Yona M says:

I chance upon your website and found it interesting. I am a Jew and probably the only Jew that has responded to this website. I am not pro Jewish, anti Moslem or anti Christian. I am human, believer in the One God that our respective faiths of the Abrahamic covenant are purported to follow.

I would to correct an important misconception. While it is true the Jews consider themselves “God’s Chosen People”, that has nothing to do with arrogance. Both Islam and Christianity recognize that the Jewish people were to first to be called to the faith of the One God and given the Torah on Mount Sinai. The Torah (which corresponds to the first 5 books of the Christian Old Testament)provides the foundation for both the Holy Quran and the Holy Bible. Choseness implies a special relationship, one of servitude to the One God and not about looking down on the rest of humanity. Judaism is a non judgmental religion that does not focus on heaven or hell. Nowhere in Hebrew Bible (which corresponds to the Christian Old Testament) does it talk of non believers going to hell. This concept was first introduced in the Christian Gospels. Therefore, Judaism does not judge Moslems nor Christians and maintains that the “righteous of all nations will have a place in the world to come”.

What Judaism does do is to focus on right living, ethical conduct and justice. Jews have been in the forefront of social change, scientific achievement and artistic excellence throughout human history from Moses to Jesus, from Benjamin Disraeli to Karl Marx and from Albert Einstein to Steven Spielberg.

Judaism predated both Christianity and Islam. The first Christians were mainly Jews and Christianity initially grew as a sect within Judaism, deriving its initial forms of worship from Judaism and meeting in the synagogue or Jewish house of worship. Christianity started to deviate from its Jewish beginnings only in the 2nd-3rd century after it first appeared when Jewish Christians were outnumbered by Gentile Converts and with the conversion of the Roman polity to Christianity.

There is much similarity between Islam and Judaism. There were thriving Jewish communities (and smaller Christian communities) in the Arabian peninsula during the time of Mohammad although most of these communities ceased to exist within the first century of the rise of Islam. Both Jews and Moslems do not eat pork and do not permit graven images of any kind in their house of worship. Jewish dietary practices (kosher) have similarities with Moslem halal practices. For example animals are brought to a quick death by a slit to the carotid arteries and the carcass of the animal is hung upside down to drain the blood. These laws are described in detail in the Torah. Finally, both Moslems and Jews pray in the direction of their holy cities – Mecca in the case of Moslems and Jerusalem in the case of Jews.

Jews do not want to fight with Moslems nor Christians. It is sad that Israel is much maligned as we have no voice to speak to in countries like Malaysia so there is little prospect for understanding. Jews are not interested in taking over the world nor can we do so even if we wanted to. We are too few in number with only 13-14 million worldwide. It is easy to hate us when you are not even able to speak with us so you imagine us as gargolyes bent on world domination.

Not every Jew is smart nor rich. Although the Israeli economy grew by 5-6% per annum last year (inspite of the war in Lebanon) and it has a per capita income of close to US$20,000 with high-tech exports to many countries, unemployment is at 8.5% and the poverty rate exceeds 20%. There is only one Jewish nation in the world. It is so small, probably no larger than the state of Selangor and very dry as it is located in a semi-arid region of the world with long dry summers. Nor does Israel have any oil or gas. All it has is the talent of its 6 million people trying to make a living in a pretty unfriendly neighborhood.

So this business about choseness is not something we are proud of. It is a yoke that is heavy to carry and in a world full of hate and misery we can only enjoin with our Moslem and Christian brothers to pray for peace. My hope is for Israel to be accepted among its Arab neighbors and Christians, Moslems and Jews to work for world peace together. You see, we Moslems, particularly the Arabs are after all semitic cousins and share a common ancestor in Abraham/Ibrahim. And Jesus, who inspired Christianity was Jewish – he lived his life as Jew, was true to Torah, enlightened the meaning of Torah and died a Jew is regarded by both Christians, Moslems (and some Jews) as the Messiah.

Moses taught the Law, Jesus taught Love and the Prophet Mohammad taught submission to God and there is actually a lot of commonality in all of these messages because the common thread must be about respect for each other because if we love God we must after all love each other.