repented for[12]". He also said, "Whoever listens to an innovator has left the protection of Allaah and is entrusted with the innovation[13]".
Al-Fudayl bin 'Iyaad mentions: "I met the best of people, all of them people of the Sunnah and they used to forbid from accompanying the people of innovation[14]". Hasan al-Basri mentions: "Do not sit with the people of innovation and desires, nor argue with them, nor listen to them".[15] Ibraaheem ibn Maysarah mentions: "Whoever honours an innovator has aided in the destruction of Islam."[16]
Al-Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Barbahari mentions: "The innovators are like scorpions. They bury their heads and bodies in the sand and leave their tails out. When they get the chance they sting; the same with the innovators who conceal themselves amongst the people, when they are able, they do what they desire."[17] Abu Haatim said: "A sign of the people of innovation is their battling against the people of Narrations."[18] Abu 'Uthmaan as-Saaboonee said: "The signs of the people of innovation are clear and obvious. The most apparent of their signs is their severe enmity for those who carry the reports of the Prophet."[19] Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen, a prominent modern-day scholar, wrote: "And there is no such thing in Islam as bid’ah hasanah (good innovation)."[20]
When a religious innovation is implemented, it is generally felt[who?] that the innovator is assuming that the Sunnah is not good enough, that he must resort to something "better." Even though this statement would be an admission of disbelief [21] - there are some innovations that contain shirk and there are some which allow someone to remain a Muslim, while his action is rejected (regardless of any sincerity it might have had).[22]
Modern discourse[edit]
The criterion that qualifies a particular action as a bid`ah in the religion is a debate amongst Sunni scholars. There are some who argue for a definition that entails anything not specifically performed or confirmed by Muhammad. Arguing for this position, Muhammad ibn Salih al-Munajjid, a famous Saudi Arabia scholar declares:

[H]ow can there be any such thing as bid’ah hasanah (“good innovation”) when the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Every bid’ah is a going astray and every going astray is in Hell-fire”. So, if anyone says that there is such a thing as bid’ah hasanah, he can only be insisting on going against the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).... It (referring to a spontaneous form of dhikr in the prayer by a Companion recorded in the hadith literature) was not even considered to have been a correct action until after the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) had approved it, and not before. But how on earth could this innovator obtain the approval of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) after he has passed away?"
—Muhammad ibn Salih al-Munajjid, Islam-QA: "There is no such thing as bid'ah hasana in Islam"[23]
Calls within Sunni Islam in the modern era have been made for a reassessment of the traditional view, especially by practitioners of Sufism. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah writes:

[B]id‘a could take on various shades of meaning. When used without qualifying adjectives, it tended to be condemnatory, as, for example, in the statement, “bid‘a must be avoided.” Nevertheless, bid‘a was not always something bad. In certain contexts, especially when qualified by adjectives, bid‘a could cover a wide range of meanings from what was praiseworthy to what was completely wrong, as, for example, in the caliph ‘Umar’s statement below, “what an excellent bid‘a is this!”
—Umar Faruq Abd-Allah, Innovation and Creativity in Islam, 2
Despite the general understanding of standing scholarly disagreements (ikhtilaf), the notion of lawful innovation is a polarizing issue in the Islamic world. A practical example of this is the debate over the permissibility of the mawlid or commemoration of Muhammad's birthday. All scholars agree that such celebrations did not exist in the early period of Islamic history, and yet mawalid commemorations are a common element in Muslim societies around the world. Even so, Sunnis scholars are divided between emphatic unconditional condemnation[24] and conditional acceptance[25] of the celebration with the former insisting it is a bid'ah and thus automatically unlawful, while the latter argues it nonetheless is contextually permissible.
According to Shia Islam[edit]
According to Shia Islam the definition of bid'ah is anything that is introduced to Islam as either being fard, mustahabb, makruh or haram that contradicts the Qur'an or hadith. Any new good practice introduced that does not contradict the Qur'an or hadith is permissible. However, it is not permissible to say that a new good practice (that does not contradict the Qur'an or hadith) is obligatory, highly recommended or "sunnah" proper. Hence, the Shi`a stance mirrors the body of Sunni scholars who proffer the idea of "bid'ah hasana". As a general rule in Shi'a jurisprudence, anything is permissible except whatever is prohibited through divine revelation (i.e. the Qur'an or hadith).[26]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Wehr, Hans (1994). Arabic-English Dictionary. Spoken Language Services, Inc. p. 57.
2.Jump up ^ Al-Shatibi, Ibrahim ibn Musa. al-I`itsam. pp. 1:49.
3.Jump up ^ al-Masri, Jamaluddin ibn al-Manzur. Lisan al-‘Arab. pp. 8:6.
4.Jump up ^ Al-Qawaa'id wal-Usool al-Jaami'ah wal-Furooq wat-Taqaaseem al-Badee'ah an-Naafi'ah by Abd ar-Rahman ibn Naasir as-Sa'di
5.Jump up ^ al-Nawawi, Yahya ibn Sharif. Tahzib al-Asma’ wal-Lughaat. pp. 1:22–23.
6.Jump up ^ al-Dhahabi, Muhammad ibn Ahmad. Kitab al-Kaba'ir.
7.Jump up ^ Fat-hul Baari by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (vol.2, p. 443)
8.Jump up ^ Sahih Muslim, 9:3601
9.Jump up ^ Sahih al-Bukhari, 8:80:8747
10.Jump up ^ Abu Shaamah (no. 39)
11.Jump up ^ al-Bayhaqee in as-Sunan al-Kubraa (4/316)
12.Jump up ^ al-Laalikaa'ee - Sharh Usool I'tiqaad Ahlis-Sunnah wal-Jamaa'ah (no. 238)
13.Jump up ^ Abu Nu'aym in al-Hilyah (7/26) and Ibn Battah (no.444)
14.Jump up ^ al-Laalikaa'ee - Sharh Usool I'tiqaad Ahlis-Sunnah wal-Jamaa'ah (no.267)
15.Jump up ^ Sunan ad-Daarimee (1/121)
16.Jump up ^ al-Laalikaa'ee - Sharh Usool I'tiqaad Ahlis-Sunnah wal-Jamaa'ah (1/139)
17.Jump up ^ Tabaqaatul-Hanaabilah - Volume 2, Page 44
18.Jump up ^ Sharh Usool I'tiqaad Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa'ah - al-Laalikaa'ee - Volume 1, Page 179
19.Jump up ^ Abu 'Uthmaan as-Saaboonee, The 'Aqeedah of the (Pious) Predecessors - Page 101
20.Jump up ^ Al Muttaqoon -> Question And Answers On Bid’ah (Innovation)
21.Jump up ^ Microsoft Word - Explanation of The Nullifiers of Islaam.doc[dead link]
22.Jump up ^ Islam Question and Answer - Does a good intention intercede for one?
23.Jump up ^ http://islamqa.com/en/ref/205
24.Jump up ^ Bin Baz, Abd al-Aziz. "Warning Against Bid'ahs: Ruling on Celebrating the Prophet's Mawlid and Other Events". Fatawa Bin Baz. Retrieved 30 September 2011.[dead link]
25.Jump up ^ Bin Bayyah, Abdullah. "On Celebrating the Prophet's Birthday".
26.Jump up ^ Answering-Ansar.org :: Bidah (Innovation)[dead link]
Further reading[edit]
Abdullah, 'Umar Faruq, "Heaven", in Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God (2 vols.), Edited by C. Fitzpatrick and A. Walker, Santa Barbara, ABC-CLIO, 2014, Vol I, pp. 251-254.
External links[edit]
Sunni view[edit]
The Perfection of the Sharia and an Exposition of the Reprehensible Innovations That Have Crept Into Islam
Innovation in Light of the Perfection of the Shari'ah
Shaykh ‘Uthaymeen on innovations[dead link](redirects to survey)
Expounding Bid'ah
Bid’ah: a Detailed Explanation from Living Islam
Innovation and Creativity in Islam by Dr. Umar Fard Abd-Allah[dead link] (404)
Shi'a view[edit]
Introduction to Bid'ah from the Shia website Answering Ansar[dead link] (password restricted)
Detailed Explanation of the Shi'a view on Bid'ah[dead link] (password restricted)
  


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Criticism of Judaism

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For total or partial opposition to Judaism and Jews, see Anti-Judaism. For prejudice against or hostility toward Jewish people based on hostility to Judaism and to Jews as a religious group, see Religious antisemitism. For persecution of Jews, see Antisemitism.
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Criticism of Judaism refers to criticism of Jewish religious doctrines, texts, laws and practices. Early criticism originated in inter-faith polemics between Christianity and Judaism. Important disputations in the Middle Ages gave rise to widely publicized criticisms as well as antisemitic canards. Modern criticisms also reflect the inter-branch Jewish schisms between Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, and Reform Judaism.





Contents  [hide]
1 Doctrines and precepts 1.1 Personal God
1.2 Chosen people
2 Inter-branch criticisms 2.1 Criticism of Conservative Judaism from other branches
2.2 Criticism of traditional Judaism by reform movement
3 Criticism from Christianity 3.1 Paul's criticism of Judaism
3.2 Regarding the death of Jesus
4 Criticism from Islam
5 Philosophical criticism
6 Practices 6.1 Shechitah (Kosher slaughter)
6.2 Brit milah (circumcision ritual)
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

Doctrines and precepts[edit]
Personal God[edit]
See also: Personal God and Philosophy of Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza,[1] Mordecai Kaplan,[2] and prominent atheists[3] have criticized Judaism because its theology and religious texts describe a personal God who has conversations with important figures from ancient Judaism (Moses, Abraham, etc.) and forms relationships and covenants with the Jewish people. Spinoza and Kaplan instead believed God is abstract, impersonal, or a force of nature.[1][2] Theologian and philosopher Franz Rosenzweig suggested that the two viewpoints are both valid and are complementary within Judaism.[4]
Chosen people[edit]
Main article: Jews as a chosen people § Criticism_of_chosenness:_Reconstructionist_Judaism
Most branches of Judaism consider Jews to be the "chosen people" in the sense that they have special role to "preserve God's revelations"[5] or to "affirm our common humanity".[6] This attitude is reflected, for example, in the policy statement of Reform Judaism which holds that Jews have a responsibility to "cooperate with all men in the establishment of the kingdom of God, of universal brotherhood, Justice, truth and peace on earth."[7] Some secular and critics affiliated with other religions claim the concept implies favoritism or superiority,[8] as have some Jewish critics, such as Baruch Spinoza.[9] Antisemitic individuals and groups often cite the concept of chosenness in their criticisms of Judaism.[10] Many Jews find the concept of chosenness problematic or an anachronism,[10] and such concerns led to the formation of Reconstructionist Judaism, whose founder, Mordecai Kaplan, rejected the concept of the Jews as the chosen people and argued that the view of the Jews as the chosen people was ethnocentric.[11]



Inter-branch criticisms[edit]
Criticism of Conservative Judaism from other branches[edit]
Main article: Criticism of Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is criticized by some leaders of Orthodox Judaism for not properly following Halakha (Jewish religious law).[12] It is also criticized by some leaders of Reform Judaism for being at odds with the principles of its young adult members on issues such as intermarriage, patrilineal descent, and the ordination of lesbians and gay men — all issues that Conservative Judaism opposes and Reform Judaism supports.[13] (The Conservative movement has since moved in the direction of allowing for gay rabbis and the "celebration of same-sex commitment ceremonies."[14])
Criticism of traditional Judaism by reform movement[edit]
See also: Reform movement in Judaism, Jewish schisms, Jewish Enlightenment and Reform Judaism (North America)
The reform movement grew out of dissatisfaction with several aspects of traditional Judaism or Rabbinic Judaism, as documented in polemics and other 19th and early 20th century writings.[15] Louis Jacobs, a prominent Masorti Rabbi, described the polemics between the Orthodox and the Reform movements as follows:

"The polemics between Orthodox, as the traditionalists came to be called, and the Reformers were fierce. The Orthodox treated Reform as rank heresy, as no more than a religion of convenience which, if followed, would lead Jews altogether out of Judaism. The Reformers retorted that, on the contrary, the danger to Jewish survival was occasioned by the Orthodox who, through their obscurantism, failed to see that the new challenges facing Judaism had to be faced consciously in the present as Judaism had faced, albeit unconsciously, similar challenges in the past."
—Louis Jacobs, The Jewish religion: a companion, Oxford University Press, p. 4. (1995)
David Einhorn, an American Reform rabbi, calls Reform Judaism a "liberation" of Judaism :

"There is at present a rent in Judaism which affects its very life, and which no covering, however glittering, can repair. The evil which threatens to corrode gradually all the healthy bone and marrow must be completely eradicated, and this can be done only if, in the name and in the interest of the religion, we remove from the sphere of our religious life all that is corrupt and untenable, and solemnly absolve ourselves from all obligations toward it in the future; thus we may achieve the liberation of Judaism for ourselves and for our children, so as to prevent the estrangement from Judaism."
—David Einhorn, Philipson, David (1907) The Reform Movement in Judaism, Macmillian.
The criticisms of traditional Judaism included criticisms asserting that the Torah's laws are not strictly binding;[15][16] criticisms asserting that many ceremonies and rituals are not necessary;[17] criticisms asserting that Rabbincal leadership is too authoritarian;[15][18] criticisms asserting that there was too much superstition; criticisms asserting that traditional Judaism leads to isolation from other communities;[19] and criticisms asserting that traditional Judaism over-emphasized the exile.[15][20]
Some of these criticisms were anticipated in a much earlier time, by philosopher Uriel da Costa (1585–1640) who criticized the Rabbinic authorities and the Talmud for lack of authenticity and spirituality.[1]



Criticism from Christianity[edit]
See also: Supersessionism, Marcionism and Christian anti-Judaism
Paul's criticism of Judaism[edit]
Main articles: New Perspective on Paul, Paul the Apostle and Judaism and Pauline Christianity
Paul criticizes Jews for their failure to believe that Jesus was the Messiah (Romans 9:30–10:13) and for their view about their favored status and lack of equality with gentiles (Roman 3:27).[21] In Romans 7–12, one criticism of Judaism made by Paul is that it is a religion based in law instead of faith. In many interpretations of this criticism made prior to the mid 20th century, Judaism was held to be fundamentally flawed by the sin of self-righteousness.[22] The issue is complicated by differences in the versions of Judaism extant at the time. Some scholars argue that Paul's criticism of Judaism are correct, others suggest that Paul's criticism is directed at Hellenistic Judaism, the forms with which Paul was most familiar,[23] rather than Rabbinic Judaism, which eschewed the militant line of Judaism which Paul embraced prior to his conversion.[24] There is also the question as to whom Paul was addressing. Paul saw himself as an apostle to the Gentiles, and it is unclear as to whether the text of Romans was directed to Jewish followers of Jesus (as was Paul), to Gentiles, or to both.[22] If adherence to Jewish law were a requirement for salvation, then salvation would be denied to Gentiles.[25] Krister Stendahl argues along similar lines that according to Paul, Judaism's rejection of Jesus as a savior is what allows salvation of non-Jews, that this rejection is part of God's overall plan, and that Israel will also be saved (per Romans 11:26–27).[22][25]
Some scholars argue that the fundamental issue underlying Paul's criticism of Judaism hinges on his understanding of Judaism's relationship to Jewish law. E. P. Sanders, for example, argues that the view held by many New Testament scholars from Weber on,[22] represent a caricature of Judaism.and that this interpretation of Paul's criticism is thus flawed by the misunderstanding of the tenets of Judaism.[26] Sander's interpretation asserts Judaism is instead best understood as a "covenantal nominism", in which God's grace is given and affirmed in the covenant, to which the appropriate response is to live within the bounds established in order to preserve the relationship.[27] James Dunn agrees with Sanders's view that Paul would not have criticized Judaism for claiming that salvation comes from adherence to the law or the performance of good works, since those are not tenets of Judaism, but argues against Sanders that Paul's criticism of Judaism represents a rebuttal of the "xenophobic" and ethnocentric form of Judaism to which Paul had previously belonged.[26][27] Dunn argues that Paul does not see his position as a betrayal of Judaism, but rather represents development of an open Judaism.[27] A similar argument is presented by George Smiga, who claims that criticism of Judaism found in the New Testament are best understood as varieties of religious polemic, intended as a call to conversion rather than criticism in the sense of common usage.[28]



Regarding the death of Jesus[edit]
Main articles: Jewish deicide and Antisemitic canard
The idea that Judaism, and the Jewish people collectively, are responsible for the death of Jesus, often represented in the claim that "Jews killed Jesus", figures prominently in anti-Semitic writings. It was initially stated by Paul in the New Testament (1 Thes. 2:14-15).[29] Historians are divided on the question of who precisely was responsible for the death of Jesus, the Roman authorities, the Jewish leaders deliberating in a religious court, or both. The Roman Catholic church formally disavowed its long complicity in anti-Semitism by issuing a proclamation in 1965 repudiating the notion that the Jewish people bore any any guilt for Jesus's death.
Criticism from Islam[edit]
A prominent place in the Qur'anic polemic against the Jews is given to the conception of the religion of Abraham. The Qur'an presents Muslims as neither Jews nor Christians but followers of Abraham who was in a physical sense the father of the Jews and the Arabs and lived before the revelation of Torah. In order to show that the religion practiced by the Jews is not the pure religion of Abraham, the Qur'an mentions the incident of worshiping of the calf, argues that Jews do not believe in part of the revelation given to them, and that their taking of usury shows their worldliness and disobedience of God. Furthermore, the Quran claims they attribute to God what he has not revealed. According to the Qur'an, the Jews exalted a figure named Uzair as the "son of God." (See the Quranic statements about perceived Jewish exaltation). The character of Ezra, who was presumed to be the figure mentioned by the Qur'an (albeit with no corroborative evidence to suggest Ezra & Uzair to be the same person) became important in the works of the later Andalusian Muslim scholar Ibn Hazm who explicitly accused Ezra of being a liar and a heretic who falsified and added interpolations into the Biblical text. In his polemic against Judaism, Ibn Hazm provided a list of what he said were chronological and geographical inaccuracies and contradictions; theological impossibilities (anthropomorphic expressions, stories of fornication and whoredom, and the attributing of sins to prophets), as well as lack of reliable transmission (tawatur) of the text.[30][31] Heribert Busse writes "The only explanation is the presumption that Muhammad, in the heat of debate, wanted to accuse the Jews of heretical doctrine on a par with the heresy of the Christian doctrine that teaches the divine nature of Jesus. In doing so, he could take advantage of the high esteem granted Ezra in Judaism."[32]
Philosophical criticism[edit]
Philosophical criticism of Judaism is either part of religious criticism in general, or specifically focused on aspects unique to the Jewish religion. Immanuel Kant is an example of the latter. Kant believed that Judaism fails to "satisfy the essential criteria of [a] religion" by requiring external obedience to moral laws, having a secular focus, and lacking a concern for immortality.[33] However, Kant was not antisemitic. He had many Jewish students, supported their quest for faculty positions, and greatly admired the 18th century thinker, Moses Mendelssohn.[34]
Thomas Jefferson was critical of Judaism as he was of all revealed religion. He was also critical of Judaism's rituals for failing to further practical virtues. He believed Judaism lacked a belief in an afterlife, which he held was necessary for human ethical behavior in this life. Nevertheless, he argued for full rights of citizenship for America's Jews and assiduously defended their freedom of religion.[35][36]



Practices[edit]
Shechitah (Kosher slaughter)[edit]
Kosher slaughter has historically attracted criticism from non-Jews as allegedly being inhumane and unsanitary,[37] in part as an antisemitic canard that eating ritually slaughtered meat caused degeneration,[38] and in part out of economic motivation to remove Jews from the meat industry.[37] Sometimes, however, these criticisms were directed at Judaism as a religion. In 1893, animal advocates campaigning against kosher slaughter in Aberdeen attempted to link cruelty with Jewish religious practice.[39] In the 1920s, Polish critics of kosher slaughter claimed that the practice actually had no basis in scripture.[37] In contrast, Jewish authorities argue that the slaughter methods are based directly upon Genesis 9:3, and that "these laws are binding on Jews today."[40]
More recently, kosher slaughter has attracted criticism from some groups concerned with animal welfare, who contend that the absence of any form of anesthesia or stunning prior to the severance of the animal's jugular vein causes unnecessary pain and suffering. Calls for the abolition of kosher slaughter have been made in 2008 by Germany's federal chamber of veterinarians,[41] and in 2011 by the Party for Animals in the Dutch parliament.[42] In both incidents, Jewish groups responded that the criticisms were attacks against their religion.[41][42]
Supporters of kosher slaughter counter that Judaism requires the practice precisely because it is considered humane.[40] Research conducted by Temple Grandin and Joe M. Regenstein shows that, practiced correctly with proper restraint systems, kosher slaughter results in little pain and suffering, and notes that behavioral reactions to the incision made during kosher slaughter are less than those to noises such as clanging or hissing, inversion or pressure during restraint.[43]
Brit milah (circumcision ritual)[edit]
Judaism has been criticized in both ancient and modern times for its practice of brit milah, a circumcision ritual performed on young boys. The ritual is perceived by some as painful, cruel, tantamount to genital mutilation, and conducted without the boy's consent.[44]
Hellenistic culture found circumcision to be repulsive, and Jews were forbidden to participate in the Olympic Games unless they underwent epispasm.[45] In the Roman Empire, circumcision was regarded as a barbaric and disgusting custom. The consul Titus Flavius Clemens was condemned to death by the Roman Senate in 95 CE for, according to the Talmud, circumcising himself and converting to Judaism. The emperor Hadrian (117-138) forbade circumcision.</ref name="Hodges2001"/> Paul expressed similar sentiments about circumcision, calling it "mutilation" in Philippians 3. "Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh."[46]
A 1999 report by the American Academy of Pediatrics noted that although there are some health benefits to circumcision, they were not significant enough to warrant recommendation of the procedure, and recommended that the procedure be performed will pain relief, and only on healthy infants.[47] Subsequent studies suggest that circumcision reduces the risks of urinary tract infections, penile cancer, and reduces the rate of sexually transmitted disease, especially in third world countries when the percentage of infected individuals is high.[48] The World Health Organization recommends voluntary male circumcision as an important component of HIV prevention in affected areas, with studies showing that male circumcision reduces the risk of female-to-male sexual transmission of HIV by approximately 60%. [49]
See also[edit]
Anti-Judaism
On the Jewish Question by Karl Marx
Philo-Semitism
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c Nadler, Steven (2001). Spinoza: a life. Cambridge University Press. pp. 66–72, 135–136, 145–146, 274–281. ISBN 0521002931.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Kertzer, Morris N. (1999) "What is a Jew?" in Introduction to Judaism: A Source Book (Stephen J. Einstein, Lydia Kukoff, Eds.), Union for Reform Judaism, 1999, p. 243
3.Jump up ^ Dawkins, Richard (2006). The God delusion. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 37, 245. ISBN 0618680004.
4.Jump up ^ Oppenheim, Michael D. (1997). Speaking/writing of God: Jewish philosophical reflections. SUNY press. p. 107.
5.Jump up ^ Wilhoit, Francis M. (1979). The quest for equality in freedom. Transaction Publishers. p. 13. ISBN 0878552405.
6.Jump up ^ Goodheart, Eugene (2004). Confessions of a secular Jew: a memoir. Transaction Publishers. pp. xv–xvi, 83. ISBN 0765805995.
7.Jump up ^ "The Guiding Principles of Reform Judaism, Columbus, Ohio, 1937".
8.Jump up ^ Wistrich, Robert S. Demonizing the other: antisemitism, racism & xenophobia. Taylor & Francis, 1999. p. 6. ISBN 9057024977.
9.Jump up ^ Eliezer Schwied (2007) "Does the Idea of Jewish Election Have Any Meaning after the Holocaust?". In Wrestling with God: Jewish theological responses during and after the Holocaust, Steven T. Katz, Shlomo Biderman (Eds.); Oxford University Press, p 233.
Gürkan, S. Leyla (2008). The Jews as a Chosen People: Tradition and Transformation. Taylor & Francis. pp. 49–55. ISBN 0415466075.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Dennis Prager; Joseph Telushkin (2003). Why the Jews?: the reason for antisemitism. Touchstone. p. 26. ISBN 0743246209.
11.Jump up ^ Hertzberg, Arthur (1998). Judaism. Simon and Schuster. pp. 56–57. ISBN 0684852659.
Pasachoff, Naomi E. (2005). A concise history of the Jewish people. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 276. ISBN 0742543668.
12.Jump up ^ Avi Shafran, "The Conservative Lie", Moment, February 2001.
13.Jump up ^ Joe Berkofsky, "Death of Conservative Judaism? Reform leader’s swipe sparks angry rebuttals", j., March 5, 2004.
14.Jump up ^ Laurie Goodstein, Conservative Jews Allow Gay Rabbis and Unions, The New York Times, 2006.
15.^ Jump up to: a b c d Shmueli, Efraim (1990) Seven Jewish cultures: a reinterpretation of Jewish history and thought Cambridge University Press, p. 123, 167-168, 172-174, 177, 261.
16.Jump up ^ "Abraham Geiger ... stressed the belief in progress: the Bible and Talmud represent an early, primitive stage in a revelation that is still continuing. Many traditional ceremonies (such as circumcision) are distressing to modern sensibility or incompatible with modern life... Geiger become increasingly convinced of the need to 'dethrone the Talmud'... " - De Lange, Nicholas (2000),An introduction to Judaism, Cambridge University Press, p. 73
"According to [Mordecai] Kaplan, the Jewish heritage, including the belief in God, must be reinterpreted so that it will be consistent with the intellectual outlook of the twentieth century. The Torah, which is Jewish civilization in practice, must be given a new functional interpretation." - Scult, Mel (1993) Judaism faces the twentieth century: a biography of Mordecai M. Kaplan, Wayne State University Press, p. 341.
"Israel drew within herself, shunned the world, and lived apart. In her seclusion her religion became her all. The interpretation of the Law and the construction put upon the commandments tended toward the upholding of the letter rather than the spirit. ... Reform was born to protect the spirit of the Law, to place the spirit above the letter, to make the latter subservient to the former.... The abolition of those forms and ceremonies that were not conducive to proper living, or that had, by reason of altered environment, become meaningless, was of the highest importance to the spiritual welfare of Israel." - Stern, Myer (1895), The rise and progress of reform Judaism: , Harvard University, p. 5.
17.Jump up ^ "Reform Judaism rejected the concept of Divine revelation, and ... the law is considered instructional and inspirational but not binding, ... and by eliminating many ritual practices..." - Dosick, Wayne D. (1995), Living Judaism: the complete guide to Jewish belief, tradition, and practice, HarperCollins, p. 62.
"Reform Judaism first took hold in Germany in the early nineteenth century. This tradition asserts that many of the ritualistic practices and dogmas of the past are outmoded..... Reform Jews assumed a prerogative to choose which Biblical laws were worthy of their allegiance and which were not.... Orthodox Jews adhere to a literal interpretation of the Hebrew Bible and continue to observe all the traditional Jewish laws... Conservative Jews ... were ... less likely than the Orthodox to accept the infallibility of sacred texts asserting that 'the divine origin of Jewish law ... [was subject] to human development and application'". - Berger, Ronald J. (2002), Fathoming the Holocaust: a social problems approach, Aldine Transaction, p. 179-180.
"We hold that all such Mosaic and rabbinical laws as regulate diet, priestly purity, and dress originated in ages and under the influence of ideas entirely foreign to our present mental and spiritual state. They fail to impress the modern Jew with a spirit of priestly holiness; their observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual elevation." - Pittsburgh Platform, section 4.
"...in the view of rabbinical Judaism every command of the written law in the Pentateuch (Torah sh'bikthab), and of the oral law (Torah sh'b'al peh), as codified in the Shulchan Aruk, is equally binding. The ceremonial law has equal potency with the religious and moral commands. Reform Judaism, on the other hand, claims that a distinction must be made between the universal precepts of religion and morality and the enactments arising from the circumstances and conditions of special times and places. Customs and ceremonies must change with the varying needs of different generations. Successive ages have their individual requirements for the satisfaction of the religious nature. No ceremonial law can be eternally binding. " - Philipson, David (1907) The Reform Movement in Judaism, Macmillian (reprinted by University of California, 2007), p. 5-6.
18.Jump up ^ ".. the immense authoritarian power of the orthodox Rabbis and Hasidic Zadikkim in the traditionalist communities ... As a result, there was open conflict between the rebellious youth .. and the religious establishment.... This was the context in which a virulent 'anti-clericalism' developed among progressive Jewish intellectuals, leaving countless evidence in the shape of polemical articles, autobiographical works, and imaginative literature." - Lowy, Michael (1992), Redemption and utopia: Jewish libertarian thought in Central Europe : a study in elective affinity, Stanford University Press, p. 45.
"[Reform Judaism was] originally founded as a response by Jewish laity to the perceived authoritarian rigidity of traditional or Orthodox Judaism and its rabbis." - Palmer-Fernández, Gabriel (2004), The encyclopedia of religion and war, Routledge, p. 253.
"Mosaism and rabbinic Judaism were appropriate for earlier ages, [Kohler] argued. But the age of man's maturity called for freedom from the letter, from blind authority, 'from all restriction which curb the minds and encroach upon the hearts'. The contemporary Jew had 'outgrown the guiding strings ... of infancy'; he was ready to walk on his own. What he required was not law, but a 'living Judaism', both enlightened and pious, appealing to reason and emotion." - Meyer, Michael A. (1995) Response to modernity: a history of the Reform Movement in Judaism, Wayne State University Press, p. 267.
"There is a fatal split among Jews, first, because religious tenets and institutions have been kept forcibly on a level of a vanished era, and not permeated with the divine breath of refreshing life, while life itself hurried forward stormily; and secondly, because the religious leaders, lacking all knowledge of the world and of men, dreamed of other times and conditions, and held themselves aloof from the life of the new generation - hence resulted a superficial rationalism, inimical to all positive and historical faith, side by side with a rigid, unreasoning formalism". - Philipson, David (1907) The Reform Movement in Judaism, Macmillian (reprinted by University of California, 2007), (quoting Abraham Kohn, rabbi of Hohemems in Tirol); p. 93-95.
19.Jump up ^ "Emancipation implied the breakdown of the Jews' millennial social and cultural isolation ... It was said for the first time in European history the Jews could participate in non-Jewish culture without the stigma of apostacy". Mendes-Flohr, Paul R. (1995). The Jew in the modern world: a documentary history. Oxford University Press US,. p. 155. ISBN 019507453X.
"Sociologically, the way of life of halakhic Judaism vouchsafed Jewry to an unambiguously distinct ... identity - an identity that was the source of a profound discomfort to those Jews who sought cultural, social, and political integration in the Gentile community in which they lived." - The Jew in the modern world: a documentary history Paul R. Mendes-Flohr (Ed.), p. 156
20.Jump up ^ " We recognize, in the modern era of universal culture of heart and intellect, the approaching of the realization of Israels great Messianic hope for the establishment of the kingdom of truth, justice, and peace among all men. We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state." - Pittsburgh Platform
21.Jump up ^ E. P. Sanders, Paul the Law and Jewish People, Fortress Press, p.154
22.^ Jump up to: a b c d Zetterholm, Magnus. Approaches to Paul: A Student's Guide to Recent Scholarship. Fortress Press. pp. 4–8, 98–105. ISBN 978-0-8006-6337-7.
23.Jump up ^ Sanders, E. P. (1977). Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion. Fortress Press. pp. 4, 8, 549. ISBN 0-8006-0499-7.
24.Jump up ^ Hacker, Klaus (2003). "Paul's Life". The Cambridge companion to St. Paul (Cambridge University Press): 23, 28. ISBN 0-521-78155-8.
25.^ Jump up to: a b Sanders, E. P. (1983). Paul the Law, and the Jewish People. Fortress Press. p. 159. ISBN 0-8006-1878-5.
26.^ Jump up to: a b Gorman, Michael J. Apostle of the crucified Lord: a theological introduction to Paul and his letters. pp. 19–20. ISBN 0-8028-3934-7.
27.^ Jump up to: a b c Horrell, David G. (2002). "Paul". The biblical world (Routledge) 2: 273–5. ISBN 0-415-16105-3.
28.Jump up ^ Smiga, George M. (1992). Pain and polemic: anti-Judaism in the Gospels. Paulist Press. pp. 18–21. ISBN 0-8091-3355-5.
29.Jump up ^ E. P. Sanders (1999), "Reflections on Anti-Judaism in the New Testament and in Christianity", in Anti-Judaism and the Gospels William Reuben Farmer (Ed.), Continuum International Publishing Group, p. 272-276.
Klinghoffer, David (2006). Why the Jews Rejected Jesus: The Turning Point in Western History. Random House, Inc. pp. 2–3. ISBN 0385510225.
Theissen, Gerd (1998). The historical Jesus: a comprehensive guide. Fortress Press. p. 440. ISBN 0800631226.
30.Jump up ^ Encyclopedia of Islam, Uzayr
31.Jump up ^ Hava Lazarus-Yafeh, Tahrif, Encyclopedia of Islam
32.Jump up ^ Busse, Heribert. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity: theological and historical affiliations, Princeton series on the Middle East, Markus Wiener Publishers, 1998, p. 57.
33.Jump up ^ Manfred H. Vogel (2008). "Kant, Immanuel". Virtual Jewish Library.
34.Jump up ^ Manfred Kuehn (2002). Kant, A Biography. Cambridge University Press. pp. 162,333,371. ISBN 978-0521524063.
35.Jump up ^ Eli Kavon (3 July 2010). "America’s Founding Fathers and Judaism". Jerusalem Post.
36.Jump up ^ "Jefferson and the Jews". Jewish Virtual Library.
37.^ Jump up to: a b c Melzer, Emanuel (1997). No way out: the politics of Polish Jewry, 1935–1939. Hebrew Union College Press. pp. 81–90. ISBN 0-87820-418-0.
38.Jump up ^ Poliakov, Léon (1968). The History of Anti-semitism: From Voltaire to Wagner. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 153. ISBN 0-8122-3766-8.
39.Jump up ^ Collins, Kenneth (November 2010). "A Community on Trial: The Aberdeen Shechita Case, 1893". Journal of Scottish Historical Studies 30: 75. doi:10.3366/jshs.2010.0103.
40.^ Jump up to: a b Chabad.org
41.^ Jump up to: a b "Halal, Kosher Slaughter Unacceptable, say German Vets". Deutsche Welle. 10.07.2008. Check date values in: |date= (help)
42.^ Jump up to: a b Runyan, Tamar (May 5, 2011). "Dutch Jews Mobilize Against Attempt to Outlaw Kosher Slaughter". Chabad.org.
43.Jump up ^ Religious slaughter and animal welfare: a discussion for meat scientists
44.Jump up ^ Cohen, Shaye J. D. (2005). Why aren't Jewish women circumcised?: gender and covenant in Judaism. University of California Press. pp. 207–224. ISBN 0520212509.
Glick, Leonard B. (2005). Marked in your flesh: circumcision from ancient Judea to modern America. Oxford University Press. pp. 115–148. ISBN 019517674X.
Mark, Elizabeth Wyner (2003). The covenant of circumcision: new perspectives on an ancient Jewish rite. UPNE. pp. 157–160. ISBN 1584653078.
See also Tabory and Erez, "Circumscribed Circumcision", pages 161-167, in this book.Silverman, Eric Kline (2006). From Abraham to America: a history of Jewish circumcision. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 177–212. ISBN 0742516695.
45.Jump up ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Circumcision: In Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature: "Contact with Grecian life, especially at the games of the arena [which involved nudity], made this distinction obnoxious to the Hellenists, or antinationalists; and the consequence was their attempt to appear like the Greeks by epispasm ("making themselves foreskins"; I Macc. i. 15; Josephus, "Ant." xii. 5, § 1; Assumptio Mosis, viii.; I Cor. vii. 18; , Tosef., Shab. xv. 9; Yeb. 72a, b; Yer. Peah i. 16b; Yeb. viii. 9a). All the more did the law-observing Jews defy the edict of Antiochus Epiphanes prohibiting circumcision (I Macc. i. 48, 60; ii. 46); and the Jewish women showed their loyalty to the Law, even at the risk of their lives, by themselves circumcising their sons."; Hodges, Frederick, M. (2001). "The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome: Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos, Circumcision, Foreskin Restoration, and the Kynodesme" (PDF). The Bulletin of the History of Medicine 75 (Fall 2001): 375–405. doi:10.1353/bhm.2001.0119. PMID 11568485. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
46.Jump up ^ https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+3&version=NIV
47.Jump up ^ "New policy on circumcision released by American Academy of Pediatrics". Reuters Health Medical News. 1999-03-02.
48.Jump up ^ "A lot of talk over a little piece of skin; Experts are reviewing the health merits of circumcision". The West Australian (Perth). 2010-03-03. p. 6.
49.Jump up ^ http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/malecircumcision/fact_sheet/en/
External links[edit]
Hofesh organization - The largest Jewish secular web site.


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Criticism of Judaism

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For total or partial opposition to Judaism and Jews, see Anti-Judaism. For prejudice against or hostility toward Jewish people based on hostility to Judaism and to Jews as a religious group, see Religious antisemitism. For persecution of Jews, see Antisemitism.
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Criticism of Judaism refers to criticism of Jewish religious doctrines, texts, laws and practices. Early criticism originated in inter-faith polemics between Christianity and Judaism. Important disputations in the Middle Ages gave rise to widely publicized criticisms as well as antisemitic canards. Modern criticisms also reflect the inter-branch Jewish schisms between Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, and Reform Judaism.





Contents  [hide]
1 Doctrines and precepts 1.1 Personal God
1.2 Chosen people
2 Inter-branch criticisms 2.1 Criticism of Conservative Judaism from other branches
2.2 Criticism of traditional Judaism by reform movement
3 Criticism from Christianity 3.1 Paul's criticism of Judaism
3.2 Regarding the death of Jesus
4 Criticism from Islam
5 Philosophical criticism
6 Practices 6.1 Shechitah (Kosher slaughter)
6.2 Brit milah (circumcision ritual)
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

Doctrines and precepts[edit]
Personal God[edit]
See also: Personal God and Philosophy of Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza,[1] Mordecai Kaplan,[2] and prominent atheists[3] have criticized Judaism because its theology and religious texts describe a personal God who has conversations with important figures from ancient Judaism (Moses, Abraham, etc.) and forms relationships and covenants with the Jewish people. Spinoza and Kaplan instead believed God is abstract, impersonal, or a force of nature.[1][2] Theologian and philosopher Franz Rosenzweig suggested that the two viewpoints are both valid and are complementary within Judaism.[4]
Chosen people[edit]
Main article: Jews as a chosen people § Criticism_of_chosenness:_Reconstructionist_Judaism
Most branches of Judaism consider Jews to be the "chosen people" in the sense that they have special role to "preserve God's revelations"[5] or to "affirm our common humanity".[6] This attitude is reflected, for example, in the policy statement of Reform Judaism which holds that Jews have a responsibility to "cooperate with all men in the establishment of the kingdom of God, of universal brotherhood, Justice, truth and peace on earth."[7] Some secular and critics affiliated with other religions claim the concept implies favoritism or superiority,[8] as have some Jewish critics, such as Baruch Spinoza.[9] Antisemitic individuals and groups often cite the concept of chosenness in their criticisms of Judaism.[10] Many Jews find the concept of chosenness problematic or an anachronism,[10] and such concerns led to the formation of Reconstructionist Judaism, whose founder, Mordecai Kaplan, rejected the concept of the Jews as the chosen people and argued that the view of the Jews as the chosen people was ethnocentric.[11]



Inter-branch criticisms[edit]
Criticism of Conservative Judaism from other branches[edit]
Main article: Criticism of Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is criticized by some leaders of Orthodox Judaism for not properly following Halakha (Jewish religious law).[12] It is also criticized by some leaders of Reform Judaism for being at odds with the principles of its young adult members on issues such as intermarriage, patrilineal descent, and the ordination of lesbians and gay men — all issues that Conservative Judaism opposes and Reform Judaism supports.[13] (The Conservative movement has since moved in the direction of allowing for gay rabbis and the "celebration of same-sex commitment ceremonies."[14])
Criticism of traditional Judaism by reform movement[edit]
See also: Reform movement in Judaism, Jewish schisms, Jewish Enlightenment and Reform Judaism (North America)
The reform movement grew out of dissatisfaction with several aspects of traditional Judaism or Rabbinic Judaism, as documented in polemics and other 19th and early 20th century writings.[15] Louis Jacobs, a prominent Masorti Rabbi, described the polemics between the Orthodox and the Reform movements as follows:

"The polemics between Orthodox, as the traditionalists came to be called, and the Reformers were fierce. The Orthodox treated Reform as rank heresy, as no more than a religion of convenience which, if followed, would lead Jews altogether out of Judaism. The Reformers retorted that, on the contrary, the danger to Jewish survival was occasioned by the Orthodox who, through their obscurantism, failed to see that the new challenges facing Judaism had to be faced consciously in the present as Judaism had faced, albeit unconsciously, similar challenges in the past."
—Louis Jacobs, The Jewish religion: a companion, Oxford University Press, p. 4. (1995)
David Einhorn, an American Reform rabbi, calls Reform Judaism a "liberation" of Judaism :

"There is at present a rent in Judaism which affects its very life, and which no covering, however glittering, can repair. The evil which threatens to corrode gradually all the healthy bone and marrow must be completely eradicated, and this can be done only if, in the name and in the interest of the religion, we remove from the sphere of our religious life all that is corrupt and untenable, and solemnly absolve ourselves from all obligations toward it in the future; thus we may achieve the liberation of Judaism for ourselves and for our children, so as to prevent the estrangement from Judaism."
—David Einhorn, Philipson, David (1907) The Reform Movement in Judaism, Macmillian.
The criticisms of traditional Judaism included criticisms asserting that the Torah's laws are not strictly binding;[15][16] criticisms asserting that many ceremonies and rituals are not necessary;[17] criticisms asserting that Rabbincal leadership is too authoritarian;[15][18] criticisms asserting that there was too much superstition; criticisms asserting that traditional Judaism leads to isolation from other communities;[19] and criticisms asserting that traditional Judaism over-emphasized the exile.[15][20]
Some of these criticisms were anticipated in a much earlier time, by philosopher Uriel da Costa (1585–1640) who criticized the Rabbinic authorities and the Talmud for lack of authenticity and spirituality.[1]



Criticism from Christianity[edit]
See also: Supersessionism, Marcionism and Christian anti-Judaism
Paul's criticism of Judaism[edit]
Main articles: New Perspective on Paul, Paul the Apostle and Judaism and Pauline Christianity
Paul criticizes Jews for their failure to believe that Jesus was the Messiah (Romans 9:30–10:13) and for their view about their favored status and lack of equality with gentiles (Roman 3:27).[21] In Romans 7–12, one criticism of Judaism made by Paul is that it is a religion based in law instead of faith. In many interpretations of this criticism made prior to the mid 20th century, Judaism was held to be fundamentally flawed by the sin of self-righteousness.[22] The issue is complicated by differences in the versions of Judaism extant at the time. Some scholars argue that Paul's criticism of Judaism are correct, others suggest that Paul's criticism is directed at Hellenistic Judaism, the forms with which Paul was most familiar,[23] rather than Rabbinic Judaism, which eschewed the militant line of Judaism which Paul embraced prior to his conversion.[24] There is also the question as to whom Paul was addressing. Paul saw himself as an apostle to the Gentiles, and it is unclear as to whether the text of Romans was directed to Jewish followers of Jesus (as was Paul), to Gentiles, or to both.[22] If adherence to Jewish law were a requirement for salvation, then salvation would be denied to Gentiles.[25] Krister Stendahl argues along similar lines that according to Paul, Judaism's rejection of Jesus as a savior is what allows salvation of non-Jews, that this rejection is part of God's overall plan, and that Israel will also be saved (per Romans 11:26–27).[22][25]
Some scholars argue that the fundamental issue underlying Paul's criticism of Judaism hinges on his understanding of Judaism's relationship to Jewish law. E. P. Sanders, for example, argues that the view held by many New Testament scholars from Weber on,[22] represent a caricature of Judaism.and that this interpretation of Paul's criticism is thus flawed by the misunderstanding of the tenets of Judaism.[26] Sander's interpretation asserts Judaism is instead best understood as a "covenantal nominism", in which God's grace is given and affirmed in the covenant, to which the appropriate response is to live within the bounds established in order to preserve the relationship.[27] James Dunn agrees with Sanders's view that Paul would not have criticized Judaism for claiming that salvation comes from adherence to the law or the performance of good works, since those are not tenets of Judaism, but argues against Sanders that Paul's criticism of Judaism represents a rebuttal of the "xenophobic" and ethnocentric form of Judaism to which Paul had previously belonged.[26][27] Dunn argues that Paul does not see his position as a betrayal of Judaism, but rather represents development of an open Judaism.[27] A similar argument is presented by George Smiga, who claims that criticism of Judaism found in the New Testament are best understood as varieties of religious polemic, intended as a call to conversion rather than criticism in the sense of common usage.[28]



Regarding the death of Jesus[edit]
Main articles: Jewish deicide and Antisemitic canard
The idea that Judaism, and the Jewish people collectively, are responsible for the death of Jesus, often represented in the claim that "Jews killed Jesus", figures prominently in anti-Semitic writings. It was initially stated by Paul in the New Testament (1 Thes. 2:14-15).[29] Historians are divided on the question of who precisely was responsible for the death of Jesus, the Roman authorities, the Jewish leaders deliberating in a religious court, or both. The Roman Catholic church formally disavowed its long complicity in anti-Semitism by issuing a proclamation in 1965 repudiating the notion that the Jewish people bore any any guilt for Jesus's death.
Criticism from Islam[edit]
A prominent place in the Qur'anic polemic against the Jews is given to the conception of the religion of Abraham. The Qur'an presents Muslims as neither Jews nor Christians but followers of Abraham who was in a physical sense the father of the Jews and the Arabs and lived before the revelation of Torah. In order to show that the religion practiced by the Jews is not the pure religion of Abraham, the Qur'an mentions the incident of worshiping of the calf, argues that Jews do not believe in part of the revelation given to them, and that their taking of usury shows their worldliness and disobedience of God. Furthermore, the Quran claims they attribute to God what he has not revealed. According to the Qur'an, the Jews exalted a figure named Uzair as the "son of God." (See the Quranic statements about perceived Jewish exaltation). The character of Ezra, who was presumed to be the figure mentioned by the Qur'an (albeit with no corroborative evidence to suggest Ezra & Uzair to be the same person) became important in the works of the later Andalusian Muslim scholar Ibn Hazm who explicitly accused Ezra of being a liar and a heretic who falsified and added interpolations into the Biblical text. In his polemic against Judaism, Ibn Hazm provided a list of what he said were chronological and geographical inaccuracies and contradictions; theological impossibilities (anthropomorphic expressions, stories of fornication and whoredom, and the attributing of sins to prophets), as well as lack of reliable transmission (tawatur) of the text.[30][31] Heribert Busse writes "The only explanation is the presumption that Muhammad, in the heat of debate, wanted to accuse the Jews of heretical doctrine on a par with the heresy of the Christian doctrine that teaches the divine nature of Jesus. In doing so, he could take advantage of the high esteem granted Ezra in Judaism."[32]
Philosophical criticism[edit]
Philosophical criticism of Judaism is either part of religious criticism in general, or specifically focused on aspects unique to the Jewish religion. Immanuel Kant is an example of the latter. Kant believed that Judaism fails to "satisfy the essential criteria of [a] religion" by requiring external obedience to moral laws, having a secular focus, and lacking a concern for immortality.[33] However, Kant was not antisemitic. He had many Jewish students, supported their quest for faculty positions, and greatly admired the 18th century thinker, Moses Mendelssohn.[34]
Thomas Jefferson was critical of Judaism as he was of all revealed religion. He was also critical of Judaism's rituals for failing to further practical virtues. He believed Judaism lacked a belief in an afterlife, which he held was necessary for human ethical behavior in this life. Nevertheless, he argued for full rights of citizenship for America's Jews and assiduously defended their freedom of religion.[35][36]



Practices[edit]
Shechitah (Kosher slaughter)[edit]
Kosher slaughter has historically attracted criticism from non-Jews as allegedly being inhumane and unsanitary,[37] in part as an antisemitic canard that eating ritually slaughtered meat caused degeneration,[38] and in part out of economic motivation to remove Jews from the meat industry.[37] Sometimes, however, these criticisms were directed at Judaism as a religion. In 1893, animal advocates campaigning against kosher slaughter in Aberdeen attempted to link cruelty with Jewish religious practice.[39] In the 1920s, Polish critics of kosher slaughter claimed that the practice actually had no basis in scripture.[37] In contrast, Jewish authorities argue that the slaughter methods are based directly upon Genesis 9:3, and that "these laws are binding on Jews today."[40]
More recently, kosher slaughter has attracted criticism from some groups concerned with animal welfare, who contend that the absence of any form of anesthesia or stunning prior to the severance of the animal's jugular vein causes unnecessary pain and suffering. Calls for the abolition of kosher slaughter have been made in 2008 by Germany's federal chamber of veterinarians,[41] and in 2011 by the Party for Animals in the Dutch parliament.[42] In both incidents, Jewish groups responded that the criticisms were attacks against their religion.[41][42]
Supporters of kosher slaughter counter that Judaism requires the practice precisely because it is considered humane.[40] Research conducted by Temple Grandin and Joe M. Regenstein shows that, practiced correctly with proper restraint systems, kosher slaughter results in little pain and suffering, and notes that behavioral reactions to the incision made during kosher slaughter are less than those to noises such as clanging or hissing, inversion or pressure during restraint.[43]
Brit milah (circumcision ritual)[edit]
Judaism has been criticized in both ancient and modern times for its practice of brit milah, a circumcision ritual performed on young boys. The ritual is perceived by some as painful, cruel, tantamount to genital mutilation, and conducted without the boy's consent.[44]
Hellenistic culture found circumcision to be repulsive, and Jews were forbidden to participate in the Olympic Games unless they underwent epispasm.[45] In the Roman Empire, circumcision was regarded as a barbaric and disgusting custom. The consul Titus Flavius Clemens was condemned to death by the Roman Senate in 95 CE for, according to the Talmud, circumcising himself and converting to Judaism. The emperor Hadrian (117-138) forbade circumcision.</ref name="Hodges2001"/> Paul expressed similar sentiments about circumcision, calling it "mutilation" in Philippians 3. "Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh."[46]
A 1999 report by the American Academy of Pediatrics noted that although there are some health benefits to circumcision, they were not significant enough to warrant recommendation of the procedure, and recommended that the procedure be performed will pain relief, and only on healthy infants.[47] Subsequent studies suggest that circumcision reduces the risks of urinary tract infections, penile cancer, and reduces the rate of sexually transmitted disease, especially in third world countries when the percentage of infected individuals is high.[48] The World Health Organization recommends voluntary male circumcision as an important component of HIV prevention in affected areas, with studies showing that male circumcision reduces the risk of female-to-male sexual transmission of HIV by approximately 60%. [49]
See also[edit]
Anti-Judaism
On the Jewish Question by Karl Marx
Philo-Semitism
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c Nadler, Steven (2001). Spinoza: a life. Cambridge University Press. pp. 66–72, 135–136, 145–146, 274–281. ISBN 0521002931.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Kertzer, Morris N. (1999) "What is a Jew?" in Introduction to Judaism: A Source Book (Stephen J. Einstein, Lydia Kukoff, Eds.), Union for Reform Judaism, 1999, p. 243
3.Jump up ^ Dawkins, Richard (2006). The God delusion. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 37, 245. ISBN 0618680004.
4.Jump up ^ Oppenheim, Michael D. (1997). Speaking/writing of God: Jewish philosophical reflections. SUNY press. p. 107.
5.Jump up ^ Wilhoit, Francis M. (1979). The quest for equality in freedom. Transaction Publishers. p. 13. ISBN 0878552405.
6.Jump up ^ Goodheart, Eugene (2004). Confessions of a secular Jew: a memoir. Transaction Publishers. pp. xv–xvi, 83. ISBN 0765805995.
7.Jump up ^ "The Guiding Principles of Reform Judaism, Columbus, Ohio, 1937".
8.Jump up ^ Wistrich, Robert S. Demonizing the other: antisemitism, racism & xenophobia. Taylor & Francis, 1999. p. 6. ISBN 9057024977.
9.Jump up ^ Eliezer Schwied (2007) "Does the Idea of Jewish Election Have Any Meaning after the Holocaust?". In Wrestling with God: Jewish theological responses during and after the Holocaust, Steven T. Katz, Shlomo Biderman (Eds.); Oxford University Press, p 233.
Gürkan, S. Leyla (2008). The Jews as a Chosen People: Tradition and Transformation. Taylor & Francis. pp. 49–55. ISBN 0415466075.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Dennis Prager; Joseph Telushkin (2003). Why the Jews?: the reason for antisemitism. Touchstone. p. 26. ISBN 0743246209.
11.Jump up ^ Hertzberg, Arthur (1998). Judaism. Simon and Schuster. pp. 56–57. ISBN 0684852659.
Pasachoff, Naomi E. (2005). A concise history of the Jewish people. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 276. ISBN 0742543668.
12.Jump up ^ Avi Shafran, "The Conservative Lie", Moment, February 2001.
13.Jump up ^ Joe Berkofsky, "Death of Conservative Judaism? Reform leader’s swipe sparks angry rebuttals", j., March 5, 2004.
14.Jump up ^ Laurie Goodstein, Conservative Jews Allow Gay Rabbis and Unions, The New York Times, 2006.
15.^ Jump up to: a b c d Shmueli, Efraim (1990) Seven Jewish cultures: a reinterpretation of Jewish history and thought Cambridge University Press, p. 123, 167-168, 172-174, 177, 261.
16.Jump up ^ "Abraham Geiger ... stressed the belief in progress: the Bible and Talmud represent an early, primitive stage in a revelation that is still continuing. Many traditional ceremonies (such as circumcision) are distressing to modern sensibility or incompatible with modern life... Geiger become increasingly convinced of the need to 'dethrone the Talmud'... " - De Lange, Nicholas (2000),An introduction to Judaism, Cambridge University Press, p. 73
"According to [Mordecai] Kaplan, the Jewish heritage, including the belief in God, must be reinterpreted so that it will be consistent with the intellectual outlook of the twentieth century. The Torah, which is Jewish civilization in practice, must be given a new functional interpretation." - Scult, Mel (1993) Judaism faces the twentieth century: a biography of Mordecai M. Kaplan, Wayne State University Press, p. 341.
"Israel drew within herself, shunned the world, and lived apart. In her seclusion her religion became her all. The interpretation of the Law and the construction put upon the commandments tended toward the upholding of the letter rather than the spirit. ... Reform was born to protect the spirit of the Law, to place the spirit above the letter, to make the latter subservient to the former.... The abolition of those forms and ceremonies that were not conducive to proper living, or that had, by reason of altered environment, become meaningless, was of the highest importance to the spiritual welfare of Israel." - Stern, Myer (1895), The rise and progress of reform Judaism: , Harvard University, p. 5.
17.Jump up ^ "Reform Judaism rejected the concept of Divine revelation, and ... the law is considered instructional and inspirational but not binding, ... and by eliminating many ritual practices..." - Dosick, Wayne D. (1995), Living Judaism: the complete guide to Jewish belief, tradition, and practice, HarperCollins, p. 62.
"Reform Judaism first took hold in Germany in the early nineteenth century. This tradition asserts that many of the ritualistic practices and dogmas of the past are outmoded..... Reform Jews assumed a prerogative to choose which Biblical laws were worthy of their allegiance and which were not.... Orthodox Jews adhere to a literal interpretation of the Hebrew Bible and continue to observe all the traditional Jewish laws... Conservative Jews ... were ... less likely than the Orthodox to accept the infallibility of sacred texts asserting that 'the divine origin of Jewish law ... [was subject] to human development and application'". - Berger, Ronald J. (2002), Fathoming the Holocaust: a social problems approach, Aldine Transaction, p. 179-180.
"We hold that all such Mosaic and rabbinical laws as regulate diet, priestly purity, and dress originated in ages and under the influence of ideas entirely foreign to our present mental and spiritual state. They fail to impress the modern Jew with a spirit of priestly holiness; their observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual elevation." - Pittsburgh Platform, section 4.
"...in the view of rabbinical Judaism every command of the written law in the Pentateuch (Torah sh'bikthab), and of the oral law (Torah sh'b'al peh), as codified in the Shulchan Aruk, is equally binding. The ceremonial law has equal potency with the religious and moral commands. Reform Judaism, on the other hand, claims that a distinction must be made between the universal precepts of religion and morality and the enactments arising from the circumstances and conditions of special times and places. Customs and ceremonies must change with the varying needs of different generations. Successive ages have their individual requirements for the satisfaction of the religious nature. No ceremonial law can be eternally binding. " - Philipson, David (1907) The Reform Movement in Judaism, Macmillian (reprinted by University of California, 2007), p. 5-6.
18.Jump up ^ ".. the immense authoritarian power of the orthodox Rabbis and Hasidic Zadikkim in the traditionalist communities ... As a result, there was open conflict between the rebellious youth .. and the religious establishment.... This was the context in which a virulent 'anti-clericalism' developed among progressive Jewish intellectuals, leaving countless evidence in the shape of polemical articles, autobiographical works, and imaginative literature." - Lowy, Michael (1992), Redemption and utopia: Jewish libertarian thought in Central Europe : a study in elective affinity, Stanford University Press, p. 45.
"[Reform Judaism was] originally founded as a response by Jewish laity to the perceived authoritarian rigidity of traditional or Orthodox Judaism and its rabbis." - Palmer-Fernández, Gabriel (2004), The encyclopedia of religion and war, Routledge, p. 253.
"Mosaism and rabbinic Judaism were appropriate for earlier ages, [Kohler] argued. But the age of man's maturity called for freedom from the letter, from blind authority, 'from all restriction which curb the minds and encroach upon the hearts'. The contemporary Jew had 'outgrown the guiding strings ... of infancy'; he was ready to walk on his own. What he required was not law, but a 'living Judaism', both enlightened and pious, appealing to reason and emotion." - Meyer, Michael A. (1995) Response to modernity: a history of the Reform Movement in Judaism, Wayne State University Press, p. 267.
"There is a fatal split among Jews, first, because religious tenets and institutions have been kept forcibly on a level of a vanished era, and not permeated with the divine breath of refreshing life, while life itself hurried forward stormily; and secondly, because the religious leaders, lacking all knowledge of the world and of men, dreamed of other times and conditions, and held themselves aloof from the life of the new generation - hence resulted a superficial rationalism, inimical to all positive and historical faith, side by side with a rigid, unreasoning formalism". - Philipson, David (1907) The Reform Movement in Judaism, Macmillian (reprinted by University of California, 2007), (quoting Abraham Kohn, rabbi of Hohemems in Tirol); p. 93-95.
19.Jump up ^ "Emancipation implied the breakdown of the Jews' millennial social and cultural isolation ... It was said for the first time in European history the Jews could participate in non-Jewish culture without the stigma of apostacy". Mendes-Flohr, Paul R. (1995). The Jew in the modern world: a documentary history. Oxford University Press US,. p. 155. ISBN 019507453X.
"Sociologically, the way of life of halakhic Judaism vouchsafed Jewry to an unambiguously distinct ... identity - an identity that was the source of a profound discomfort to those Jews who sought cultural, social, and political integration in the Gentile community in which they lived." - The Jew in the modern world: a documentary history Paul R. Mendes-Flohr (Ed.), p. 156
20.Jump up ^ " We recognize, in the modern era of universal culture of heart and intellect, the approaching of the realization of Israels great Messianic hope for the establishment of the kingdom of truth, justice, and peace among all men. We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state." - Pittsburgh Platform
21.Jump up ^ E. P. Sanders, Paul the Law and Jewish People, Fortress Press, p.154
22.^ Jump up to: a b c d Zetterholm, Magnus. Approaches to Paul: A Student's Guide to Recent Scholarship. Fortress Press. pp. 4–8, 98–105. ISBN 978-0-8006-6337-7.
23.Jump up ^ Sanders, E. P. (1977). Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion. Fortress Press. pp. 4, 8, 549. ISBN 0-8006-0499-7.
24.Jump up ^ Hacker, Klaus (2003). "Paul's Life". The Cambridge companion to St. Paul (Cambridge University Press): 23, 28. ISBN 0-521-78155-8.
25.^ Jump up to: a b Sanders, E. P. (1983). Paul the Law, and the Jewish People. Fortress Press. p. 159. ISBN 0-8006-1878-5.
26.^ Jump up to: a b Gorman, Michael J. Apostle of the crucified Lord: a theological introduction to Paul and his letters. pp. 19–20. ISBN 0-8028-3934-7.
27.^ Jump up to: a b c Horrell, David G. (2002). "Paul". The biblical world (Routledge) 2: 273–5. ISBN 0-415-16105-3.
28.Jump up ^ Smiga, George M. (1992). Pain and polemic: anti-Judaism in the Gospels. Paulist Press. pp. 18–21. ISBN 0-8091-3355-5.
29.Jump up ^ E. P. Sanders (1999), "Reflections on Anti-Judaism in the New Testament and in Christianity", in Anti-Judaism and the Gospels William Reuben Farmer (Ed.), Continuum International Publishing Group, p. 272-276.
Klinghoffer, David (2006). Why the Jews Rejected Jesus: The Turning Point in Western History. Random House, Inc. pp. 2–3. ISBN 0385510225.
Theissen, Gerd (1998). The historical Jesus: a comprehensive guide. Fortress Press. p. 440. ISBN 0800631226.
30.Jump up ^ Encyclopedia of Islam, Uzayr
31.Jump up ^ Hava Lazarus-Yafeh, Tahrif, Encyclopedia of Islam
32.Jump up ^ Busse, Heribert. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity: theological and historical affiliations, Princeton series on the Middle East, Markus Wiener Publishers, 1998, p. 57.
33.Jump up ^ Manfred H. Vogel (2008). "Kant, Immanuel". Virtual Jewish Library.
34.Jump up ^ Manfred Kuehn (2002). Kant, A Biography. Cambridge University Press. pp. 162,333,371. ISBN 978-0521524063.
35.Jump up ^ Eli Kavon (3 July 2010). "America’s Founding Fathers and Judaism". Jerusalem Post.
36.Jump up ^ "Jefferson and the Jews". Jewish Virtual Library.
37.^ Jump up to: a b c Melzer, Emanuel (1997). No way out: the politics of Polish Jewry, 1935–1939. Hebrew Union College Press. pp. 81–90. ISBN 0-87820-418-0.
38.Jump up ^ Poliakov, Léon (1968). The History of Anti-semitism: From Voltaire to Wagner. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 153. ISBN 0-8122-3766-8.
39.Jump up ^ Collins, Kenneth (November 2010). "A Community on Trial: The Aberdeen Shechita Case, 1893". Journal of Scottish Historical Studies 30: 75. doi:10.3366/jshs.2010.0103.
40.^ Jump up to: a b Chabad.org
41.^ Jump up to: a b "Halal, Kosher Slaughter Unacceptable, say German Vets". Deutsche Welle. 10.07.2008. Check date values in: |date= (help)
42.^ Jump up to: a b Runyan, Tamar (May 5, 2011). "Dutch Jews Mobilize Against Attempt to Outlaw Kosher Slaughter". Chabad.org.
43.Jump up ^ Religious slaughter and animal welfare: a discussion for meat scientists
44.Jump up ^ Cohen, Shaye J. D. (2005). Why aren't Jewish women circumcised?: gender and covenant in Judaism. University of California Press. pp. 207–224. ISBN 0520212509.
Glick, Leonard B. (2005). Marked in your flesh: circumcision from ancient Judea to modern America. Oxford University Press. pp. 115–148. ISBN 019517674X.
Mark, Elizabeth Wyner (2003). The covenant of circumcision: new perspectives on an ancient Jewish rite. UPNE. pp. 157–160. ISBN 1584653078.
See also Tabory and Erez, "Circumscribed Circumcision", pages 161-167, in this book.Silverman, Eric Kline (2006). From Abraham to America: a history of Jewish circumcision. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 177–212. ISBN 0742516695.
45.Jump up ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Circumcision: In Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature: "Contact with Grecian life, especially at the games of the arena [which involved nudity], made this distinction obnoxious to the Hellenists, or antinationalists; and the consequence was their attempt to appear like the Greeks by epispasm ("making themselves foreskins"; I Macc. i. 15; Josephus, "Ant." xii. 5, § 1; Assumptio Mosis, viii.; I Cor. vii. 18; , Tosef., Shab. xv. 9; Yeb. 72a, b; Yer. Peah i. 16b; Yeb. viii. 9a). All the more did the law-observing Jews defy the edict of Antiochus Epiphanes prohibiting circumcision (I Macc. i. 48, 60; ii. 46); and the Jewish women showed their loyalty to the Law, even at the risk of their lives, by themselves circumcising their sons."; Hodges, Frederick, M. (2001). "The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome: Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos, Circumcision, Foreskin Restoration, and the Kynodesme" (PDF). The Bulletin of the History of Medicine 75 (Fall 2001): 375–405. doi:10.1353/bhm.2001.0119. PMID 11568485. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
46.Jump up ^ https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+3&version=NIV
47.Jump up ^ "New policy on circumcision released by American Academy of Pediatrics". Reuters Health Medical News. 1999-03-02.
48.Jump up ^ "A lot of talk over a little piece of skin; Experts are reviewing the health merits of circumcision". The West Australian (Perth). 2010-03-03. p. 6.
49.Jump up ^ http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/malecircumcision/fact_sheet/en/
External links[edit]
Hofesh organization - The largest Jewish secular web site.


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Criticism of Islam

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Criticism of Islam has existed since its formative stages. Early written criticism came from Christians, prior to the ninth century, many of whom viewed Islam as a radical Christian heresy.[1] Hindus and Zoroastrians made notable criticism as well. Later the Muslim world itself offered criticism.[2][3][4] Criticism of Islam in the West was renewed after the September 11 attacks and other terror attacks in the 21st century.[5]
Objects of criticism include the morality of the life of Muhammad, the last prophet according to Islam, both in his public and personal life.[4][6] Issues relating to the authenticity and morality of the Quran, the Islamic holy book, are also discussed by critics.[7] Figures in Africa and India have described what they perceive as destruction of indigenous cultures by Islam. Other criticism focuses on the question of human rights in the Islamic world historically and in modern Islamic nations, including the treatment of women and religious and ethnic minorities in Islamic law and practice.[8][9] In wake of the recent multiculturalism trend, Islam's influence on the ability or willingness of Muslim immigrants in the Western world,[10] and other countries such as India[11][12][13] and Russia,[14][15] to assimilate has been criticized.


Contents  [hide]
1 History 1.1 Early Islam
1.2 Medieval world 1.2.1 Medieval Islamic world
1.2.2 Medieval Christianity
1.3 Enlightenment Europe
1.4 Nineteenth and twentieth century
1.5 Modern world 1.5.1 Modern Christianity and the Western world
1.5.2 Modern Hinduism
1.5.3 Modern African Traditional

2 Truthfulness of Islam and Islamic scriptures 2.1 Reliability of the Quran
2.2 Reliability of the Hadith
2.3 Lack of secondary evidence
3 Morality 3.1 Muhammad 3.1.1 Age of Muhammad's wife Aisha
3.2 Morality of the Quran
3.3 Slavery
3.4 Apostasy 3.4.1 Islamic law
3.4.2 Human rights conventions
3.5 Violence
3.6 Homosexuals
3.7 Short-term and limited marriages 3.7.1 Short-term marriage
3.7.2 Contractually limited marriage

4 Women in Islam 4.1 Domestic violence
4.2 Personal status laws and child marriage
4.3 Women's right to property and consent
5 Criticism of Muslim immigrants and immigration
6 Comparison with communism and fascist ideologies
7 Responses to criticism
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References
11 Further reading

History[edit]
Early Islam[edit]

 

John of Damascus a Syrian monk and presbyter, 19th-century Arabic icon
The earliest surviving written criticisms of Islam are to be found in the writings of Christians who came under the early dominion of the Islamic Caliphate. One such Christian was John of Damascus (c. 676–749 AD), who was familiar with Islam and Arabic. The second chapter of his book, The Fount of Wisdom, titled "Concerning Heresies", presents a series of discussions between Christians and Muslims. John claimed an Arian monk (whom he did not know was Bahira) influenced Muhammad and viewed the Islamic doctrines as nothing more than a hodgepodge culled from the Bible.[16] Writing on Islam's claim of Abrahamic ancestry, John explained that the Arabs were called "Saracens" (Greek Σαρακενοί, Sarakenoi) because they were "empty" (κενός, kenos, in Greek) "of Sarah". They were called "Hagarenes" because they were "the descendants of the slave-girl Hagar".[17] In the opinion of John Tolan, a Professor of Medieval History, John's biography of Muhammad is "based on deliberate distortions of Muslim traditions".[18]
Other notable early critics of Islam included:
Abu Isa al-Warraq, a 9th-century scholar and critic of Islam.[19]:224
Ibn al-Rawandi, a 9th-century atheist, who repudiated Islam and revealed religion in general.[19]
Medieval world[edit]
Medieval Islamic world[edit]
In the early centuries of the Islamic Caliphate, the Islamic law allowed citizens to freely express their views, including criticism of Islam and religious authorities, without fear of persecution.[20][21][22] As such, there have been several notable Muslim critics and skeptics of Islam that arose from within the Islamic world itself. In tenth and eleventh-century Syria there lived a blind poet called Al-Ma'arri. He became well known for a poetry that was affected by a "pervasive pessimism." He labeled religions in general as "noxious weeds" and said that Islam does not have a monopoly on truth. He had particular contempt for the ulema, writing that:

They recite their sacred books, although the fact informs me that these are fiction from first to last. O Reason, thou (alone) speakest the truth. Then perish the fools who forged the religious traditions or interpreted them![2][23]
Another early critic was the Persian physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi in the 10th century. He criticized Islam and all prophetical religions in general in several treatises.[19]:227–230 Despite his views, he remained a celebrated physician across the Islamic world.[24] In 1280, the Jewish philosopher, Ibn Kammuna, criticized Islam in his book Examination of the Three Faiths. He reasoned that the Sharia was incompatible with the principles of justice, and that this undercut the notion of Muhammad being the perfect man: "there is no proof that Muhammad attained perfection and the ability to perfect others as claimed."[25][26] The philosopher thus claimed that people converted to Islam from ulterior motives:

That is why, to this day we never see anyone converting to Islam unless in terror, or in quest of power, or to avoid heavy taxation, or to escape humiliation, or if taken prisoner, or because of infatuation with a Muslim woman, or for some similar reason. Nor do we see a respected, wealthy, and pious non-Muslim well versed in both his faith and that of Islam, going over to the Islamic faith without some of the aforementioned or similar motives.[3]
According to Bernard Lewis, just as it is natural for a Muslim to assume that the converts to his religion are attracted by its truth, it is equally natural for the convert's former coreligionists to look for baser motives and Ibn Kammuna's list seems to cover most of such nonreligious motives.[27]
Maimonides, one of the foremost 12th century rabbinical arbiters and philosophers, sees the relation of Islam to Judaism as primarily theoretical. Maimonides has no quarrel with the strict monotheism of Islam, but finds fault with the practical politics of Muslim regimes. He also considered Islamic ethics and politics to be inferior to their Jewish counterparts. Maimonides criticised what he perceived as the lack of virtue in the way Muslims rule their societies and relate to one another.[28] In his Epistle to Yemenite Jewry, he refers to Mohammad, as "hameshuga" – "that madman".[29]
Medieval Christianity[edit]
Main article: Medieval Christian views on Muhammad

 

Dante shown holding a copy of the Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelino's frescoIn Dante's Inferno, Muhammad is portrayed as split in half, with his guts hanging out, representing his status as a schismatic (one who broke from the Church).
Some medieval ecclesiastical writers portrayed Muhammad as possessed by Satan, a "precursor of the Antichrist" or the Antichrist himself.[4]
Denis the Carthusian wrote two treatises to refute Islam at the request of Nicholas of Cusa, Contra perfidiam Mahometi, et contra multa dicta Sarracenorum libri quattuor and Dialogus disputationis inter Christianum et Sarracenum de lege Christi et contra perfidiam Mahometi.[30]
The Tultusceptrum de libro domni Metobii, an Andalusian manuscript with unknown dating, shows how Muhammad (called Ozim, from Hashim) was tricked by Satan into adulterating an originally pure divine revelation. The story argues God was concerned about the spiritual fate of the Arabs and wanted to correct their derivation from the faith. He then sends an angel to the monk Osius who orders him to preach to the Arabs. Osius however is in ill-health and orders a young monk, Ozim, to carry out the angel's orders instead. Ozim sets out to follow his orders, but gets stopped by an evil angel on the way. The ignorant Ozim believes him to be the same angel that spoke to Osius before. The evil angel modifies and corrupts the original message given to Ozim by Osius, and renames Ozim Muhammad. From this followed the erroneous teachings of Islam, according to the Tultusceptrum.[31]
According to many Christians, the coming of Muhammad was foretold in the Holy Bible. According to the monk Bede this is in Genesis 16:12, which describes Ishmael as "a wild man" whose "hand will be against every man". Bede says about Muhammad: "Now how great is his hand against all and all hands against him; as they impose his authority upon the whole length of Africa and hold both the greater part of Asia and some of Europe, hating and opposing all."[32]
In 1391 a dialogue was believed to have occurred between Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and a Persian scholar in which the Emperor stated:

Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached. God is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death.[33]
Enlightenment Europe[edit]

 

David Hume
In Of the Standard of Taste, an essay by David Hume, the Quran is described as an "absurd performance" of a "pretended prophet" who lacked "a just sentiment of morals." Attending to the narration, Hume says, "we shall soon find, that [Muhammad] bestows praise on such instances of treachery, inhumanity, cruelty, revenge, bigotry, as are utterly incompatible with civilized society. No steady rule of right seems there to be attended to; and every action is blamed or praised, so far as it is beneficial or hurtful to the true believers."[34]
Nineteenth and twentieth century[edit]
During the whole 19th and 20th century, numerous personalities have criticized Muslims and Islam, either the criticism was based on the scriptural evidences, or the basic Muslim representation of their culture and religion. While some would suggest the better examples in terms of civilization, economy, awareness, etc., but possess critical view towards Muslims.

 

Vivekananda in 1900, at San Francisco
The Hindu philosopher Vivekananda commented on Islam:

Now, the Muslims are the crudest in this respect, and the most sectarian. Their watch-word is: there is one God (Allah), and Mohammed is His Prophet. Everything beyond that not only is bad, but must be destroyed forthwith, at a moment’s notice, every man or woman who does not exactly believe in that must be killed; everything that does not belong to this worship must be immediately broken; every book that teaches anything else must be burnt. From the Pacific to the Atlantic, for five hundred years blood ran all over the world. That is Mohammedanism.[35]

The more selfish a man, the more immoral he is. And so also with the race. That race which is bound down to itself has been the most cruel and the most wicked in the whole world. There has not been a religion that has clung to this dualism more than that founded by the Prophet of Arabia, and there has not been a religion, which has shed so much blood and been so cruel to other men. In the Koran there is the doctrine that a man who does not believe these teachings should be killed, it is a mercy to kill him! And the surest way to get to heaven, where there are beautiful houris and all sorts of sense enjoyments, is by killing these unbelievers. Think of the bloodshed there has been in consequence of such beliefs! [36]

Why religions should claim that they are not bound to abide by the standpoint of reason, no one knows. If one does not take the standard of reason, there cannot be any true judgment, even in the case of religions. One religion may ordain something very hideous. For instance, the Mohammedan religion allows Mohammedans to kill all who are not of their religion. It is clearly stated in the Koran, Kill the infidels if they do not become Mohammedans. They must be put to fire and sword. Now if we tell a Mohammedan that this is wrong, he will naturally ask, "How do you know that? How do you know it is not good? My book says it is." [37]
Dayanand Saraswati calls the concept of Islam to be highly offensive, and doubted that there is any connection of Islam with God:

Had the God of the Quran been the Lord of all creatures, and been Merciful and kind to all, he would never have commanded the Mohammedans to slaughter men of other faiths, and animals, etc. If he is Merciful, will he show mercy even to the sinners? If the answer be given in the affirmative, it cannot be true, because further on it is said in the Quran "Put infidels to sword," in other words, he that does not believe in the Quran and the Prophet Mohammad is an infidel (he should, therefore, be put to death). (Since the Quran sanctions such cruelty to non-Mohammedans and innocent creatures such as cows) it can never be the Word of God.[38]
Pandit Lekh Ram regarded that Islam was grown through the violence and desire for wealth. He further asserted that Muslims deny the entire Islamic prescribed violence and atrocities, and will continue doing so. He wrote:-

All educated people start looking down upon the forcible conversions and even started objecting to their very basis. Since then some naturalist Mohammadis[Muslims] are trying, rather opposing falsehood and accepting the truth, to prove unnecessarily and wrongly that Islam never indulged in Jihad and the people were never converted to Islam forcibly. Neither any temples were demolished nor were ever cows slaughtered in the temples. Women and children belonging to other religious sects were never forcibly converted to Islam nor did they ever commit any sexual acts with them as could have been done with the slave-males and females both.[39]
The Victorian orientalist scholar Sir William Muir criticised Islam for what he perceived to be an inflexible nature, which he held responsible for stifling progress and impeding social advancement in Muslims countries. The following sentences are taken from the Rede Lecture he delivered at Cambridge in 1881:

Some, indeed, dream of an Islam in the future, rationalised and regenerate. All this has been tried already, and has miserably failed. The Koran has so encrusted the religion in a hard unyielding casement of ordinances and social laws, that if the shell be broken the life is gone. A rationalistic Islam would be Islam no longer. The contrast between our own faith and Islam is most remarkable. There are in our Scriptures living germs of truth, which accord with civil and religious liberty, and will expand with advancing civilisation. In Islam it is just the reverse. The Koran has no such teaching as with us has abolished polygamy, slavery, and arbitrary divorce, and has elevated woman to her proper place. As a Reformer, Mahomet did advance his people to a certain point, but as a Prophet he left them fixed immovably at that point for all time to come. The tree is of artificial planting. Instead of containing within itself the germ of growth and adaptation to the various requirements of time and clime and circumstance, expanding with the genial sunshine and rain from heaven, it remains the same forced and stunted thing as when first planted some twelve centuries ago."[40]
Winston Churchill criticized what he alleged to be the effects Islam had on its believers, which he described as fanatical frenzy combined with fatalistic apathy, enslavement of women, and militant proselytizing.[41] In his 1899 book The River War he says:

 

 A young Winston Churchill on a lecture tour of the United States in 1900
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.[41]
James Fitzjames Stephen, describing what he understood to be the Islamic conception of the ideal society, wrote the following:

Not only are the varieties of morality innumerable, but some of them are conflicting with each other. If a Mahommedan, for instance, is fully to realize his ideal, to carry out into actual fact his experiment of living, he must be one of a ruling race which has trodden the enemies of Islam under their feet, and has forced them to choose between the tribute and the sword. He must be able to put in force the law of the Koran both as to the faithful and as to unbelievers. In short, he must conquer. Englishmen come into a country where Mahommedans had more or less realized their ideal, and proceed to govern it with the most unfeigned belief in the order of ideas of which liberty is the motto.[42]

 

Sadegh Hedayat
Zoroastrian writer Sadegh Hedayat regarded Islam as the corrupter of Iran, he said:

Every aspect of life and thought, including women's condition, changed after Islam. Enslaved by men, women were confined to the home. Polygamy, injection of fatalistic attitude, mourning, sorrow and grief led people to seek solace in magic, witchcraft, prayer, and supernatural beings.[43]
The church historian, Philip Schaff described Islam as spread by violence and fanaticism, and producing a variety of social ills in the regions it conquered.[44]

Mohammedanism conquered the fairest portions of the earth by the sword and cursed them by polygamy, slavery, despotism and desolation. The moving power of Christian missions was love to God and man; the moving power of Islâm was fanaticism and brute force.[44]

 

Anglican priest, scholar and hymn-writer John Mason Neale
Schaff also described Islam as a derivative religion based on an amalgamation of "heathenism, Judaism and Christianity."[45]

lslâm is not a new religion...[i]t is a compound or mosaic of preëxisting elements, a rude attempt to combine heathenism, Judaism and Christianity, which Mohammed found in Arabia, but in a very imperfect form.[45]
J. M. Neale criticized Islam in terms similar to those of Schaff, arguing that it was made up of a mixture of beliefs that provided something for everyone.[46]

...he [Muhammad] also infuses into his religion so much of each of those tenets to which the varying sects of his countrymen were addicted, as to enable each and all to please themselves by the belief that the new doctrine was only a reform of, and improvement on, that to which they had been accustomed. The Christians were conciliated by the acknowledgment of our LORD as the Greatest of Prophets; the Jews, by the respectful mention of Moses and their other Lawgivers; the idolaters, by the veneration which the Impostor professed for the Temple of Mecca, and the black stone which it contained; and the Chaldeans, by the pre-eminence which he gives to the ministrations of the Angel Gabriel, and his whole scheme of the Seven Heavens. To a people devoted to the gratification of their passions and addicted to Oriental luxury, he appealed, not unsuccessfully, by the promise of a Paradise whose sensual delights were unbounded, and the permission of a free exercise of pleasures in this world.[46]
Mahatma Gandhi, the most acknowledged freedom fighter of India, found the history of Muslims to be aggressive, while he pointed out that Hindus have passed that stage of societal evolution:-

Though, in my opinion, non violence has a predominant place in the Quran, the thirteen hundred years of imperialistic expansion has made the Muslims fighters as a body. They are therefore aggressive. Bullying is the natural excrescence of an aggressive spirit. The Hindu has an ages old civilization. He is essentially non violent. His civilization has passed through the experiences that the two recent ones are still passing through. If Hinduism was ever imperialistic in the modern sense of the term, it has outlived its imperialism and has either deliberately or as a matter of course given it up. Predominance of the non violent spirit has restricted the use of arms to a small minority which must always be subordinate to a civil power highly spiritual, learned and selfless. The Hindus as a body are therefore not equipped for fighting. But not having retained their spiritual training, they have forgotten the use of an effective substitute for arms and not knowing their use nor having an aptitude for them, they have become docile to the point of timidity and cowardice. This vice is therefore a natural excrescence of gentleness.[47][48]
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, in his book "Discovery of India", describes Islam to have been a faith for military conquests. He wrote "Islam had become a more rigid faith suited more to military conquests rather than the conquests of the mind," and that Muslims brought nothing new to his country.

The Muslims who came to India from outside brought no new technique or political or economic structure. In spite of religious belief in the brotherhood of Islam, they were class bound and feudal in outlook.[49]
Modern world[edit]
Modern Christianity and the Western world[edit]
André Servier, a historian who lived in French Algeria at the beginning of the 20th century, studied well the customs and manners of the North African people, becoming one of the few French intellectuals who studied in depth Ibn Ishaq's Sira. His research included the Ottoman Empire and the Panislamic movement. He criticized Islam in his book L’islam et la psychologie du musulman saying that:

Islam was not a torch, as has been claimed, but an extinguisher. Conceived in a barbarous brain for the use of a barbarous people, it was - and it remains - incapable of adapting itself to civilization. Wherever it has dominated, it has broken the impulse towards progress and checked the evolution of society.[50]

Islam is Christianity adapted to Arab mentality, or, more exactly, it is all that the unimaginative brain of a Bedouin, obstinately faithful to ancestral practices, has been able to assimilate of the Christian doctrines. Lacking the gift of imagination, the Bedouin copies, and in copying he distorts the original. Thus Musulman law is only the Roman Code revised and corrected by Arabs; in the same way Musulman science is nothing but Greek science interpreted by the Arab brain; and again, Musulman architecture is merely a distorted imitation of the Byzantine style.[50]

The deadening influence of Islam is well demonstrated by the way in which the Musulman comports himself at different stages of his life. In his early childhood, when the religion has not as yet impregnated his brain, he shows a very lively intelligence and remarkably open mind, accessible to ideas of every kind; but, in proportion as he grows up, and as, through the system of his education, Islam lays hold of him and envelops him, his brain seems to shut up, his judgment to become atrophied, and his intelligence to be stricken by paralysis and irremediable degeneration.[50]

Islam is by no means a negligible element in the destiny of humanity. The mass of three hundred million believers is growing daily, because in most Musulman countries the birth-rate exceeds the death-rate, and also because the religious propaganda is constantly gaining new adherents among tribes still in a state of barbarism.[50]

To sum up: the Arab has borrowed everything from other nations, literature, art, science, and even his religious ideas. He has passed it all through the sieve of his own narrow mind, and being incapable of rising to high philosophic conceptions, he has distorted, mutilated and desiccated everything. This destructive influence explains the decadence of Musulman nations and their powerlessness to break away from barbarism…[50]

Islam is a doctrine of death, inasmuch as the spiritual not being separated from the temporal, and every manifestation of activity being subjected to dogmatic law, it formally forbids any change, any evolution, any progress. It condemns all believers to live, to think, and to act as lived, thought and acted the Musulmans of the second century of the Hegira [8th century A.D.], when the law of Islam and its interpretation were definitely fixed.
 . . .
In the history of the nations, Islam, a secretion of the Arab brain, has never been an element of civilization, but on the contrary has acted as an extinguisher upon its flickering light. Individuals under Arab rule have only been able to contribute to the advance of civilization in so far as they did not conform to the Musulman dogma, but they relapsed into Arab barbarism as soon as they were obliged to make a complete submission to these dogmas.
 . . .
 Islamized nations, who have not succeeded in freeing themselves from Musulman tutelage, have been stricken with intellectual paralysis and decadence. They will only escape as they succeed in withdrawing themselves from the control of Musulman law.[50]
The early 20th-century missionary James L. Barton argued that Islam's view of the sovereignty of God is so extreme and unbalanced as to produce a fatalism that stifles human initiative:[51]

Man is reduced to a cipher. Human agency and human freedom are nullified. Right is no longer right because it is right, but because Allah wills it to be right. It is for this reason that monotheism has in Islam stifled human effort and progress. It has become a deadening doctrine of fate. Man must believe and pray, but these do not insure salvation or any benefit except Allah wills it. Why should human effort strive by sanitary means to prevent disease, when death or life depends in no way on such measures but upon the will of Allah? One reason why Moslem countries are so stagnant and backward in all that goes to make up a high civilization is owing to the deadening effects of monotheism thus interpreted. ... even in the most extreme forms of the Augustinian and Calvinistic systems there were always present in Christianity other elements which prevented the conception of the divine sovereignty from paralyzing the healthy activities of life as the Mohammedan doctrine has done.[51]
G. K. Chesterton criticized Islam as a derivative from Christianity. He described it as a heresy or parody of Christianity. In The Everlasting Man he says:

Islam was a product of Christianity; even if it was a by-product; even if it was a bad product. It was a heresy or parody emulating and therefore imitating the Church...Islam, historically speaking, is the greatest of the Eastern heresies. It owed something to the quite isolated and unique individuality of Israel; but it owed more to Byzantium and the theological enthusiasm of Christendom. It owed something even to the Crusades.[52]
During a lecture given at the University of Regensburg in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI quoted an unfavorable remark about Islam made at the end of the 14th century by Manuel II Palaiologos, the Byzantine emperor:

Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached
.[53][54] As the English translation of the Pope's lecture was disseminated across the world, many Islamic politicians and religious leaders protested against what they saw as an insulting mischaracterization of Islam.[53][54] Mass street protests were mounted in many Islamic countries, the Majlis-e-Shoora (Pakistani parliament) unanimously called on the Pope to retract "this objectionable statement".[55]
Modern Hinduism[edit]
Nobel prize-winning novelist V. S. Naipaul stated that Islam requires its adherents to destroy everything which is not related to it. He described it as having a:

Calamitous effect on converted peoples, to be converted you have to destroy your past, destroy your history. You have to stamp on it, you have to say 'my ancestral culture does not exist, it doesn't matter'.[56]
Modern African Traditional[edit]
Nobel prize-winning playwright Wole Soyinka stated that Islam had a role in denigrating African spiritual traditions. He criticized attempts to whitewash what he sees as the destructive and coercive history of Islam on the continent:

Let those who wish to retain or evaluate religion as a twenty-first project feel free to do so, but let it not be done as a continuation of the game of denigration against the African spiritual heritage as in a recent television series perpetrated by Islam's born again revisionist of history, Professor Ali Mazrui.[57]
Soyinka also regarded Islam as "superstition", and said that it does not belong to Africa. He stated that it is mainly spread with violence and force.[58]
Truthfulness of Islam and Islamic scriptures[edit]
Reliability of the Quran[edit]

 

 12th-century Andalusian Qur'an
See also: History of the Quran, The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran, Criticism of the Quran and Historicity of Muhammad
According to traditional Islamic scholarship, all of the Quran was written down by Muhammad's companions while he was alive (during AD 610-632), but it was primarily an orally related document. The written compilation of the whole Qur'an in its definite form as we have it now was not completed until many years after the death of Muhammad.[59] John Wansbrough, Patricia Crone and Yehuda D. Nevo argue that all the primary sources which exist are from 150–300 years after the events which they describe, and thus are chronologically far removed from those events.[60][61][62]
Critics reject the idea that the Quran is miraculously perfect and impossible to imitate as asserted in the Quran itself.[63] The Jewish Encyclopedia, for example, writes: "The language of the Koran is held by the Mohammedans to be a peerless model of perfection. Critics, however, argue that peculiarities can be found in the text. For example, critics note that a sentence in which something is said concerning Allah is sometimes followed immediately by another in which Allah is the speaker (examples of this are suras xvi. 81, xxvii. 61, xxxi. 9, and xliii. 10.) Many peculiarities in the positions of words are due to the necessities of rhyme (lxix. 31, lxxiv. 3), while the use of many rare words and new forms may be traced to the same cause (comp. especially xix. 8, 9, 11, 16)."[64]
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, "The dependence of Mohammed upon his Jewish teachers or upon what he heard of the Jewish Haggadah and Jewish practices is now generally conceded."[64] John Wansbrough believes that the Quran is a redaction in part of other sacred scriptures, in particular the Judaeo-Christian scriptures.[65][66] Herbert Berg writes that "Despite John Wansbrough's very cautious and careful inclusion of qualifications such as "conjectural," and "tentative and emphatically provisional", his work is condemned by some. Some of this negative reaction is undoubtedly due to its radicalness...Wansbrough's work has been embraced wholeheartedly by few and has been employed in a piecemeal fashion by many. Many praise his insights and methods, if not all of his conclusions."[67] Early jurists and theologians of Islam mentioned some Jewish influence but they also say where it is seen and recognized as such, it is perceived as a debasement or a dilution of the authentic message. Bernard Lewis describes this as "something like what in Christian history was called a Judaizing heresy."[68] According to Moshe Sharon, the story of Muhammad having Jewish teachers is a legend developed in the 10th century A.D.[69] Philip Schaff described the Quran as having "many passages of poetic beauty, religious fervor, and wise counsel, but mixed with absurdities, bombast, unmeaning images, low sensuality."[70]
Ibn Warraq wrote that the Iranian rationalist Ali Dashti has criticized the Quran on the basis that for some passages, "the speaker cannot have been God."[71] Warraq gives Surah Fatihah as an example of a passage which is "clearly addressed to God, in the form of a prayer." He says that by only adding the word "say" in front of the passage, this difficulty could have been removed. Moreover, Warraq wrote in the same book that, it is also known that one of the companions of Muhammad, Ibn Masud, rejected Surah Fatihah as being part of the Quran; this kind of disagreement is, in fact, common among the companions of Muhammad who could not decide which surahs were part of the Quran and which not. This further undermines the Quran's claim as being perfectly preserved.
Critics argue that:
the Quran contains verses which are difficult to understand or contradictory.[72]
Some accounts of the history of Islam say there were two verses of the Quran that were allegedly added by Muhammad when he was tricked by Satan (in an incident known as the "Story of the Cranes", later referred to as the "Satanic Verses"). These verses were then retracted at angel Gabriel's behest.[73][74]
The author of the Apology of al-Kindy Abd al-Masih ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (not to be confused with the famed philosopher al-Kindi) claimed that the narratives in the Quran were "all jumbled together and intermingled" and that this was "an evidence that many different hands have been at work therein, and caused discrepancies, adding or cutting out whatever they liked or disliked".[75]
The companions of Muhammad could not agree on which surahs were part of the Quran and which not. Two of the most famous companions being Ibn Masud and Ubay ibn Ka'b.[76]
Reliability of the Hadith[edit]
Main article: Criticism of Hadith

 

Syed Ahmad Khan wrote that the Hadith were not legally binding on Muslims
Hadith are Muslim traditions relating to the Sunnah (words and deeds) of Muhammad. They are drawn from the writings of scholars writing between 844 and 874 CE, more than 200 years after the death of Mohammed in 632 CE.[77] Within Islam, different schools and sects have different opinions on the proper selection and use of Hadith. The four schools of Sunni Islam all consider Hadith second only to the Quran, although they differ on how much freedom of interpretation should be allowed to legal scholars.[78] Shi'i scholars disagree with Sunni scholars as to which Hadith should be considered reliable. The Shi'as accept the Sunnah of Ali and the Imams as authoritative in addition to the Sunnah of Muhammad, and as a consequence they maintain their own, different, collections of Hadith.[79]
It has been suggested that there exists around the Hadith three major sources of corruption: political conflicts, sectarian prejudice, and the desire to translate the underlying meaning, rather than the original words verbatim.[80]
Muslim critics of the hadith, Quranists, reject the authority of hadith on theological grounds, pointing to verses in the Quran itself: "Nothing have We omitted from the Book",[81] declaring that all necessary instruction can be found within the Quran, without reference to the Hadith. They claim that following the Hadith has led to people straying from the original purpose of God's revelation to Muhammad, adherence to the Quran alone.[82] Syed Ahmad Khan (1817–1898) is often considered the founder of the modernist movement within Islam, noted for his application of "rational science" to the Quran and Hadith and his conclusion that the Hadith were not legally binding on Muslims.[83] His student, Chiragh ‘Ali, went further, suggesting nearly all the Hadith were fabrications.[83] Ghulam Ahmed Pervez (1903–1985) was a noted critic of the Hadith and believed that the Quran alone was all that was necessary to discern God's will and our obligations. A fatwa, ruling, signed by more than a thousand orthodox clerics, denounced him as a 'kafir', a non-believer.[84] His seminal work, Maqam-e Hadith argued that the Hadith were composed of "the garbled words of previous centuries", but suggests that he is not against the idea of collected sayings of the Prophet, only that he would consider any hadith that goes against the teachings of Quran to have been falsely attributed to the Prophet.[85] The 1986 Malaysian book "Hadith: A Re-evaluation" by Kassim Ahmad was met with controversy and some scholars declared him an apostate from Islam for suggesting that "“the hadith are sectarian, anti-science, anti-reason and anti-women."[83][86]
John Esposito notes that "Modern Western scholarship has seriously questioned the historicity and authenticity of the hadith", maintaining that "the bulk of traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad were actually written much later." He mentions Joseph Schacht, considered the father of the revisionist movement, as one scholar who argues this, claiming that Schacht "found no evidence of legal traditions before 722," from which Schacht concluded that "the Sunna of the Prophet is not the words and deeds of the Prophet, but apocryphal material" dating from later.[87] Other scholars, however, such as Wilferd Madelung, have argued that "wholesale rejection as late fiction is unjustified".[88]
Orthodox Muslims do not deny the existence of false hadith, but believe that through the scholars' work, these false hadith have been largely eliminated.[89]
Lack of secondary evidence[edit]

 

Sana'a manuscripts of the Qur'an
See also: Historiography of early Islam
The traditional view of Islam has also been criticised for the lack of supporting evidence consistent with that view, such as the lack of archaeological evidence, and discrepancies with non-Muslim literary sources.[90] In the 1970s, what has been described as a "wave of sceptical scholars" challenged a great deal of the received wisdom in Islamic studies.[91]:23 They argued that the Islamic historical tradition had been greatly corrupted in transmission. They tried to correct or reconstruct the early history of Islam from other, presumably more reliable, sources such as coins, inscriptions, and non-Islamic sources. The oldest of this group was John Wansbrough (1928–2002). Wansbrough's works were widely noted, but perhaps not widely read.[91]:38 In 1972 a cache of ancient Qur'ans in a mosque in Sana'a, Yemen was discovered – commonly known as the Sana'a manuscripts. The German scholar Gerd R. Puin has been investigating these Quran fragments for years. His research team made 35,000 microfilm photographs of the manuscripts, which he dated to early part of the 8th century. Puin has not published the entirety of his work, but noted unconventional verse orderings, minor textual variations, and rare styles of orthography. He also suggested that some of the parchments were palimpsests which had been reused. Puin believed that this implied an evolving text as opposed to a fixed one.[92]
Morality[edit]
Muhammad[edit]
Main article: Criticism of Muhammad

 

Dante Alighieri criticised Muhammad in his work Inferno, depicting him as being tortured in Hell.
Muhammad is considered as one of the prophets in Islam a model for followers. Critics such as Sigismund Koelle and former Muslim Ibn Warraq see some of Mohammed's actions as immoral.[4][6]
Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf wrote a poetic eulogy commemorating the slain Quraish notables; later, he had traveled to Mecca and provoked the Quraish to fight Muhammad. He also wrote erotic poetry about Muslim women, which offended the Muslims there.[93] This poetry influenced so many[94] that this too was considered directly against the Constitution of Medina which states, loyalty gives protection against treachery and this document will not (be employed to) protect one who is unjust or commits a crime. Other sources also state that he was plotting to assassinate Muhammad.[95] Muhammad called upon his followers to kill Ka'b. Muhammad ibn Maslama offered his services, collecting four others. By pretending to have turned against Muhammad, Muhammad ibn Maslama and the others enticed Ka'b out of his fortress on a moonlit night,[93] and killed him in spite of his vigorous resistance.[96] The Jews were terrified at his assassination, and as the historian Ibn Ishaq put it "...there was not a Jew who did not fear for his life".[97]
Age of Muhammad's wife Aisha[edit]
See also: Criticism of Muhammad (Aisha) and Child marriage
According to scriptural Sunni's Hadith sources, Aisha was six or seven years old when she was married to Muhammad and nine when the marriage was consummated.[98][99][100][101][102][103]
Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, born in Persia two hundred years after Muhammmad's death, suggested that she was ten years old.[101] Six hundred years after Muhammad, Ibn Khallikan recorded that she was nine years old at marriage, and twelve at consummation. Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi, born about 150 years after Muhammad's death, cited Hisham ibn Urwah as saying that she was nine years old at marriage, and twelve at consummation,[104] but Hisham ibn Urwah's original source is otherwise unknown, and Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi's work does not have the high religious status of the Hadith.
In the twentieth century, Pakistani writer Muhammad Ali challenged the Hadith showing that Aisha was as young as the traditional sources claim; arguing that instead a new interpretation of the Hadith compiled by Mishkat al-Masabih, Wali-ud-Din Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al-Khatib, could indicate that Aisha would have been nineteen years old around the time of her marriage.[105]
Morality of the Quran[edit]
See also: Criticism of the Quran and Islamic ethics

 

 9th-century Quran in Reza Abbasi Museum
According to some critics, the morality of the Quran appears to be a moral regression when judged by the standards of the moral traditions of Judaism and Christianity it says that it builds upon. The Catholic Encyclopedia, for example, states that "the ethics of Islam are far inferior to those of Judaism and even more inferior to those of the New Testament" and "that in the ethics of Islam there is a great deal to admire and to approve, is beyond dispute; but of originality or superiority, there is none."[106]
Critics stated that the Quran[Quran 4:34] allows Muslim men to discipline their wives by striking them.[107] (There is however confusion amongst translations of Quran with the original Arabic term "wadribuhunna" being translated as "to go away from them",[108] "beat",[109] "strike lightly" and "separate".[110] The film Submission, which rose to fame after the murder of its director Theo van Gogh, critiqued this and similar verses of the Quran by displaying them painted on the bodies of abused Muslim women.[111] Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the film's writer, said "it is written in the Koran a woman may be slapped if she is disobedient. This is one of the evils I wish to point out in the film".[112]
Some critics argue that the Quran is incompatible with other religious scriptures as it attacks and advocates hate against people of other religions.[7][113][114][115] For instance, Sam Harris interprets certain verses of the Quran as sanctioning military action against unbelievers as a whole both during the lifetime of Muhammad and after. The Quran said "fight in the name of your religion with those who fight against you."[116] In The End of Faith Harris argues that Muslim extremism is simply a consequence of taking the Qur'an literally, and is skeptical that moderate Islam is possible.[117] Various calls to arms were identified in the Quran by US citizen Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, all of which were cited as "most relevant to my actions on March 3, 2006" (9:44, 9:19, 57:10-11, 8:72-73, 9:120, 3:167-175, 4:66, 4:104, 9:81, 9:93-94, 9:100, 16:110, 61:11-12, 47:35).[118]
Max I. Dimont interprets that the Houris described in the Quran are specifically dedicated to "male pleasure".[119] Henry Martyn claims that the concept of the Houris was chosen to satisfy Muhammad's followers.[120]
Slavery[edit]
Main article: Islamic views on slavery

 

 13th-century slave market in Yemen
Bernard Lewis writes: "In one of the sad paradoxes of human history, it was the humanitarian reforms brought by Islam that resulted in a vast development of the slave trade inside, and still more outside, the Islamic empire." He notes that the Islamic injunctions against the enslavement of Muslims led to massive importation of slaves from the outside.[121] According to Patrick Manning, Islam by recognizing and codifying the slavery seems to have done more to protect and expand slavery than the reverse.[122]
Unlike Western societies which in their opposition to slavery spawned anti-slavery movements whose numbers and enthusiasm often grew out of church groups, no such grass-roots organizations ever developed in Muslim societies. In Muslim politics the state unquestioningly accepted the teachings of Islam and applied them as law. Islam, by sanctioning slavery, also extended legitimacy to the traffic in slaves.[123]
It was only in the early 20th century (post World War I) that slavery gradually became outlawed and suppressed in Muslim lands, largely due to pressure exerted by Western nations such as Britain and France.[124] Gordon describes the lack of homegrown Islamic abolition movements as owing much to the fact that it was deeply anchored in Islamic law. By legitimizing slavery and - by extension - traffic in slaves, Islam elevated those practices to an unassailable moral plane. As a result, in no part of the Muslim world was an ideological challenge ever mounted against slavery. The political and social system in Muslim society would have taken a dim view of such a challenge.[125] Some Muslim leaders, like Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah did ban slavery, but they had little influence in the Islamic world.[126]
The issue of slavery in the Islamic world in modern times is controversial. Critics argue there is hard evidence of its existence and destructive effects. Others maintain slavery in central Islamic lands has been virtually extinct since mid-twentieth century, and that reports from Sudan and Somalia showing practice of slavery is in border areas as a result of continuing war[127] and not Islamic belief. In recent years, according to some scholars,[128] there has been a "worrying trend" of "reopening" of the issue of slavery by some conservative Salafi Islamic scholars after its "closing" earlier in the 20th century when Muslim countries banned slavery and "most Muslim scholars" found the practice "inconsistent with Qur'anic morality."[129][130]
Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri of Karbala expressed the view in 1993 that the enforcement of servitude can occur but is restricted to war captives and those born of slaves.[131] Dr. Abdul-Latif Mushtahari, the general supervisor and director of homiletics and guidance at the Azhar University, has said on the subject of justifications for Islamic permission of slavery:[132]

"Islam does not prohibit slavery but retains it for two reasons. The first reason is war (whether it is a civil war or a foreign war in which the captive is either killed or enslaved) provided that the war is not between Muslims against each other - it is not acceptable to enslave the violators, or the offenders, if they are Muslims. Only non-Muslim captives may be enslaved or killed. The second reason is the sexual propagation of slaves which would generate more slaves for their owner."
In a 2014 issue of their digital magazine Dabiq, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant explicitly claimed religious justification for enslaving Yazidi women.[133][134][135][136][137]
Apostasy[edit]

 

 "Execution of a Moroccan Jewess (Sol Hachuel)" a painting by Alfred Dehodencq
Main article: Apostasy in Islam
See also: Freedom of religion § Islam
According to Islamic law apostasy is identified by a list of actions such as conversion to another religion, denying the existence of God, rejecting the prophets, mocking God or the prophets, idol worship, rejecting the sharia, or permitting behavior that is forbidden by the sharia, such as adultery or the eating of forbidden foods or drinking of alcoholic beverages.[138][139] The majority of Muslim scholars hold to the traditional view that apostasy is punishable by death or imprisonment until repentance, at least for adult men of sound mind.[140][141][142]
Laws prohibiting religious conversion run contrary to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that "[e]veryone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."[143]
The English historian C. E. Bosworth suggests the traditional view of apostasy hampered the development of Islamic learning, arguing that while the organizational form of the Christian university allowed them to develop and flourish into the modern university, "the Muslim ones remained constricted by the doctrine of waqf alone, with their physical plant often deteriorating hopelessly and their curricula narrowed by the exclusion of the non-traditional religious sciences like philosophy and natural science," out of fear that these could evolve into potential toe-holds for kufr, those people who reject God."[144]
Islamic law[edit]
See also: Sharia
Bernard Lewis summarizes:

The penalty for apostasy in Islamic law is death. Islam is conceived as a polity, not just as a religious community. It follows therefore that apostasy is treason. It is a withdrawal, a denial of allegiance as well as of religious belief and loyalty. Any sustained and principled opposition to the existing regime or order almost inevitably involves such a withdrawal.[145]

 

 Decision of a Fatwa committee on the case of a convert to Christianity: "Since he left Islam, he will be invited to revert. If he does not revert, he will be killed pertaining to rights and obligations of the Islamic law." The fatwa outlines the same procedure and penalty for the male convert's children, on reaching the age of puberty.
The four Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence, as well as Shi'a scholars, agree on the difference of punishment between male and female. A sane adult male apostate may be executed. A female apostate may be put to death, according to the majority view, or imprisoned until she repents, according to others.[146]
The Quran threatens apostates with punishment in the next world only, the historian W. Heffening states, the traditions however contain the element of death penalty. Muslim scholar Shafi'i interprets verse Quran 2:217 as adducing the main evidence for the death penalty in Quran.[147] The historian Wael Hallaq states the later addition of death penalty "reflects a later reality and does not stand in accord with the deeds of the Prophet." He further states that "nothing in the law governing apostate and apostasy derives from the letter of the holy text."[148]

 

Hussein-Ali Montazeri
William Montgomery Watt, in response to a question about Western views of the Islamic Law as being cruel, states that "In Islamic teaching, such penalties may have been suitable for the age in which Muhammad lived. However, as societies have since progressed and become more peaceful and ordered, they are not suitable any longer."[149]
Some contemporary Islamic jurists from both the Sunni and Shia denominations together with Quran only Muslims have argued or issued fatwas that state that either the changing of religion is not punishable or is only punishable under restricted circumstances.[150] For example, Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri argues that no Quranic verse prescribes an earthly penalty for apostasy and adds that it is not improbable that the punishment was prescribed by Muhammad at early Islam due to political conspiracies against Islam and Muslims and not only because of changing the belief or expressing it. Montazeri defines different types of apostasy. He does not hold that a reversion of belief because of investigation and research is punishable by death but prescribes capital punishment for a desertion of Islam out of malice and enmity towards the Muslim.[151]
According to Yohanan Friedmann, an Israeli Islamic Studies scholar, a Muslim may stress tolerant elements of Islam (by for instance adopting the broadest interpretation of Quran 2:256 ("No compulsion is there in religion...") or the humanist approach attributed to Ibrahim al-Nakha'i), without necessarily denying the existence of other ideas in the Medieval Islamic tradition but rather discussing them in their historical context (by for example arguing that "civilizations comparable with the Islamic one, such as the Sassanids and the Byzantines, also punished apostasy with death. Similarly neither Judaism nor Christianity treated apostasy and apostates with any particular kindness").[152] Friedmann continues:

The real predicament facing modern Muslims with liberal convictions is not the existence of stern laws against apostasy in medieval Muslim books of law, but rather the fact that accusations of apostasy and demands to punish it are heard time and again from radical elements in the contemporary Islamic world.[152]
Human rights conventions[edit]

 

 "It is not a treaty...[In the future, it] may well become the international Magna Carta."[153] Eleanor Roosevelt with the Spanish text of the Universal Declaration in 1949
See also: Human rights
Some widely held interpretations of Islam are inconsistent with Human Rights conventions that recognize the right to change religion.[154][155] In particular article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights[156] states:

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
To implement this, Article 18 (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states:

No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion of his choice.
The right for Muslims to change their religion is not afforded by the Iranian Shari'ah law, which specifically forbids it.[154][155][157] Muslim countries such as Sudan and Saudi Arabia, have the death penalty for apostasy from Islam.[158] These countries have criticized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for its perceived failure to take into account the cultural and religious context of non-Western countries.[citation needed] In 1990, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation published a separate Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam compliant with Shari'ah.[159] Although granting many of the rights in the UN declaration, it does not grant Muslims the right to convert to other religions, and restricts freedom of speech to those expressions of it that are not in contravention of the Islamic law.
Abul Ala Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami,[160] wrote a book called Human Rights in Islam,[161] in which he argues that respect for human rights has always been enshrined in Sharia law (indeed that the roots of these rights are to be found in Islamic doctrine)[162] and criticizes Western notions that there is an inherent contradiction between the two.[163] Western scholars have, for the most part, rejected Maududi's analysis.[164][165][166]
Violence[edit]
Main article: Islam and violence
See also: Quran and violence and Islam and war

 

 The September 11 attacks led to debate on whether Islam promotes violence
The September 11 attacks on the US and other recent attacks have resulted in non-Muslims indicting Islam as a violent religion.[167] The Qur'an's teachings on matters of war and peace have become topics of heated discussion in recent years. On the one hand, some critics claim that certain verses of the Qur'an sanction military action against unbelievers as a whole both during the lifetime of Muhammad and after. The Qur'an says, "Fight in the name of your religion with those who fight against you."[116] On the other hand, other scholars argue that such verses of the Qur'an are interpreted out of context,[168][169] and argue that when the verses are read in context it clearly appears that the Qur'an prohibits aggression,[170][171][172] and allows fighting only in self-defense.[173][174]
Orientalist David Margoliouth described the Battle of Khaybar as the "stage at which Islam became a menace to the whole world."[175] According to Margoliouth, earlier attacks on the Meccans and the Jewish tribes of Medina (e.g., the invasion of Banu Qurayza) could be at least plausibly be ascribed to wrongs done to Muhammad or the Islamic community.[175] Margoliouth argues that the Jews of Khaybar had done nothing to harm Muhammad or his followers, and ascribes the attack to a desire for plunder.[175] He describes the reason given by Muhammad for the attack as "its inhabitants were not Moslems" (italics in the source).[175] According to Margoliouth, this became an excuse for unfettered conquest.[176]
Jihad, an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving for the sake of God (al-jihad fi sabil Allah)".[177][178][179] Jihad is an important religious duty for Muslims. A minority among the Sunni scholars sometimes refer to this duty as the sixth pillar of Islam, though it occupies no such official status.[180] In Twelver Shi'a Islam, however, Jihad is one of the 10 Practices of the Religion. The Qur'an calls repeatedly for jihad, or holy war, against unbelievers, including, at times, Jews and Christians.[181] Middle East historian Bernard Lewis argues that "the overwhelming majority of classical theologians, jurists, and traditionalists (specialists in the hadith) understood the obligation of jihad in a military sense."[182] Furthermore, Lewis maintains that for most of the recorded history of Islam, from the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad onward, the word jihad was used in a primarily military sense.[183] According to Andrew Bostom, a number of jihads have targeted Christians, Hindus, and Jews.[184]
The Qur'an: (8:12): "...cast terror in their hearts and strike upon their necks."[185] The phrase that they have been "commanded to terrorize the disbelievers" has been cited in motivation of Jihadi terror.[186] One Jihadi cleric has said:

"Another aim and objective of jihad is to drive terror in the hearts of the [infidels]. To terrorize them. Did you know that we were commanded in the Qur'an with terrorism? ...Allah said, and prepare for them to the best of your ability with power, and with horses of war. To drive terror in the hearts of my enemies, Allah's enemies, and your enemies. And other enemies which you don't know, only Allah knows them... So we were commanded to drive terror into the hearts of the [infidels], to prepare for them with the best of our abilities with power. Then the Prophet said, nay, the power is your ability to shoot. The power which you are commanded with here, is your ability to shoot. Another aim and objective of jihad is to kill the [infidels], to lessen the population of the [infidels]... it is not right for a Prophet to have captives until he makes the Earth warm with blood... so, you should always seek to lessen the population of the [infidels]."[187]
David Cook, author of Understanding Jihad, said "In reading Muslim literature — both contemporary and classical — one can see that the evidence for the primacy of spiritual jihad is negligible. Today it is certain that no Muslim, writing in a non- Western language (such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu), would ever make claims that jihad is primarily nonviolent or has been superseded by the spiritual jihad. Such claims are made solely by Western scholars, primarily those who study Sufism and/or work in interfaith dialogue, and by Muslim apologists who are trying to present Islam in the most innocuous manner possible."[188] Cook argued that "Presentations along these lines are ideological in tone and should be discounted for their bias and deliberate ignorance of the subject" and that "[i]t is no longer acceptable for Western scholars or Muslim apologists writing in non-Muslim languages to make flat, unsupported statements concerning the prevalence — either from a historical point of view or within contemporary Islam—of the spiritual jihad."[188] Magdi Allam, an outspoken Egyptian-born Italian journalist, has describes Islam as intrinsically violent and characterized by “hate and intolerance”.[189]
Homosexuals[edit]
Main article: LGBT topics and Islam

 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Critics such as lesbian activist Irshad Manji,[190] former Muslims Ehsan Jami and the former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, have criticized Islam's attitudes towards homosexuals. Most international human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, condemn Islamic laws that make homosexual relations between consenting adults a crime. Since 1994 the United Nations Human Rights Committee has also ruled that such laws violated the right to privacy guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In May 2008, the sexual rights lobby group Lambda Istanbul (based in Istanbul, Turkey) was banned by court order for violating a constitutional provision on the protection of the family and an article banning bodies with objectives that violate law and morality.[191] This decision was then taken to the Court of Cassation and the ban lifted.[192]
The ex-Muslim Ibn Warraq has noted that the Quran's condemnation of homosexuality has frequently been ignored in practice, and that Islamic countries were much more tolerant of homosexuality than Christian ones until fairly recently.[193]
Short-term and limited marriages[edit]
Short-term marriage[edit]
Main article: Nikah mut‘ah
Nikāḥ al-Mutʿah (Arabic: نكاح المتعة‎ literally pleasure marriage) is a fixed-term or short-term contractual marriage in Shia Islam. The duration of this type of marriage is fixed at its inception and is then automatically dissolved upon completion of its term. For this reason, nikah mut‘ah has been widely criticised as the religious cover and legalization of prostitution.[194][195] The Christian missionary Thomas Patrick Hughes criticized Mut'ah as allowing the continuation of "one of the abominable practices of ancient Arabia." [196] Shi'a and Sunnis agree that Mut'ah was legal in early times, but Sunnis consider that it was abrogated. Ibn Kathir writes that "[t]here's no doubt that in the outset of Islam, Mut'ah was allowed under the Shari'ah".[197] Currently, however, mut'ah is one of the distinctive features of Ja'fari jurisprudence. No other school of Islamic jurisprudence allows it. According to Imam Jafar as Sadiq, "One of the matters about which I shall never keep precautionary silence (taqiyya) is the matter of mu’tah."[198] Allameh Tabatabaei defends the Shia view in Tafsir al-Mizan, arguing that there are mutawatir or nearly mutawatir traditions narrated from the Shia Imams that Mut'ah is permitted. For example, it has been narrated from Muhammad al-Baqir and Ja'far al-Sadiq that they said "regarding the [above] verse, and there is no blame on you about what you mutually agree after what is appointed." It means that he increases her dowry or she increases his (fixed) period.[199] Sunnis believe that Muhammad later abolished this type of marriage at several different large events, the most accepted being at Khaybar in 7 AH (629 CE) Bukhari 059.527 and at the Victory of Mecca in 8 AH (630 CE). Most Sunnis believe that Umar later was merely enforcing a prohibition that was established during Muhammad's time.[200] Shia contest the criticism that nikah mut‘ah is a cover for prostitution, and argue that the unique legal nature of temporary marriage distinguishes Mut'ah ideologically from prostitution.[201][202]
Contractually limited marriage[edit]
Main article: Nikah Misyar
Nikah Misyar (Arabic: المسيار‎) is a type of Nikah (marriage) in Sunni Islam only carried out through the normal contractual procedure, with the provision that the husband and wife give up several rights by their own free will, such as living together, equal division of nights between wives in cases of polygamy, the wife's rights to housing, and maintenance money ("nafaqa"), and the husband's right of homekeeping and access.[203] Essentially the couple continue to live separately from each other, as before their contract, and see each other to fulfil their needs in a legally permissible (halaal) manner when they please. Misyar has been suggested by some western authors to be a comparable marriage with Nikah mut'ah and that they find it for the sole purpose of "sexual gratification in a licit manner"[204][205] According to Florian Pohl, assistant professor of religion at Oxford College, Misyar marriage is controversial issue in the Muslim world, as many see it as practice that encourages marriages for purely sexual purposes, or that it is used as a cover for a form of prostitutuion.[206]
Professor Yusuf Al-Qaradawi observes that he does not promote this type of marriage, although he has to recognise that it is legal, since it fulfils all the requirements of the usual marriage contract.[207] He states his preference that the clause of renunciation be not included within the marriage contract, but be the subject of a simple verbal agreement between the parties.[208] Islamic scholars like Ibn Uthaimeen or Al-Albani claim, for their part, that misyar marriage may be legal, but not moral. They agree that the wife can at any time, reclaim the rights which she gave up at the time of contract.[209] But, they are opposed to this type of marriage on the grounds that it contradicts the spirit of the Islamic law of marriage and that it has perverse effects on the woman, the family and the community in general.
For Al-Albani, misyar marriage may even be considered as illicit, because it runs counter to the objectives and the spirit of marriage in Islam, as described in the Quran: "And among His Signs is this, that He created for you mates from among yourselves, that ye may dwell in tranquility with them, and He has put love and mercy between your (hearts)…"[210] Al-Albani also underlines the social problems which result from the “misyar” marriage, particularly in the event that children are born from this union. The children raised by their mother in a home from which the father is always absent, without reason, may suffer difficulties.[211] The situation becomes even worse if the wife is abandoned or repudiated by her husband "misyar", with no means of subsistence, as usually happens.
"Shaykh Ibn Baaz was asked about Misyaar marriage; this kind of marriage is where the man marries a second, third or fourth wife, and the wife is in a situation that compels her to stay with her parents or one of them in her own house, and the husband goes to her at various times depending on the circumstances of both. What is the Islamic ruling on this type of marriage? He replied:"

There is nothing wrong with that if the marriage contract fulfills all the conditions set out by sharee’ah, which is the presence of the wali and the consent of both partners, and the presence of two witnesses of good character to the drawing up of the contract, and both partners being free of any impediments, because of the general meaning of the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him): “The conditions that are most deserving of being fulfilled are those by means of which intimacy becomes permissible for you” and “The Muslims are bound by their conditions.” If the partners agree that the woman will stay with her family or that her share of the husband’s time will be during the day and not during the night, or on certain days or certain nights, there is nothing wrong with that, so long as the marriage is announced and not hidden.[212]
Shaykh al-Albaani was asked about Misyaar marriage and he disallowed it for two reasons:

1) That the purpose of marriage is repose as Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “And among His Signs is this, that He created for you wives from among yourselves, that you may find repose in them, and He has put between you affection and mercy. Verily, in that are indeed signs for a people who reflect” [al-Room 30:21]. But this is not achieved in this kind of marriage.
2) It may be decreed that the husband has children with this woman, but because he is far away from her and rarely comes to her, that will be negatively reflected in his children’s upbringing and attitude.[213]
Ibn Uthaymeen recognized the legality of “misyar” marriage under Shariah, but came to oppose it due to what he considered to be its harmful effects.[214]
Women in Islam[edit]
Main article: Women in Islam
Domestic violence[edit]
Main article: Islam and domestic violence
Many scholars[215][216] claim Shari'a law encourages domestic violence against women, when a husband suspects nushuz (disobedience, disloyalty, rebellion, ill conduct) in his wife.[217] Other scholars claim wife beating, for nashizah, is not consistent with modern perspectives of the Quran.[218]
One of the verses of the Quran relating to permissibility of domestic violence is Surah 4:34.[219][220] In deference to Surah 4:34, many nations with Shari'a law have refused to consider or prosecute cases of domestic abuse.[221][222][223][224] Shari'a has been criticized for ignoring women's rights in domestic abuse cases.[225][226][227][228] Musawah/CEDAW, KAFA and other organizations have proposed ways to modify Shari'a-inspired laws to improve women's rights in Islamic nations, including women's rights in domestic abuse cases.[229][230][231][232]
Personal status laws and child marriage[edit]
Shari'a is the basis for personal status laws in most Islamic majority nations. These personal status laws determine rights of women in matters of marriage, divorce and child custody. A 2011 UNICEF report concludes that Shari'a law provisions are discriminatory against women from a human rights perspective. In legal proceedings under Shari'a law, a woman’s testimony is worth half of a man’s before a court.[233]
Except for Iran, Lebanon and Bahrain which allow child marriages, the civil code in Islamic majority countries do not allow child marriage of girls. However, with Shari'a personal status laws, Shari'a courts in all these nations have the power to override the civil code. The religious courts permit girls less than 18 years old to marry. As of 2011, child marriages are common in a few Middle Eastern countries, accounting for 1 in 6 all marriages in Egypt and 1 in 3 marriages in Yemen. However, the average age at marriage in most Middle Eastern countries is steadily rising and is generally in the low to mid 20's for women.[234] Rape is considered a crime in all countries, but Shari'a courts in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia in some cases allow a rapist to escape punishment by marrying his victim, while in other cases the victim who complains is often prosecuted with the crime of Zina (adultery).[233][235][236]
Women's right to property and consent[edit]
Sharia grants women the right to inherit property from other family members, and these rights are detailed in the Quran.[237] A woman's inheritance is unequal and less than a man's, and dependent on many factors.[Quran 4:12][238] For instance, a daughter's inheritance is usually half that of her brother's.[Quran 4:11][238]
Until the 20th century, Islamic law granted Muslim women certain legal rights, such as the right to own property received as Mahr (brideprice) at her marriage, that Western legal systems did not grant to women.[239][240] However, Islamic law does not grant non-Muslim women the same legal rights as the few it did grant Muslim women. Sharia recognizes the basic inequality between master and women slave, between free women and slave women, between Believers and non-Believers, as well as their unequal rights.[241][242] Sharia authorized the institution of slavery, using the words abd (slave) and the phrase ma malakat aymanukum ("that which your right hand owns") to refer to women slaves, seized as captives of war.[241][243] Under Islamic law, Muslim men could have sexual relations with female captives and slaves without her consent.[244][245]
Slave women under sharia did not have a right to own property, right to free movement or right to consent.[246][247] Sharia, in Islam's history, provided religious foundation for enslaving non-Muslim women (and men), as well as encouraged slave's manumission. However, manumission required that the non-Muslim slave first convert to Islam.[248][249] Non-Muslim slave women who bore children to their Muslim masters became legally free upon her master's death, and her children were presumed to be Muslims as their father, in Africa,[248] and elsewhere.[250]
Starting with the 20th century, Western legal systems evolved to expand women's rights, but women's rights under Islamic law have remained tied to Quran, hadiths and their faithful interpretation as sharia by Islamic jurists.[245][251]
Criticism of Muslim immigrants and immigration[edit]
See also: Multiculturalism and Islam

 

 French philosopher Pascal Bruckner has criticised the effects of multiculturalism and Islam in the West
 

 Muslim demonstration in Sydney, Australia
The immigration of Muslims to Europe has increased in recent decades. Friction has developed between their new neighbours. Conservative Muslim social attitudes on modern issues have caused controversy in Europe and elsewhere. Scholars argue about how much these attitudes are a result of Islamic beliefs. Some critics consider Islam to be incompatible with secular Western society.[252] Their criticism has been partly influenced by a stance against multiculturalism advocated by recent philosophers, closely linked to the heritage of New Philosophers. Statements by proponents like Pascal Bruckner[253] describe multiculturalism as an invention of an "enlightened" elite who deny the benefits of democratic rights to non-Westerners by chaining them to their roots. They believe this allows Islam free rein to propagate what they state are abuses, such as the mistreatment of women and homosexuals, and in some countries slavery. They also state that multiculturalism allows a degree of religious freedom[254] that exceeds what is needed for personal religious freedom[255] and is conducive to the creation of organizations aimed at undermining European secular or Christian values.[256]
Emigrants from nearly every Muslim country have immigrated to Canada.[257] According to a recent poll, 54% of Canadians had an unfavourable view of Islam, which was higher than for any other religion.[258]
In the United States, after the Boston Marathon bombings, the immigration processes are assumed to be harder.[259] Far-right commentator Bryan Fischer asked that no more Muslim visas be granted, and no more mosques built,[260] his opinion received support, most notably by the former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan.
Comparison with communism and fascist ideologies[edit]
In 2004, speaking to the Acton Institute on the problems of "secular democracy", Cardinal George Pell drew a parallel between Islam and communism: "Islam may provide in the 21st century, the attraction that communism provided in the 20th, both for those that are alienated and embittered on the one hand and for those who seek order or justice on the other."[261] Pell also agrees in another speech that its capacity for far-reaching renovation is severely limited.[262] An Australian Islamist spokesman, Keysar Trad, responded to the criticism: "Communism is a godless system, a system that in fact persecutes faith".[263]
Writers such as Stephen Suleyman Schwartz[264] and Christopher Hitchens,[265] describe Islamist attributes similar to fascism. Malise Ruthven, a Scottish writer and historian who focuses his work on religion and Islamic affairs, opposes redefining Islamism as "Islamofascism", but also finds the resemblances between the two ideologies "compelling".[266] Geert Wilders, a controversial Dutch member of parliament and leader of the Party for Freedom, has also compared Islam to fascism and communism.[267]
Responses to criticism[edit]

 

Deepa Kumar wrote that the history of Islam can not be considered any more violent than those of any other religions
John Esposito has written a number of introductory texts on Islam and the Islamic world. He has addressed issues including the rise of militant Islam, the veiling of women, and democracy.[268][269] Esposito emphatically argues against what he calls the "pan-Islamic myth". He thinks that "too often coverage of Islam and the Muslim world assumes the existence of a monolithic Islam in which all Muslims are the same." To him, such a view is naive and unjustifiably obscures important divisions and differences in the Muslim world.[270]
William Montgomery Watt in his book Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman addresses Muhammad’s alleged moral failings. Watt argues on a basis of moral relativism that Muhammad should be judged by the standards of his own time and country rather than "by those of the most enlightened opinion in the West today."[102]
Karen Armstrong, tracing what she believes to be the West's long history of hostility toward Islam, finds in Muhammad’s teachings a theology of peace and tolerance. Armstrong holds that the "holy war" urged by the Quran alludes to each Muslim's duty to fight for a just, decent society.[271]
Edward Said, in his essay Islam Through Western Eyes, stated that the general basis of Orientalist thought forms a study structure in which Islam is placed in an inferior position as an object of study. He claims the existence of a very considerable bias in Orientalist writings as a consequence of the scholars' cultural make-up. He claims Islam has been looked at with a particular hostility and fear due to many obvious religious, psychological and political reasons, all deriving from a sense "that so far as the West is concerned, Islam represents not only a formidable competitor but also a late-coming challenge to Christianity."[272]
Deepa Kumar, the author of Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization, and the UPS Strike, in her article titled 'Fighting Islamophobia: A Response to Critics' says "The history of Islam is no more violent than the history of any of the other major religions of the world. Perhaps my critics haven't heard of the Crusades – the religious wars fought by European Christians from the 11th to the 13th centuries". Speaking on the Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy she says "The Danish cartoon of the prophet Mohammed with a bomb on his head is nothing if not the visual depiction of the racist diatribe that Islam is inherently violent. To those who can't understand why this argument is racist, let me be clear: when you take the actions of a few people and generalize it to an entire group – all Muslims, all Arabs – that's racism. When a whole group of people are discriminated against and demonized because of their religion or regional origin, that's racism...Arabs and Muslims are being scapegoated and demonized to justify a war that is ruining the lives of millions."[273]
See also[edit]

Portal icon Islam portal
Portal icon Religion portal
Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry
Fitna
Freedom of speech
Ibrahim Al-Buleihi
Internet Infidels
Islam and violence
Islam and domestic violence
Islamic feminism
Innocence of Muslims
Islam: What the West Needs to Know
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
List of critics of Islam
The Satanic Verses controversy
Submission
Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy case
Trial of Geert Wilders
Why Islam?
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ De Haeresibus by John of Damascus. See Migne. Patrologia Graeca, vol. 94, 1864, cols 763-73. An English translation by the Reverend John W Voorhis appeared in THE MOSLEM WORLD for October 1954, pp. 392-398.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Warraq, Ibn (2003). Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out. Prometheus Books. p. 67. ISBN 1-59102-068-9.
3.^ Jump up to: a b Ibn Kammuna, Examination of the Three Faiths, trans. Moshe Perlmann (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1971), pp. 148–49
4.^ Jump up to: a b c d Mohammed and Mohammedanism, by Gabriel Oussani, Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 16, 2006.
5.Jump up ^ Akyol, Mustafa (13 January 2015). "Islam’s Problem With Blasphemy". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
6.^ Jump up to: a b Ibn Warraq, The Quest for Historical Muhammad (Amherst, Mass.:Prometheus, 2000), 103.
7.^ Jump up to: a b Bible in Mohammedian Literature., by Kaufmann Kohler Duncan B. McDonald, Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 22, 2006.
8.Jump up ^ http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&year=2005&country=6825. See also Timothy Garton Ash (2006-10-05). "Islam in Europe". The New York Review of Books.
9.Jump up ^ Timothy Garton Ash (2006-10-05). "Islam in Europe". The New York Review of Books.
10.Jump up ^ Tariq Modood (2006-04-06). Multiculturalism, Muslims and Citizenship: A European Approach (1st ed.). Routledge. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-415-35515-5.
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14.Jump up ^ "Tatarstan: The Battle over Islam in Russia's Heartland". 2013.
15.Jump up ^ Russia and Islam: State, Society and Radicalism. Taylor & Francis. 2010. p. 94. by Roland Dannreuther, Luke March
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18.Jump up ^ John Victor Tolan, Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination, Columbia University Press, p. 139: "Like earlier hostile biographies of Muhammad (John of Damascus, the Risâlat al-Kindî., Theophanes, or the Historia de Mahometh pseudopropheta) the four twelfth-century texts are based on deliberate distortions of Muslim traditions."
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31.Jump up ^ J. Tolan, Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam (1996) p. 100-101
32.Jump up ^ J. Tolan, Saracens; Islam in the Medieval European Imagination (2002) p. 75
33.Jump up ^ Dialogue 7 of Twenty-six Dialogues with a Persian (1399), for the Greek text see Trapp, E., ed. 1966. Manuel II. Palaiologos: Dialoge mit einem “Perser.” Wiener Byzantinische Studien 2. Vienna, for a Greek text with accompanying French translation see Th. Khoury “Manuel II Paléologue, Entretiens avec un Musulman. 7e Controverse”, Sources Chrétiennes n. 115, Paris 1966, for an English translation see Manuel Paleologus, Dialogues with a Learned Moslem. Dialogue 7 (2009), chapters 1-18 (of 37), translated by Roger Pearse available at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library here, at The Tertullian Project here, and also here. A somewhat more complete translation into French is found here
34.Jump up ^ "Of the Standard of Taste by David Hume".
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155.^ Jump up to: a b "As a matter of law, on the basis of its obligations as a state party to the ICCPR, Iran is obliged to uphold the right of individuals to practice the religion of their choice and to change religions, including converting from Islam. The prosecution of converts from Islam on the basis of religious edicts that identify apostasy as an offense punishable by death is clearly at variance with this obligation.": Human Rights Watch report on Iran [4]
156.Jump up ^ UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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165.Jump up ^ Bielefeldt (2000), p. 104.
166.Jump up ^ Carle, Robert (2005). "Revealing and Concealing: Islamist Discourse on Human Rights". Human Rights Review 6 (3): 122–37. doi:10.1007/BF02862219. "Both Tabandeh and Mawdudi proceed to develop a synthesis between human rights and traditional shari‘a that conceals the conflicts and tensions between the two (p. 124)."
167.Jump up ^ Puniyani, Ram (2005). Religion, power & violence: expression of politics in contemporary times. SAGE. pp. 97–98. ISBN 9780761933380.
168.Jump up ^ Sohail H. Hashmi, David Miller, Boundaries and Justice: diverse ethical perspectives, Princeton University Press, p.197
169.Jump up ^ Khaleel Muhammad, professor of religious studies at San Diego State University, states, regarding his discussion with the critic Robert Spencer, that "when I am told ... that Jihad only means war, or that I have to accept interpretations of the Qur'an that non-Muslims (with no good intentions or knowledge of Islam) seek to force upon me, I see a certain agendum developing: one that is based on hate, and I refuse to be part of such an intellectual crime." [5]
170.Jump up ^ Ali, Maulana Muhammad; The Religion of Islam (6th Edition), Ch V "Jihad" Page 414 "When shall war cease". Published by The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement
171.Jump up ^ Sadr-u-Din, Maulvi. "Qur'an and War", page 8. Published by The Muslim Book Society, Lahore, Pakistan.[6]
172.Jump up ^ Article on Jihad by Dr. G. W. Leitner (founder of The Oriental Institute, UK) published in Asiatic Quarterly Review, 1886. ("Jihad, even when explained as a righteous effort of waging war in self-defense against the grossest outrage on one's religion, is strictly limited..")
173.Jump up ^ The Qur'anic Commandments Regarding War/Jihad An English rendering of an Urdu article appearing in Basharat-e-Ahmadiyya Vol. I, p. 228-232, by Dr. Basharat Ahmad; published by the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam
174.Jump up ^ Ali, Maulana Muhammad; The Religion of Islam (6th Edition), Ch V "Jihad" Pages 411-413. Published by The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement [7]
175.^ Jump up to: a b c d Margoliouth, D. S. (1905). Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (Third Edition., p. 362-363). New York; London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons; The Knickerbocker Press.
176.Jump up ^ "That plea would cover attacks on the whole world outside Medinah and its neighbourhood: and on leaving Khaibar the Prophet seemed to see the world already in his grasp. This was a great advance from the early days of Medinah, when the Jews were to be tolerated as equals, and even idolators to be left unmolested, so long as they manifested no open hostility. Now the fact that a community was idolatrous, or Jewish, or anything but Mohammedan, warranted a murderous attack upon it: the passion for fresh conquests dominated the Prophet as it dominated an Alexander before him or a Napoleon after him." Margoliouth, D. S. (1905). Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (Third Edition., p. 363). New York; London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons; The Knickerbocker Press.
177.Jump up ^ Morgan, Diane (2010). Essential Islam: a comprehensive guide to belief and practice. ABC-CLIO. p. 87. ISBN 0-313-36025-1. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
178.Jump up ^ Wendy Doniger, ed. (1999). Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions. Merriam-Webster. ISBN 0-87779-044-2., Jihad, p.571
179.Jump up ^ Josef W. Meri, ed. (2005). Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-96690-6., Jihad, p.419
180.Jump up ^ John Esposito(2005), Islam: The Straight Path, pp.93
181.Jump up ^ Ember, Melvin; Carol R. Ember, Ian Skoggard (2005). Encyclopedia of diasporas: immigrant and refugee cultures around the world. Diaspora communities, Volume 2. Springer, 2005. p. http://books.google.com/books?id=7QEjPVyd9YMC&pg=PA183. ISBN 0-306-48321-1.
182.Jump up ^ Bernard Lewis, The Political Language of Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), p. 72.
183.Jump up ^ Lewis, Bernard, The Crisis of Islam, 2001 Chapter 2
184.Jump up ^ Bostom, Andrew G.; Ibn Warraq (2008). The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims. p. 391. ISBN 978-1-59102-602-0.
185.Jump up ^ Warrant for terror: fatwās of radical Islam and the duty of jihād, p. 68, Shmuel Bar, 2006
186.Jump up ^ The Osama bin Laden I know: an oral history of al-Qaeda's leader, p. 303, Peter L. Bergen, 2006 Jihad and international security, p. 90, Jalīl Rawshandil, Sharon Chadha, 2006
CNN.com - Transcripts
"Commanded to terrorize South Park?". The Vancouver Sun. 2010-04-30. Retrieved 2012-05-01.
187.Jump up ^ Counter terrorism site, May 2010
188.^ Jump up to: a b Cook, David. Understanding Jihad. University of California Press, 2005. Retrieved from Google Books on November 27, 2011. ISBN 0-520-24203-3, ISBN 978-0-520-24203-6.
189.Jump up ^ Owen, Richard (2008-03-24). "Pope converts outspoken Muslim who condemned religion of hate". The Times (London). Retrieved 2010-04-30.
190.Jump up ^ Irshad Manji's call for an Islamic reformation
191.Jump up ^ 'Turkish court slaps ban on homosexual group', Hürriyet daily newspaper, Turkey
192.Jump up ^ 'The case has ended: Not to be closed!', KAOS GL, Turkey
193.Jump up ^ Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not A Muslim, pages 340-344, Prometheus, New York, 1995
194.Jump up ^ Iran talks up temporary marriages, by Frances Harrison, BBC News, Last Updated: 2 June 2007. Temporary 'Enjoyment Marriages' In Vogue Again With Some Iraqis, by Nancy Trejos, The Washington Post, 20 January 2007.
195.Jump up ^ Law of desire: temporary marriage in Shi'i Iran, by Shahla Haeri, pg.6. Islam For Dummies, by Malcolm Clark.
Islam: a very short introduction, by Malise Ruthven.
196.Jump up ^ "In permitting these usufructuary marriages Muḥammad appears but to have given Divine (?) sanction to one of the abominable practices of ancient Arabia, for Burckhardt (vol. ii. p. 378) says, it was a custom of their forefathers to assign to a traveller who became their guest for the night, some female of the family, most commonly the host’s own wife!" Hughes, T. P. (1885). In A Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopædia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs, together with the Technical and Theological Terms, of the Muhammadan Religion. London: W. H. Allen & Co. p. 424. Hughes also says "[t]hese temporary marriages are undoubtedly the greatest blot in Muḥammad’s moral legislation, and admit of no satisfactory apology." Hughes, T. P. (1885). In A Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopædia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs, together with the Technical and Theological Terms, of the Muhammadan Religion. London: W. H. Allen & Co. p. 314.
197.Jump up ^ Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Azim, Volume 1 p. 74 [8]
198.Jump up ^ Motahhari, Morteza. "The rights of woman in Islam, Fixed-Term marriage and the problem of the harem". al-islam.org. Retrieved 2011-01-10.
199.Jump up ^ Tabatabaei, Sayyid Mohammad Hosayn. "Tafsir al-Mizan, Vol 4, Surah an-Nisa, Verses 23-28". almizan.org. Retrieved 2011-01-10.
200.Jump up ^ http://www.zawaj.com/articles/mutah.html
201.Jump up ^ Temporary marriage, Encyclopedia Iranica
202.Jump up ^ Sachiko Murata, Temporary Marriage in Islamic Law
203.Jump up ^ Al-Qaradawi, Yusuf : Misyar marriage
204.Jump up ^ Islam and the West: The Clash Between Islamism and Secularism By Mushtaq K. Lod, pp. 58-59
205.Jump up ^ The Islamic Shield: Arab Resistance to Democratic and Religious Reforms By Elie Elhadj, p. 51
206.Jump up ^ Pohl, Florian (September 1, 2010). Muslim World: Modern Muslim Societies. Marshall Cavendish. pp. 52–53. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
207.Jump up ^ Al-Qaradawi, Yusuf : Zawaj al misyar p.8
208.Jump up ^ Al-Qaradawi, Yusuf : Zawaj al misyar , pp.13-14
209.Jump up ^ Bin Menie, Abdullah bin Sulaïman : fatwa concerning the misyar marriage (and opinions by Ibn Uthaymeen, Al-albany) (in Arabic) Yet another marriage with no strings - fatwa committee of al azhar against misyar
210.Jump up ^ Quran, 30 : 21
211.Jump up ^ Wassel quoted in Hassouna addimashqi, Arfane : Nikah al misyar (2000), (in Arabic), p 16)
212.Jump up ^ Fataawa ‘Ulama’ al-Balad al-Haraam (p. 450, 451) and Jareedah al-Jazeerah issue no. 8768,
213.Jump up ^ Ahkaam al-Ta’addud fi Daw’ al-Kitaab wa’l-Sunnah
214.Jump up ^ Misyaar marriage: definition and rulings Islam Q&A website (accessed 10/30/2012)
215.Jump up ^ Hajjar, Lisa. "Religion, state power, and domestic violence in Muslim societies: A framework for comparative analysis." Law & Social Inquiry 29.1 (2004); see pages 1-38
216.Jump up ^ Treacher, Amal. "Reading the Other Women, Feminism, and Islam." Studies in Gender and Sexuality 4.1 (2003); pages 59-71
217.Jump up ^ John C. Raines & Daniel C. Maguire (Ed), Farid Esack, What Men Owe to Women: Men's Voices from World Religions , State University of New York (2001), see pages 201-203
218.Jump up ^ Jackson, Nicky Ali, ed. Encyclopedia of domestic violence. CRC Press, 2007. (see chapter on Quranic perspectives on wife abuse)
219.Jump up ^ "Surah 4:34 (An-Nisaa), Alim — Translated by Mohammad Asad, Gibraltar (1980)".
220.Jump up ^ Salhi and Grami (2011), Gender and Violence in the Middle East and North Africa, Florence (Italy), European University Institute
221.Jump up ^ Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn, and Lois Bardsley-Sirois. "Obedience (Ta'a) in Muslim Marriage: Religious Interpretation and Applied Law in Egypt." Journal of Comparative Family Studies 21.1 (1990): 39-53.
222.Jump up ^ Maghraoui, Abdeslam. "Political authority in crisis: Mohammed VI's Morocco."Middle East Report 218 (2001): 12-17.
223.Jump up ^ Critelli, Filomena M. "Women's rights= Human rights: Pakistani women against gender violence." J. Soc. & Soc. Welfare 37 (2010), pages 135-142
224.Jump up ^ Oweis, Arwa, et al. "Violence Against Women Unveiling the Suffering of Women with a Low Income in Jordan." Journal of Transcultural Nursing 20.1 (2009): 69-76.
225.Jump up ^ Rohe, Mathias. "Shari’a in a European context" Legal practice and cultural diversity, Farnham: Ashgate (2009); see pages 93-114.
226.Jump up ^ Funder, Anna. "De Minimis Non Curat Lex: The Clitoris, Culture and the Law."Transnat'l L. & Contemp. Probs. 3 (1993): 417.
227.Jump up ^ Anwar, Zainah. "Law-making in the name of Islam: implications for democratic governance." Islam in Southeast Asia: Political, Social and Strategic Challenges for the 21 (2005); see pages 121-134
228.Jump up ^ Natasha Bakht, Law, Family Arbitration Using Sharia. Muslim World Journal of Human Right, Issue 1 (2004).
229.Jump up ^ CEDAW and Muslim Family Laws, Sisters in Islam, Malaysia (2011)
230.Jump up ^ Brandt, Michele, and Jeffrey A. Kaplan. "The Tension between Women's Rights and Religious Rights: Reservations to Cedaw by Egypt, Bangladesh and Tunisia." Journal of Law and Religion 12.1 (1995): 105-142.
231.Jump up ^ "Lebanon - IRIN, United Nations Office of Humanitarian Affairs (2009)". IRINnews.
232.Jump up ^ "UAE: Spousal Abuse never a Right, Human Rights Watch (2010)".
233.^ Jump up to: a b MENA Gender Equality Profile - Status of Girls and Women in the Middle East and North Africa, UNICEF (October 2011)
234.Jump up ^ "Age at First Marriage - Female By Country - Data from Quandl". Retrieved 22 March 2015.
235.Jump up ^ Kendra Heideman and Mona Youssef, Challenges to Women’s Security in the MENA Region, Wilson Center (March, 2013)
236.Jump up ^ "Sanja Kelly (2010) New Survey Assesses Women's Freedom in the Middle East, Freedom House (funded by US Department of State's Middle East Partnership Initiative)".
237.Jump up ^ Horrie, Chris; Chippindale, Peter (1991). p. 49.
238.^ Jump up to: a b David Powers (1993), Islamic Inheritance System: A Socio-Historical Approach, The Arab Law Quarterly, 8, p 13
239.Jump up ^ Dr. Badawi, Jamal A. (September 1971). "The Status of Women in Islam". Al-Ittihad Journal of Islamic Studies 8 (2).
240.Jump up ^ Feldman, Noah (March 16, 2008). "Why Shariah?". The New York Times. Retrieved September 17, 2011.
241.^ Jump up to: a b Bernard Lewis (2002), What Went Wrong?, ISBN 0-19-514420-1, pp. 82–83;
Brunschvig. 'Abd; Encyclopedia of Islam, Brill, 2nd Edition, Vol 1, pp. 13-40.
242.Jump up ^ ([Quran 16:71], [Quran 24:33],[Quran 30:28])
243.Jump up ^ Slavery in Islam BBC Religions Archives
244.Jump up ^ Mazrui, A. A. (1997). Islamic and Western values. Foreign Affairs, pp 118-132.
245.^ Jump up to: a b Ali, K. (2010). Marriage and slavery in early Islam. Harvard University Press.
246.Jump up ^ Sikainga, Ahmad A. (1996). Slaves Into Workers: Emancipation and Labor in Colonial Sudan. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-77694-2.
247.Jump up ^ Tucker, Judith E.; Nashat, Guity (1999). Women in the Middle East and North Africa. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21264-2.
248.^ Jump up to: a b Lovejoy, Paul (2000). Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa. Cambridge University Press. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-0521784306. "Quote: The religious requirement that new slaves be pagans and need for continued imports to maintain slave population made Africa an important source of slaves for the Islamic world. (...) In Islamic tradition, slavery was perceived as a means of converting non-Muslims. One task of the master was religious instruction and theoretically Muslims could not be enslaved. Conversion (of a non-Muslim to Islam) did not automatically lead to emancipation, but assimilation into Muslim society was deemed a prerequisite for emancipation."
249.Jump up ^ Jean Pierre Angenot et al. (2008). Uncovering the History of Africans in Asia. Brill Academic. p. 60. ISBN 978-9004162914. "Quote: Islam imposed upon the Muslim master an obligation to convert non-Muslim slaves and become members of the greater Muslim society. Indeed, the daily observation of well defined Islamic religious rituals was the outward manifestation of conversion without which emancipation was impossible."
250.Jump up ^ Kecia Ali; (Editor: Bernadette J. Brooten). Slavery and Sexual Ethics in Islam, in Beyond Slavery: Overcoming Its Religious and Sexual Legacies. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 107–119. ISBN 978-0230100169. "Quote: The slave who bore her master's child became known in Arabic as an "umm walad"; she could not be sold, and she was automatically freed upon her master's death. (page 113)"
251.Jump up ^ Hafez, Mohammed (September 2006). "Why Muslims Rebel". Al-Ittihad Journal of Islamic Studies 1 (2).
252.Jump up ^ Tariq Modood (2006-04-06). Multiculturalism, Muslims and Citizenship: A European Approach (1st ed.). Routledge. pp. 3, 29, 46. ISBN 978-0-415-35515-5.
253.Jump up ^ Pascal Bruckner - Enlightenment fundamentalism or racism of the anti-racists? [9] appeared originally in German in the online magazine Perlentaucher on January 24, 2007.
254.Jump up ^ Pascal Bruckner - A reply to Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash: "At the heart of the issue is the fact that in certain countries Islam is becoming Europe's second religion. As such, its adherents are entitled to freedom of religion, to decent locations and to all of our respect. On the condition, that is, that they themselves respect the rules of our republican, secular culture, and that they do not demand a status of extraterritoriality that is denied other religions, or claim special rights and prerogatives"
255.Jump up ^ Pascal Bruckner - A reply to Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash "It's so true that many English, Dutch and German politicians, shocked by the excesses that the wearing of the Islamic veil has given way to, now envisage similar legislation curbing religious symbols in public space. The separation of the spiritual and corporeal domains must be strictly maintained, and belief must confine itself to the private realm."
256.Jump up ^ Nazir-Ali, Michael (6 January 2008). "Extremism flourished as UK lost Christianity". London: The Sunday Telegraph.
257.Jump up ^ 2001 Census of Canada: http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/home/index.cfm
258.Jump up ^ Canadian Public Opinion Poll, 2nd October 2013
259.Jump up ^ "The Boston Bombings Could Be Disastrous For Immigration Reform". 19 April 2013.
260.Jump up ^ Bryan Fischer Beckel is right no more Muslim student visas, no more mosques
261.Jump up ^ George Pell (2004-10-12). "Is there only secular democracy? Imagining other possibilities for the third millennium". Archived from the original on 2006-02-08. Retrieved 2006-05-08.
262.Jump up ^ George Pell (2006-02-04). "Islam and Western Democracies". Archived from the original on June 5, 2006. Retrieved 2006-05-05.
263.Jump up ^ Toni Hassan (2004-11-12). "Islam is the new communism: Pell". Retrieved 2006-05-08.
264.Jump up ^ Schwartz, Stephen. "What Is 'Islamofascism'?". TCS Daily. Retrieved 2006-09-14.
265.Jump up ^ Hitchens, Christopher: Defending Islamofascism: It's a valid term. Here's why, Slate, 2007-10-22
266.Jump up ^ A Fury For God, Malise Ruthven, Granta, 2002, p.207-8
267.Jump up ^ http://www.aina.org/news/20090126124950.htm
268.Jump up ^ Esposito, John L. (2002). What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515713-3.
269.Jump up ^ Esposito, John L. (2003). Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516886-0.
270.Jump up ^ Esposito, John L. (1999). The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?. Oxford University Press. pp. 225–228. ISBN 0-19-513076-6.
271.Jump up ^ Armstrong, Karen (1993). Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet. HarperSanFrancisco. p. 165. ISBN 0-06-250886-5.
272.Jump up ^ The Nation - 'Islam Through Western Eyes'
273.Jump up ^ Fighting Islamophobia: A Response to Critics by Deepa Kumar, Monthly Review, April 2006
References[edit]
Ali, Muhammad (1997). Muhammad the Prophet. Ahamadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam. ISBN 978-0913321072.
Cohen, Mark R. (1995). Under Crescent and Cross. Princeton University Press; Reissue edition. ISBN 978-0-691-01082-3.
Lockman, Zachary (2004). Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62937-9.
Rippin, Andrew (2001). Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-21781-1.
Westerlund, David (2003). "Ahmed Deedat's Theology of Religion: Apologetics through Polemics". Journal of Religion in Africa 33 (3): 263. doi:10.1163/157006603322663505.
Further reading[edit]
Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide by Bat Ye'or
Decline of Eastern Christianity: From Jihad to Dhimmitude by Bat Ye'or
The Al Qaeda Connection: International Terrorism, Organized Crime, And the Coming Apocalypse by Paul L. Williams
The Amazing Quran by Gary Miller
An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terrorism by Victor Davis Hanson
Arabs and Israel - Conflict or Conciliation? by Sheikh Ahmed Hoosen Deedat
Slavery in Islam, BBC, September 7, 2009
Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam by Gilles Kepel
The War for Muslim Minds by Gilles Kepel
J. Tolan, Saracens; Islam in the Medieval European Imagination (2002)
Esposito, John L. (1995). The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0-19-510298-3.
Halliday, Fred (2003). Islam and the Myth of Confrontation: Religion and Politics of the Middle East. I.B. Tauris, New York. ISBN 1-86064-868-1.
Esposito, John L. (2003). Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0-19-516886-0.
Geisler, Norman L. (2002). Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of the Cross. Baker Books. ISBN 0-8010-6430-9.
Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim (1995)
—, Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out
The Institute for the Study of Civil Society report - The ‘West’, Islam and Islamism
Zwemer Islam, a Challenge to Faith (New York, 1907)
Shoja-e-din Shafa, Rebirth (1995) (Persian Title: تولدى ديگر)
Shoja-e-din Shafa, After 1400 Years (2000) (Persian Title: پس از 1400 سال)


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Criticism of Islam

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"Opposition to Islam" redirects here. For other uses, see Anti-Islam.
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Criticism of Islam has existed since its formative stages. Early written criticism came from Christians, prior to the ninth century, many of whom viewed Islam as a radical Christian heresy.[1] Hindus and Zoroastrians made notable criticism as well. Later the Muslim world itself offered criticism.[2][3][4] Criticism of Islam in the West was renewed after the September 11 attacks and other terror attacks in the 21st century.[5]
Objects of criticism include the morality of the life of Muhammad, the last prophet according to Islam, both in his public and personal life.[4][6] Issues relating to the authenticity and morality of the Quran, the Islamic holy book, are also discussed by critics.[7] Figures in Africa and India have described what they perceive as destruction of indigenous cultures by Islam. Other criticism focuses on the question of human rights in the Islamic world historically and in modern Islamic nations, including the treatment of women and religious and ethnic minorities in Islamic law and practice.[8][9] In wake of the recent multiculturalism trend, Islam's influence on the ability or willingness of Muslim immigrants in the Western world,[10] and other countries such as India[11][12][13] and Russia,[14][15] to assimilate has been criticized.


Contents  [hide]
1 History 1.1 Early Islam
1.2 Medieval world 1.2.1 Medieval Islamic world
1.2.2 Medieval Christianity
1.3 Enlightenment Europe
1.4 Nineteenth and twentieth century
1.5 Modern world 1.5.1 Modern Christianity and the Western world
1.5.2 Modern Hinduism
1.5.3 Modern African Traditional

2 Truthfulness of Islam and Islamic scriptures 2.1 Reliability of the Quran
2.2 Reliability of the Hadith
2.3 Lack of secondary evidence
3 Morality 3.1 Muhammad 3.1.1 Age of Muhammad's wife Aisha
3.2 Morality of the Quran
3.3 Slavery
3.4 Apostasy 3.4.1 Islamic law
3.4.2 Human rights conventions
3.5 Violence
3.6 Homosexuals
3.7 Short-term and limited marriages 3.7.1 Short-term marriage
3.7.2 Contractually limited marriage

4 Women in Islam 4.1 Domestic violence
4.2 Personal status laws and child marriage
4.3 Women's right to property and consent
5 Criticism of Muslim immigrants and immigration
6 Comparison with communism and fascist ideologies
7 Responses to criticism
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References
11 Further reading

History[edit]
Early Islam[edit]

 

John of Damascus a Syrian monk and presbyter, 19th-century Arabic icon
The earliest surviving written criticisms of Islam are to be found in the writings of Christians who came under the early dominion of the Islamic Caliphate. One such Christian was John of Damascus (c. 676–749 AD), who was familiar with Islam and Arabic. The second chapter of his book, The Fount of Wisdom, titled "Concerning Heresies", presents a series of discussions between Christians and Muslims. John claimed an Arian monk (whom he did not know was Bahira) influenced Muhammad and viewed the Islamic doctrines as nothing more than a hodgepodge culled from the Bible.[16] Writing on Islam's claim of Abrahamic ancestry, John explained that the Arabs were called "Saracens" (Greek Σαρακενοί, Sarakenoi) because they were "empty" (κενός, kenos, in Greek) "of Sarah". They were called "Hagarenes" because they were "the descendants of the slave-girl Hagar".[17] In the opinion of John Tolan, a Professor of Medieval History, John's biography of Muhammad is "based on deliberate distortions of Muslim traditions".[18]
Other notable early critics of Islam included:
Abu Isa al-Warraq, a 9th-century scholar and critic of Islam.[19]:224
Ibn al-Rawandi, a 9th-century atheist, who repudiated Islam and revealed religion in general.[19]
Medieval world[edit]
Medieval Islamic world[edit]
In the early centuries of the Islamic Caliphate, the Islamic law allowed citizens to freely express their views, including criticism of Islam and religious authorities, without fear of persecution.[20][21][22] As such, there have been several notable Muslim critics and skeptics of Islam that arose from within the Islamic world itself. In tenth and eleventh-century Syria there lived a blind poet called Al-Ma'arri. He became well known for a poetry that was affected by a "pervasive pessimism." He labeled religions in general as "noxious weeds" and said that Islam does not have a monopoly on truth. He had particular contempt for the ulema, writing that:

They recite their sacred books, although the fact informs me that these are fiction from first to last. O Reason, thou (alone) speakest the truth. Then perish the fools who forged the religious traditions or interpreted them![2][23]
Another early critic was the Persian physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi in the 10th century. He criticized Islam and all prophetical religions in general in several treatises.[19]:227–230 Despite his views, he remained a celebrated physician across the Islamic world.[24] In 1280, the Jewish philosopher, Ibn Kammuna, criticized Islam in his book Examination of the Three Faiths. He reasoned that the Sharia was incompatible with the principles of justice, and that this undercut the notion of Muhammad being the perfect man: "there is no proof that Muhammad attained perfection and the ability to perfect others as claimed."[25][26] The philosopher thus claimed that people converted to Islam from ulterior motives:

That is why, to this day we never see anyone converting to Islam unless in terror, or in quest of power, or to avoid heavy taxation, or to escape humiliation, or if taken prisoner, or because of infatuation with a Muslim woman, or for some similar reason. Nor do we see a respected, wealthy, and pious non-Muslim well versed in both his faith and that of Islam, going over to the Islamic faith without some of the aforementioned or similar motives.[3]
According to Bernard Lewis, just as it is natural for a Muslim to assume that the converts to his religion are attracted by its truth, it is equally natural for the convert's former coreligionists to look for baser motives and Ibn Kammuna's list seems to cover most of such nonreligious motives.[27]
Maimonides, one of the foremost 12th century rabbinical arbiters and philosophers, sees the relation of Islam to Judaism as primarily theoretical. Maimonides has no quarrel with the strict monotheism of Islam, but finds fault with the practical politics of Muslim regimes. He also considered Islamic ethics and politics to be inferior to their Jewish counterparts. Maimonides criticised what he perceived as the lack of virtue in the way Muslims rule their societies and relate to one another.[28] In his Epistle to Yemenite Jewry, he refers to Mohammad, as "hameshuga" – "that madman".[29]
Medieval Christianity[edit]
Main article: Medieval Christian views on Muhammad

 

Dante shown holding a copy of the Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelino's frescoIn Dante's Inferno, Muhammad is portrayed as split in half, with his guts hanging out, representing his status as a schismatic (one who broke from the Church).
Some medieval ecclesiastical writers portrayed Muhammad as possessed by Satan, a "precursor of the Antichrist" or the Antichrist himself.[4]
Denis the Carthusian wrote two treatises to refute Islam at the request of Nicholas of Cusa, Contra perfidiam Mahometi, et contra multa dicta Sarracenorum libri quattuor and Dialogus disputationis inter Christianum et Sarracenum de lege Christi et contra perfidiam Mahometi.[30]
The Tultusceptrum de libro domni Metobii, an Andalusian manuscript with unknown dating, shows how Muhammad (called Ozim, from Hashim) was tricked by Satan into adulterating an originally pure divine revelation. The story argues God was concerned about the spiritual fate of the Arabs and wanted to correct their derivation from the faith. He then sends an angel to the monk Osius who orders him to preach to the Arabs. Osius however is in ill-health and orders a young monk, Ozim, to carry out the angel's orders instead. Ozim sets out to follow his orders, but gets stopped by an evil angel on the way. The ignorant Ozim believes him to be the same angel that spoke to Osius before. The evil angel modifies and corrupts the original message given to Ozim by Osius, and renames Ozim Muhammad. From this followed the erroneous teachings of Islam, according to the Tultusceptrum.[31]
According to many Christians, the coming of Muhammad was foretold in the Holy Bible. According to the monk Bede this is in Genesis 16:12, which describes Ishmael as "a wild man" whose "hand will be against every man". Bede says about Muhammad: "Now how great is his hand against all and all hands against him; as they impose his authority upon the whole length of Africa and hold both the greater part of Asia and some of Europe, hating and opposing all."[32]
In 1391 a dialogue was believed to have occurred between Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and a Persian scholar in which the Emperor stated:

Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached. God is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death.[33]
Enlightenment Europe[edit]

 

David Hume
In Of the Standard of Taste, an essay by David Hume, the Quran is described as an "absurd performance" of a "pretended prophet" who lacked "a just sentiment of morals." Attending to the narration, Hume says, "we shall soon find, that [Muhammad] bestows praise on such instances of treachery, inhumanity, cruelty, revenge, bigotry, as are utterly incompatible with civilized society. No steady rule of right seems there to be attended to; and every action is blamed or praised, so far as it is beneficial or hurtful to the true believers."[34]
Nineteenth and twentieth century[edit]
During the whole 19th and 20th century, numerous personalities have criticized Muslims and Islam, either the criticism was based on the scriptural evidences, or the basic Muslim representation of their culture and religion. While some would suggest the better examples in terms of civilization, economy, awareness, etc., but possess critical view towards Muslims.

 

Vivekananda in 1900, at San Francisco
The Hindu philosopher Vivekananda commented on Islam:

Now, the Muslims are the crudest in this respect, and the most sectarian. Their watch-word is: there is one God (Allah), and Mohammed is His Prophet. Everything beyond that not only is bad, but must be destroyed forthwith, at a moment’s notice, every man or woman who does not exactly believe in that must be killed; everything that does not belong to this worship must be immediately broken; every book that teaches anything else must be burnt. From the Pacific to the Atlantic, for five hundred years blood ran all over the world. That is Mohammedanism.[35]

The more selfish a man, the more immoral he is. And so also with the race. That race which is bound down to itself has been the most cruel and the most wicked in the whole world. There has not been a religion that has clung to this dualism more than that founded by the Prophet of Arabia, and there has not been a religion, which has shed so much blood and been so cruel to other men. In the Koran there is the doctrine that a man who does not believe these teachings should be killed, it is a mercy to kill him! And the surest way to get to heaven, where there are beautiful houris and all sorts of sense enjoyments, is by killing these unbelievers. Think of the bloodshed there has been in consequence of such beliefs! [36]

Why religions should claim that they are not bound to abide by the standpoint of reason, no one knows. If one does not take the standard of reason, there cannot be any true judgment, even in the case of religions. One religion may ordain something very hideous. For instance, the Mohammedan religion allows Mohammedans to kill all who are not of their religion. It is clearly stated in the Koran, Kill the infidels if they do not become Mohammedans. They must be put to fire and sword. Now if we tell a Mohammedan that this is wrong, he will naturally ask, "How do you know that? How do you know it is not good? My book says it is." [37]
Dayanand Saraswati calls the concept of Islam to be highly offensive, and doubted that there is any connection of Islam with God:

Had the God of the Quran been the Lord of all creatures, and been Merciful and kind to all, he would never have commanded the Mohammedans to slaughter men of other faiths, and animals, etc. If he is Merciful, will he show mercy even to the sinners? If the answer be given in the affirmative, it cannot be true, because further on it is said in the Quran "Put infidels to sword," in other words, he that does not believe in the Quran and the Prophet Mohammad is an infidel (he should, therefore, be put to death). (Since the Quran sanctions such cruelty to non-Mohammedans and innocent creatures such as cows) it can never be the Word of God.[38]
Pandit Lekh Ram regarded that Islam was grown through the violence and desire for wealth. He further asserted that Muslims deny the entire Islamic prescribed violence and atrocities, and will continue doing so. He wrote:-

All educated people start looking down upon the forcible conversions and even started objecting to their very basis. Since then some naturalist Mohammadis[Muslims] are trying, rather opposing falsehood and accepting the truth, to prove unnecessarily and wrongly that Islam never indulged in Jihad and the people were never converted to Islam forcibly. Neither any temples were demolished nor were ever cows slaughtered in the temples. Women and children belonging to other religious sects were never forcibly converted to Islam nor did they ever commit any sexual acts with them as could have been done with the slave-males and females both.[39]
The Victorian orientalist scholar Sir William Muir criticised Islam for what he perceived to be an inflexible nature, which he held responsible for stifling progress and impeding social advancement in Muslims countries. The following sentences are taken from the Rede Lecture he delivered at Cambridge in 1881:

Some, indeed, dream of an Islam in the future, rationalised and regenerate. All this has been tried already, and has miserably failed. The Koran has so encrusted the religion in a hard unyielding casement of ordinances and social laws, that if the shell be broken the life is gone. A rationalistic Islam would be Islam no longer. The contrast between our own faith and Islam is most remarkable. There are in our Scriptures living germs of truth, which accord with civil and religious liberty, and will expand with advancing civilisation. In Islam it is just the reverse. The Koran has no such teaching as with us has abolished polygamy, slavery, and arbitrary divorce, and has elevated woman to her proper place. As a Reformer, Mahomet did advance his people to a certain point, but as a Prophet he left them fixed immovably at that point for all time to come. The tree is of artificial planting. Instead of containing within itself the germ of growth and adaptation to the various requirements of time and clime and circumstance, expanding with the genial sunshine and rain from heaven, it remains the same forced and stunted thing as when first planted some twelve centuries ago."[40]
Winston Churchill criticized what he alleged to be the effects Islam had on its believers, which he described as fanatical frenzy combined with fatalistic apathy, enslavement of women, and militant proselytizing.[41] In his 1899 book The River War he says:

 

 A young Winston Churchill on a lecture tour of the United States in 1900
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property - either as a child, a wife, or a concubine - must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.[41]
James Fitzjames Stephen, describing what he understood to be the Islamic conception of the ideal society, wrote the following:

Not only are the varieties of morality innumerable, but some of them are conflicting with each other. If a Mahommedan, for instance, is fully to realize his ideal, to carry out into actual fact his experiment of living, he must be one of a ruling race which has trodden the enemies of Islam under their feet, and has forced them to choose between the tribute and the sword. He must be able to put in force the law of the Koran both as to the faithful and as to unbelievers. In short, he must conquer. Englishmen come into a country where Mahommedans had more or less realized their ideal, and proceed to govern it with the most unfeigned belief in the order of ideas of which liberty is the motto.[42]

 

Sadegh Hedayat
Zoroastrian writer Sadegh Hedayat regarded Islam as the corrupter of Iran, he said:

Every aspect of life and thought, including women's condition, changed after Islam. Enslaved by men, women were confined to the home. Polygamy, injection of fatalistic attitude, mourning, sorrow and grief led people to seek solace in magic, witchcraft, prayer, and supernatural beings.[43]
The church historian, Philip Schaff described Islam as spread by violence and fanaticism, and producing a variety of social ills in the regions it conquered.[44]

Mohammedanism conquered the fairest portions of the earth by the sword and cursed them by polygamy, slavery, despotism and desolation. The moving power of Christian missions was love to God and man; the moving power of Islâm was fanaticism and brute force.[44]

 

Anglican priest, scholar and hymn-writer John Mason Neale
Schaff also described Islam as a derivative religion based on an amalgamation of "heathenism, Judaism and Christianity."[45]

lslâm is not a new religion...[i]t is a compound or mosaic of preëxisting elements, a rude attempt to combine heathenism, Judaism and Christianity, which Mohammed found in Arabia, but in a very imperfect form.[45]
J. M. Neale criticized Islam in terms similar to those of Schaff, arguing that it was made up of a mixture of beliefs that provided something for everyone.[46]

...he [Muhammad] also infuses into his religion so much of each of those tenets to which the varying sects of his countrymen were addicted, as to enable each and all to please themselves by the belief that the new doctrine was only a reform of, and improvement on, that to which they had been accustomed. The Christians were conciliated by the acknowledgment of our LORD as the Greatest of Prophets; the Jews, by the respectful mention of Moses and their other Lawgivers; the idolaters, by the veneration which the Impostor professed for the Temple of Mecca, and the black stone which it contained; and the Chaldeans, by the pre-eminence which he gives to the ministrations of the Angel Gabriel, and his whole scheme of the Seven Heavens. To a people devoted to the gratification of their passions and addicted to Oriental luxury, he appealed, not unsuccessfully, by the promise of a Paradise whose sensual delights were unbounded, and the permission of a free exercise of pleasures in this world.[46]
Mahatma Gandhi, the most acknowledged freedom fighter of India, found the history of Muslims to be aggressive, while he pointed out that Hindus have passed that stage of societal evolution:-

Though, in my opinion, non violence has a predominant place in the Quran, the thirteen hundred years of imperialistic expansion has made the Muslims fighters as a body. They are therefore aggressive. Bullying is the natural excrescence of an aggressive spirit. The Hindu has an ages old civilization. He is essentially non violent. His civilization has passed through the experiences that the two recent ones are still passing through. If Hinduism was ever imperialistic in the modern sense of the term, it has outlived its imperialism and has either deliberately or as a matter of course given it up. Predominance of the non violent spirit has restricted the use of arms to a small minority which must always be subordinate to a civil power highly spiritual, learned and selfless. The Hindus as a body are therefore not equipped for fighting. But not having retained their spiritual training, they have forgotten the use of an effective substitute for arms and not knowing their use nor having an aptitude for them, they have become docile to the point of timidity and cowardice. This vice is therefore a natural excrescence of gentleness.[47][48]
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, in his book "Discovery of India", describes Islam to have been a faith for military conquests. He wrote "Islam had become a more rigid faith suited more to military conquests rather than the conquests of the mind," and that Muslims brought nothing new to his country.

The Muslims who came to India from outside brought no new technique or political or economic structure. In spite of religious belief in the brotherhood of Islam, they were class bound and feudal in outlook.[49]
Modern world[edit]
Modern Christianity and the Western world[edit]
André Servier, a historian who lived in French Algeria at the beginning of the 20th century, studied well the customs and manners of the North African people, becoming one of the few French intellectuals who studied in depth Ibn Ishaq's Sira. His research included the Ottoman Empire and the Panislamic movement. He criticized Islam in his book L’islam et la psychologie du musulman saying that:

Islam was not a torch, as has been claimed, but an extinguisher. Conceived in a barbarous brain for the use of a barbarous people, it was - and it remains - incapable of adapting itself to civilization. Wherever it has dominated, it has broken the impulse towards progress and checked the evolution of society.[50]

Islam is Christianity adapted to Arab mentality, or, more exactly, it is all that the unimaginative brain of a Bedouin, obstinately faithful to ancestral practices, has been able to assimilate of the Christian doctrines. Lacking the gift of imagination, the Bedouin copies, and in copying he distorts the original. Thus Musulman law is only the Roman Code revised and corrected by Arabs; in the same way Musulman science is nothing but Greek science interpreted by the Arab brain; and again, Musulman architecture is merely a distorted imitation of the Byzantine style.[50]

The deadening influence of Islam is well demonstrated by the way in which the Musulman comports himself at different stages of his life. In his early childhood, when the religion has not as yet impregnated his brain, he shows a very lively intelligence and remarkably open mind, accessible to ideas of every kind; but, in proportion as he grows up, and as, through the system of his education, Islam lays hold of him and envelops him, his brain seems to shut up, his judgment to become atrophied, and his intelligence to be stricken by paralysis and irremediable degeneration.[50]

Islam is by no means a negligible element in the destiny of humanity. The mass of three hundred million believers is growing daily, because in most Musulman countries the birth-rate exceeds the death-rate, and also because the religious propaganda is constantly gaining new adherents among tribes still in a state of barbarism.[50]

To sum up: the Arab has borrowed everything from other nations, literature, art, science, and even his religious ideas. He has passed it all through the sieve of his own narrow mind, and being incapable of rising to high philosophic conceptions, he has distorted, mutilated and desiccated everything. This destructive influence explains the decadence of Musulman nations and their powerlessness to break away from barbarism…[50]

Islam is a doctrine of death, inasmuch as the spiritual not being separated from the temporal, and every manifestation of activity being subjected to dogmatic law, it formally forbids any change, any evolution, any progress. It condemns all believers to live, to think, and to act as lived, thought and acted the Musulmans of the second century of the Hegira [8th century A.D.], when the law of Islam and its interpretation were definitely fixed.
 . . .
In the history of the nations, Islam, a secretion of the Arab brain, has never been an element of civilization, but on the contrary has acted as an extinguisher upon its flickering light. Individuals under Arab rule have only been able to contribute to the advance of civilization in so far as they did not conform to the Musulman dogma, but they relapsed into Arab barbarism as soon as they were obliged to make a complete submission to these dogmas.
 . . .
 Islamized nations, who have not succeeded in freeing themselves from Musulman tutelage, have been stricken with intellectual paralysis and decadence. They will only escape as they succeed in withdrawing themselves from the control of Musulman law.[50]
The early 20th-century missionary James L. Barton argued that Islam's view of the sovereignty of God is so extreme and unbalanced as to produce a fatalism that stifles human initiative:[51]

Man is reduced to a cipher. Human agency and human freedom are nullified. Right is no longer right because it is right, but because Allah wills it to be right. It is for this reason that monotheism has in Islam stifled human effort and progress. It has become a deadening doctrine of fate. Man must believe and pray, but these do not insure salvation or any benefit except Allah wills it. Why should human effort strive by sanitary means to prevent disease, when death or life depends in no way on such measures but upon the will of Allah? One reason why Moslem countries are so stagnant and backward in all that goes to make up a high civilization is owing to the deadening effects of monotheism thus interpreted. ... even in the most extreme forms of the Augustinian and Calvinistic systems there were always present in Christianity other elements which prevented the conception of the divine sovereignty from paralyzing the healthy activities of life as the Mohammedan doctrine has done.[51]
G. K. Chesterton criticized Islam as a derivative from Christianity. He described it as a heresy or parody of Christianity. In The Everlasting Man he says:

Islam was a product of Christianity; even if it was a by-product; even if it was a bad product. It was a heresy or parody emulating and therefore imitating the Church...Islam, historically speaking, is the greatest of the Eastern heresies. It owed something to the quite isolated and unique individuality of Israel; but it owed more to Byzantium and the theological enthusiasm of Christendom. It owed something even to the Crusades.[52]
During a lecture given at the University of Regensburg in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI quoted an unfavorable remark about Islam made at the end of the 14th century by Manuel II Palaiologos, the Byzantine emperor:

Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached
.[53][54] As the English translation of the Pope's lecture was disseminated across the world, many Islamic politicians and religious leaders protested against what they saw as an insulting mischaracterization of Islam.[53][54] Mass street protests were mounted in many Islamic countries, the Majlis-e-Shoora (Pakistani parliament) unanimously called on the Pope to retract "this objectionable statement".[55]
Modern Hinduism[edit]
Nobel prize-winning novelist V. S. Naipaul stated that Islam requires its adherents to destroy everything which is not related to it. He described it as having a:

Calamitous effect on converted peoples, to be converted you have to destroy your past, destroy your history. You have to stamp on it, you have to say 'my ancestral culture does not exist, it doesn't matter'.[56]
Modern African Traditional[edit]
Nobel prize-winning playwright Wole Soyinka stated that Islam had a role in denigrating African spiritual traditions. He criticized attempts to whitewash what he sees as the destructive and coercive history of Islam on the continent:

Let those who wish to retain or evaluate religion as a twenty-first project feel free to do so, but let it not be done as a continuation of the game of denigration against the African spiritual heritage as in a recent television series perpetrated by Islam's born again revisionist of history, Professor Ali Mazrui.[57]
Soyinka also regarded Islam as "superstition", and said that it does not belong to Africa. He stated that it is mainly spread with violence and force.[58]
Truthfulness of Islam and Islamic scriptures[edit]
Reliability of the Quran[edit]

 

 12th-century Andalusian Qur'an
See also: History of the Quran, The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran, Criticism of the Quran and Historicity of Muhammad
According to traditional Islamic scholarship, all of the Quran was written down by Muhammad's companions while he was alive (during AD 610-632), but it was primarily an orally related document. The written compilation of the whole Qur'an in its definite form as we have it now was not completed until many years after the death of Muhammad.[59] John Wansbrough, Patricia Crone and Yehuda D. Nevo argue that all the primary sources which exist are from 150–300 years after the events which they describe, and thus are chronologically far removed from those events.[60][61][62]
Critics reject the idea that the Quran is miraculously perfect and impossible to imitate as asserted in the Quran itself.[63] The Jewish Encyclopedia, for example, writes: "The language of the Koran is held by the Mohammedans to be a peerless model of perfection. Critics, however, argue that peculiarities can be found in the text. For example, critics note that a sentence in which something is said concerning Allah is sometimes followed immediately by another in which Allah is the speaker (examples of this are suras xvi. 81, xxvii. 61, xxxi. 9, and xliii. 10.) Many peculiarities in the positions of words are due to the necessities of rhyme (lxix. 31, lxxiv. 3), while the use of many rare words and new forms may be traced to the same cause (comp. especially xix. 8, 9, 11, 16)."[64]
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, "The dependence of Mohammed upon his Jewish teachers or upon what he heard of the Jewish Haggadah and Jewish practices is now generally conceded."[64] John Wansbrough believes that the Quran is a redaction in part of other sacred scriptures, in particular the Judaeo-Christian scriptures.[65][66] Herbert Berg writes that "Despite John Wansbrough's very cautious and careful inclusion of qualifications such as "conjectural," and "tentative and emphatically provisional", his work is condemned by some. Some of this negative reaction is undoubtedly due to its radicalness...Wansbrough's work has been embraced wholeheartedly by few and has been employed in a piecemeal fashion by many. Many praise his insights and methods, if not all of his conclusions."[67] Early jurists and theologians of Islam mentioned some Jewish influence but they also say where it is seen and recognized as such, it is perceived as a debasement or a dilution of the authentic message. Bernard Lewis describes this as "something like what in Christian history was called a Judaizing heresy."[68] According to Moshe Sharon, the story of Muhammad having Jewish teachers is a legend developed in the 10th century A.D.[69] Philip Schaff described the Quran as having "many passages of poetic beauty, religious fervor, and wise counsel, but mixed with absurdities, bombast, unmeaning images, low sensuality."[70]
Ibn Warraq wrote that the Iranian rationalist Ali Dashti has criticized the Quran on the basis that for some passages, "the speaker cannot have been God."[71] Warraq gives Surah Fatihah as an example of a passage which is "clearly addressed to God, in the form of a prayer." He says that by only adding the word "say" in front of the passage, this difficulty could have been removed. Moreover, Warraq wrote in the same book that, it is also known that one of the companions of Muhammad, Ibn Masud, rejected Surah Fatihah as being part of the Quran; this kind of disagreement is, in fact, common among the companions of Muhammad who could not decide which surahs were part of the Quran and which not. This further undermines the Quran's claim as being perfectly preserved.
Critics argue that:
the Quran contains verses which are difficult to understand or contradictory.[72]
Some accounts of the history of Islam say there were two verses of the Quran that were allegedly added by Muhammad when he was tricked by Satan (in an incident known as the "Story of the Cranes", later referred to as the "Satanic Verses"). These verses were then retracted at angel Gabriel's behest.[73][74]
The author of the Apology of al-Kindy Abd al-Masih ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (not to be confused with the famed philosopher al-Kindi) claimed that the narratives in the Quran were "all jumbled together and intermingled" and that this was "an evidence that many different hands have been at work therein, and caused discrepancies, adding or cutting out whatever they liked or disliked".[75]
The companions of Muhammad could not agree on which surahs were part of the Quran and which not. Two of the most famous companions being Ibn Masud and Ubay ibn Ka'b.[76]
Reliability of the Hadith[edit]
Main article: Criticism of Hadith

 

Syed Ahmad Khan wrote that the Hadith were not legally binding on Muslims
Hadith are Muslim traditions relating to the Sunnah (words and deeds) of Muhammad. They are drawn from the writings of scholars writing between 844 and 874 CE, more than 200 years after the death of Mohammed in 632 CE.[77] Within Islam, different schools and sects have different opinions on the proper selection and use of Hadith. The four schools of Sunni Islam all consider Hadith second only to the Quran, although they differ on how much freedom of interpretation should be allowed to legal scholars.[78] Shi'i scholars disagree with Sunni scholars as to which Hadith should be considered reliable. The Shi'as accept the Sunnah of Ali and the Imams as authoritative in addition to the Sunnah of Muhammad, and as a consequence they maintain their own, different, collections of Hadith.[79]
It has been suggested that there exists around the Hadith three major sources of corruption: political conflicts, sectarian prejudice, and the desire to translate the underlying meaning, rather than the original words verbatim.[80]
Muslim critics of the hadith, Quranists, reject the authority of hadith on theological grounds, pointing to verses in the Quran itself: "Nothing have We omitted from the Book",[81] declaring that all necessary instruction can be found within the Quran, without reference to the Hadith. They claim that following the Hadith has led to people straying from the original purpose of God's revelation to Muhammad, adherence to the Quran alone.[82] Syed Ahmad Khan (1817–1898) is often considered the founder of the modernist movement within Islam, noted for his application of "rational science" to the Quran and Hadith and his conclusion that the Hadith were not legally binding on Muslims.[83] His student, Chiragh ‘Ali, went further, suggesting nearly all the Hadith were fabrications.[83] Ghulam Ahmed Pervez (1903–1985) was a noted critic of the Hadith and believed that the Quran alone was all that was necessary to discern God's will and our obligations. A fatwa, ruling, signed by more than a thousand orthodox clerics, denounced him as a 'kafir', a non-believer.[84] His seminal work, Maqam-e Hadith argued that the Hadith were composed of "the garbled words of previous centuries", but suggests that he is not against the idea of collected sayings of the Prophet, only that he would consider any hadith that goes against the teachings of Quran to have been falsely attributed to the Prophet.[85] The 1986 Malaysian book "Hadith: A Re-evaluation" by Kassim Ahmad was met with controversy and some scholars declared him an apostate from Islam for suggesting that "“the hadith are sectarian, anti-science, anti-reason and anti-women."[83][86]
John Esposito notes that "Modern Western scholarship has seriously questioned the historicity and authenticity of the hadith", maintaining that "the bulk of traditions attributed to the Prophet Muhammad were actually written much later." He mentions Joseph Schacht, considered the father of the revisionist movement, as one scholar who argues this, claiming that Schacht "found no evidence of legal traditions before 722," from which Schacht concluded that "the Sunna of the Prophet is not the words and deeds of the Prophet, but apocryphal material" dating from later.[87] Other scholars, however, such as Wilferd Madelung, have argued that "wholesale rejection as late fiction is unjustified".[88]
Orthodox Muslims do not deny the existence of false hadith, but believe that through the scholars' work, these false hadith have been largely eliminated.[89]
Lack of secondary evidence[edit]

 

Sana'a manuscripts of the Qur'an
See also: Historiography of early Islam
The traditional view of Islam has also been criticised for the lack of supporting evidence consistent with that view, such as the lack of archaeological evidence, and discrepancies with non-Muslim literary sources.[90] In the 1970s, what has been described as a "wave of sceptical scholars" challenged a great deal of the received wisdom in Islamic studies.[91]:23 They argued that the Islamic historical tradition had been greatly corrupted in transmission. They tried to correct or reconstruct the early history of Islam from other, presumably more reliable, sources such as coins, inscriptions, and non-Islamic sources. The oldest of this group was John Wansbrough (1928–2002). Wansbrough's works were widely noted, but perhaps not widely read.[91]:38 In 1972 a cache of ancient Qur'ans in a mosque in Sana'a, Yemen was discovered – commonly known as the Sana'a manuscripts. The German scholar Gerd R. Puin has been investigating these Quran fragments for years. His research team made 35,000 microfilm photographs of the manuscripts, which he dated to early part of the 8th century. Puin has not published the entirety of his work, but noted unconventional verse orderings, minor textual variations, and rare styles of orthography. He also suggested that some of the parchments were palimpsests which had been reused. Puin believed that this implied an evolving text as opposed to a fixed one.[92]
Morality[edit]
Muhammad[edit]
Main article: Criticism of Muhammad

 

Dante Alighieri criticised Muhammad in his work Inferno, depicting him as being tortured in Hell.
Muhammad is considered as one of the prophets in Islam a model for followers. Critics such as Sigismund Koelle and former Muslim Ibn Warraq see some of Mohammed's actions as immoral.[4][6]
Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf wrote a poetic eulogy commemorating the slain Quraish notables; later, he had traveled to Mecca and provoked the Quraish to fight Muhammad. He also wrote erotic poetry about Muslim women, which offended the Muslims there.[93] This poetry influenced so many[94] that this too was considered directly against the Constitution of Medina which states, loyalty gives protection against treachery and this document will not (be employed to) protect one who is unjust or commits a crime. Other sources also state that he was plotting to assassinate Muhammad.[95] Muhammad called upon his followers to kill Ka'b. Muhammad ibn Maslama offered his services, collecting four others. By pretending to have turned against Muhammad, Muhammad ibn Maslama and the others enticed Ka'b out of his fortress on a moonlit night,[93] and killed him in spite of his vigorous resistance.[96] The Jews were terrified at his assassination, and as the historian Ibn Ishaq put it "...there was not a Jew who did not fear for his life".[97]
Age of Muhammad's wife Aisha[edit]
See also: Criticism of Muhammad (Aisha) and Child marriage
According to scriptural Sunni's Hadith sources, Aisha was six or seven years old when she was married to Muhammad and nine when the marriage was consummated.[98][99][100][101][102][103]
Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, born in Persia two hundred years after Muhammmad's death, suggested that she was ten years old.[101] Six hundred years after Muhammad, Ibn Khallikan recorded that she was nine years old at marriage, and twelve at consummation. Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi, born about 150 years after Muhammad's death, cited Hisham ibn Urwah as saying that she was nine years old at marriage, and twelve at consummation,[104] but Hisham ibn Urwah's original source is otherwise unknown, and Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi's work does not have the high religious status of the Hadith.
In the twentieth century, Pakistani writer Muhammad Ali challenged the Hadith showing that Aisha was as young as the traditional sources claim; arguing that instead a new interpretation of the Hadith compiled by Mishkat al-Masabih, Wali-ud-Din Muhammad ibn Abdullah Al-Khatib, could indicate that Aisha would have been nineteen years old around the time of her marriage.[105]
Morality of the Quran[edit]
See also: Criticism of the Quran and Islamic ethics

 

 9th-century Quran in Reza Abbasi Museum
According to some critics, the morality of the Quran appears to be a moral regression when judged by the standards of the moral traditions of Judaism and Christianity it says that it builds upon. The Catholic Encyclopedia, for example, states that "the ethics of Islam are far inferior to those of Judaism and even more inferior to those of the New Testament" and "that in the ethics of Islam there is a great deal to admire and to approve, is beyond dispute; but of originality or superiority, there is none."[106]
Critics stated that the Quran[Quran 4:34] allows Muslim men to discipline their wives by striking them.[107] (There is however confusion amongst translations of Quran with the original Arabic term "wadribuhunna" being translated as "to go away from them",[108] "beat",[109] "strike lightly" and "separate".[110] The film Submission, which rose to fame after the murder of its director Theo van Gogh, critiqued this and similar verses of the Quran by displaying them painted on the bodies of abused Muslim women.[111] Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the film's writer, said "it is written in the Koran a woman may be slapped if she is disobedient. This is one of the evils I wish to point out in the film".[112]
Some critics argue that the Quran is incompatible with other religious scriptures as it attacks and advocates hate against people of other religions.[7][113][114][115] For instance, Sam Harris interprets certain verses of the Quran as sanctioning military action against unbelievers as a whole both during the lifetime of Muhammad and after. The Quran said "fight in the name of your religion with those who fight against you."[116] In The End of Faith Harris argues that Muslim extremism is simply a consequence of taking the Qur'an literally, and is skeptical that moderate Islam is possible.[117] Various calls to arms were identified in the Quran by US citizen Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, all of which were cited as "most relevant to my actions on March 3, 2006" (9:44, 9:19, 57:10-11, 8:72-73, 9:120, 3:167-175, 4:66, 4:104, 9:81, 9:93-94, 9:100, 16:110, 61:11-12, 47:35).[118]
Max I. Dimont interprets that the Houris described in the Quran are specifically dedicated to "male pleasure".[119] Henry Martyn claims that the concept of the Houris was chosen to satisfy Muhammad's followers.[120]
Slavery[edit]
Main article: Islamic views on slavery

 

 13th-century slave market in Yemen
Bernard Lewis writes: "In one of the sad paradoxes of human history, it was the humanitarian reforms brought by Islam that resulted in a vast development of the slave trade inside, and still more outside, the Islamic empire." He notes that the Islamic injunctions against the enslavement of Muslims led to massive importation of slaves from the outside.[121] According to Patrick Manning, Islam by recognizing and codifying the slavery seems to have done more to protect and expand slavery than the reverse.[122]
Unlike Western societies which in their opposition to slavery spawned anti-slavery movements whose numbers and enthusiasm often grew out of church groups, no such grass-roots organizations ever developed in Muslim societies. In Muslim politics the state unquestioningly accepted the teachings of Islam and applied them as law. Islam, by sanctioning slavery, also extended legitimacy to the traffic in slaves.[123]
It was only in the early 20th century (post World War I) that slavery gradually became outlawed and suppressed in Muslim lands, largely due to pressure exerted by Western nations such as Britain and France.[124] Gordon describes the lack of homegrown Islamic abolition movements as owing much to the fact that it was deeply anchored in Islamic law. By legitimizing slavery and - by extension - traffic in slaves, Islam elevated those practices to an unassailable moral plane. As a result, in no part of the Muslim world was an ideological challenge ever mounted against slavery. The political and social system in Muslim society would have taken a dim view of such a challenge.[125] Some Muslim leaders, like Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah did ban slavery, but they had little influence in the Islamic world.[126]
The issue of slavery in the Islamic world in modern times is controversial. Critics argue there is hard evidence of its existence and destructive effects. Others maintain slavery in central Islamic lands has been virtually extinct since mid-twentieth century, and that reports from Sudan and Somalia showing practice of slavery is in border areas as a result of continuing war[127] and not Islamic belief. In recent years, according to some scholars,[128] there has been a "worrying trend" of "reopening" of the issue of slavery by some conservative Salafi Islamic scholars after its "closing" earlier in the 20th century when Muslim countries banned slavery and "most Muslim scholars" found the practice "inconsistent with Qur'anic morality."[129][130]
Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri of Karbala expressed the view in 1993 that the enforcement of servitude can occur but is restricted to war captives and those born of slaves.[131] Dr. Abdul-Latif Mushtahari, the general supervisor and director of homiletics and guidance at the Azhar University, has said on the subject of justifications for Islamic permission of slavery:[132]

"Islam does not prohibit slavery but retains it for two reasons. The first reason is war (whether it is a civil war or a foreign war in which the captive is either killed or enslaved) provided that the war is not between Muslims against each other - it is not acceptable to enslave the violators, or the offenders, if they are Muslims. Only non-Muslim captives may be enslaved or killed. The second reason is the sexual propagation of slaves which would generate more slaves for their owner."
In a 2014 issue of their digital magazine Dabiq, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant explicitly claimed religious justification for enslaving Yazidi women.[133][134][135][136][137]
Apostasy[edit]

 

 "Execution of a Moroccan Jewess (Sol Hachuel)" a painting by Alfred Dehodencq
Main article: Apostasy in Islam
See also: Freedom of religion § Islam
According to Islamic law apostasy is identified by a list of actions such as conversion to another religion, denying the existence of God, rejecting the prophets, mocking God or the prophets, idol worship, rejecting the sharia, or permitting behavior that is forbidden by the sharia, such as adultery or the eating of forbidden foods or drinking of alcoholic beverages.[138][139] The majority of Muslim scholars hold to the traditional view that apostasy is punishable by death or imprisonment until repentance, at least for adult men of sound mind.[140][141][142]
Laws prohibiting religious conversion run contrary to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that "[e]veryone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."[143]
The English historian C. E. Bosworth suggests the traditional view of apostasy hampered the development of Islamic learning, arguing that while the organizational form of the Christian university allowed them to develop and flourish into the modern university, "the Muslim ones remained constricted by the doctrine of waqf alone, with their physical plant often deteriorating hopelessly and their curricula narrowed by the exclusion of the non-traditional religious sciences like philosophy and natural science," out of fear that these could evolve into potential toe-holds for kufr, those people who reject God."[144]
Islamic law[edit]
See also: Sharia
Bernard Lewis summarizes:

The penalty for apostasy in Islamic law is death. Islam is conceived as a polity, not just as a religious community. It follows therefore that apostasy is treason. It is a withdrawal, a denial of allegiance as well as of religious belief and loyalty. Any sustained and principled opposition to the existing regime or order almost inevitably involves such a withdrawal.[145]

 

 Decision of a Fatwa committee on the case of a convert to Christianity: "Since he left Islam, he will be invited to revert. If he does not revert, he will be killed pertaining to rights and obligations of the Islamic law." The fatwa outlines the same procedure and penalty for the male convert's children, on reaching the age of puberty.
The four Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence, as well as Shi'a scholars, agree on the difference of punishment between male and female. A sane adult male apostate may be executed. A female apostate may be put to death, according to the majority view, or imprisoned until she repents, according to others.[146]
The Quran threatens apostates with punishment in the next world only, the historian W. Heffening states, the traditions however contain the element of death penalty. Muslim scholar Shafi'i interprets verse Quran 2:217 as adducing the main evidence for the death penalty in Quran.[147] The historian Wael Hallaq states the later addition of death penalty "reflects a later reality and does not stand in accord with the deeds of the Prophet." He further states that "nothing in the law governing apostate and apostasy derives from the letter of the holy text."[148]

 

Hussein-Ali Montazeri
William Montgomery Watt, in response to a question about Western views of the Islamic Law as being cruel, states that "In Islamic teaching, such penalties may have been suitable for the age in which Muhammad lived. However, as societies have since progressed and become more peaceful and ordered, they are not suitable any longer."[149]
Some contemporary Islamic jurists from both the Sunni and Shia denominations together with Quran only Muslims have argued or issued fatwas that state that either the changing of religion is not punishable or is only punishable under restricted circumstances.[150] For example, Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri argues that no Quranic verse prescribes an earthly penalty for apostasy and adds that it is not improbable that the punishment was prescribed by Muhammad at early Islam due to political conspiracies against Islam and Muslims and not only because of changing the belief or expressing it. Montazeri defines different types of apostasy. He does not hold that a reversion of belief because of investigation and research is punishable by death but prescribes capital punishment for a desertion of Islam out of malice and enmity towards the Muslim.[151]
According to Yohanan Friedmann, an Israeli Islamic Studies scholar, a Muslim may stress tolerant elements of Islam (by for instance adopting the broadest interpretation of Quran 2:256 ("No compulsion is there in religion...") or the humanist approach attributed to Ibrahim al-Nakha'i), without necessarily denying the existence of other ideas in the Medieval Islamic tradition but rather discussing them in their historical context (by for example arguing that "civilizations comparable with the Islamic one, such as the Sassanids and the Byzantines, also punished apostasy with death. Similarly neither Judaism nor Christianity treated apostasy and apostates with any particular kindness").[152] Friedmann continues:

The real predicament facing modern Muslims with liberal convictions is not the existence of stern laws against apostasy in medieval Muslim books of law, but rather the fact that accusations of apostasy and demands to punish it are heard time and again from radical elements in the contemporary Islamic world.[152]
Human rights conventions[edit]

 

 "It is not a treaty...[In the future, it] may well become the international Magna Carta."[153] Eleanor Roosevelt with the Spanish text of the Universal Declaration in 1949
See also: Human rights
Some widely held interpretations of Islam are inconsistent with Human Rights conventions that recognize the right to change religion.[154][155] In particular article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights[156] states:

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
To implement this, Article 18 (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states:

No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion of his choice.
The right for Muslims to change their religion is not afforded by the Iranian Shari'ah law, which specifically forbids it.[154][155][157] Muslim countries such as Sudan and Saudi Arabia, have the death penalty for apostasy from Islam.[158] These countries have criticized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for its perceived failure to take into account the cultural and religious context of non-Western countries.[citation needed] In 1990, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation published a separate Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam compliant with Shari'ah.[159] Although granting many of the rights in the UN declaration, it does not grant Muslims the right to convert to other religions, and restricts freedom of speech to those expressions of it that are not in contravention of the Islamic law.
Abul Ala Maududi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami,[160] wrote a book called Human Rights in Islam,[161] in which he argues that respect for human rights has always been enshrined in Sharia law (indeed that the roots of these rights are to be found in Islamic doctrine)[162] and criticizes Western notions that there is an inherent contradiction between the two.[163] Western scholars have, for the most part, rejected Maududi's analysis.[164][165][166]
Violence[edit]
Main article: Islam and violence
See also: Quran and violence and Islam and war

 

 The September 11 attacks led to debate on whether Islam promotes violence
The September 11 attacks on the US and other recent attacks have resulted in non-Muslims indicting Islam as a violent religion.[167] The Qur'an's teachings on matters of war and peace have become topics of heated discussion in recent years. On the one hand, some critics claim that certain verses of the Qur'an sanction military action against unbelievers as a whole both during the lifetime of Muhammad and after. The Qur'an says, "Fight in the name of your religion with those who fight against you."[116] On the other hand, other scholars argue that such verses of the Qur'an are interpreted out of context,[168][169] and argue that when the verses are read in context it clearly appears that the Qur'an prohibits aggression,[170][171][172] and allows fighting only in self-defense.[173][174]
Orientalist David Margoliouth described the Battle of Khaybar as the "stage at which Islam became a menace to the whole world."[175] According to Margoliouth, earlier attacks on the Meccans and the Jewish tribes of Medina (e.g., the invasion of Banu Qurayza) could be at least plausibly be ascribed to wrongs done to Muhammad or the Islamic community.[175] Margoliouth argues that the Jews of Khaybar had done nothing to harm Muhammad or his followers, and ascribes the attack to a desire for plunder.[175] He describes the reason given by Muhammad for the attack as "its inhabitants were not Moslems" (italics in the source).[175] According to Margoliouth, this became an excuse for unfettered conquest.[176]
Jihad, an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving for the sake of God (al-jihad fi sabil Allah)".[177][178][179] Jihad is an important religious duty for Muslims. A minority among the Sunni scholars sometimes refer to this duty as the sixth pillar of Islam, though it occupies no such official status.[180] In Twelver Shi'a Islam, however, Jihad is one of the 10 Practices of the Religion. The Qur'an calls repeatedly for jihad, or holy war, against unbelievers, including, at times, Jews and Christians.[181] Middle East historian Bernard Lewis argues that "the overwhelming majority of classical theologians, jurists, and traditionalists (specialists in the hadith) understood the obligation of jihad in a military sense."[182] Furthermore, Lewis maintains that for most of the recorded history of Islam, from the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad onward, the word jihad was used in a primarily military sense.[183] According to Andrew Bostom, a number of jihads have targeted Christians, Hindus, and Jews.[184]
The Qur'an: (8:12): "...cast terror in their hearts and strike upon their necks."[185] The phrase that they have been "commanded to terrorize the disbelievers" has been cited in motivation of Jihadi terror.[186] One Jihadi cleric has said:

"Another aim and objective of jihad is to drive terror in the hearts of the [infidels]. To terrorize them. Did you know that we were commanded in the Qur'an with terrorism? ...Allah said, and prepare for them to the best of your ability with power, and with horses of war. To drive terror in the hearts of my enemies, Allah's enemies, and your enemies. And other enemies which you don't know, only Allah knows them... So we were commanded to drive terror into the hearts of the [infidels], to prepare for them with the best of our abilities with power. Then the Prophet said, nay, the power is your ability to shoot. The power which you are commanded with here, is your ability to shoot. Another aim and objective of jihad is to kill the [infidels], to lessen the population of the [infidels]... it is not right for a Prophet to have captives until he makes the Earth warm with blood... so, you should always seek to lessen the population of the [infidels]."[187]
David Cook, author of Understanding Jihad, said "In reading Muslim literature — both contemporary and classical — one can see that the evidence for the primacy of spiritual jihad is negligible. Today it is certain that no Muslim, writing in a non- Western language (such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu), would ever make claims that jihad is primarily nonviolent or has been superseded by the spiritual jihad. Such claims are made solely by Western scholars, primarily those who study Sufism and/or work in interfaith dialogue, and by Muslim apologists who are trying to present Islam in the most innocuous manner possible."[188] Cook argued that "Presentations along these lines are ideological in tone and should be discounted for their bias and deliberate ignorance of the subject" and that "[i]t is no longer acceptable for Western scholars or Muslim apologists writing in non-Muslim languages to make flat, unsupported statements concerning the prevalence — either from a historical point of view or within contemporary Islam—of the spiritual jihad."[188] Magdi Allam, an outspoken Egyptian-born Italian journalist, has describes Islam as intrinsically violent and characterized by “hate and intolerance”.[189]
Homosexuals[edit]
Main article: LGBT topics and Islam

 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Critics such as lesbian activist Irshad Manji,[190] former Muslims Ehsan Jami and the former Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, have criticized Islam's attitudes towards homosexuals. Most international human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, condemn Islamic laws that make homosexual relations between consenting adults a crime. Since 1994 the United Nations Human Rights Committee has also ruled that such laws violated the right to privacy guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
In May 2008, the sexual rights lobby group Lambda Istanbul (based in Istanbul, Turkey) was banned by court order for violating a constitutional provision on the protection of the family and an article banning bodies with objectives that violate law and morality.[191] This decision was then taken to the Court of Cassation and the ban lifted.[192]
The ex-Muslim Ibn Warraq has noted that the Quran's condemnation of homosexuality has frequently been ignored in practice, and that Islamic countries were much more tolerant of homosexuality than Christian ones until fairly recently.[193]
Short-term and limited marriages[edit]
Short-term marriage[edit]
Main article: Nikah mut‘ah
Nikāḥ al-Mutʿah (Arabic: نكاح المتعة‎ literally pleasure marriage) is a fixed-term or short-term contractual marriage in Shia Islam. The duration of this type of marriage is fixed at its inception and is then automatically dissolved upon completion of its term. For this reason, nikah mut‘ah has been widely criticised as the religious cover and legalization of prostitution.[194][195] The Christian missionary Thomas Patrick Hughes criticized Mut'ah as allowing the continuation of "one of the abominable practices of ancient Arabia." [196] Shi'a and Sunnis agree that Mut'ah was legal in early times, but Sunnis consider that it was abrogated. Ibn Kathir writes that "[t]here's no doubt that in the outset of Islam, Mut'ah was allowed under the Shari'ah".[197] Currently, however, mut'ah is one of the distinctive features of Ja'fari jurisprudence. No other school of Islamic jurisprudence allows it. According to Imam Jafar as Sadiq, "One of the matters about which I shall never keep precautionary silence (taqiyya) is the matter of mu’tah."[198] Allameh Tabatabaei defends the Shia view in Tafsir al-Mizan, arguing that there are mutawatir or nearly mutawatir traditions narrated from the Shia Imams that Mut'ah is permitted. For example, it has been narrated from Muhammad al-Baqir and Ja'far al-Sadiq that they said "regarding the [above] verse, and there is no blame on you about what you mutually agree after what is appointed." It means that he increases her dowry or she increases his (fixed) period.[199] Sunnis believe that Muhammad later abolished this type of marriage at several different large events, the most accepted being at Khaybar in 7 AH (629 CE) Bukhari 059.527 and at the Victory of Mecca in 8 AH (630 CE). Most Sunnis believe that Umar later was merely enforcing a prohibition that was established during Muhammad's time.[200] Shia contest the criticism that nikah mut‘ah is a cover for prostitution, and argue that the unique legal nature of temporary marriage distinguishes Mut'ah ideologically from prostitution.[201][202]
Contractually limited marriage[edit]
Main article: Nikah Misyar
Nikah Misyar (Arabic: المسيار‎) is a type of Nikah (marriage) in Sunni Islam only carried out through the normal contractual procedure, with the provision that the husband and wife give up several rights by their own free will, such as living together, equal division of nights between wives in cases of polygamy, the wife's rights to housing, and maintenance money ("nafaqa"), and the husband's right of homekeeping and access.[203] Essentially the couple continue to live separately from each other, as before their contract, and see each other to fulfil their needs in a legally permissible (halaal) manner when they please. Misyar has been suggested by some western authors to be a comparable marriage with Nikah mut'ah and that they find it for the sole purpose of "sexual gratification in a licit manner"[204][205] According to Florian Pohl, assistant professor of religion at Oxford College, Misyar marriage is controversial issue in the Muslim world, as many see it as practice that encourages marriages for purely sexual purposes, or that it is used as a cover for a form of prostitutuion.[206]
Professor Yusuf Al-Qaradawi observes that he does not promote this type of marriage, although he has to recognise that it is legal, since it fulfils all the requirements of the usual marriage contract.[207] He states his preference that the clause of renunciation be not included within the marriage contract, but be the subject of a simple verbal agreement between the parties.[208] Islamic scholars like Ibn Uthaimeen or Al-Albani claim, for their part, that misyar marriage may be legal, but not moral. They agree that the wife can at any time, reclaim the rights which she gave up at the time of contract.[209] But, they are opposed to this type of marriage on the grounds that it contradicts the spirit of the Islamic law of marriage and that it has perverse effects on the woman, the family and the community in general.
For Al-Albani, misyar marriage may even be considered as illicit, because it runs counter to the objectives and the spirit of marriage in Islam, as described in the Quran: "And among His Signs is this, that He created for you mates from among yourselves, that ye may dwell in tranquility with them, and He has put love and mercy between your (hearts)…"[210] Al-Albani also underlines the social problems which result from the “misyar” marriage, particularly in the event that children are born from this union. The children raised by their mother in a home from which the father is always absent, without reason, may suffer difficulties.[211] The situation becomes even worse if the wife is abandoned or repudiated by her husband "misyar", with no means of subsistence, as usually happens.
"Shaykh Ibn Baaz was asked about Misyaar marriage; this kind of marriage is where the man marries a second, third or fourth wife, and the wife is in a situation that compels her to stay with her parents or one of them in her own house, and the husband goes to her at various times depending on the circumstances of both. What is the Islamic ruling on this type of marriage? He replied:"

There is nothing wrong with that if the marriage contract fulfills all the conditions set out by sharee’ah, which is the presence of the wali and the consent of both partners, and the presence of two witnesses of good character to the drawing up of the contract, and both partners being free of any impediments, because of the general meaning of the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him): “The conditions that are most deserving of being fulfilled are those by means of which intimacy becomes permissible for you” and “The Muslims are bound by their conditions.” If the partners agree that the woman will stay with her family or that her share of the husband’s time will be during the day and not during the night, or on certain days or certain nights, there is nothing wrong with that, so long as the marriage is announced and not hidden.[212]
Shaykh al-Albaani was asked about Misyaar marriage and he disallowed it for two reasons:

1) That the purpose of marriage is repose as Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “And among His Signs is this, that He created for you wives from among yourselves, that you may find repose in them, and He has put between you affection and mercy. Verily, in that are indeed signs for a people who reflect” [al-Room 30:21]. But this is not achieved in this kind of marriage.
2) It may be decreed that the husband has children with this woman, but because he is far away from her and rarely comes to her, that will be negatively reflected in his children’s upbringing and attitude.[213]
Ibn Uthaymeen recognized the legality of “misyar” marriage under Shariah, but came to oppose it due to what he considered to be its harmful effects.[214]
Women in Islam[edit]
Main article: Women in Islam
Domestic violence[edit]
Main article: Islam and domestic violence
Many scholars[215][216] claim Shari'a law encourages domestic violence against women, when a husband suspects nushuz (disobedience, disloyalty, rebellion, ill conduct) in his wife.[217] Other scholars claim wife beating, for nashizah, is not consistent with modern perspectives of the Quran.[218]
One of the verses of the Quran relating to permissibility of domestic violence is Surah 4:34.[219][220] In deference to Surah 4:34, many nations with Shari'a law have refused to consider or prosecute cases of domestic abuse.[221][222][223][224] Shari'a has been criticized for ignoring women's rights in domestic abuse cases.[225][226][227][228] Musawah/CEDAW, KAFA and other organizations have proposed ways to modify Shari'a-inspired laws to improve women's rights in Islamic nations, including women's rights in domestic abuse cases.[229][230][231][232]
Personal status laws and child marriage[edit]
Shari'a is the basis for personal status laws in most Islamic majority nations. These personal status laws determine rights of women in matters of marriage, divorce and child custody. A 2011 UNICEF report concludes that Shari'a law provisions are discriminatory against women from a human rights perspective. In legal proceedings under Shari'a law, a woman’s testimony is worth half of a man’s before a court.[233]
Except for Iran, Lebanon and Bahrain which allow child marriages, the civil code in Islamic majority countries do not allow child marriage of girls. However, with Shari'a personal status laws, Shari'a courts in all these nations have the power to override the civil code. The religious courts permit girls less than 18 years old to marry. As of 2011, child marriages are common in a few Middle Eastern countries, accounting for 1 in 6 all marriages in Egypt and 1 in 3 marriages in Yemen. However, the average age at marriage in most Middle Eastern countries is steadily rising and is generally in the low to mid 20's for women.[234] Rape is considered a crime in all countries, but Shari'a courts in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia in some cases allow a rapist to escape punishment by marrying his victim, while in other cases the victim who complains is often prosecuted with the crime of Zina (adultery).[233][235][236]
Women's right to property and consent[edit]
Sharia grants women the right to inherit property from other family members, and these rights are detailed in the Quran.[237] A woman's inheritance is unequal and less than a man's, and dependent on many factors.[Quran 4:12][238] For instance, a daughter's inheritance is usually half that of her brother's.[Quran 4:11][238]
Until the 20th century, Islamic law granted Muslim women certain legal rights, such as the right to own property received as Mahr (brideprice) at her marriage, that Western legal systems did not grant to women.[239][240] However, Islamic law does not grant non-Muslim women the same legal rights as the few it did grant Muslim women. Sharia recognizes the basic inequality between master and women slave, between free women and slave women, between Believers and non-Believers, as well as their unequal rights.[241][242] Sharia authorized the institution of slavery, using the words abd (slave) and the phrase ma malakat aymanukum ("that which your right hand owns") to refer to women slaves, seized as captives of war.[241][243] Under Islamic law, Muslim men could have sexual relations with female captives and slaves without her consent.[244][245]
Slave women under sharia did not have a right to own property, right to free movement or right to consent.[246][247] Sharia, in Islam's history, provided religious foundation for enslaving non-Muslim women (and men), as well as encouraged slave's manumission. However, manumission required that the non-Muslim slave first convert to Islam.[248][249] Non-Muslim slave women who bore children to their Muslim masters became legally free upon her master's death, and her children were presumed to be Muslims as their father, in Africa,[248] and elsewhere.[250]
Starting with the 20th century, Western legal systems evolved to expand women's rights, but women's rights under Islamic law have remained tied to Quran, hadiths and their faithful interpretation as sharia by Islamic jurists.[245][251]
Criticism of Muslim immigrants and immigration[edit]
See also: Multiculturalism and Islam

 

 French philosopher Pascal Bruckner has criticised the effects of multiculturalism and Islam in the West
 

 Muslim demonstration in Sydney, Australia
The immigration of Muslims to Europe has increased in recent decades. Friction has developed between their new neighbours. Conservative Muslim social attitudes on modern issues have caused controversy in Europe and elsewhere. Scholars argue about how much these attitudes are a result of Islamic beliefs. Some critics consider Islam to be incompatible with secular Western society.[252] Their criticism has been partly influenced by a stance against multiculturalism advocated by recent philosophers, closely linked to the heritage of New Philosophers. Statements by proponents like Pascal Bruckner[253] describe multiculturalism as an invention of an "enlightened" elite who deny the benefits of democratic rights to non-Westerners by chaining them to their roots. They believe this allows Islam free rein to propagate what they state are abuses, such as the mistreatment of women and homosexuals, and in some countries slavery. They also state that multiculturalism allows a degree of religious freedom[254] that exceeds what is needed for personal religious freedom[255] and is conducive to the creation of organizations aimed at undermining European secular or Christian values.[256]
Emigrants from nearly every Muslim country have immigrated to Canada.[257] According to a recent poll, 54% of Canadians had an unfavourable view of Islam, which was higher than for any other religion.[258]
In the United States, after the Boston Marathon bombings, the immigration processes are assumed to be harder.[259] Far-right commentator Bryan Fischer asked that no more Muslim visas be granted, and no more mosques built,[260] his opinion received support, most notably by the former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan.
Comparison with communism and fascist ideologies[edit]
In 2004, speaking to the Acton Institute on the problems of "secular democracy", Cardinal George Pell drew a parallel between Islam and communism: "Islam may provide in the 21st century, the attraction that communism provided in the 20th, both for those that are alienated and embittered on the one hand and for those who seek order or justice on the other."[261] Pell also agrees in another speech that its capacity for far-reaching renovation is severely limited.[262] An Australian Islamist spokesman, Keysar Trad, responded to the criticism: "Communism is a godless system, a system that in fact persecutes faith".[263]
Writers such as Stephen Suleyman Schwartz[264] and Christopher Hitchens,[265] describe Islamist attributes similar to fascism. Malise Ruthven, a Scottish writer and historian who focuses his work on religion and Islamic affairs, opposes redefining Islamism as "Islamofascism", but also finds the resemblances between the two ideologies "compelling".[266] Geert Wilders, a controversial Dutch member of parliament and leader of the Party for Freedom, has also compared Islam to fascism and communism.[267]
Responses to criticism[edit]

 

Deepa Kumar wrote that the history of Islam can not be considered any more violent than those of any other religions
John Esposito has written a number of introductory texts on Islam and the Islamic world. He has addressed issues including the rise of militant Islam, the veiling of women, and democracy.[268][269] Esposito emphatically argues against what he calls the "pan-Islamic myth". He thinks that "too often coverage of Islam and the Muslim world assumes the existence of a monolithic Islam in which all Muslims are the same." To him, such a view is naive and unjustifiably obscures important divisions and differences in the Muslim world.[270]
William Montgomery Watt in his book Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman addresses Muhammad’s alleged moral failings. Watt argues on a basis of moral relativism that Muhammad should be judged by the standards of his own time and country rather than "by those of the most enlightened opinion in the West today."[102]
Karen Armstrong, tracing what she believes to be the West's long history of hostility toward Islam, finds in Muhammad’s teachings a theology of peace and tolerance. Armstrong holds that the "holy war" urged by the Quran alludes to each Muslim's duty to fight for a just, decent society.[271]
Edward Said, in his essay Islam Through Western Eyes, stated that the general basis of Orientalist thought forms a study structure in which Islam is placed in an inferior position as an object of study. He claims the existence of a very considerable bias in Orientalist writings as a consequence of the scholars' cultural make-up. He claims Islam has been looked at with a particular hostility and fear due to many obvious religious, psychological and political reasons, all deriving from a sense "that so far as the West is concerned, Islam represents not only a formidable competitor but also a late-coming challenge to Christianity."[272]
Deepa Kumar, the author of Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization, and the UPS Strike, in her article titled 'Fighting Islamophobia: A Response to Critics' says "The history of Islam is no more violent than the history of any of the other major religions of the world. Perhaps my critics haven't heard of the Crusades – the religious wars fought by European Christians from the 11th to the 13th centuries". Speaking on the Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy she says "The Danish cartoon of the prophet Mohammed with a bomb on his head is nothing if not the visual depiction of the racist diatribe that Islam is inherently violent. To those who can't understand why this argument is racist, let me be clear: when you take the actions of a few people and generalize it to an entire group – all Muslims, all Arabs – that's racism. When a whole group of people are discriminated against and demonized because of their religion or regional origin, that's racism...Arabs and Muslims are being scapegoated and demonized to justify a war that is ruining the lives of millions."[273]
See also[edit]

Portal icon Islam portal
Portal icon Religion portal
Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry
Fitna
Freedom of speech
Ibrahim Al-Buleihi
Internet Infidels
Islam and violence
Islam and domestic violence
Islamic feminism
Innocence of Muslims
Islam: What the West Needs to Know
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
List of critics of Islam
The Satanic Verses controversy
Submission
Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy case
Trial of Geert Wilders
Why Islam?
Notes[edit]
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2.^ Jump up to: a b Warraq, Ibn (2003). Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out. Prometheus Books. p. 67. ISBN 1-59102-068-9.
3.^ Jump up to: a b Ibn Kammuna, Examination of the Three Faiths, trans. Moshe Perlmann (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1971), pp. 148–49
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6.^ Jump up to: a b Ibn Warraq, The Quest for Historical Muhammad (Amherst, Mass.:Prometheus, 2000), 103.
7.^ Jump up to: a b Bible in Mohammedian Literature., by Kaufmann Kohler Duncan B. McDonald, Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 22, 2006.
8.Jump up ^ http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&year=2005&country=6825. See also Timothy Garton Ash (2006-10-05). "Islam in Europe". The New York Review of Books.
9.Jump up ^ Timothy Garton Ash (2006-10-05). "Islam in Europe". The New York Review of Books.
10.Jump up ^ Tariq Modood (2006-04-06). Multiculturalism, Muslims and Citizenship: A European Approach (1st ed.). Routledge. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-415-35515-5.
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15.Jump up ^ Russia and Islam: State, Society and Radicalism. Taylor & Francis. 2010. p. 94. by Roland Dannreuther, Luke March
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18.Jump up ^ John Victor Tolan, Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination, Columbia University Press, p. 139: "Like earlier hostile biographies of Muhammad (John of Damascus, the Risâlat al-Kindî., Theophanes, or the Historia de Mahometh pseudopropheta) the four twelfth-century texts are based on deliberate distortions of Muslim traditions."
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32.Jump up ^ J. Tolan, Saracens; Islam in the Medieval European Imagination (2002) p. 75
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S. A. Rahman in "Punishment of Apostasy in Islam", Institute of Islamic Culture, Lahore, 1972, pp. 10-13
The punishment of apostasy in Islam, View of Dr. Ahmad Shafaat on apostasy.
Religious Tolerance.org, Apostasy (Irtdidad) In Islam, by B.A. Robinson, Religious Tolerance.org, April 7, 2006. Retrieved April 16, 2006.
151.Jump up ^ Ayatollah Montazeri: "Not Every Conversion is Apostasy", by Mahdi Jami, In Persian, BBC Persian, February 2, 2005. Retrieved April 25, 2006.
152.^ Jump up to: a b Yohanan Friedmann, Tolerance and Coercion in Islam, Cambridge University Press, p.5
153.Jump up ^ Eleanor Roosevelt: Address to the United Nations General Assembly 10 December 1948 in Paris, France
154.^ Jump up to: a b In 1981, the Iranian representative to the United Nations, Said Rajaie-Khorassani, articulated the position of his country regarding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by saying that the UDHR was "a secular understanding of the Judeo-Christian tradition", which could not be implemented by Muslims without trespassing the Islamic law. Littman, David. "Universal Human Rights and 'Human Rights in Islam'". Midstream, February/March 1999
155.^ Jump up to: a b "As a matter of law, on the basis of its obligations as a state party to the ICCPR, Iran is obliged to uphold the right of individuals to practice the religion of their choice and to change religions, including converting from Islam. The prosecution of converts from Islam on the basis of religious edicts that identify apostasy as an offense punishable by death is clearly at variance with this obligation.": Human Rights Watch report on Iran [4]
156.Jump up ^ UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
157.Jump up ^ Sharia as traditionally understood runs counter to the ideas expressed in Article 18:Religious freedom under Islam: By Henrik Ertner Rasmussen, General Secretary, Danish European Mission
158.Jump up ^ Apostacy, "Leaving Islam" – The Peace FAQ
159.Jump up ^ The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, Adopted and Issued at the Nineteenth Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers in Cairo, Religion and Law Research Consortium, August 5, 1990. Retrieved April 16, 2006.
160.Jump up ^ "Jamaat-e-Islami". GlobalSecurity.org. 2005-04-27. Retrieved 2007-06-03.
161.Jump up ^ Maududi, Abul A'la (1976). Human Rights in Islam. Leicester: The Islamic Foundation. ISBN 0-9503954-9-8.
162.Jump up ^ Maududi, Human Rights in Islam, p. 10. "Islam has laid down some universal fundamental rights for humanity as a whole ... ."
163.Jump up ^ Maududi, Human Right in Islam, p. 13. "The people of the West have the habit of attributing every good thing to themselves and trying to prove that it is because of them that the world got this blessing ... ."
164.Jump up ^ Bielefeldt, Heiner (February 2000). ""Western" versus "Islamic" Human Rights Conceptions?: A Critique of Cultural Essentialism in the Discussion on Human Rights". Political Theory 28 (1): 90–121. doi:10.1177/0090591700028001005. JSTOR 192285.
165.Jump up ^ Bielefeldt (2000), p. 104.
166.Jump up ^ Carle, Robert (2005). "Revealing and Concealing: Islamist Discourse on Human Rights". Human Rights Review 6 (3): 122–37. doi:10.1007/BF02862219. "Both Tabandeh and Mawdudi proceed to develop a synthesis between human rights and traditional shari‘a that conceals the conflicts and tensions between the two (p. 124)."
167.Jump up ^ Puniyani, Ram (2005). Religion, power & violence: expression of politics in contemporary times. SAGE. pp. 97–98. ISBN 9780761933380.
168.Jump up ^ Sohail H. Hashmi, David Miller, Boundaries and Justice: diverse ethical perspectives, Princeton University Press, p.197
169.Jump up ^ Khaleel Muhammad, professor of religious studies at San Diego State University, states, regarding his discussion with the critic Robert Spencer, that "when I am told ... that Jihad only means war, or that I have to accept interpretations of the Qur'an that non-Muslims (with no good intentions or knowledge of Islam) seek to force upon me, I see a certain agendum developing: one that is based on hate, and I refuse to be part of such an intellectual crime." [5]
170.Jump up ^ Ali, Maulana Muhammad; The Religion of Islam (6th Edition), Ch V "Jihad" Page 414 "When shall war cease". Published by The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement
171.Jump up ^ Sadr-u-Din, Maulvi. "Qur'an and War", page 8. Published by The Muslim Book Society, Lahore, Pakistan.[6]
172.Jump up ^ Article on Jihad by Dr. G. W. Leitner (founder of The Oriental Institute, UK) published in Asiatic Quarterly Review, 1886. ("Jihad, even when explained as a righteous effort of waging war in self-defense against the grossest outrage on one's religion, is strictly limited..")
173.Jump up ^ The Qur'anic Commandments Regarding War/Jihad An English rendering of an Urdu article appearing in Basharat-e-Ahmadiyya Vol. I, p. 228-232, by Dr. Basharat Ahmad; published by the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propagation of Islam
174.Jump up ^ Ali, Maulana Muhammad; The Religion of Islam (6th Edition), Ch V "Jihad" Pages 411-413. Published by The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement [7]
175.^ Jump up to: a b c d Margoliouth, D. S. (1905). Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (Third Edition., p. 362-363). New York; London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons; The Knickerbocker Press.
176.Jump up ^ "That plea would cover attacks on the whole world outside Medinah and its neighbourhood: and on leaving Khaibar the Prophet seemed to see the world already in his grasp. This was a great advance from the early days of Medinah, when the Jews were to be tolerated as equals, and even idolators to be left unmolested, so long as they manifested no open hostility. Now the fact that a community was idolatrous, or Jewish, or anything but Mohammedan, warranted a murderous attack upon it: the passion for fresh conquests dominated the Prophet as it dominated an Alexander before him or a Napoleon after him." Margoliouth, D. S. (1905). Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (Third Edition., p. 363). New York; London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons; The Knickerbocker Press.
177.Jump up ^ Morgan, Diane (2010). Essential Islam: a comprehensive guide to belief and practice. ABC-CLIO. p. 87. ISBN 0-313-36025-1. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
178.Jump up ^ Wendy Doniger, ed. (1999). Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions. Merriam-Webster. ISBN 0-87779-044-2., Jihad, p.571
179.Jump up ^ Josef W. Meri, ed. (2005). Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-96690-6., Jihad, p.419
180.Jump up ^ John Esposito(2005), Islam: The Straight Path, pp.93
181.Jump up ^ Ember, Melvin; Carol R. Ember, Ian Skoggard (2005). Encyclopedia of diasporas: immigrant and refugee cultures around the world. Diaspora communities, Volume 2. Springer, 2005. p. http://books.google.com/books?id=7QEjPVyd9YMC&pg=PA183. ISBN 0-306-48321-1.
182.Jump up ^ Bernard Lewis, The Political Language of Islam (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), p. 72.
183.Jump up ^ Lewis, Bernard, The Crisis of Islam, 2001 Chapter 2
184.Jump up ^ Bostom, Andrew G.; Ibn Warraq (2008). The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims. p. 391. ISBN 978-1-59102-602-0.
185.Jump up ^ Warrant for terror: fatwās of radical Islam and the duty of jihād, p. 68, Shmuel Bar, 2006
186.Jump up ^ The Osama bin Laden I know: an oral history of al-Qaeda's leader, p. 303, Peter L. Bergen, 2006 Jihad and international security, p. 90, Jalīl Rawshandil, Sharon Chadha, 2006
CNN.com - Transcripts
"Commanded to terrorize South Park?". The Vancouver Sun. 2010-04-30. Retrieved 2012-05-01.
187.Jump up ^ Counter terrorism site, May 2010
188.^ Jump up to: a b Cook, David. Understanding Jihad. University of California Press, 2005. Retrieved from Google Books on November 27, 2011. ISBN 0-520-24203-3, ISBN 978-0-520-24203-6.
189.Jump up ^ Owen, Richard (2008-03-24). "Pope converts outspoken Muslim who condemned religion of hate". The Times (London). Retrieved 2010-04-30.
190.Jump up ^ Irshad Manji's call for an Islamic reformation
191.Jump up ^ 'Turkish court slaps ban on homosexual group', Hürriyet daily newspaper, Turkey
192.Jump up ^ 'The case has ended: Not to be closed!', KAOS GL, Turkey
193.Jump up ^ Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not A Muslim, pages 340-344, Prometheus, New York, 1995
194.Jump up ^ Iran talks up temporary marriages, by Frances Harrison, BBC News, Last Updated: 2 June 2007. Temporary 'Enjoyment Marriages' In Vogue Again With Some Iraqis, by Nancy Trejos, The Washington Post, 20 January 2007.
195.Jump up ^ Law of desire: temporary marriage in Shi'i Iran, by Shahla Haeri, pg.6. Islam For Dummies, by Malcolm Clark.
Islam: a very short introduction, by Malise Ruthven.
196.Jump up ^ "In permitting these usufructuary marriages Muḥammad appears but to have given Divine (?) sanction to one of the abominable practices of ancient Arabia, for Burckhardt (vol. ii. p. 378) says, it was a custom of their forefathers to assign to a traveller who became their guest for the night, some female of the family, most commonly the host’s own wife!" Hughes, T. P. (1885). In A Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopædia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs, together with the Technical and Theological Terms, of the Muhammadan Religion. London: W. H. Allen & Co. p. 424. Hughes also says "[t]hese temporary marriages are undoubtedly the greatest blot in Muḥammad’s moral legislation, and admit of no satisfactory apology." Hughes, T. P. (1885). In A Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopædia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs, together with the Technical and Theological Terms, of the Muhammadan Religion. London: W. H. Allen & Co. p. 314.
197.Jump up ^ Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Azim, Volume 1 p. 74 [8]
198.Jump up ^ Motahhari, Morteza. "The rights of woman in Islam, Fixed-Term marriage and the problem of the harem". al-islam.org. Retrieved 2011-01-10.
199.Jump up ^ Tabatabaei, Sayyid Mohammad Hosayn. "Tafsir al-Mizan, Vol 4, Surah an-Nisa, Verses 23-28". almizan.org. Retrieved 2011-01-10.
200.Jump up ^ http://www.zawaj.com/articles/mutah.html
201.Jump up ^ Temporary marriage, Encyclopedia Iranica
202.Jump up ^ Sachiko Murata, Temporary Marriage in Islamic Law
203.Jump up ^ Al-Qaradawi, Yusuf : Misyar marriage
204.Jump up ^ Islam and the West: The Clash Between Islamism and Secularism By Mushtaq K. Lod, pp. 58-59
205.Jump up ^ The Islamic Shield: Arab Resistance to Democratic and Religious Reforms By Elie Elhadj, p. 51
206.Jump up ^ Pohl, Florian (September 1, 2010). Muslim World: Modern Muslim Societies. Marshall Cavendish. pp. 52–53. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
207.Jump up ^ Al-Qaradawi, Yusuf : Zawaj al misyar p.8
208.Jump up ^ Al-Qaradawi, Yusuf : Zawaj al misyar , pp.13-14
209.Jump up ^ Bin Menie, Abdullah bin Sulaïman : fatwa concerning the misyar marriage (and opinions by Ibn Uthaymeen, Al-albany) (in Arabic) Yet another marriage with no strings - fatwa committee of al azhar against misyar
210.Jump up ^ Quran, 30 : 21
211.Jump up ^ Wassel quoted in Hassouna addimashqi, Arfane : Nikah al misyar (2000), (in Arabic), p 16)
212.Jump up ^ Fataawa ‘Ulama’ al-Balad al-Haraam (p. 450, 451) and Jareedah al-Jazeerah issue no. 8768,
213.Jump up ^ Ahkaam al-Ta’addud fi Daw’ al-Kitaab wa’l-Sunnah
214.Jump up ^ Misyaar marriage: definition and rulings Islam Q&A website (accessed 10/30/2012)
215.Jump up ^ Hajjar, Lisa. "Religion, state power, and domestic violence in Muslim societies: A framework for comparative analysis." Law & Social Inquiry 29.1 (2004); see pages 1-38
216.Jump up ^ Treacher, Amal. "Reading the Other Women, Feminism, and Islam." Studies in Gender and Sexuality 4.1 (2003); pages 59-71
217.Jump up ^ John C. Raines & Daniel C. Maguire (Ed), Farid Esack, What Men Owe to Women: Men's Voices from World Religions , State University of New York (2001), see pages 201-203
218.Jump up ^ Jackson, Nicky Ali, ed. Encyclopedia of domestic violence. CRC Press, 2007. (see chapter on Quranic perspectives on wife abuse)
219.Jump up ^ "Surah 4:34 (An-Nisaa), Alim — Translated by Mohammad Asad, Gibraltar (1980)".
220.Jump up ^ Salhi and Grami (2011), Gender and Violence in the Middle East and North Africa, Florence (Italy), European University Institute
221.Jump up ^ Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn, and Lois Bardsley-Sirois. "Obedience (Ta'a) in Muslim Marriage: Religious Interpretation and Applied Law in Egypt." Journal of Comparative Family Studies 21.1 (1990): 39-53.
222.Jump up ^ Maghraoui, Abdeslam. "Political authority in crisis: Mohammed VI's Morocco."Middle East Report 218 (2001): 12-17.
223.Jump up ^ Critelli, Filomena M. "Women's rights= Human rights: Pakistani women against gender violence." J. Soc. & Soc. Welfare 37 (2010), pages 135-142
224.Jump up ^ Oweis, Arwa, et al. "Violence Against Women Unveiling the Suffering of Women with a Low Income in Jordan." Journal of Transcultural Nursing 20.1 (2009): 69-76.
225.Jump up ^ Rohe, Mathias. "Shari’a in a European context" Legal practice and cultural diversity, Farnham: Ashgate (2009); see pages 93-114.
226.Jump up ^ Funder, Anna. "De Minimis Non Curat Lex: The Clitoris, Culture and the Law."Transnat'l L. & Contemp. Probs. 3 (1993): 417.
227.Jump up ^ Anwar, Zainah. "Law-making in the name of Islam: implications for democratic governance." Islam in Southeast Asia: Political, Social and Strategic Challenges for the 21 (2005); see pages 121-134
228.Jump up ^ Natasha Bakht, Law, Family Arbitration Using Sharia. Muslim World Journal of Human Right, Issue 1 (2004).
229.Jump up ^ CEDAW and Muslim Family Laws, Sisters in Islam, Malaysia (2011)
230.Jump up ^ Brandt, Michele, and Jeffrey A. Kaplan. "The Tension between Women's Rights and Religious Rights: Reservations to Cedaw by Egypt, Bangladesh and Tunisia." Journal of Law and Religion 12.1 (1995): 105-142.
231.Jump up ^ "Lebanon - IRIN, United Nations Office of Humanitarian Affairs (2009)". IRINnews.
232.Jump up ^ "UAE: Spousal Abuse never a Right, Human Rights Watch (2010)".
233.^ Jump up to: a b MENA Gender Equality Profile - Status of Girls and Women in the Middle East and North Africa, UNICEF (October 2011)
234.Jump up ^ "Age at First Marriage - Female By Country - Data from Quandl". Retrieved 22 March 2015.
235.Jump up ^ Kendra Heideman and Mona Youssef, Challenges to Women’s Security in the MENA Region, Wilson Center (March, 2013)
236.Jump up ^ "Sanja Kelly (2010) New Survey Assesses Women's Freedom in the Middle East, Freedom House (funded by US Department of State's Middle East Partnership Initiative)".
237.Jump up ^ Horrie, Chris; Chippindale, Peter (1991). p. 49.
238.^ Jump up to: a b David Powers (1993), Islamic Inheritance System: A Socio-Historical Approach, The Arab Law Quarterly, 8, p 13
239.Jump up ^ Dr. Badawi, Jamal A. (September 1971). "The Status of Women in Islam". Al-Ittihad Journal of Islamic Studies 8 (2).
240.Jump up ^ Feldman, Noah (March 16, 2008). "Why Shariah?". The New York Times. Retrieved September 17, 2011.
241.^ Jump up to: a b Bernard Lewis (2002), What Went Wrong?, ISBN 0-19-514420-1, pp. 82–83;
Brunschvig. 'Abd; Encyclopedia of Islam, Brill, 2nd Edition, Vol 1, pp. 13-40.
242.Jump up ^ ([Quran 16:71], [Quran 24:33],[Quran 30:28])
243.Jump up ^ Slavery in Islam BBC Religions Archives
244.Jump up ^ Mazrui, A. A. (1997). Islamic and Western values. Foreign Affairs, pp 118-132.
245.^ Jump up to: a b Ali, K. (2010). Marriage and slavery in early Islam. Harvard University Press.
246.Jump up ^ Sikainga, Ahmad A. (1996). Slaves Into Workers: Emancipation and Labor in Colonial Sudan. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-77694-2.
247.Jump up ^ Tucker, Judith E.; Nashat, Guity (1999). Women in the Middle East and North Africa. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21264-2.
248.^ Jump up to: a b Lovejoy, Paul (2000). Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa. Cambridge University Press. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-0521784306. "Quote: The religious requirement that new slaves be pagans and need for continued imports to maintain slave population made Africa an important source of slaves for the Islamic world. (...) In Islamic tradition, slavery was perceived as a means of converting non-Muslims. One task of the master was religious instruction and theoretically Muslims could not be enslaved. Conversion (of a non-Muslim to Islam) did not automatically lead to emancipation, but assimilation into Muslim society was deemed a prerequisite for emancipation."
249.Jump up ^ Jean Pierre Angenot et al. (2008). Uncovering the History of Africans in Asia. Brill Academic. p. 60. ISBN 978-9004162914. "Quote: Islam imposed upon the Muslim master an obligation to convert non-Muslim slaves and become members of the greater Muslim society. Indeed, the daily observation of well defined Islamic religious rituals was the outward manifestation of conversion without which emancipation was impossible."
250.Jump up ^ Kecia Ali; (Editor: Bernadette J. Brooten). Slavery and Sexual Ethics in Islam, in Beyond Slavery: Overcoming Its Religious and Sexual Legacies. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 107–119. ISBN 978-0230100169. "Quote: The slave who bore her master's child became known in Arabic as an "umm walad"; she could not be sold, and she was automatically freed upon her master's death. (page 113)"
251.Jump up ^ Hafez, Mohammed (September 2006). "Why Muslims Rebel". Al-Ittihad Journal of Islamic Studies 1 (2).
252.Jump up ^ Tariq Modood (2006-04-06). Multiculturalism, Muslims and Citizenship: A European Approach (1st ed.). Routledge. pp. 3, 29, 46. ISBN 978-0-415-35515-5.
253.Jump up ^ Pascal Bruckner - Enlightenment fundamentalism or racism of the anti-racists? [9] appeared originally in German in the online magazine Perlentaucher on January 24, 2007.
254.Jump up ^ Pascal Bruckner - A reply to Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash: "At the heart of the issue is the fact that in certain countries Islam is becoming Europe's second religion. As such, its adherents are entitled to freedom of religion, to decent locations and to all of our respect. On the condition, that is, that they themselves respect the rules of our republican, secular culture, and that they do not demand a status of extraterritoriality that is denied other religions, or claim special rights and prerogatives"
255.Jump up ^ Pascal Bruckner - A reply to Ian Buruma and Timothy Garton Ash "It's so true that many English, Dutch and German politicians, shocked by the excesses that the wearing of the Islamic veil has given way to, now envisage similar legislation curbing religious symbols in public space. The separation of the spiritual and corporeal domains must be strictly maintained, and belief must confine itself to the private realm."
256.Jump up ^ Nazir-Ali, Michael (6 January 2008). "Extremism flourished as UK lost Christianity". London: The Sunday Telegraph.
257.Jump up ^ 2001 Census of Canada: http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/home/index.cfm
258.Jump up ^ Canadian Public Opinion Poll, 2nd October 2013
259.Jump up ^ "The Boston Bombings Could Be Disastrous For Immigration Reform". 19 April 2013.
260.Jump up ^ Bryan Fischer Beckel is right no more Muslim student visas, no more mosques
261.Jump up ^ George Pell (2004-10-12). "Is there only secular democracy? Imagining other possibilities for the third millennium". Archived from the original on 2006-02-08. Retrieved 2006-05-08.
262.Jump up ^ George Pell (2006-02-04). "Islam and Western Democracies". Archived from the original on June 5, 2006. Retrieved 2006-05-05.
263.Jump up ^ Toni Hassan (2004-11-12). "Islam is the new communism: Pell". Retrieved 2006-05-08.
264.Jump up ^ Schwartz, Stephen. "What Is 'Islamofascism'?". TCS Daily. Retrieved 2006-09-14.
265.Jump up ^ Hitchens, Christopher: Defending Islamofascism: It's a valid term. Here's why, Slate, 2007-10-22
266.Jump up ^ A Fury For God, Malise Ruthven, Granta, 2002, p.207-8
267.Jump up ^ http://www.aina.org/news/20090126124950.htm
268.Jump up ^ Esposito, John L. (2002). What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515713-3.
269.Jump up ^ Esposito, John L. (2003). Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516886-0.
270.Jump up ^ Esposito, John L. (1999). The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?. Oxford University Press. pp. 225–228. ISBN 0-19-513076-6.
271.Jump up ^ Armstrong, Karen (1993). Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet. HarperSanFrancisco. p. 165. ISBN 0-06-250886-5.
272.Jump up ^ The Nation - 'Islam Through Western Eyes'
273.Jump up ^ Fighting Islamophobia: A Response to Critics by Deepa Kumar, Monthly Review, April 2006
References[edit]
Ali, Muhammad (1997). Muhammad the Prophet. Ahamadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam. ISBN 978-0913321072.
Cohen, Mark R. (1995). Under Crescent and Cross. Princeton University Press; Reissue edition. ISBN 978-0-691-01082-3.
Lockman, Zachary (2004). Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62937-9.
Rippin, Andrew (2001). Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-21781-1.
Westerlund, David (2003). "Ahmed Deedat's Theology of Religion: Apologetics through Polemics". Journal of Religion in Africa 33 (3): 263. doi:10.1163/157006603322663505.
Further reading[edit]
Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide by Bat Ye'or
Decline of Eastern Christianity: From Jihad to Dhimmitude by Bat Ye'or
The Al Qaeda Connection: International Terrorism, Organized Crime, And the Coming Apocalypse by Paul L. Williams
The Amazing Quran by Gary Miller
An Autumn of War: What America Learned from September 11 and the War on Terrorism by Victor Davis Hanson
Arabs and Israel - Conflict or Conciliation? by Sheikh Ahmed Hoosen Deedat
Slavery in Islam, BBC, September 7, 2009
Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam by Gilles Kepel
The War for Muslim Minds by Gilles Kepel
J. Tolan, Saracens; Islam in the Medieval European Imagination (2002)
Esposito, John L. (1995). The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0-19-510298-3.
Halliday, Fred (2003). Islam and the Myth of Confrontation: Religion and Politics of the Middle East. I.B. Tauris, New York. ISBN 1-86064-868-1.
Esposito, John L. (2003). Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 0-19-516886-0.
Geisler, Norman L. (2002). Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of the Cross. Baker Books. ISBN 0-8010-6430-9.
Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim (1995)
—, Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out
The Institute for the Study of Civil Society report - The ‘West’, Islam and Islamism
Zwemer Islam, a Challenge to Faith (New York, 1907)
Shoja-e-din Shafa, Rebirth (1995) (Persian Title: تولدى ديگر)
Shoja-e-din Shafa, After 1400 Years (2000) (Persian Title: پس از 1400 سال)


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Antisemitism (also spelled anti-Semitism or anti-semitism) is prejudice against, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews as an ethnic, religious, or racial group.[1][2] A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is widely considered to be a form of racism.[3][4]
While the conjunction of the units anti, Semite, and ism indicates antisemitism as being directed against all Semitic people, the term was popularized in Germany in 1873 as a scientific-sounding term for Judenhass (Jew-hatred),[5][6] although it had been used for at least two decades prior,[7] and that has been its normal use since then.[8] For the purposes of a 2005 U.S. governmental report, antisemitism was considered "hatred toward Jews—individually and as a group—that can be attributed to the Jewish religion and/or ethnicity."[9]
Antisemitism may be manifested in many ways, ranging from expressions of hatred of or discrimination against individual Jews to organized violent attacks by mobs, state police, or even military attacks on entire Jewish communities. Although the term did not come into common usage until the 19th century, it is now also applied to historic anti-Jewish incidents. Notable instances of persecution include the pogroms which preceded the First Crusade in 1096, the expulsion from England in 1290, the massacres of Spanish Jews in 1391, the persecutions of the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion from Spain in 1492, Cossack massacres in Ukraine of 1648–1657, various pogroms in Imperial Russia between 1821 and 1906, the 1894–1906 Dreyfus affair in France, the Holocaust in German-occupied Europe, official Soviet anti-Jewish policies and Arab and Muslim involvement in the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries.


Contents  [hide]
1 Origin and usage in the context of xenophobia 1.1 Etymology
1.2 Usage
1.3 Definition
1.4 Evolution of usage
2 Manifestations 2.1 Cultural antisemitism
2.2 Religious antisemitism
2.3 Economic antisemitism
2.4 Racial antisemitism
2.5 Political antisemitism
2.6 Conspiracy theories
2.7 New antisemitism
3 History 3.1 Ancient world
3.2 Persecutions in the Middle Ages
3.3 17th century
3.4 Enlightenment
3.5 Islamic antisemitism in the 19th century
3.6 Secular or racial antisemitism
3.7 20th century
3.8 21st-century European antisemitism
3.9 21st-century Arab antisemitism
4 Causes
5 Current situation 5.1 Africa 5.1.1 Egypt
5.2 Asia 5.2.1 Iran
5.2.2 Japan
5.2.3 Lebanon
5.2.4 Malaysia
5.2.5 Palestinian territories
5.2.6 Pakistan
5.2.7 Saudi Arabia
5.2.8 Turkey
5.3 Europe 5.3.1 Austria
5.3.2 France
5.3.3 Germany
5.3.4 Greece
5.3.5 Hungary
5.3.6 Italy
5.3.7 Netherlands
5.3.8 Norway
5.3.9 Russia
5.3.10 Spain
5.3.11 Sweden
5.3.12 Ukraine
5.3.13 United Kingdom
5.4 North America 5.4.1 Canada
5.4.2 United States
5.5 South America 5.5.1 Venezuela

6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links

Origin and usage in the context of xenophobia
Etymology
The origin of "antisemitic" terminologies is found in responses of Moritz Steinschneider to the views of Ernest Renan. As Alex Bein writes "The compound anti-Semitism appears to have been used first by Steinschneider, who challenged Renan on account of his 'anti-Semitic prejudices' [i.e., his derogation of the "Semites" as a race]".[10] Avner Falk similarly writes: 'The German word antisemitisch was first used in 1860 by the Austrian Jewish scholar Moritz Steinschneider (1816-1907) in the phrase antisemitische Vorurteile (antisemitic prejudices). Steinschneider used this phrase to characterise the French philosopher Ernest Renan's false ideas about how "Semitic races" were inferior to "Aryan races"'.[11]
Pseudoscientific theories concerning race, civilization, and "progress" had become quite widespread in Europe in the second half of the 19th century, especially as Prussian nationalistic historian Heinrich von Treitschke did much to promote this form of racism. He coined the phrase "the Jews are our misfortune" which would later be widely used by Nazis.[12] In Treitschke's writings "Semitic" was synonymous with "Jewish",[citation needed] in contrast to its use by Renan and others.

 

 Cover page of Marr's The Way to Victory of Germanicism over Judaism, 1880 edition
In 1873 German journalist Wilhelm Marr published a pamphlet, Der Sieg des Judenthums über das Germanenthum. Vom nicht confessionellen Standpunkt aus betrachtet (The Victory of the Jewish Spirit over the Germanic Spirit. Observed from a non-religious perspective.)[13][page needed]&/or[need quotation to verify] in which he used the word Semitismus interchangeably with the word Judentum to denote both "Jewry" (the Jews as a collective) and "jewishness" (the quality of being Jewish, or the Jewish spirit).
This use of Semitismus was followed by a coining of "Antisemitismus" which was used to indicate opposition to the Jews as a people[citation needed] and opposition to the Jewish spirit, which Marr interpreted as infiltrating German culture. His next pamphlet, Der Weg zum Siege des Germanenthums über das Judenthum (The Way to Victory of the Germanic Spirit over the Jewish Spirit, 1880), presents a development of Marr's ideas further and may present the first published use of the German word Antisemitismus, "antisemitism".
The pamphlet became very popular, and in the same year he founded the Antisemiten-Liga (League of Antisemites),[14] the first German organization committed specifically to combating the alleged threat to Germany and German culture posed by the Jews and their influence, and advocating their forced removal from the country.
So far as can be ascertained, the word was first widely printed in 1881, when Marr published Zwanglose Antisemitische Hefte, and Wilhelm Scherer used the term Antisemiten in the January issue of Neue Freie Presse.
The Jewish Encyclopedia reported: ‘In February 1881, a correspondent of the "Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums" speaks of "Anti-Semitism" as a designation which recently came into use ("Allg. Zeit. d. Jud." 1881, p. 138). On 19 July 1882, the editor says, "This quite recent Anti-Semitism is hardly three years old."’[15]
The related term "philosemitism" was coined around 1885.[citation needed]
Usage
Despite the use of the prefix anti-, the term "anti-Semitic" is not a direct opposite of "Semitic" which linguistically makes the term a misnomer. Within common, day to day usage, however, the terms "anti-Semitism" and "antisemitism" have accepted and specific use to describe prejudice against Jews alone and in general.[1][8] This is despite the fact that there are other speakers of Semitic languages (e.g. Arabs, Ethiopians, or Assyrians) and that not all Jews speak a Semitic language.
The term "antisemitic" has been used on occasion with meanings inclusive of bigotry against other Semitic-language peoples such as Arabs, with the validity of such use being challenged.[16][17]
The terms "anti-Semitism" and "antisemitism" are both in use. Some scholars favor the unhyphenated form because, "If you use the hyphenated form, you consider the words 'Semitism', 'Semite', 'Semitic' as meaningful" whereas "in antisemitic parlance, 'Semites' really stands for Jews, just that."[18][19][20][21] For example, Emil Fackenheim supported the unhyphenated spelling, in order to "[dispel] the notion that there is an entity 'Semitism' which 'anti-Semitism' opposes."[22] Others endorsing an unhyphenated term for the same reason include Padraic O'Hare, professor of Religious and Theological Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations at Merrimack College; Yehuda Bauer, professor of Holocaust Studies at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and James Carroll, historian and novelist. According to Carroll, who first cites O'Hare and Bauer on "the existence of something called 'Semitism'", "the hyphenated word thus reflects the bipolarity that is at the heart of the problem of antisemitism".[23]
Definition
Though the general definition of antisemitism is hostility or prejudice against Jews, and, according to Olaf Blaschke, has become an "umbrella term for negative stereotypes about Jews",[24] a number of authorities have developed more formal definitions.
Holocaust scholar and City University of New York professor Helen Fein defines it as "a persisting latent structure of hostile beliefs towards Jews as a collective manifested in individuals as attitudes, and in culture as myth, ideology, folklore and imagery, and in actions—social or legal discrimination, political mobilization against the Jews, and collective or state violence—which results in and/or is designed to distance, displace, or destroy Jews as Jews."
Elaborating on Fein's definition, Dietz Bering of the University of Cologne writes that, to antisemites, "Jews are not only partially but totally bad by nature, that is, their bad traits are incorrigible. Because of this bad nature: (1) Jews have to be seen not as individuals but as a collective. (2) Jews remain essentially alien in the surrounding societies. (3) Jews bring disaster on their 'host societies' or on the whole world, they are doing it secretly, therefore the anti-Semites feel obliged to unmask the conspiratorial, bad Jewish character."[25]
For Sonja Weinberg, as distinct from economic and religious anti-Judaism, antisemitism in its modern form shows conceptual innovation, a resort to 'science' to defend itself, new functional forms and organisational differences. It was anti-liberal, racialist and nationalist. It promoted the myth that Jews conspired to 'judaise' the world; it served to consolidate social identity; it channeled dissatisfactions among victims of the capitalist system; and it was used as a conservative cultural code to fight emancipation and liberalism.[26]

 

 Antisemitic caricature by C.Léandre (France, 1898) showing Rothschild with the world in his hands
Bernard Lewis defines antisemitism as a special case of prejudice, hatred, or persecution directed against people who are in some way different from the rest. According to Lewis, antisemitism is marked by two distinct features: Jews are judged according to a standard different from that applied to others, and they are accused of "cosmic evil." Thus, "it is perfectly possible to hate and even to persecute Jews without necessarily being anti-Semitic" unless this hatred or persecution displays one of the two features specific to antisemitism.[27]
There have been a number of efforts by international and governmental bodies to define antisemitism formally. The U.S. Department of State states that "while there is no universally accepted definition, there is a generally clear understanding of what the term encompasses." For the purposes of its 2005 Report on Global Anti-Semitism, the term was considered to mean "hatred toward Jews—individually and as a group—that can be attributed to the Jewish religion and/or ethnicity."[9]
In 2005, the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (now Fundamental Rights Agency), then an agency of the European Union, developed a more detailed working definition, which states: "Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities." It adds "such manifestations could also target the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity." It provides contemporary examples of ways in which antisemitism may manifest itself, including: promoting the harming of Jews in the name of an ideology or religion; promoting negative stereotypes of Jews; holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of an individual Jewish person or group; denying the Holocaust or accusing Jews or Israel of exaggerating it; and accusing Jews of dual loyalty or a greater allegiance to Israel than their own country. It also lists ways in which attacking Israel could be antisemitic, and states that denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g. by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor, can be a manifestation of antisemitism—as can applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation, or holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel.[28] Late in 2013, the definition was removed from the website of the Fundamental Rights Agency. A spokesperson said that it had never been regarded as official and that the agency did not intend to develop its own definition.[29]

 

 1889 Paris, France elections poster for self-described "candidat antisémite" Adolphe Willette: "The Jews are a different race, hostile to our own... Judaism, there is the enemy!" (see file for complete translation)
Evolution of usage
In 1879, Wilhelm Marr founded the Antisemiten-Liga (Anti-Semitic League).[30] Identification with antisemitism and as an antisemite was politically advantageous in Europe in the latter 19th century. For example, Karl Lueger, the popular mayor of fin de siècle Vienna, skillfully exploited antisemitism as a way of channeling public discontent to his political advantage.[31] In its 1910 obituary of Lueger, The New York Times notes that Lueger was "Chairman of the Christian Social Union of the Parliament and of the Anti-Semitic Union of the Diet of Lower Austria.[32] In 1895 A. C. Cuza organized the Alliance Anti-semitique Universelle in Bucharest. In the period before World War II, when animosity towards Jews was far more commonplace, it was not uncommon for a person, organization, or political party to self-identify as an antisemite or antisemitic.
In 1882, the early Zionist pioneer Judah Leib Pinsker wrote that antisemitism was a psychological response rooted in fear and was an inherited predisposition. He named the condition Judeophobia.[33]

Judeophobia is a variety of demonopathy with the distinction that it is not peculiar to particular races but is common to the whole of mankind.'...'Judeophobia is a psychic aberration. As a psychic aberration it is hereditary, and as a disease transmitted for two thousand years it is incurable.'... 'In this way have Judaism and Anti-Semitism passed for centuries through history as inseparable companions.'......'Having analyzed Judeophobia as an hereditary form of demonopathy, peculiar to the human race, and having represented Anti-Semitism as proceeding from an inherited aberration of the human mind, we must draw the important conclusion that we must give' up contending against these hostile impulses as we must against every other inherited predisposition. (translation from German)[34]
In the aftermath of the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, German propaganda minister Goebbels announced: "The German people is anti-Semitic. It has no desire to have its rights restricted or to be provoked in the future by parasites of the Jewish race."[35]
After the 1945 victory of the Allies over Nazi Germany, and particularly after the extent of the Nazi genocide of Jews became known, the term "anti-Semitism" acquired pejorative connotations. This marked a full circle shift in usage, from an era just decades earlier when "Jew" was used as a pejorative term.[36][37] Yehuda Bauer wrote in 1984: "There are no anti-Semites in the world... Nobody says, 'I am anti-Semitic.' You cannot, after Hitler. The word has gone out of fashion."[38]
Manifestations

 

 Jews (identified by the mandatory Jewish badge and Jewish hat) being burned during the Black Death in 1348.
Antisemitism manifests itself in a variety of ways. René König mentions social antisemitism, economic antisemitism, religious antisemitism, and political antisemitism as examples. König points out that these different forms demonstrate that the "origins of anti-Semitic prejudices are rooted in different historical periods." König asserts that differences in the chronology of different antisemitic prejudices and the irregular distribution of such prejudices over different segments of the population create "serious difficulties in the definition of the different kinds of anti-Semitism."[39] These difficulties may contribute to the existence of different taxonomies that have been developed to categorize the forms of antisemitism. The forms identified are substantially the same; it is primarily the number of forms and their definitions that differ. Bernard Lazare identifies three forms of antisemitism: Christian antisemitism, economic antisemitism, and ethnologic antisemitism.[40] William Brustein names four categories: religious, racial, economic and political.[41] The Roman Catholic historian Edward Flannery distinguished four varieties of antisemitism:[42]
political and economic antisemitism, giving as examples Cicero[43] and Charles Lindbergh;[44]
theological or religious antisemitism, sometimes known as anti-Judaism;[45]
nationalistic antisemitism, citing Voltaire and other Enlightenment thinkers, who attacked Jews for supposedly having certain characteristics, such as greed and arrogance, and for observing customs such as kashrut and Shabbat;[46]
and racial antisemitism, with its extreme form resulting in the Holocaust by the Nazis.[47]
Louis Harap separates "economic antisemitism" and merges "political" and "nationalistic" antisemitism into "ideological antisemitism". Harap also adds a category of "social antisemitism".[48]
religious (Jew as Christ-killer),
economic (Jew as banker, usurer, money-obsessed),
social (Jew as social inferior, "pushy," vulgar, therefore excluded from personal contact),
racist (Jews as an inferior "race"),
ideological (Jews regarded as subversive or revolutionary),
cultural (Jews regarded as undermining the moral and structural fiber of civilization).
Gustavo Perednik has argued that what he terms "Judeophobia" has a number of unique traits which set it apart from other forms of racism, including permanence, depth, obsessiveness, irrationality, endurance, ubiquity, and danger.[49] He also wrote in his book Spain Derailed that "The Jews were accused by the nationalists of being the creators of Communism; by the Communists of ruling Capitalism. If they live in non-Jewish countries, they are accused of double-loyalties; if they live in the Jewish country, of being racists. When they spend their money, they are reproached for being ostentatious; when they don't spend their money, of being avaricious. They are called rootless cosmopolitans or hardened chauvinists. If they assimilate, they are accused of fifth-columnists, if they don't, of shutting themselves away."[50]
Cultural antisemitism
Louis Harap defines cultural antisemitism as "that species of anti-Semitism that charges the Jews with corrupting a given culture and attempting to supplant or succeeding in supplanting the preferred culture with a uniform, crude, "Jewish" culture.[51] Similarly, Eric Kandel characterizes cultural antisemitism as being based on the idea of "Jewishness" as a "religious or cultural tradition that is acquired through learning, through distinctive traditions and education." According to Kandel, this form of antisemitism views Jews as possessing "unattractive psychological and social characteristics that are acquired through acculturation."[52] Niewyk and Nicosia characterize cultural antisemitism as focusing on and condemning "the Jews' aloofness from the societies in which they live."[53] An important feature of cultural antisemitism is that it considers the negative attributes of Judaism to be redeemable by education or religious conversion.[54]
Religious antisemitism
See also: Anti-Judaism, Christianity and antisemitism and Islam and antisemitism

 

 Execution of Mariana de Carabajal (converted Jew), accused of a relapse into Judaism, Mexico City, 1601
Religious antisemitism, also known as anti-Judaism, is antipathy against the perceived religious beliefs of Jews. In theory, antisemitism and attacks against individual Jews would stop if Jews stopped practicing Judaism or changed their public faith, especially by conversion to the official or right religion. However, in some cases discrimination continues after conversion, as in the case of Christianized Marranos or Iberian Jews in the late 15th century and 16th century suspected of secretly practising Judaism or Jewish customs.[42]
Although the origins of antisemitism are rooted in the Judeo-Christian conflict, religious antisemitism, other forms of antisemitism have developed in modern times. Frederick Schweitzer asserts that, "most scholars ignore the Christian foundation on which the modern antisemitic edifice rests and invoke political antisemitism, cultural antisemitism, racism or racial antisemitism, economic antisemitism and the like."[55] William Nichols draws a distinction between religious antisemitism and modern antisemitism based on racial or ethnic grounds: "The dividing line was the possibility of effective conversion... a Jew ceased to be a Jew upon baptism." From the perspective of racial antisemitism, however, "... the assimilated Jew was still a Jew, even after baptism.... From the Enlightenment onward, it is no longer possible to draw clear lines of distinction between religious and racial forms of hostility towards Jews... Once Jews have been emancipated and secular thinking makes its appearance, without leaving behind the old Christian hostility towards Jews, the new term antisemitism becomes almost unavoidable, even before explicitly racist doctrines appear."
Economic antisemitism
The underlying premise of economic antisemitism is that Jews perform harmful economic activities or that economic activities become harmful when they are performed by Jews.[56]
Linking Jews and money underpins the most damaging and lasting Antisemitic canards.[57] Antisemites claim that Jews control the world finances, a theory promoted in the fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and later repeated by Henry Ford and his Dearborn Independent. In the modern era, such myths continue to be spread in books such as The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews published by the Nation of Islam, and on the internet. Derek Penslar writes that there are two components to the financial canards:[58]
a) Jews are savages that "are temperamentally incapable of performing honest labor"b) Jews are "leaders of a financial cabal seeking world domination"
Abraham Foxman describes six facets of the financial canards:
1.All Jews are wealthy[59]
2.Jews are stingy and greedy[60]
3.Powerful Jews control the business world[61]
4.Jewish religion emphasizes profit and materialism[62]
5.It is okay for Jews to cheat non-Jews[63]
6.Jews use their power to benefit "their own kind"[64]
Gerald Krefetz summarizes the myth as "[Jews] control the banks, the money supply, the economy, and businesses—of the community, of the country, of the world".[65] Krefetz gives, as illustrations, many slurs and proverbs (in several different languages) which suggest that Jews are stingy, or greedy, or miserly, or aggressive bargainers.[66] During the nineteenth century, Jews were described as "scurrilous, stupid, and tight-fisted", but after the Jewish Emancipation and the rise of Jews to the middle- or upper-class in Europe were portrayed as "clever, devious, and manipulative financiers out to dominate [world finances]".[67]
Léon Poliakov asserts that economic antisemitism is not a distinct form of antisemitism, but merely a manifestation of theologic antisemitism (because, without the theological causes of the economic antisemitism, there would be no economic antisemitism). In opposition to this view, Derek Penslar contends that in the modern era, the economic antisemitism is "distinct and nearly constant" but theological antisemitism is "often subdued".[68]
An academic study by Francesco D’Acunto, Marcel Prokopczuk, and Michael Weber showed that people who live in areas of Germany that contain the most brutal history of anti-Semitic persecution are more likely to be distrustful of finance in general. Therefore, they tended to invest less money in the stock market and make poor financial decisions. The study concluded "that the persecution of minorities reduces not only the long-term wealth of the persecuted, but of the persecutors as well."[69]
Racial antisemitism
Main article: Racial antisemitism

 

 Jewish Soviet soldier taken prisoner by the German Army, August 1941. At least 50,000 Jewish soldiers were shot after selection.
Racial antisemitism is prejudice against Jews as a racial/ethnic group, rather than Judaism as a religion.[70]
Racial antisemitism is the idea that the Jews are a distinct and inferior race compared to their host nations. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, it gained mainstream acceptance as part of the eugenics movement, which categorized non-Europeans as inferior. It more specifically claimed that Northern Europeans, or "Aryans", were superior. Racial antisemites saw the Jews as part of a Semitic race and emphasized their non-European origins and culture. They saw Jews as beyond redemption even if they converted to the majority religion.[citation needed]
Racial antisemitism replaced the hatred of Judaism with the hatred of Jews as a group. In the context of the Industrial Revolution, following the Jewish Emancipation, Jews rapidly urbanized and experienced a period of greater social mobility. With the decreasing role of religion in public life tempering religious antisemitism, a combination of growing nationalism, the rise of eugenics, and resentment at the socio-economic success of the Jews led to the newer, and more virulent, racist antisemitism.[citation needed]
According to William Nichols, religious antisemitism may be distinguished from modern antisemitism based on racial or ethnic grounds. "The dividing line was the possibility of effective conversion... a Jew ceased to be a Jew upon baptism." However, with racial antisemitism, "Now the assimilated Jew was still a Jew, even after baptism.... From the Enlightenment onward, it is no longer possible to draw clear lines of distinction between religious and racial forms of hostility towards Jews... Once Jews have been emancipated and secular thinking makes its appearance, without leaving behind the old Christian hostility towards Jews, the new term antisemitism becomes almost unavoidable, even before explicitly racist doctrines appear."[71]
In the early 19th century, a number of laws enabling emancipation of the Jews were enacted in Western European countries.[72][73] The old laws restricting them to ghettos, as well as the many laws that limited their property rights, rights of worship and occupation, were rescinded. Despite this, traditional discrimination and hostility to Jews on religious grounds persisted and was supplemented by racial antisemitism, encouraged by the work of racial theorists such as Joseph Arthur de Gobineau and particularly his Essay on the Inequality of the Human Race of 1853–5. Nationalist agendas based on ethnicity, known as ethnonationalism, usually excluded the Jews from the national community as an alien race.[74] Allied to this were theories of Social Darwinism, which stressed a putative conflict between higher and lower races of human beings. Such theories, usually posited by northern Europeans, advocated the superiority of white Aryans to Semitic Jews.[75]
Political antisemitism
"The whole problem of the Jews exists only in nation states, for here their energy and higher intelligence, their accumulated capital of spirit and will, gathered from generation to generation through a long schooling in suffering, must become so preponderant as to arouse mass envy and hatred. In almost all contemporary nations, therefore - in direct proportion to the degree to which they act up nationalistially - the literary obscenity of leading the Jews to slaughter as scapegoats of every conceivable public and internal misfortune is spreading."
— Friedrich Nietzsche, 1886, [MA 1 475][76]
William Brustein defines political antisemitism as hostility toward Jews based on the belief that Jews seek national and/or world power." Yisrael Gutman characterizes political antisemitism as tending to "lay responsibility on the Jews for defeats and political economic crises" while seeking to "exploit opposition and resistance to Jewish influence as elements in political party platforms."[77]
According to Viktor Karády, political antisemitism became widespread after the legal emancipation of the Jews and sought to reverse some of the consequences of that emancipation. [78]
Conspiracy theories
See also: List of conspiracy theories § Antisemitic conspiracy theories
Holocaust denial and Jewish conspiracy theories are also considered a form of antisemitism.[79][80][81][82][83][83] [84] [85] Zoological conspiracy theories have been propagated by the Arab media and Arabic language websites, alleging a "Zionist plot" behind the use of animals to attack civilians or to conduct espionage.[86]
New antisemitism
Main article: New antisemitism
Starting in the 1990s, some scholars have advanced the concept of new antisemitism, coming simultaneously from the left, the right, and radical Islam, which tends to focus on opposition to the creation of a Jewish homeland in the State of Israel,[87] and they argue that the language of anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel are used to attack Jews more broadly. In this view, the proponents of the new concept believe that criticisms of Israel and Zionism are often disproportionate in degree and unique in kind, and they attribute this to antisemitism. Jewish scholar Gustavo Perednik has posited that anti-Zionism in itself represents a form of discrimination against Jews, in that it singles out Jewish national aspirations as an illegitimate and racist endeavor, and "proposes actions that would result in the death of millions of Jews".[88][89] It is asserted that the new antisemitism deploys traditional antisemitic motifs, including older motifs such as the blood libel.[87]
Critics of the concept view it as trivializing the meaning of antisemitism, and as exploiting antisemitism in order to silence debate and to deflect attention from legitimate criticism of the State of Israel, and, by associating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, misused to taint anyone opposed to Israeli actions and policies.[90]
History
Main article: History of antisemitism

 

 The massacre of the Banu Qurayza, a Jewish tribe of Medina, 627
Many authors see the roots of modern antisemitism in both pagan antiquity and early Christianity. Jerome Chanes identifies six stages in the historical development of antisemitism:[91]
1.Pre-Christian anti-Judaism in ancient Greece and Rome which was primarily ethnic in nature
2.Christian antisemitism in antiquity and the Middle Ages which was religious in nature and has extended into modern times
3.Traditional Muslim antisemitism which was—at least, in its classical form—nuanced in that Jews were a protected class
4.Political, social and economic antisemitism of Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment Europe which laid the groundwork for racial antisemitism
5.Racial antisemitism that arose in the 19th century and culminated in Nazism in the 20th century
6.Contemporary antisemitism which has been labeled by some as the New Antisemitism
Chanes suggests that these six stages could be merged into three categories: "ancient antisemitism, which was primarily ethnic in nature; Christian antisemitism, which was religious; and the racial antisemitism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."[92]
Ancient world
The first clear examples of anti-Jewish sentiment can be traced back to Alexandria in the 3rd century BCE.[42] Alexandria was home to the largest Jewish diaspora community in the world at the time and the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, was produced there. Manetho, an Egyptian priest and historian of that era, wrote scathingly of the Jews. His themes are repeated in the works of Chaeremon, Lysimachus, Poseidonius, Apollonius Molon, and in Apion and Tacitus.[93] Agatharchides of Cnidus ridiculed the practices of the Jews and the "absurdity of their Law", making a mocking reference to how Ptolemy Lagus was able to invade Jerusalem in 320 BCE because its inhabitants were observing the Shabbat.[93] One of the earliest anti-Jewish edicts, promulgated by Antiochus IV Epiphanes in about 170–167 BCE, sparked a revolt of the Maccabees in Judea.
In view of Manetho's anti-Jewish writings, antisemitism may have originated in Egypt and been spread by "the Greek retelling of Ancient Egyptian prejudices".[94] The ancient Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria describes an attack on Jews in Alexandria in 38 CE in which thousands of Jews died.[95][96] The violence in Alexandria may have been caused by the Jews being portrayed as misanthropes.[97] Tcherikover argues that the reason for hatred of Jews in the Hellenistic period was their separateness in the Greek cities, the poleis.[98] Bohak has argued, however, that early animosity against the Jews cannot be regarded as being anti-Judaic or antisemitic unless it arose from attitudes that were held against the Jews alone, and that many Greeks showed animosity toward any group they regarded as barbarians.[99] Statements exhibiting prejudice against Jews and their religion can be found in the works of many pagan Greek and Roman writers.[100] Edward Flannery writes that it was the Jews' refusal to accept Greek religious and social standards that marked them out. Hecataetus of Abdera, a Greek historian of the early third century BCE, wrote that Moses "in remembrance of the exile of his people, instituted for them a misanthropic and inhospitable way of life." Manetho, an Egyptian historian, wrote that the Jews were expelled Egyptian lepers who had been taught by Moses "not to adore the gods." Edward Flannery describes antisemitism in ancient times as essentially "cultural, taking the shape of a national xenophobia played out in political settings."[42]
There are examples of Hellenistic rulers desecrating the Temple and banning Jewish religious practices, such as circumcision, Shabbat observance, study of Jewish religious books, etc. Examples may also be found in anti-Jewish riots in Alexandria in the 3rd century BCE.
The Jewish diaspora on the Nile island Elephantine, which was founded by mercenaries, experienced the destruction of its temple in 410 BCE.[101]
Relationships between the Jewish people and the occupying Roman Empire were at times antagonistic and resulted in several rebellions. According to Suetonius, the emperor Tiberius expelled from Rome Jews who had gone to live there. The 18th-century English historian Edward Gibbon identified a more tolerant period in Roman-Jewish relations beginning in about 160 CE.[42] However, when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, the state's attitude towards the Jews gradually worsened.
James Carroll asserted: "Jews accounted for 10% of the total population of the Roman Empire. By that ratio, if other factors such as pogroms and conversions had not intervened, there would be 200 million Jews in the world today, instead of something like 13 million."[102][103]
Persecutions in the Middle Ages
Main article: Jews in the Middle Ages
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From the 9th century CE, the medieval Islamic world classified Jews (and Christians) as dhimmi, and allowed Jews to practice their religion more freely than they could do in medieval Christian Europe. Under Islamic rule, there was a Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain that lasted until at least the 11th century.[104] It ended when several Muslim pogroms against Jews took place on the Iberian Peninsula, including those that occurred in Córdoba in 1011 and in Granada in 1066.[105][106][107] Several decrees ordering the destruction of synagogues were also enacted in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Yemen from the 11th century. In addition, Jews were forced to convert to Islam or face death in some parts of Yemen, Morocco and Baghdad several times between the 12th and 18th centuries.[108] The Almohads, who had taken control of the Almoravids' Maghribi and Andalusian territories by 1147,[109] were far more fundamentalist in outlook compared to their predecessors, and they treated the dhimmis harshly. Faced with the choice of either death or conversion, many Jews and Christians emigrated.[110][111][112] Some, such as the family of Maimonides, fled east to more tolerant Muslim lands,[110] while some others went northward to settle in the growing Christian kingdoms.[113]
During the Middle Ages in Europe there was persecution against Jews in many places, with blood libels, expulsions, forced conversions and massacres. A main justification of prejudice against Jews in Europe was religious.
The persecution hit its first peak during the Crusades. In the First Crusade (1096) hundreds or even thousands of Jews were killed as the crusaders arrived.[114] This was the first major outbreak of anti-Jewish violence Christian Europe outside Spain and was cited by Zionists in the 19th century as indicating the need for a state of Israel.[115]
In the Second Crusade (1147) the Jews in Germany were subject to several massacres. The Jews were also subjected to attacks by the Shepherds' Crusades of 1251 and 1320. The Crusades were followed by expulsions, including, in 1290, the banishing of all English Jews; in 1394, the expulsion of 100,000[citation needed] Jews in France; and in 1421, the expulsion of thousands from Austria. Many of the expelled Jews fled to Poland.[116] In medieval and Renaissance Europe, a major contributor to the deepening of antisemitic sentiment and legal action among the Christian populations was the popular preaching of the zealous reform religious orders, the Franciscans (especially Bernardino of Feltre) and Dominicans (especially Vincent Ferrer), who combed Europe and promoted antisemitism through their often fiery, emotional appeals.[117]
As the Black Death epidemics devastated Europe in the mid-14th century, causing the death of a large part of the population, Jews were used as scapegoats. Rumors spread that they caused the disease by deliberately poisoning wells. Hundreds of Jewish communities were destroyed. Although Pope Clement VI tried to protect them by issuing two papal bulls in 1348, the first on 6 July and an additional one several months later, 900 Jews were burned alive in Strasbourg, where the plague had not yet affected the city.[118]
17th century
During the mid-to-late 17th century the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was devastated by several conflicts, in which the Commonwealth lost over a third of its population (over 3 million people), and Jewish losses were counted in the hundreds of thousands. The first of these conflicts was the Khmelnytsky Uprising, when Bohdan Khmelnytsky's supporters massacred tens of thousands of Jews in the eastern and southern areas he controlled (today's Ukraine). The precise number of dead may never be known, but the decrease of the Jewish population during that period is estimated at 100,000 to 200,000, which also includes emigration, deaths from diseases and captivity in the Ottoman Empire, called jasyr.[119][120]
European immigrants to the United States brought antisemitism to the country as early as the 17th century. Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, implemented plans to prevent Jews from settling in the city. During the Colonial Era, the American government limited the political and economic rights of Jews. It was not until the Revolutionary War that Jews gained legal rights, including the right to vote. However, even at their peak, the restrictions on Jews in the United States were never as stringent as they had been in Europe.[121]
In the Zaydi imamate of Yemen, Jews were also singled out for discrimination in the 17th century, which culminated in the general expulsion of all Jews from places in Yemen to the arid coastal plain of Tihamah and which became known as the Mawza Exile.[122]
Enlightenment
In 1744, Frederick II of Prussia limited the number of Jews allowed to live in Breslau to only ten so-called "protected" Jewish families and encouraged a similar practice in other Prussian cities. In 1750 he issued the Revidiertes General Privilegium und Reglement vor die Judenschaft: the "protected" Jews had an alternative to "either abstain from marriage or leave Berlin" (quoting Simon Dubnow). In the same year, Archduchess of Austria Maria Theresa ordered Jews out of Bohemia but soon reversed her position, on the condition that Jews pay for their readmission every ten years. This extortion was known as malke-geld (queen's money). In 1752 she introduced the law limiting each Jewish family to one son. In 1782, Joseph II abolished most of these persecution practices in his Toleranzpatent, on the condition that Yiddish and Hebrew were eliminated from public records and that judicial autonomy was annulled. Moses Mendelssohn wrote that "Such a tolerance... is even more dangerous play in tolerance than open persecution."
In 1772, the empress of Russia Catherine II forced the Jews of the Pale of Settlement to stay in their shtetls and forbade them from returning to the towns that they occupied before the partition of Poland.[123]
According to Arnold Ages, Voltaire's "Lettres philosophiques, Dictionnaire philosophique, and Candide, to name but a few of his better known works, are saturated with comments on Jews and Judaism and the vast majority are negative".[124] Paul H. Meyer adds: "There is no question but that Voltaire, particularly in his latter years, nursed a violent hatred of the Jews and it is equally certain that his animosity...did have a considerable impact on public opinion in France."[125] Thirty of the 118 articles in Voltaire's Dictionnaire Philosophique concerned Jews and described them in consistently negative ways,[126]
Islamic antisemitism in the 19th century
Historian Martin Gilbert writes that it was in the 19th century that the position of Jews worsened in Muslim countries. Benny Morris writes that one symbol of Jewish degradation was the phenomenon of stone-throwing at Jews by Muslim children. Morris quotes a 19th-century traveler: "I have seen a little fellow of six years old, with a troop of fat toddlers of only three and four, teaching [them] to throw stones at a Jew, and one little urchin would, with the greatest coolness, waddle up to the man and literally spit upon his Jewish gaberdine. To all this the Jew is obliged to submit; it would be more than his life was worth to offer to strike a Mahommedan."[127]
In the middle of the 19th century, J. J. Benjamin wrote about the life of Persian Jews, describing conditions and beliefs that went back to the 16th century: "…they are obliged to live in a separate part of town… Under the pretext of their being unclean, they are treated with the greatest severity and should they enter a street, inhabited by Mussulmans, they are pelted by the boys and mobs with stones and dirt…."[128]
Secular or racial antisemitism
In 1850 the German composer Richard Wagner published Das Judenthum in der Musik ("Jewishness in Music") under a pseudonym in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. The essay began as an attack on Jewish composers, particularly Wagner's contemporaries (and rivals) Felix Mendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer, but expanded to accuse Jews of being a harmful and alien element in German culture. Antisemitism can also be found in many of the Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, published from 1812 to 1857. It is mainly characterized by Jews being the villain of a story, such as in "The Good Bargain (Der gute Handel)" and "The Jew Among Thorns (Der Jude im Dorn)."
The middle 19th century saw continued official harassment of the Jews, especially in Eastern Europe under Czarist influence. For example, in 1846, 80 Jews approached the governor in Warsaw to retain the right to wear their traditional dress, but were immediately rebuffed by having their hair and beards forcefully cut, at their own expense.[129]
In America, even such influential figures as Walt Whitman tolerated bigotry toward the Jews. During his time as editor of the Brooklyn Eagle (1846-1848), the newspaper published historical sketches casting Jews in a bad light.[130]
The Dreyfus Affair was an infamous antisemitic event of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery captain in the French Army, was accused in 1894 of passing secrets to the Germans. As a result of these charges, Dreyfus was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. The actual spy, Marie Charles Esterhazy, was acquitted. The event caused great uproar among the French, with the public choosing sides on the issue of whether Dreyfus was actually guilty or not. Émile Zola accused the army of corrupting the French justice system. However, general consensus held that Dreyfus was guilty: 80% of the press in France condemned him. This attitude among the majority of the French population reveals the underlying antisemitism of the time period.[131]
Adolf Stoecker (1835–1909), the Lutheran court chaplain to Kaiser Wilhelm I, founded in 1878 an antisemitic, anti-liberal political party called the Christian Social Party.[132][133] This party always remained small, and its support dwindled after Stoecker's death, with most of its members eventually joining larger conservative groups such as the German National People's Party.
Some scholars view Karl Marx's essay On The Jewish Question as antisemitic, and argue that he often used antisemitic epithets in his published and private writings.[134][135][136] These scholars argue that Marx equated Judaism with capitalism in his essay, helping to spread that idea. Some further argue that the essay influenced National Socialist, as well as Soviet and Arab antisemites.[137][138][139] Marx himself had Jewish ancestry, and Albert Lindemann and Hyam Maccoby have suggested that he was embarrassed by it.[140][141] Others argue that Marx consistently supported Prussian Jewish communities' struggles to achieve equal political rights. These scholars argue that "On the Jewish Question" is a critique of Bruno Bauer's arguments that Jews must convert to Christianity before being emancipated, and is more generally a critique of liberal rights discourses and capitalism.[142][143][144][145] David McLellan and Francis Wheen argue that readers should interpret On the Jewish Question in the deeper context of Marx's debates with Bruno Bauer, author of The Jewish Question, about Jewish emancipation in Germany. According to McLellan, Marx used the word Judentum colloquially, as meaning commerce, arguing that Germans must be emancipated from the capitalist mode of production not Judaism or Jews in particular.[146]
20th century

 

 The victims of a 1905 pogrom in Yekaterinoslav
Between 1900 and 1924, approximately 1.75 million Jews migrated to America, the bulk from Eastern Europe. Before 1900 American Jews had always amounted to less than 1% of America's total population, but by 1930 Jews formed about 3.5%. This increase, combined with the upward social mobility of some Jews, contributed to a resurgence of antisemitism. In the first half of the 20th century, in the USA, Jews were discriminated against in employment, access to residential and resort areas, membership in clubs and organizations, and in tightened quotas on Jewish enrolment and teaching positions in colleges and universities. The lynching of Leo Frank by a mob of prominent citizens in Marietta, Georgia in 1915 turned the spotlight on antisemitism in the United States.[147] The case was also used to build support for the renewal of the Ku Klux Klan which had been inactive since 1870.[148]
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Beilis Trial in Russia represented incidents of blood-libel in Europe. Christians used allegations of Jews killing Christians as a justification for the killing of Jews.
Antisemitism in America reached its peak during the interwar period. The pioneer automobile manufacturer Henry Ford propagated antisemitic ideas in his newspaper The Dearborn Independent (published by Ford from 1919 to 1927). The radio speeches of Father Coughlin in the late 1930s attacked Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and promoted the notion of a Jewish financial conspiracy. Some prominent politicians shared such views: Louis T. McFadden, Chairman of the United States House Committee on Banking and Currency, blamed Jews for Roosevelt's decision to abandon the gold standard, and claimed that "in the United States today, the Gentiles have the slips of paper while the Jews have the lawful money".[149]

 

Einsatzgruppe A members shoot Jews on the outskirts of Kaunas, 1941–1942
In the early 1940s the aviator Charles Lindbergh and many prominent Americans led The America First Committee in opposing any involvement in the war against Fascism. During his July 1936 visit to Germany, Lindbergh wrote letters saying that there was "more intelligent leadership in Germany than is generally recognized". The German American Bund held parades in New York City during the late 1930s, where members wore Nazi uniforms and raised flags featuring swastikas alongside American flags. Sometimes race riots, as in Detroit in 1943, targeted Jewish businesses for looting and burning.[150]

 

 A wagon piled high with corpses outside the crematorium at the recently liberated Buchenwald concentration camp
In Germany, Nazism led Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, who came to power on 30 January 1933, instituted repressive legislation denying the Jews basic civil rights. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws prohibited sexual relations and marriages between "Aryans" and Jews as Rassenschande ("race disgrace") and stripped all German Jews, even quarter- and half-Jews, from their citizenship, (their official title became "subjects of the state"). It instituted a pogrom on the night of 9–10 November 1938, dubbed Kristallnacht, in which Jews were killed, their property destroyed and their synagogues torched.[151] Antisemitic laws, agitation and propaganda were extended to German-occupied Europe in the wake of conquest, often building on local antisemitic traditions. In the east the Third Reich forced Jews into ghettos in Warsaw, Kraków, Lvov, Lublin and Radom.[152] After the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 a campaign of mass murder, conducted by the Einsatzgruppen, culminated from 1942 to 1945 in systematic genocide: the Holocaust.[153] Eleven million Jews were targeted for extermination by the Nazis, and some six million were eventually killed.[153][154][155]
Antisemitism was commonly used as an instrument for personal conflicts in the Soviet Union, starting from conflict between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky and continuing through numerous conspiracy-theories spread by official propaganda. Antisemitism in the USSR reached new heights after 1948 during the campaign against the "rootless cosmopolitan" (euphemism for "Jew") in which numerous Yiddish-language poets, writers, painters and sculptors were killed or arrested.[156][157] This culminated in the so-called Doctors' Plot (1952–1953). Similar antisemitic propaganda in Poland resulted in the flight of Polish Jewish survivors from the country.[157]
After the war, the Kielce pogrom and "March 1968 events" in communist Poland represented further incidents of antisemitism in Europe. The anti-Jewish violence in postwar Poland has a common theme of blood-libel rumours.[158][159]
In 1965 Pope Paul VI issued a papal decree disbanding the cult of Simon of Trent, the shrine erected to him was dismantled,[160] and Simon was decanonized.[161]
21st-century European antisemitism
Further information: Antisemitism in Europe § In the 21st century
21st-century Arab antisemitism
Main article: Antisemitism in the Arab world

 

 Displaced Iraqi Jews arrive in Israel in 1951 during the Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries
Robert Bernstein, founder of Human Rights Watch, says that antisemitism is "deeply ingrained and institutionalized" in "Arab nations in modern times."[162]
In a 2011 survey by the Pew Research Center, all of the Muslim-majority Middle Eastern countries polled held strongly negative views of Jews. In the questionnaire, only 2% of Egyptians, 3% of Lebanese Muslims, and 2% of Jordanians reported having a positive view of Jews. Muslim-majority countries outside the Middle East held similarly negative views, with 4% of Turks and 9% of Indonesians viewing Jews favorably.[163]
According to a 2011 exhibition at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, United States, some of the dialogue from Middle East media and commentators about Jews bear a striking resemblance to Nazi propaganda.[164] According to Josef Joffe of Newsweek, "anti-Semitism—the real stuff, not just bad-mouthing particular Israeli policies—is as much part of Arab life today as the hijab or the hookah. Whereas this darkest of creeds is no longer tolerated in polite society in the West, in the Arab world, Jew hatred remains culturally endemic."[165]
Muslim clerics in the Middle East have frequently referred to Jews as descendants of apes and pigs, which are conventional epithets for Jews and Christians.[166][167][168]
According to professor Robert Wistrich, director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA), the calls for the destruction of Israel by Iran or by Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, or the Muslim Brotherhood, represent a contemporary mode of genocidal antisemitism.[169]
Causes
[icon] This section requires expansion. (July 2011)
Dean Phillip Bell documents and enumerates a number of categories and causes for anti-Jewish sentiment. He describes political, social, and pseudo-scientific efforts to separate Jews from "civil" society and notes that antisemitism was part of a larger attempt to differentiate status based on racial background. Bell writes, "Socio-psychological explanations focus on concepts of projected guilt and displaced aggression, the search for a scapegoat. Ethnic explanations associated marginalization, or negative representation of the Other, with perceived ethnic differences. Xenophobia ascribes anti-Jewish sentiment to broader concern over minority groups within a national or regional identity.[170]
There are a number of antisemitic canards which are used to fuel and justify antisemitic sentiment and activities. These include conspiracy theories and myths such as: that Jews killed Christ, poisoned wells, killed Christian children to use their blood for making matzos (the Blood libel), or "made up" the Holocaust, plot to control the world (the Protocols of the Elders of Zion), harvest organs, and other invented stories. A number of conspiracy theories also include accusations that Jews control the media or global financial institutions.
Current situation
[icon] This section requires expansion. (February 2014)
A March 2008 report by the U.S. State Department found that there was an increase in antisemitism across the world, and that both old and new expressions of antisemitism persist.[171] A 2012 report by the U.S. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor also noted a continued global increase in antisemitism, and found that Holocaust denial and opposition to Israeli policy at times was used to promote or justify blatant antisemitism.[172]
Africa
Egypt
In Egypt, Dar al-Fadhilah published a translation of Henry Ford's antisemitic treatise, The International Jew, complete with distinctly antisemitic imagery on the cover.[173]
On 5 May 2001, after Shimon Peres visited Egypt, the Egyptian al-Akhbar internet paper said that "lies and deceit are not foreign to Jews[...]. For this reason, Allah changed their shape and made them into monkeys and pigs."[174]
In July 2012, Egypt's Al Nahar channel fooled actors into thinking they were on an Israeli television show and filmed their reactions to being told it was an Israeli television show. In response, some of the actors launched into antisemitic rants or dialogue, and many became violent. Actress Mayer El Beblawi said that "Allah did not curse the worm and moth as much as he cursed the Jews" while actor Mahmoud Abdel Ghaffar launched into a violent rage and said, "You brought me someone who looks like a Jew... I hate the Jews to death" after finding out it was a prank.[175][176]
Asia
Iran
See also: Holocaust denial § Holocaust denial in Iran
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former president of Iran, has frequently been accused of denying the Holocaust.
In July, the winner of Iran's first annual International Wall Street Downfall Cartoon Festival, jointly sponsored by the semi-state-run Iranian media outlet Fars News, was an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews praying before the New York Stock Exchange, which is made to look like the Western Wall. Other cartoons in the contest were antisemitic as well. The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, condemned the cartoon, stating that "Here's the anti-Semitic notion of Jews and their love for money, the canard that Jews 'control' Wall Street, and a cynical perversion of the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism," and "Once again Iran takes the prize for promoting antisemitism."[177][178][179]
Japan
Main article: Antisemitism in Japan
Lebanon
In 2004, Al-Manar, a media network affiliated with Hezbollah, aired a drama series, The Diaspora, which observers allege is based on historical antisemitic allegations. BBC correspondents who have watched the program says it quotes extensively from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[180]
Malaysia
See also: History of the Jews in Malaysia
Although Malaysia presently has no substantial Jewish population, the country has reportedly become an example of a phenomenon called "antisemitism without Jews."[181][182]
In his treatise on Malay identity, "The Malay Dilemma," which was published in 1970, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad wrote: "The Jews are not only hooked-nosed... but understand money instinctively.... Jewish stinginess and financial wizardry gained them the economic control of Europe and provoked antisemitism which waxed and waned throughout Europe through the ages."[183]
The Malay-language Utusan Malaysia daily stated in an editorial that Malaysians "cannot allow anyone, especially the Jews, to interfere secretly in this country's business... When the drums are pounded hard in the name of human rights, the pro-Jewish people will have their best opportunity to interfere in any Islamic country," the newspaper said. "We might not realize that the enthusiasm to support actions such as demonstrations will cause us to help foreign groups succeed in their mission of controlling this country." Prime Minister Najib Razak's office subsequently issued a statement late Monday saying Utusan's claim did "not reflect the views of the government."[184][185][186]
Palestinian territories
See also: Tomorrow's Pioneers, Racism in the Palestinian territories and Textbooks in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict



 

Haj Amin al-Husseini meeting with Adolf Hitler, December 1941. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem helped recruit Muslims for the Waffen-SS.
Mudar Zahran, a Palestinian, writing for the Gatestone Institute says that "the Palestinians have been used as fuel for the new form of anti-Semitism; this has hurt the Palestinians and exposed them to unprecedented and purposely media-ignored abuse by Arab governments, including some of those who claim love for the Palestinians, yet in fact only bare hatred to Jews. This has resulted in Palestinian cries for justice, equality, freedom and even basic human rights being ignored while the world getting consumed with delegitimizing Israel from either ignorance or malice."[187]
In March 2011, the Israeli government issued a paper claiming that "Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic messages are heard regularly in the government and private media and in the mosques and are taught in school books," to the extent that they are "an integral part of the fabric of life inside the PA."[188] In August 2012, Israeli Strategic Affairs Ministry director-general Yossi Kuperwasser stated that Palestinian incitement to antisemitism is "going on all the time" and that it is "worrying and disturbing." At an institutional level, he said the PA has been promoting three key messages to the Palestinian people that constitute incitement: "that the Palestinians would eventually be the sole sovereign on all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea; that Jews, especially those who live in Israel, were not really human beings but rather 'the scum of mankind'; and that all tools were legitimate in the struggle against Israel and the Jews."[189] In August 2014, the Hamas' spokesman in Doha said on live television that Jews use blood to make matzos.[190]
Pakistan
See also: History of the Jews in Pakistan and Antisemitism in Pakistan
The U.S. State Department's first Report on Global Anti-Semitism mentioned a strong feeling of antisemitism in Pakistan.[191] In Pakistan, a country without Jewish communities, antisemitic sentiment fanned by antisemitic articles in the press is widespread.[192]
In Pakistan, Jews are often regarded as miserly.[193] After Israel's independence in 1948, violent incidents occurred against Pakistan's small Jewish community of about 2,000 Bene Israel Jews. The Magain Shalome Synagogue in Karachi was attacked, as were individual Jews. The persecution of Jews resulted in their exodus via India to Israel (see Pakistanis in Israel), the UK, Canada and other countries. The Peshawar Jewish community ceased to exist[194] although a small community reportedly still exists in Karachi.
A substantial number of people in Pakistan believe that the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York were a secret Jewish conspiracy organized by Israel's MOSSAD, as were the 7 July 2005 London bombings, allegedly perpetrated by Jews in order to discredit Muslims. Such allegations echo traditional antisemitic theories.[195][196] The Jewish religious movement of Chabad Lubavich had an mission house in Mumbai, India that was attacked in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, perpetrated by militants connected to Pakistan led by Ajmal Kasab.[197][198] Antisemitic intents were evident from the testimonies of Kasab following his arrest and trial.[199]
Saudi Arabia
See also: Antisemitism in the Arab world § Saudi Arabia
The website of the Saudi Arabian Supreme Commission for Tourism initially[when?] stated that Jews would not be granted tourist visas to enter the country.[200][201] The Saudi embassy in the U.S. distanced itself from the statement, which was later removed.[202][203]
In 2001, Arab Radio and Television of Saudi Arabia produced a 30-part television miniseries entitled "Horseman Without a Horse", a dramatization of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[204] One Saudi Arabian government newspaper suggested that hatred of all Jews is justifiable.[205]
Saudi textbooks vilify Jews (and Christians and non-Wahabi Muslims): according to 21 May 2006 issue of The Washington Post, Saudi textbooks claimed by them to have been sanitized of antisemitism still call Jews apes (and Christians swine); demand that students avoid and not befriend Jews; claim that Jews worship the devil; and encourage Muslims to engage in Jihad to vanquish Jews.[206]
The Center for Religious Freedom of Freedom House analyzed a set of Saudi Ministry of Education textbooks in Islamic studies courses for elementary and secondary school students. The researchers found statements promoting hatred of Christians, Jews, "polytheists" and other "unbelievers," including non-Wahabi Muslims. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was taught as historical fact. The texts described Jews and Christians as enemies of Muslim believers and the clash between them as an ongoing fight that will end in victory over the Jews. Jews were blamed for virtually all the "subversion" and wars of the modern world.[207] A 38-page overview PDF (371 KB) of Saudi Arabia's curriculum has been released to the press by the Hudson Institute.
The BBC aired a Panorama episode, entitled A Question of Leadership, which reported that Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, the leading imam of the Grand mosque located in the Islamic holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia,[208][209] referred to Jews as "the scum of the human race" and "offspring of apes and pigs". Al-Sudais further stated: "the worst [...] of the enemies of Islam are those [...] whom he [...] made monkeys and pigs, the aggressive Jews and oppressive Zionists and those that follow them [...] Monkeys and pigs and worshippers of false Gods who are the Jews and the Zionists." In another sermon, on 19 April 2002, he declared that Jews are "evil offspring, infidels, distorters of [others'] words, calf-worshippers, prophet-murderers, prophecy-deniers [...] the scum of the human race whom Allah cursed and turned into apes and pigs [...]"[210]
Turkey
Main articles: Antisemitism in Turkey and History of the Jews in Turkey
In recent decades, synagogues have been targeted in a number of terrorist attacks. In 2003, the Neve Shalom Synagogue was targeted in a car bombing, killing 21 Turkish Muslims and 6 Jews.[211]
In June 2011, the Economist suggested that "The best way for Turks to promote democracy would be to vote against the ruling party". Not long after, the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said that "The International media, as they are supported by Israel, would not be happy with the continuation of the AKP government".[212] The Hurriyet Daily News quoted Erdoğan at the time as claiming "The Economist is part of an Israeli conspiracy that aims to topple the Turkish government".[213] Moreover, during Erdogan's tenure, Hitler's Mein Kampf has once again become a best selling book in Turkey.[212] Prime Minister Erdogan called antisemitism a "crime against humanity." He also said that "as a minority, they're our citizens. Both their security and the right to observe their faith are under our guarantee."[214]
Europe
Main articles: Antisemitism in Europe and New antisemitism
According to a 2004 report from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, antisemitism had increased significantly in Europe since 2000, with significant increases in verbal attacks against Jews and vandalism such as graffiti, fire bombings of Jewish schools, desecration of synagogues and cemeteries. Germany, France, Britain, and Russia are the countries with the highest rate of antisemitic incidents in Europe.[215] The Netherlands and Sweden have also consistently had high rates of antisemitic attacks since 2000.[216]
Some claim that recent European antisemitic violence can actually be seen as a spillover from the long running Arab-Israeli conflict since the majority of the perpetrators are from the large Muslim immigrant communities in European cities. However, compared to France, the United Kingdom and much of the rest of Europe, in Germany Arab and pro-Palestinian groups are involved in only a small percentage of antisemitic incidents.[215][217] According to The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism, most of the more extreme attacks on Jewish sites and physical attacks on Jews in Europe come from militant Islamic and Muslim groups, and most Jews tend to be assaulted in countries where groups of young Muslim immigrants reside.[218]
On 1 January 2006, Britain's chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, warned that what he called a "tsunami of antisemitism" was spreading globally. In an interview with BBC Radio 4, Sacks said: "A number of my rabbinical colleagues throughout Europe have been assaulted and attacked on the streets. We've had synagogues desecrated. We've had Jewish schools burnt to the ground—not here but in France. People are attempting to silence and even ban Jewish societies on campuses on the grounds that Jews must support the state of Israel, therefore they should be banned, which is quite extraordinary because... British Jews see themselves as British citizens. So it's that kind of feeling that you don't know what's going to happen next that's making... some European Jewish communities uncomfortable."[219]
Following an escalation in antisemitism in 2012, which included the deadly shooting of three children at a Jewish school in France, the European Jewish Congress demanded in July a more proactive response. EJC President Moshe Kantor explained, "We call on authorities to take a more proactive approach so there would be no reason for statements of regret and denunciation. All these smaller attacks remind me of smaller tremors before a massive earthquake. The Jewish community cannot afford to be subject to an earthquake and the authorities cannot say that the writing was not on the wall." He added that European countries should take legislative efforts to ban any form of incitement, as well as to equip the authorities with the necessary tools to confront any attempt to expand terrorist and violent activities against Jewish communities in Europe.[220]
Austria
Main article: Antisemitism in contemporary Austria
France
Main articles: Antisemitism in 21st-century France and History of the Jews in France
France is home to the continent's largest Jewish community (about 600,000). Jewish leaders decry an intensifying antisemitism in France,[221] mainly among Muslims of Arab or African heritage, but also growing among Caribbean islanders from former French colonies.[222] Former Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy denounced the killing of Ilan Halimi on 13 February 2006 as an antisemitic crime.
Jewish philanthropist Baron Eric de Rothschild suggests that the extent of antisemitism in France has been exaggerated. In an interview with The Jerusalem Post he says that "the one thing you can't say is that France is an anti-Semitic country."[223]
In March 2012, Mohammed Merah opened fire at a Jewish school in Toulouse, killing a teacher and three children. An 8-year-old girl was shot in the head at point blank range. President Nicolas Sarkozy said that it was "obvious" it was an antisemitic attack[224] and that, "I want to say to all the leaders of the Jewish community, how close we feel to them. All of France is by their side." The Israeli Prime Minister condemned the "despicable anti-Semitic" murders.[225][226] After a 32-hour siege and standoff with the police outside his house, and a French raid, Merah jumped off a balcony and was shot in the head and killed.[227] Merah told police during the standoff that he intended to keep on attacking, and he loved death the way the police loved life. He also claimed connections with al-Qaeda.[228][229][230]
4 months later, in July 2012, a French Jewish teenager wearing a "distinctive religious symbol" was the victim of a violent antisemitic attack on a train travelling between Toulouse and Lyon. The teen was first verbally harassed and later beaten up by two assailants. Richard Prasquier from the French Jewish umbrella group, CRIF, called the attack "another development in the worrying trend of anti-Semitism in our country."[231]
Another incident in July 2012 dealt with the vandalism of the synagogue of Noisy-le-Grand of the Seine-Saint-Denis district in Paris. The synagogue was vandalized three times in a ten-day period. Prayer books and shawls were thrown on the floor, windows were shattered, drawers were ransacked, and walls, tables, clocks, and floors were vandalized. The authorities were alerted of the incidents by the Bureau National de Vigilance Contre L’Antisémtisme (BNVCA), a French antisemitism watchdog group, which called for more measures to be taken to prevent future hate crimes. BNVCA President Sammy Ghozlan stated that, "Despite the measures taken, things persist, and I think that we need additional legislation, because the Jewish community is annoyed."[232]
In August 2012, Abraham Cooper, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, met French Interior Minister Manuel Valls and reported that antisemitic attacks against French Jews increased by 40% since Merah's shooting spree in Toulouse. Cooper pressed Valls to take extra measures to secure the safety of French Jews, as well as to discuss strategies to foil an increasing trend of lone-wolf terrorists on the Internet.[233]
Germany

 

 Antisemitic demonstrator in Berlin with Nazi tattoos on arm
Further information: History of the Jews in Germany
The Interior Minister of Germany, Wolfgang Schäuble, points out the official policy of Germany: "We will not tolerate any form of extremism, xenophobia or anti-Semitism."[234] Although the number of extreme right-wing groups and organisations grew from 141 (2001)[235] to 182 (2006),[236] especially in the formerly communist East Germany,[234] Germany's measures against right-wing groups and antisemitism are effective, despite Germany having the highest rates of antisemitic acts in Europe. According to the annual reports of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution the overall number of far-right extremists in Germany dropped during the last years from 49,700 (2001),[235] 45,000 (2002),[235] 41,500 (2003),[235] 40,700 (2004),[236] 39,000 (2005),[236] to 38,600 in 2006.[236] Germany provided several million euros to fund "nationwide programs aimed at fighting far-right extremism, including teams of traveling consultants, and victims' groups."[237]
In July 2012, two women were assaulted in Germany, sprayed with tear gas, and were shown a "Hitler salute," apparently because of a Star of David necklace that they wore.[238]
In late August 2012, Berlin police investigated an attack on a 53-year-old rabbi and his 6-year-old daughter, allegedly by four Arab teens, after which the rabbi needed treatment for head wounds at a hospital. The police classified the attack as a hate crime. Jüdische Allgemeine reported that the rabbi was wearing a kippah and was approached by one of the teens, who asked the rabbi if he was Jewish. The teen then attacked the rabbi while yelling antisemitic comments, and threatened to kill the rabbi's daughter. Berlin’s mayor condemned the attack, saying that "Berlin is an international city in which intolerance, xenophobia and anti-Semitism are not being tolerated. Police will undertake all efforts to find and arrest the perpetrators."[239]
In October 2012, various historians, including Dr. Julius H. Schoeps, a prominent German-Jewish historian and a member of the German Interior Ministry’s commission to combat antisemitism, charged the majority of Bundestag deputies with failing to understand antisemitism and the imperativeness of periodic legislative reports on German antisemitism. Schoeps cited various antisemitic statements by German parliament members as well. The report in question determined that 15% of Germans are antisemitic while over 20% espouse "latent anti-Semitism," but the report has been criticized for downplaying the sharpness of antisemitism in Germany, as well as for failing to examine anti-Israel media coverage in Germany.[240]
Greece
Main article: Antisemitism in Greece
Hungary
Main article: Antisemitism in contemporary Hungary
In the 21st century, antisemitism in Hungary has evolved and received an institutional framework, while verbal and physical aggression against Jews has escalated, creating a great difference between its earlier manifestations in the 1990s and recent developments. One of the major representatives of this institutionalized antisemitic ideology is the popular Hungarian party Jobbik, which received 17 percent of the vote in the April 2010 national election. The far-right subculture, which ranges from nationalist shops to radical-nationalist and neo-Nazi festivals and events, plays a major role in the institutionalization of Hungarian antisemitism in the 21st century. The contemporary antisemitic rhetoric has been updated and expanded, but is still based on the old antisemitic notions. The traditional accusations and motifs include such phrases as Jewish occupation, international Jewish conspiracy, Jewish responsibility for the Treaty of Trianon, Judeo-Bolshevism, as well as blood libels against Jews. Nevertheless, in the past few years, this has been increased with the Palestinization of the Hungarian people,[241] the reemergence of the blood libel and an increase in Holocaust relativization and denial, while the monetary crisis has revived references to the "Jewish banker class".[242]
Italy
Main article: Antisemitism in 21st-century Italy
Netherlands
Further information: History of the Jews in the Netherlands
The Netherlands has the second highest incidence of antisemitic incidents in the European Union. However, it is difficult to obtain exact figures because the specific groups against whom attacks are made are not specifically identified in police reports, and analyses of police data for antisemitism therefore relies on key-word searches, e.g. "Jew" or "Israel". According to Centre for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI), a pro-Israel lobby group in the Netherlands,[243] the number of antisemitic incidents reported in the whole of the Netherlands was 108 in 2008, 93 in 2009, and 124 in 2010. Some two thirds of this are acts of aggression. There are approximately 52 000 Dutch Jews.[244] According to the NRC Handelsblad newspaper, the number of antisemitic incidents in Amsterdam was 14 in 2008 and 30 in 2009.[245] In 2010, Raphaël Evers, an orthodox rabbi in Amsterdam, told the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten that Jews can no longer be safe in the city anymore due to the risk of violent assaults. "We Jews no longer feel at home here in the Netherlands. Many people talk about moving to Israel," he said.[246]
According to the Anne Frank Foundation, antisemitism in the Netherlands in 2011 was roughly at the same level as in 2010.[247] Actual antisemitic incidents increased from 19 in 2010 to 30 in 2011. Verbal antisemitic incidents dropped slightly from 1173 in 2010 to 1098 in 2011. This accouns for 75%-80% of all verbal racist incidents in the Netherlands. antisemitism is more prevalent in the age group 23–27 years, which is a younger group than that of racist incidents in general.
Norway
Main article: Antisemitism in Norway
In 2010, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation after one year of research, revealed that antisemitism was common among some 8th, 9th, and 10th graders in Oslo's schools. Teachers at schools with large numbers of Muslims revealed that Muslim students often "praise or admire Adolf Hitler for his killing of Jews", that "Jew-hate is legitimate within vast groups of Muslim students" and that "Muslims laugh or command [teachers] to stop when trying to educate about the Holocaust". Additionally, "while some students might protest when some express support for terrorism, none object when students express hate of Jews", saying that it says in "the Quran that you shall kill Jews, all true Muslims hate Jews". Most of these students were said to be born and raised in Norway. One Jewish father also stated that his child had been taken by a Muslim mob after school (though the child managed to escape), reportedly "to be taken out to the forest and hung because he was a Jew".[248][249]
Norwegian Education Minister Kristin Halvorsen referred to the antisemitism reported in this study as being "completely unacceptable." The head of a local Islamic council joined Jewish leaders and Halvorsen in denouncing such antisemitism.[250]
In October 2012, the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe issued a report regarding antisemitism in Norway, criticizing Norway for an increase in antisemitism in the country and blaming Norwegian officials for failing to address antisemitism."[251]
Russia
Main article: Antisemitism in Russia
Spain
Main article: Antisemitism in Spain
Sweden
 This section duplicates the scope of other sections, specifically, Antisemitism in Sweden#Situation in Malmö. (February 2014)
Main article: Antisemitism in Sweden
After Germany and Austria, Sweden has the highest rate of antisemitic incidents in Europe, though the Netherlands has reported a higher rate of antisemitism in some years.[216] A government study in 2006 estimated that 15% of Swedes agree with the statement: "The Jews have too much influence in the world today".[252] 5% of the total adult population and 39% of adult Muslims "harbour systematic antisemitic views".[252] The former prime minister Göran Persson described these results as "surprising and terrifying". However, the rabbi of Stockholm's Orthodox Jewish community, Meir Horden, said that "It's not true to say that the Swedes are anti-Semitic. Some of them are hostile to Israel because they support the weak side, which they perceive the Palestinians to be."[253]
In 2009, a synagogue that served the Jewish community in Malmö was set ablaze. Jewish cemeteries were repeatedly desecrated, worshippers were abused while returning home from prayer, and masked men mockingly chanted "Hitler" in the streets. As a result of security concerns, Malmö's synagogue has guards and rocket-proof glass in the windows, and the Jewish kindergarten can only be reached through thick steel security doors.[254]
In early 2010, the Swedish publication The Local published series of articles about the growing antisemitism in Malmö, Sweden.[255] In 2009, the Malmö police received reports of 79 antisemitic incidents, which was twice the number of the previous year (2008).[256] Fredrik Sieradzki, spokesman for the Malmö Jewish community, estimated that the already small Jewish population is shrinking by 5% a year. "Malmö is a place to move away from," he said, citing antisemitism as the primary reason.[257] In March 2010, Fredrik Sieradzk told Die Presse, an Austrian Internet publication, that Jews are being "harassed and physically attacked" by "people from the Middle East," although he added that only a small number of Malmö's 40,000 Muslims "exhibit hatred of Jews."[258] In October 2010, The Forward reported on the current state of Jews and the level of antisemitism in Sweden. Henrik Bachner, a writer and professor of history at the University of Lund, claimed that members of the Swedish Parliament have attended anti-Israel rallies where the Israeli flag was burned while the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah were waved, and the rhetoric was often antisemitic—not just anti-Israel.[259] Judith Popinski, an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor, stated that she is no longer invited to schools that have a large Muslim presence to tell her story of surviving the Holocaust.[257] In December 2010, the Jewish human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a travel advisory concerning Sweden, advising Jews to express "extreme caution" when visiting the southern parts of the country due to an alleged increase in verbal and physical harassment of Jewish citizens in the city of Malmö.[260] Ilmar Reepalu, the mayor of Malmö for over 15 years, has been accused of failing to protect the Jewish community in Malmö, causing 30 Jewish families to leave the city in 2010, and more preparing to leave, which has left the possibility that Malmö's Jewish community will disappear soon. Critics of Reepalu say that his statements, such as antisemitism in Malmö actually being an "understandable" consequence of Israeli policy in the Middle East, have encouraged young Muslims to abuse and harass the Jewish community.[254] In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph in February 2010, Reepalu said, "There haven't been any attacks on Jewish people, and if Jews from the city want to move to Israel that is not a matter for Malmö," which renewed concerns about Reepalu.[261]
Ukraine
Main article: Antisemitism in Ukraine

 

 Antisemithic graffiti in Lviv; Yids will not reside in Lviv, 2007
Oleh Tyahnybok, the leader of the far-right Svoboda party, whose members hold senior positions in Ukraine's government, urged his party to fight "the Moscow-Jewish mafia ruling Ukraine."[262] The Algemeiner Journal reported: "Svoboda supporters include among their heroes leaders of pro-Nazi World War II organizations known for their atrocities against Jews and Poles, such as the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), and the 14th Waffen-SS Galicia Division."[263]
According to the The Simon Wiesenthal Center (in January 2011) "Ukraine has, to the best of our knowledge, never conducted a single investigation of a local Nazi war criminal, let alone prosecuted a Holocaust perpetrator."[264]
According to Der Spiegel, Dmytro Yarosh, leader of the far-right Right Sector, wrote: "I wonder how it came to pass that most of the billionaires in Ukraine are Jews?"[265] Late February 2014 Yarosh pledged during a meeting with Israel’s ambassador in Kiev to fight all forms of racism.[266] Right Sector's leader for West Ukraine, Oleksandr Muzychko, has talked about fighting "communists, Jews and Russians for as long as blood flows in my veins."[267] Muzychko was shot dead on 24 March 2014.[268] An official inquiry concluded he had shot himself in the heart at the end of a chase with the Ukrainian police.[268]
In April 2014, Donetsk Chief Rabbi Pinchas Vishedski said that "Anti-Semitic incidents in the Russian-speaking east were rare, unlike in Kiev and western Ukraine."[269] An April 2014 listing of anti-Jewish violence in Ukraine in Haaretz no incidents outside this "Russian-speaking east" were mentioned.[270]
United Kingdom
Main articles: Antisemitism in the United Kingdom and British Jews
In 2005, a group of British Members of Parliament set up an inquiry into antisemitism, which published its findings in 2006. Its report stated that "until recently, the prevailing opinion both within the Jewish community and beyond [had been] that antisemitism had receded to the point that it existed only on the margins of society." It found a reversal of this progress since 2000. In his oral evidence, the Chief Rabbi stated: "If you were to ask me is Britain an antisemitic society, the answer is manifestly and obviously no. It is one of the least antisemitic societies in the world." The inquiry set out to investigate the problem, identify the sources of contemporary antisemitism and make recommendations to improve the situation. It discussed the influence of the Israel-Palestine conflict and issues of anti-Israel sentiment versus antisemitism at length and noted "most of those who gave evidence were at pains to explain that criticism of Israel is not to be regarded in itself as antisemitic... The Israeli government itself may, at times, have mistakenly perceived criticism of its policies and actions to be motivated by antisemitism."[271] In November 2010, the BBC's investigative program Panorama reported that Saudi national textbooks advocating antisemitism were being used in Islamic religious programs attended by 5,000 British schoolchildren in the United Kingdom. In the textbooks, Jews were described as looking like monkeys and pigs.[272]
A report released in 2012 by the Community Security Trust, documenting antisemitic incidents from January–June 2012, revealed that the number of incidents rose in these months compared to incidents in 2011, with 299 cases deemed antisemitic. There was a significant rise in the number of antisemitic incidents in March 2012, apparently influenced by the antisemitic terrorist attack in Toulouse, France during that month by Mohammed Merah.[273][274]
In the 21st century, the dominant source of contemporary antisemitism in the UK is the far right. Although in the aftermath of the Holocaust far right extremism became marginalised, Holocaust denial and Jewish conspiracy theories remain core elements of far right ideology. Nevertheless, contemporary antisemitism is to be found as well on the left of the political spectrum. Criticism of Israel, especially from the left, has been fueled further by the second Palestinian Intifada and by the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
North America
Canada
Main article: Antisemitism in Canada
Although antisemitism in Canada is less prevalent than in many other countries, there have been recent incidents. For example, a 2004 study identified 24 incidents of antisemitism between 14 March and 14 July 2004 in Newfoundland, Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and some smaller Ontario communities. The incidents included vandalism and other attacks on four synagogues, six cemeteries, four schools, and a number of businesses and private residences.[275]
United States
Main article: Antisemitism in the United States
See also: History of antisemitism in the United States
In November 2005, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights examined antisemitism on college campuses. It reported that "incidents of threatened bodily injury, physical intimidation or property damage are now rare", but antisemitism still occurs on many campuses and is a "serious problem." The Commission recommended that the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights protect college students from antisemitism through vigorous enforcement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and further recommended that Congress clarify that Title VI applies to discrimination against Jewish students.[276]
On 19 September 2006, Yale University founded the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism (YIISA), the first North American university-based center for study of the subject, as part of its Institution for Social and Policy Studies. Director Charles Small of the Center cited the increase in antisemitism worldwide in recent years as generating a "need to understand the current manifestation of this disease".[277] In June 2011, Yale voted to close this initiative. After carrying out a routine review, the faculty review committee said that the initiative had not met its research and teaching standards. Donald Green, then head of Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies, the body under whose aegis the antisemitism initiative was run, said that it had not had many papers published in the relevant leading journals or attracted many students. As with other programs that had been in a similar situation, the initiative had therefore been cancelled.[278][279] This decision has been criticized by figures such as former U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Staff Director Kenneth L. Marcus, who is now the director of the Initiative to Combat Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israelism in America’s Educational Systems at the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, and Deborah Lipstadt, who described the decision as "weird" and "strange."[280] Antony Lerman has supported Yale's decision, describing the YIISA as a politicized initiative that was devoted to the promotion of Israel rather than to serious research on antisemitism.[281]
A 2007 survey by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) concluded that 15% of Americans hold antisemitic views, which was in-line with the average of the previous ten years, but a decline from the 29% of the early sixties. The survey concluded that education was a strong predictor, "with most educated Americans being remarkably free of prejudicial views." The belief that Jews have too much power was considered a common antisemitic view by the ADL. Other views indicating antisemitism, according to the survey, include the view that Jews are more loyal to Israel than America, and that they are responsible for the death of Jesus of Nazareth. The survey found that antisemitic Americans are likely to be intolerant generally, e.g. regarding immigration and free-speech. The 2007 survey also found that 29% of foreign-born Hispanics and 32% of African-Americans hold strong antisemitic beliefs, three times more than the 10% for whites.[282]
A 2009 study published in Boston Review found that nearly 25% of non-Jewish Americans blamed Jews for the financial crisis of 2008–2009, with a higher percentage among Democrats than Republicans. 32% of Democrats blamed Jews for the financial crisis, versus 18% for Republicans.[283][284]
In August 2012, the California state assembly approved a non-binding resolution that "encourages university leaders to combat a wide array of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel actions," although the resolution "is purely symbolic and does not carry policy implications."[285]
South America
Venezuela

 

 Antisemitic graffiti in Venezuela, alongside a hammer and sickle
Further information: Antisemitism in Venezuela and History of the Jews in Venezuela
In a 2009 news story, Michael Rowan and Douglas E. Schoen wrote, "In an infamous Christmas Eve speech several years ago, Chávez said the Jews killed Christ and have been gobbling up wealth and causing poverty and injustice worldwide ever since."[286] Hugo Chávez stated that "[t]he world is for all of us, then, but it so happens that a minority, the descendants of the same ones that crucified Christ, the descendants of the same ones that kicked Bolívar out of here and also crucified him in their own way over there in Santa Marta, in Colombia. A minority has taken possession of all of the wealth of the world."[287]
In February 2012, opposition candidate for the 2012 Venezuelan presidential election Henrique Capriles was subject to what foreign journalists characterized as vicious[288] attacks by state-run media sources.[289][290] The Wall Street Journal said that Capriles "was vilified in a campaign in Venezuela's state-run media, which insinuated he was, among other things, a homosexual and a Zionist agent".[288] A 13 February 2012 opinion article in the state-owned Radio Nacional de Venezuela, titled "The Enemy is Zionism"[291] attacked Capriles' Jewish ancestry and linked him with Jewish national groups because of a meeting he had held with local Jewish leaders,[288][289][292] saying, "This is our enemy, the Zionism that Capriles today represents... Zionism, along with capitalism, are responsible for 90% of world poverty and imperialist wars."[288]
See also

Portal icon Judaism portal
1968 Polish political crisis
Antisemitism around the world
Antisemitism in the anti-globalization movement
Anti-Jewish violence in Eastern Europe, 1944–1946
Anti-Jewish violence in Poland, 1944–1946
Anti-Arabism
Blood libel
Criticism of Judaism
Farhud
History of antisemitism
Host desecration
Jacob Barnet affair
Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory
May Laws
Nazi propaganda
Orientalism
Persecution of Jews
Racial policy of Nazi Germany
Rootless cosmopolitan
Secondary antisemitism
Stab-in-the-back legend
Timeline of antisemitism
Notes
1.^ Jump up to: a b anti-Semitism – Definition and More from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
2.Jump up ^ "A Brief History of Anti-Semitism" (PDF). Anti-defamation League. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
3.Jump up ^ United Nations General Assembly Session 53 Resolution 133. Measures to combat contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance A/RES/53/133 page 4. 1 March 1999. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
4.Jump up ^ Nathan, Julie (9 November 2014). "2014 Report on Antisemitism in Australia" (PDF). Executive Council of Australian Jewry. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
5.Jump up ^ Chanes (2004), p. 150
6.Jump up ^ Rattansi, Ali. Racism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 4–5.
Rubenstein, Richard L.; Roth, John K. Approaches to Auschwitz: the Holocaust and its legacy, Westminster John Knox Press, 2003, p. 30.
Johnston, William M. The Austrian Mind: An Intellectual and Social History, 1848–1938, University of California Press, 1983, p. 27.
7.Jump up ^ Laqueur (2006), p. 21
8.^ Jump up to: a b Lewis, Bernard. "Semites and Antisemites". Extract from Islam in History: Ideas, Men and Events in the Middle East, The Library Press, 1973. broken link, page?, quote?
"Anti-Semitism", Encyclopædia Britannica, 2006. quote?
Johnson (1987), p. 133 ff
Lewis, Bernard. "The New Anti-Semitism", The American Scholar, Volume 75 No. 1, Winter 2006, pp. 25–36. The paper is based on a lecture delivered at Brandeis University on 24 March 2004. broken link
9.^ Jump up to: a b "Report on Global Anti-Semitism", U.S. State Department, 5 January 2005.
10.Jump up ^ Bein, Alex. The Jewish Question: Biography of a World Problem. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1990, p. 594. ISBN 0-8386-3252-1.|quote=The compound anti-Semitism appears to have been used first by Steinschneider, who challenged Renan on account of his 'anti-Semitic prejudices' [i.e., his derogation of the "Semites" as a race].'
11.Jump up ^ Falk (2008), p. 21
12.Jump up ^ Poliakov, Léon The History of Anti-Semitism, Vol. 3: From Voltaire to Wagner, University of Pennsylvania Press: 2003, p. 404 ISBN 978-0-8122-1865-7
13.Jump up ^ Marr, Wilhelm. Sieg des Judenthums über das Germanenthum. Vom nicht confessionellen Standpunkt aus betrachtet. Rudolph Costenoble. 1879, 8th edition. Archive.org.[dead link]
14.Jump up ^ "Wilhelm Marr". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
15.Jump up ^ The Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk & Wagnalls. p. 641 (A).
16.Jump up ^ Matas, David. Aftershock: Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism, Dundurn Press, 2005, p. 34.
17.Jump up ^ Lewis (1999), p. 117
18.Jump up ^ Almog, Shmuel. "What's in a Hyphen?", SICSA Report: Newsletter of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (Summer 1989).
19.Jump up ^ "The Power of Myth" (PDF). Facing History. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2009. Retrieved 21 August 2006.
20.Jump up ^ Bauer, Yehuda. "Problems of Contemporary Antisemitism" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 March 2008. Retrieved 12 March 2006.
21.Jump up ^ Bauer, Yehuda. A History of the Holocaust, Franklin Watts, 1982, p. 52. ISBN 0-531-05641-4.
22.Jump up ^ Prager & Telushkin (2003), p. 199
23.Jump up ^ Carroll, James (2002). Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews. New York: Mariner. pp. 628–29. ISBN 0618219080. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
24.Jump up ^ cited in Sonja Weinberg, Pogroms and Riots: German Press Responses to Anti-Jewish Violence in Germany and Russia, (1881–1882), Peter Lang, 2010 p. 18.
25.Jump up ^ Falk (2008), p. 5
26.Jump up ^ Sonja Weinberg, Pogroms and Riots: German Press Responses to Anti-Jewish Violence in Germany and Russia, (1881–1882), pp. 18–19.
27.Jump up ^ Lewis, Bernard. "The New Anti-Semitism", The American Scholar, Volume 75 No. 1, Winter 2006, pp. 25–36. The paper is based on a lecture delivered at Brandeis University on 24 March 2004.
28.Jump up ^ "Working Definition of Antisemitism". European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 January 2010. Retrieved 24 July 2010.
29.Jump up ^ Jewish Telegraphic Agency (5 December 2013). "What is anti-Semitism? EU racism agency unable to define term". Jerusalem Post.
30.Jump up ^ Richard S. Levy, "Marr, Wilhelm (1819-1904)" in Levy (2005), vol. 2, pp. 445–446
31.Jump up ^ Richard S. Geehr. Karl Lueger, Mayor of Fin-de-Siècle Vienna, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1989. ISBN 0-8143-2055-4
32.Jump up ^ Dr. Karl Lueger Dead; Anti-Semitic Leader and Mayor of Vienna Was 66 Years Old. The New York Times, 11 March 1910.
33.Jump up ^ Bartlett, Steven J. (2005). The Pathology of Man: A Study of Human Evil. Charles C Thomas Publisher. pp. 30–. ISBN 9780398075576. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
34.Jump up ^ Pinsker, Leon (1906). Auto-emancipation. Maccabaean. p. 16., English and Hebrew translation. Which is widely cited: [1]
35.Jump up ^ Daily Telegraph, 12 November 1938. Cited in Gilbert, Martin. Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction. Harper Collins, 2006, p. 142.
36.Jump up ^ Jacob Rader Marcus. United States Jewry, 1776–1985. Wayne State University Press, 1989, p. 286. ISBN 0-8143-2186-0
37.Jump up ^ Alex Bein. The Jewish Question: Biography of a World Problem. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1990, p. 580. ISBN 0-8386-3252-1
38.Jump up ^ Yehuda Bauer: The Most Ancient Group Prejudice in Leo Eitinger (1984): The Anti-Semitism of Our Time. Oslo. Nansen Committee. p. 14. citing from: Jocelyn Hellig (2003): The Holocaust and Antisemitism: A Short History. Oneworld Publications. p. 73. ISBN 1-85168-313-5.
39.Jump up ^ König, René (2004). Materialien zur Kriminalsoziologie. VS Verlag. p. 231. ISBN 978-3-8100-3306-2.
40.Jump up ^ Lazare, Bernard (2006). Anti-Semitism: Its History and Causes. Cosimo, Inc. p. 224. ISBN 978-1-59605-601-5.
41.Jump up ^ Brustein, William (2003). Roots of hate: anti-semitism in Europe before the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-521-77478-9.
42.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Flannery (1985)
43.Jump up ^ Flannery (1985), p. 16
44.Jump up ^ Flannery (1985), p. 260
45.Jump up ^ Flannery (1985), p. 289
46.Jump up ^ Flannery (1985), p. 176
47.Jump up ^ Flannery (1985), p. 179
48.Jump up ^ Harap, Louis (1987). Creative awakening: the Jewish presence in twentieth-century American literature, 1900-1940s. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-313-25386-7.
49.Jump up ^ http://www.zionism-israel.com/his/judeophobia.htm
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51.Jump up ^ Harap, Louis (1987). Creative awakening: the Jewish presence in twentieth-century American literature. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-313-25386-7.
52.Jump up ^ Kandel, Eric R. (2007). In search of memory: the emergence of a new science of mind. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-393-32937-7.
53.Jump up ^ Niewyk, Donald L.; Nicosia, Francis R. (2003). The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust. Columbia University Press. p. 215. ISBN 978-0-231-11201-7.
54.Jump up ^ Kandel, Eric R. (2007). In search of memory: the emergence of a new science of mind. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 30–31. ISBN 978-0-393-32937-7.
55.Jump up ^ Michael, Robert (2005). A concise history of American antisemitism. Rowman & Littlefield. p. vii. ISBN 978-0-7425-4313-3.
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241.Jump up ^ An ideology based on the idea of “Zionist crimes” are no longer limited to the Middle East but also extend to Hungary. Hence, the alleged “genocide” of the Palestinians and the fate of Hungarians have many parallels between them
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259.Jump up ^ For Jews, Swedish City Is a ‘Place To Move Away From’ by Donald Snyder, The Forward, Published 7 July 2010, issue of 16 July 2010.).
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263.Jump up ^ "Svoboda Fuels Ukraine’s Growing Anti-Semitism". Algemeiner Journal. 24 May 2013.
264.Jump up ^ Nazi-hunters give low grades to 13 countries, including Ukraine, Kyiv Post (12 January 2011)
265.Jump up ^ "Practice for a Russian Invasion: Ukrainian Civilians Take Up Arms". Spiegel Online. 16 April 2014.
266.Jump up ^ Among Ukraine’s Jews, the Bigger Worry Is Putin, Not Pogroms, Washington Post (18 April 2014)
267.Jump up ^ "Blind eye turned to influence of far-right in Ukrainian crisis: critics". Global News. 7 March 2014.
268.^ Jump up to: a b "Ukraine far-right leader Sashko Bily 'shot himself'". BBC. 2 April 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
"Ukraine far-right leader Muzychko dies 'in police raid'". Ukraine far-right leader Muzychko dies 'in police raid'. 25 March 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
Ukraine nationalist Oleksandr Muzychko killed in police operation, Associated Press, 2014-03-25, "The Interior Ministry said Tuesday that Muzychko was shot dead after opening fire on police."
269.Jump up ^ Ukraine rabbi calls anti-Semitic leaflet a political hoax". The Jerusalem Post. 20 April 2014.
270.Jump up ^ Ukrainian Jews look to Israel as anti-Semitism escalates
271.Jump up ^ Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism PDF (430 KB), All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism, September 2006. Retrieved 24 November 2010. For the first and second quote, see summary; for the third quote, see p. 17. Archived 24 November 2010. See inquiry website.
272.Jump up ^ Lessons of Hate at Islamic Schools in Britain. New York Times (23 November 2010)
273.Jump up ^ "Anti-Semitic incidents report: January–June 2012" (PDF). Community Security Trust. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
274.Jump up ^ "Anti-Semitism on the rise in the UK". The Commentator. 29 September 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
275.Jump up ^ http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-prutschi-f04.htm
276.Jump up ^ Ending Campus Anti-Semitism. Eusccr.com. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
277.Jump up ^ Yale creates center to study antisemitism Associated Press, 19 September 2006
278.Jump up ^ Mary E. O'Leary (7 June 2011). "Yale cancels interdisciplinary course on anti-Semitism". New Haven Register.
279.Jump up ^ Kampeas, Ron. (10 June 2011) Shuttering of Yale program on anti-Semitism raises hackles. Jewishjournal.com. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
280.Jump up ^ Yale Pulls the Plug on Anti-Semitism Institute. nbcconnecticut.com (9 June 2011)
281.Jump up ^ Antony Lerman, "Antisemitism Research Just Improved: Yale’s ‘Initiative’ for Studying Antisemitism is Axed", Antony Lerman: Context Is Everything, 10 June 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
282.Jump up ^ ADL Survey: American Attitudes Towards Jews in America. Adl.org. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
283.Jump up ^ Neil Malhotra and Yotam Margalit. State of the Nation: Anti-Semitism and the economic crisis. Boston Review. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
284.Jump up ^ http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/the-stash/blaming-jews-the-financial-crisis
285.Jump up ^ Calif. resolution denouncing anti-Semitism on college campuses targets anti-Israel protests
286.Jump up ^ "Hugo Chávez And Anti-Semitism\". Forbes.com. 15 February 2009.
287.Jump up ^ "Blast From the Past". The Weekly Standard. 11 January 2006.
288.^ Jump up to: a b c d "Henrique Capriles Radonski: Hugo Chávez Foe A Target Of Anti-Semitism". The Huffington Post. 17 February 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
289.^ Jump up to: a b Devereux, Charlie (20 February 2012). "Chavez media say rival Capriles backs plots ranging from Nazis to Zionists". Bloomberg. Retrieved 21 February 2012. Also available from sfgate.com
290.Jump up ^ Cawthorne, Andrew (1 April 2012). "Insight: The man who would beat Hugo Chávez". Reuters. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
291.Jump up ^ "Anti-Semitic article appears in Venezuela". Anti-Defamation League. 17 February 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2012. Includes English translation of Venezuelan National Radio article.
292.Jump up ^ "Chavez allies attack new opponent Capriles as Jewish, gay". MSNBC. 15 February 2012. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
References
Chanes, Jerome A. (2004). Antisemitism: a Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-209-7.
Flannery, Edward H. (1985). The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-three Centuries of Antisemitism. Paulist Press. ISBN 978-0-8091-4324-5.
Flannery, Edward H. (2004). The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism. Mahwah, NY: Paulist Press. ISBN 0-8091-4324-0.
Falk, Avner (2008). Anti-Semitism: a History and Psychoanalysis of Contemporary Hatred. Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-313-35384-0.
Johnson, Paul (1987). A History of the Jews. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-091533-1.
Laqueur, Walter (2006). The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-530429-2.
Levy, Richard S., ed. (2005). Antisemitism: a Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-85109-439-3.
Lewis, Bernard (1999). Semites and Anti-Semites: an Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice. W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-31839-7.
Lipstadt, Deborah (1994). Denying the Holocaust: the Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-452-27274-2.
Perry, Marvin; Schweitzer, Frederick M. (2002). Antisemitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-16561-1.
Perry, Marvin; Schweitzer, Frederick M. (2005). Antisemitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present. New York: Palgrave. ISBN 0-312-16561-7.
Poliakov, Léon. The History of Anti-Semitism, Volume 1: From the Time of Christ to the Court Jews, University of Pennsylvania Press: 2003
Poliakov, Léon. The History of Anti-Semitism, Volume 2: From Mohammad to the Marranos, University of Pennsylvania Press: 2003
Poliakov, Léon. The History of Anti-Semitism, Volume 3: From Voltaire to Wagner, University of Pennsylvania Press: 2003
Poliakov, Léon. The History of Anti-Semitism, Volume 4: Suicidal Europe 1870–1933, University of Pennsylvania Press: 2003
Poliakov, Léon (1997). "Anti-Semitism". Encyclopaedia Judaica (CD-ROM Edition Version 1.0). Ed. Cecil Roth. Keter Publishing House. ISBN 965-07-0665-8
Prager, Dennis; Telushkin, Joseph (2003) [1985]. Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism (reprint ed.). Touchstone. ISBN 0-7432-4620-9.
Anti-semitism entry by Gotthard Deutsch in the Jewish Encyclopedia, 1901–1906 ed.
Further reading
Bodansky, Yossef. Islamic Anti-Semitism as a Political Instrument, Freeman Center For Strategic Studies, 1999.
Carr, Steven Alan. Hollywood and anti-Semitism: A cultural history up to World War II, Cambridge University Press 2001.
Cohn, Norman. Warrant for Genocide, Eyre & Spottiswoode 1967; Serif, 1996.
Freudmann, Lillian C. Antisemitism in the New Testament, University Press of America, 1994.
Gerber, Jane S. (1986). "Anti-Semitism and the Muslim World". In History and Hate: The Dimensions of Anti-Semitism, ed. David Berger. Jewish Publications Society. ISBN 0-8276-0267-7
Hilberg, Raul. The Destruction of the European Jews. Holmes & Meier, 1985. 3 volumes.
McKain, Mark. Anti-Semitism: At Issue, Greenhaven Press, 2005.
Michael, Robert and Philip Rosen. Dictionary of Antisemitism, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2007
Nirenberg, David. Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013) 610 pp.
Richardson, Peter (1986). Anti-Judaism in Early Christianity. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 0-88920-167-6.
Roth, Philip. The Plot Against America, 2004
Selzer, Michael (ed). "Kike!" : A Documentary History of Anti-Semitism in America, New York 1972.
Steinweis, Alan E. Studying the Jew: Scholarly Antisemitism in Nazi Germany. Harvard University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-674-02205-X.
Stillman, Norman (1979). The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. ISBN 0-8276-0198-0
Stillman, N.A. (2006). "Yahud". Encyclopaedia of Islam. Eds.: P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill. Brill Online
"Contemporary Global Anti-Semitism: A Report Provided to the United States Congress" PDF (7.4 MB), United States Department of State, 2008. Retrieved 25 November 2010. See html version.
Antisemitism: Its History and Causes by Bernard Lazare.
"Experts explore effects of Ahmadinejad anti-Semitism", Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, 9 March 2007
Anti-Defamation League Arab Antisemitism
Why the Jews? A perspective on causes of anti-Semitism
Stav, Arieh (1999). Peace: The Arabian Caricature – A Study of Anti-semitic Imagery. Gefen Publishing House. ISBN 965-229-215-X
Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism (with up to date calendar of antisemitism today)
Annotated bibliography of anti-Semitism hosted by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Center for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA)
Council of Europe, ECRI Country-by-Country Reports
Judeophobia: A short course on the history of anti-Semitism at [4] Zionism and Israel Information Center.
Porat, Dina. "What makes an anti-Semite?", Haaretz, 27 January 2007. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
An Attempt to Identify the Root Cause of Antisemitism by A. B. Yehoshua, Azure, Spring 2008.
Antisemitism in modern Ukraine
Antisemitism and Special Relativity
Robert Michael Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust
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