Hypocrite, which reality are you in now and have you got your snuggle blanket with you?

roger, the Muslims who conquered Jerusalem made the Jews there second-class citizens.

Josh, I thought these nutters think that we are all Muslims but most of us are so misguided as not to realise it.

One way is that any land that was ever ruled by Muslims is permanently Muslim lands which is why Islamists are so keen on ethnic cleansing – if they can make a land muslim majority it becomes muslim land for all eternity.

But some Muslim “thinkers” have proclaimed that various no longer in the majority ethnic groups were “natural Muslims” and thus Australia (by the aboriginals) and the United States (by the indians) are covered by some sort of Manifest Destiny where Muslims are bound to take us over.

Thus Jews returning to ‘Muslim’ lands are an intolerable offense against god.

Have the so-called “Muslim lands” been demarcated? Where are the borders? How much of Spain is included? How much of the Balkans?

John P. I think you’ll find that- whatever their other faults- the muslims who conquered Jerusalem allowed jews to go back there. It was the Romans a.k.a. the Byzantines- whose invasion was no more welcome than the muslims’ and whose later occupation was even less so because of their hatred and active persecution of so-called heretics and taxation policies- who expelled the jews and refused to allow them to return.

I am only passingly familiar with Islam holy works and eschatology. These commentaries (I assume that is so), speak to the essential conflict Mohammad had with Jews. I can see how he was poisoned by it. Though he would have it that this was deliberate assassination, the story has a deeper intent. Not too dissimilar to the Jews being responsible for that death of another holy man, though the Mohammad rendition is much more subtle.

The Jews differed with Mohammad, as they did with Christians, over their knowledge of how God rules. Jews merely espouse their beliefs, and back it with such convincing power that it strengthens the adherents and poisons the opponents.

The symbolism of being poisoned by a sheep’s leg is scripturally blatant. It is the lamb that the Jews sacrificed as a critical demonstration of their belief in God and acceptance of His rule. When they arrived at Mt Sinai, this covenant was sealed when God gave the Jews His Torah. The Torah and the pascal lamb, Jews acceptance of it, are inextricably linked. Mohammad was one of a long line of people who would deny that such a link continues to exist. He would enter into a dialectic about it. Not convincing the Jew (whose approbation apparently is vitally needed), He would threaten him, so visceral was his frustration at not being able to convey the Truth to “someone who should know better”. The period of time it took to die from this poison, from one dose, defies identification. Rather She gave him a ‘taste’ of the pascal lamb, with all its meaning for Jews and non-Jews alike, that the Torah is true, and eternal; and it talks only of Jews as the chosen people. Mohammad struggles with this. It is not a scriptural struggle, but an existential struggle. It appears to be true – but if it is true, than I have fundamentally erred. His conclusion was to deny its truth, and be poisoned by harboring what he now knew to be a lie (in that it was not more powerful than Torah). His choice led to his antipathy to those people who burst his bubble.

The simple part of it is- call them both myths. If you really believe it, you don’t have to fight about it. Just find a niche where you can live it. If there really is one truth, it can come out in a peaceful way.

Then there’s the issue of how to deal with people insist on the not-peaceful way…

And when they conquered Mecca and Medina they slaughtered Jews.

Yes they were conquerers. That and the fact Jersualem is nowhere mentioned by name in any of Islam’s core texts demonstrates the illegitimacy of the arab claims it is a ‘muslim’ city.

And since when is it enlightened and ‘tolerant’ to conquer a people whose only wish is to be free of such conquests?

They didn’t want you in Andalusia either.

Imagine if I were to illegally invade and squat in YOUR home, and then told you I would tolerate your presence there?

The tactic certainly hasn’t worked for Islam.