Islam
Opening the Gates of JudaismWednesday, February 20, 2013 by Motti Inbari | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Given the demographic and spiritual decline among “biological” Jews in America, if we want to keep Judaism alive, we must do something that we haven't done for 2000 years: proselytize.
Seeking the Peace of Jerusalem—or a Piece of Jerusalem?Thursday, January 17, 2013 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Archeology has become a full-fledged battlefield in the dispute over who has the superior claim to Jerusalem: Jews or Muslims.
Crossing Borders—Without PassportsWednesday, December 19, 2012 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
“Crossing Borders,” a current exhibit at New York City’s Jewish Museum featuring works on loan from Oxford's Bodleian Library, displays medieval Jewish manuscripts embedded in their Christian and Muslim scribal milieus.
Inheriting AbrahamTuesday, November 27, 2012 by Jon D. Levenson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
On August 28, Jon D. Levenson, the Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard University, spoke with the current class of Tikvah fellows about his latest book, the first volume in the Library of Jewish Ideas: Inheriting Abraham. Here, an edited transcript of the event.
Does Jacob Hate Esau?Monday, October 29, 2012 by Jerome A. Chanes | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Jews have traditionally kept non-Jews at arm’s length. The rabbinic approach to anti-Semitism may be summarized as Halakhah hi b’yadu’a she-Eisav sonei et Yaakov, “It is an established normative principle that Esau hates Jacob.”
Whose Akedah Was It, Anyhow?Friday, October 26, 2012 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Today, October 26, 2012, the world’s Muslims will celebrate `Id al-Adha, commemorating Abraham’s willingness to demonstrate his love of God by sacrificing his son. While most Muslims assume that the son Abraham intended to sacrifice was Ishmael, this was not the unanimous opinion of early Muslims and Qur’anic scholars.
Cousins: Jews and Arabs Seek Each Other OutThursday, October 18, 2012 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. So, it seems, is the rule governing Jews and Arabs: the farther apart they are from one another, the greater their mutual interest, while the greater their proximity, the more antagonistic they seem.
Lambs to the SlaughterWednesday, August 22, 2012 by Ben Cohen | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Last week, the normally cautious Jewish community of Amsterdam took the unusual step of describing a member of the Dutch parliament as a "serious danger to Jews in the Netherlands and consequently Europe as a whole."
Until a Hundred TwentyTuesday, August 21, 2012 by Hillel Fradkin | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Bernard Lewis has published many books on the history of the Middle East and Islam. On these subjects he is, simply, the pre-eminent authority. At 96, he has now published yet another book: a memoir.
Iranian Jewry TodayThursday, August 16, 2012 by Shai Secunda | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In late June 2012, the Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran addressed an international conference on the proliferation of illicit drugs. He acknowledged his country’s extensive border with Afghanistan, the largest producer of illegal opium in the world. But he also blamed the crisis on the Babylonian Talmud.
Editors' Picks
Lessons From a Man of Peace Yossi Klein Halevi, Jerusalem Post. "Rav Menachem Froman taught me that, in order to make peace with the Muslim world, one needs not only to honor Islam but to love it."
The Indonesian Temple Mount Zakir Hussain, Jakarta Globe. His mother is Muslim, his father Protestant. But Yaakov Baruch, who runs Indonesia's only Jewish community, says, "I feel like I'm in Jerusalem."
Modernity’s Price in the Middle East Bernard Lewis, Norman Podhoretz, Peter Robinson, National Review. "In the pre-modern Middle East,” says Lewis,” there were many institutions in which power arose not from above but from within. All that was destroyed by modernization." (Video)
Raised on Hatred Ayaan Hirsi Ali, New York Times. "As a child growing up in a Muslim family, I constantly heard my mother, other relatives and neighbors wish for the death of Jews, who were considered our darkest enemy."
America's Most Hated David J. Rusin, National Review. Despite fears of a rise in Islamophobia, FBI records for the last decade show that fewer Muslims per capita have been the victims of hate crimes than homosexuals, African Americans, or Jews.
From Cyrus to Ahmedinijad Norman Berdichevsky, New English Review. Liberated by Cyrus, protected by the Sassanids, and even favored for a time by the Mongols, Jews had a relatively good time in Persia—until Shia Islam became dominant.
Right of Return: Me, Too Soeren Kern, Gatestone Institute. Spain has offered citizenship to descendants of Jews expelled in 1492. But Spain also expelled Moorish Muslims—and their North African descendants are crying foul.
Caught in the Crossfire Matthias Schulz, Spiegel. Was pre-Islamic Yemen a multicultural paradise, where Jews, Christians, and pagans lived in perfect harmony until the Byzantines ruined everything?
Your Dialogue, My Dialogue Peter Berger, American Interest. Today the Western world is inundated with interfaith dialogues. Is the underlying reason simply the fact that religions finally see they must face a world of religious pluralism?
Interfaith Abraham? Jon D. Levenson, Huffington Post. Should an inheritor of Abraham follow the way of Torah, the way of Gospel, or Islamic submission to God? And are they all, underneath, the same way?