 The current narrative that Islam as a faith has a fundamental negative attitude and aggression towards the Jewish faith and people is one that is unfortunately common and widespread. Many scholars have attempted to exhibit how scripture in the Holy Qur'an as well as the actions of Islam's prophet and subsequent caliphs reflected the genuine and embedded discrimination and hatred one monotheistic faith had for another. Was this true? From its infancy, did Islam preach such anti-Jewish dogma? To answer this question through the examination and personal interpretation of scripture is not an ideal method. Let us identify the actions of Muslims and see how the treatment of Jews throughout Islamic history is judged when compared to how other faiths or nations behaved towards the original Abrahamic faith. Since the origins of Islam in the 7th century, no one can say that Muslims had a clear mandate that any one faith outside their own deserved a higher level of wrath more than the others. It was a time of expansion of a new faith that was sweeping the Arabian Peninsula and in its way were other faiths that either opposed the new Islamic fundamentals or in Muslims' beliefs faiths that had strayed from the righteous path. These faiths included idolatry, Judaism, Christianity, Mandeism and Zoroastrianism. Hence clashes with the other faiths and their peoples were inevitable. But eventually once the Muslims had established their presence across the extents of Arabia and North Africa, cohabitation with other faiths across their governed lands was of great necessity to achieve peace, stability and prosperity. And more critical was how Islam regarded Judaism and Christianity on a higher plane than the other non-Abrahamic faiths as they were considered Ahl al-Kitab, people of the book, meaning that Muslims believed in the previous revelations and divine knowledge of the Torah, Psalms and the Gospel and had a certain community and sacred responsibility towards these faiths due to their belief of a single God. Consequently, in as early as the 8th century, Muslims established a structure to allow for this cohabitation to exist for a full millennium to come. The concept of Ahl al-Thinmeh, people of the Covenant, literally meaning protected persons, was established where Muslims were obligated to protect the lives, property and freedom of religion for Jews and Christians in exchange for loyalty to the Muslim government and payment of a tax called a jizya. A similar tax, zakat, was paid by Muslims. Jews were paid by everyone, even back then. And since that time, Jews had been living in relative peace and certainty across the Islamic world. From the Iberian Peninsula to Persia, Jews formed an integral part of society, some even becoming an effective part of the political establishment, while all practiced their faith freely. Granted, there were episodes of anti-Jewish sentiment, but these random episodes were never faith-based but were fueled by political or financial greed by a small section of society who happened to be Muslim. As history elapsed further, acts of Christian violence on Jews, be it by the Byzantine Empire, Holy Roman Empire, Crusaders or Catholic Church, exploded. These acts were not random by any means, but were committed with organized mandates and blessings of both governmental and theological agencies. In the 14th century, the persecution of the Jews during the Black Plague was an exact manifestation of a targeted attack. Searching for a scapegoat for the annihilation of the European population due to disease, the authorities identified the Jews as the most likely culprits. Due to their low infection rate, Jews were accused of deliberately poisoning the European drinking wells, and subsequently over 20,000 Jews were massacred at the hands of the Europeans. In 1492, the Spanish Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, gave a prosperous Jewish Iberian population an ultimatum, convert to Christianity, accept exile or die. This decision applied to 300,000 Jews, one quarter of Spain's population at the time. Most abandoned their possessions and livelihoods, and fled to North Africa. Some converted to Catholicism, only to be massacred years later. In total, over 30,000 Jews were killed as a byproduct of the Inquisition. Between 1648 and 1657, in the territories of modern Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania, the Cossack-Polish War witnessed great atrocities at the hands of the Cossacks. Under the command of their leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the warring party sought out the Jewish communities, since they were the financial backbone of the incumbent Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. 100,000 Jews were eventually killed. Please subscribe to our channel, as it would support us greatly in generating more content that documents our Arabian and Muslim heritage, history and culture. Now back to our story. Let's look at a more recent history. During the first half of the 20th century, there have been many documented violent cases of anti-Jewish discrimination. When analyzing the perpetrators of these aggressions, the largest would obviously be the Nazi Germans, who during the Holocaust murdered approximately 6 billion Jews. Filtering out the devastation caused by the Nazis, what story would the numbers tell? In 50 years of human violence towards Jews, only 1% during that time would be attributed to Muslims, equating to 1,556 Jewish dead. This number would pale in comparison to the killings caused by Europeans. 167,483 over the same period of time. These figures unequivocally reveal a different tale on the real historical source of systemic hatred towards the Jewish people. What do the violent actions on Jews that have taken place throughout history, from the 7th century to the middle of the 20th century, reveal about Muslims and their supposed ill will towards Jews? Well, overall, there have been exponentially more damaging actions taken by Europeans than by Muslims towards Jewish communities. So in that sense, a conclusion that there is an absence of an innate negative attitude and aggression from Muslims towards Jews is fully justified. In addition, at the start of the 20th century and for several preceding centuries throughout the Muslim world, Jews formed an important and integral role within all Muslim societies across the Middle East. From governmental posts to very successful entrepreneurs to cultural icons, Jews were considered as equal citizens of these nations. It cannot be ignored, though, that sentiments have changed for Muslims. There is definitely an evolution of attitude by Muslims towards the Jewish community. Over the course of the second half of the 20th century, 950,000 Jews would eventually flee Muslim lands or be expelled. But why did this shift take place? The more applicable question is when? And it all starts in 1917, not with the Jewish faith or people, but with the British declaration.