Introduction

In recent years, public discourse has increasingly portrayed Islam as inherently hostile to Jews. This narrative—often revived during moments of political crisis—misrepresents both the Islamic tradition and the actual history of Muslim-Jewish relations. Far from being antisemitic, Islam views the Children of Israel as part of its own story within the prophetic legacy, and affirms a theological continuity with Abrahamic monotheism. Historically, Muslim societies frequently served as sanctuaries for Jews fleeing persecution in Christian Europe.

This article explores the shared Semitic identity between Arabs and Jews, the Islamic reverence for Israelite prophets, the Quran’s approach to the Children of Israel, and multiple historical examples of Muslim protection of Jewish communities. Together, these considerations dismantle the myth that Islam is inherently antisemitic.

Who Are the Semites?

The modern term antisemitism is widely understood as hostility toward Jews, but its linguistic origin is much broader. “Semites” refers to the peoples who speak one of the semitic languages, which includes Arabs, Jews, Arameans, Assyrians, Abyssinians.

The Oxford Dictionary notes:

“Semitic peoples include both the early Hebrews and the Arabs.”

By definition, Arabs themselves are Semites. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ would be considered Semitic. The Quraysh tribe, the lineage of Abraham through Ismāʿīl, and the entire Arab world fall under this category.

To claim that Islam—whose Messenger, language, and early followers are Semites—is “antisemitic” is a contradiction in terms. Islam is not an outsider tradition but one that sees itself firmly embedded within the Semitic, Abrahamic story.

A Shared History of Prophets

One of the most overlooked facts about Islam is that Muslims do not see themselves as breaking away from the prophetic tradition described in Biblical sources. Rather, Islam views itself as a continuation and confirmation of it.

The Qur’an repeatedly affirms the original Torah as revelation, Moses as a mighty messenger and the prophets from the children of Israel as genuine guides. Furthermore, the chronicles of the Children of Israel are prominently featured as moral instruction for humanity. 

In fact, the most mentioned human being in the entire Qur’an is the Prophet Moses and not the Prophet Muhammad. The Quran spends dozens of chapters narrating the experiences of the Children of Israel, not as an external “other,” but as a moral mirror for the believing community.

Muslims are taught to recognize their own spiritual lineage in figures such as: Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, Zachariah, John the Baptist, Mary, and Jesus.

This is not a tradition hostile to the Jewish narrative. On the contrary, it is one that embeds itself within it.

Muslims Annually Commemorate the Deliverance of Moses and the Israelites

The sincerity of this connection is most visible in the annual fast of ʿĀshūrāʾ. When the Prophet migrated to Madinah, he found the Jewish community fasting in remembrance of God’s saving the Israelites from Pharaoh. He immediately instructed Muslims to adopt the fast of ʿĀshūrāʾ, turning it into a communal act of gratitude for the liberation of the Children of Israel.

The Children of Israel in the Old Testament and the Qur’an

Some scholars have explicitly stated that the Qur’an’s tone is noticeably gentler in its commentary of the historical children of Israel. The Qur’an does not condemn Jews as an ethnic or religious group. Instead, it critiques: hypocrisy, moral failings, breaking covenants and unjust behavior. This is exactly as it critiques the hypocrites among the ranks of the Muslims during the time of the Prophet Muhammad. The Qur’an frames human behavior morally—not ethnically. Critique is never based on identity. It is always based on actions.

As Bernard Lewis notes in Semites and Anti-Semites, the Qur’an’s criticism of Jews resembles the internal moral critique found within the Hebrew Bible, and The Quran’s reproaches are mild in comparison with the scathing denunciations of the Prophets of Israel.” 

A History of Muslim–Jewish Solidarity

If Islam were inherently antisemitic, history would reflect this. Instead, history shows the opposite.

The First Muslim Conquest of Jerusalem (637 CE)

When the Caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb entered Jerusalem, Jews had been banned from the city for centuries under Christian Byzantine rule. ʿUmar lifted the ban, allowing Jews to return and settle freely.

Salahuddin’s Liberation of Jerusalem (1187 CE)

When Salahuddin recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders, he did not massacre its Jewish or Christian populations. He invited Jews to return to the city. This was in stark contrast to the Crusaders, who had slaughtered Jews (and Muslims) upon their arrival.

The Spanish Inquisition (1492–1497)

When Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal, the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II sent ships to rescue them. North African Muslim cities (Fez, Tetouan, Tunis) welcomed them. Sephardic Jewish culture thrived for centuries under Muslim protection.

WWII and the Holocaust

Albania and the Ethics of Besa

In North Africa and the Balkans, Muslims protected Jews. 

Albania stands as a striking example, as the only European country under Nazi occupation that ended WWII with more Jews than it started with. This was because of the hundreds of Muslims who risked their lives to shelter Jews. During the war, over 2,000 Jews from Albania, Greece, Austria, and Italy were hidden in the homes of Muslim Albanian families. 

One such story is that of the Veselis, a Muslim family who lived in a mountain village, who risked their lives to shelter Moshe Mandil, a Jewish photographer, along with his wife and young children. They hid the family in their home, dressed the children as local Muslim villagers so they could move safely, and later took in another Jewish family, despite growing danger.

In November 1944, the village was briefly liberated from German control. For the first time in over a year, the Mandils walked openly through the village, declaring without fear, “We are Jews!” 

However, the Germans soon recaptured the village, and they conducted night-time searches from house to house. The Jewish children hid outside, fearing that their exposure had sealed their fate. To their amazement, they returned to the Veseli house to find their parents unharmed. Inside the bomb-damaged home, both Jewish families and the Veselis had remained hidden together in silence through the raids. Not a single villager betrayed them. 

When Albanian rescuers were asked why they protected the Jews, the answer was consistently “besa”, meaning “pledge of honour”. This belief was deeply rooted in the ethical and religious values of Albanian Muslims. They recognised their responsibility to protect those in need, regardless of faith or background, even if it came at great personal risk. 

In the words of Rabbi Lord Sacks: “Faithful to the call of Islam to save life – indeed to see a single life as an entire universe, one of the Quran’s great teachings – these individuals risked personal danger to save Jews during the great destruction.”

Mandil and Veseli Families

The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Sanctuary of Resistance

The heroic stories of solidarity extend to France with Si Kaddour Benghabrit, an Algerian-born Muslim scholar and the founding rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris. During the Nazi occupation of France, Benghabrit protected Jews by opening the Mosque’s underground caverns as places of refuge. Estimates suggest that between 500 and 1,600 Jews were hidden within the basement of the mosque. 

The cellars and tunnels beneath the Paris Grand Mosque served as escape routes, through which Jews were guided to the Seine. There, they were met with boats that carried those fleeing to the safety of the Maghreb and Spain.

Benghabrit also authorised the forging of Muslim identity documents. These declared various individuals to be Muslims and congregants of the mosque, thereby protecting over one hundred Jews from arrest or deportation.

As rumours of the Mosque’s resistance spread, Benghabrit was repeatedly arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo. But each time, he was eventually released, as higher German authorities feared a backlash of riots among Algerian Muslims in Paris and North Africa. Benghabrit understood the political leverage of his position and chose to expend it not in self-interest, but in the deliberate protection of Jewish lives.

Si Kaddour Benghabrit

Sultan Muhammad V of Morocco: Defiance in the Name of Protection

Sultan Muhammad V of Morocco refused to hand over Jews to Vichy France. He famously declared, “There are no Jews in Morocco, only Moroccan subjects.”

The Rescue of the Sarajevo Haggadah

During World War II, Muslims recognised the importance of safeguarding not only Jewish lives, but also Jewish religious heritage and sacred texts.

One of the most famous examples is the Sarajevo Haggadah, an illuminated medieval Jewish manuscript that Nazi officers intended to confiscate and destroy. It was originally housed in the Sarajevo National Museum. 

When Nazi commander Johann Fortner demanded its surrender, the Bosnian Muslim scholar and chief librarian, Derviš Korkut, risked his life to conceal it beneath his coat. He then smuggled the Haggadah out of Sarajevo to a rural mountain village. There, Korkut entrusted the Haggadah to a local imam, where it was concealed in a mosque among Qurans and other Islamic texts so it would not be suspected. This allowed it to survive the war unharmed, and it was eventually returned to the museum.

No parallel antisemitic laws existed in Muslim societies comparable to European pogroms, ghettos, or race laws. Islamic history is full of Jewish scholars, poets, merchants, physicians, and philosophers who flourished in Muslim lands.

Opening pages of the Sarajevo Haggadah

The Prophet Muhammad and the Jewish People

The Prophet socialized with Jewish families, shared meals with them, accepted invitations to their homes, entrusted them with loans, and judged in their favor in legal disputes.

The Constitution of Madinah formally articulated this arrangement, as the Prophet said: “And the Jews of Banu ‘Awf shall be considered as one community (umma) along with the Believers—for the Jews their religion, and for the Muslims theirs, be one client or patron.” This covenant affirmed the right of Jewish communities to practise their faith freely while remaining full participants in Madinan society, without social exclusion or coercion.

This coexistence was not merely a political arrangement but was reflected in the Prophet’s everyday conduct. Anas ibn Mālik reported: A Jewish man invited the Prophet ﷺ to a meal of barley bread and stale meat, and the Prophet accepted his invitation. Such narrations underscore the normalcy of social interaction and courteous behaviour across religious lines.

Similarly, Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī narrated that some Jews would deliberately sneeze in the presence of the Prophet ﷺ, hoping he would respond with the Muslim-specific supplication, “May Allah have mercy on you.” Instead, the Prophet ﷺ would say: “May Allah guide you and set you aright.” This response preserved religious distinction while expressing genuine goodwill for the Jews of Madinah.

The Prophet’s commitment to justice was always uncompromising, even if it meant ruling against a Muslim and to the benefit of a Jew. In the case of Tuʿma ibn Ubayriq, an Ansari accused of theft, a Jewish man was falsely implicated. Qur’anic revelation itself intervened, exonerating the Jew and condemning the Muslim wrongdoer. “We certainly sent the Scripture down to you in truth in order for you to judge between the people according to what Allah has showed you. And do not be an advocate for the deceitful ones.” [4:105] 

The Prophet’s relations with Jewish individuals even extended into his financial dealings. ʿĀʾishah (RA) narrated that the Prophet passed away while his armour was mortgaged to a Jewish trader in exchange for 30 measures of barley. This demonstrates that the Prophet maintained agreements of trust and economic cooperation with Jewish individuals until the end of his life. 

Even within the most intimate sphere of family life, the Prophetic model leaves no room for prejudice. The Prophet himself married Safiyyah bint Ḥuyayy, a woman of Jewish lineage. When a slur was used to try and defame her, he defended her Jewish ancestry, saying, “Verily, you are the daughter of a prophet (meaning Moses), your uncle is a prophet (meaning Aaron), and you are married to a prophet (meaning Muhammad), so how can she boast over you?”  

Respect and good conduct continued beyond life to death. Qays ibn Saʿd reported that a funeral procession passed by the Messenger of Allah, and he stood up. When it was said to him, “It is a Jew,” the Prophet replied, “Was he not a soul?” This profound response affirms the sanctity of human life as inherent and universal, independent of religious identity.

Conclusion

Islamic scripture, the prophetic example, and over fourteen centuries of history collectively demonstrate respect for a shared Semitic lineage. Muslims hold deep reverence for Israelite prophets, regarding them as moral exemplars whose stories are sources of wisdom and ethical instruction. Islamic religious practice includes an annual celebration of Jewish liberation through the fast of Ashura. The Qur’anic approach is precise in its moral address, critiquing actions and not identities. This understanding is reflected in centuries of Muslim protection of Jewish communities, and a prophetic model of coexistence established in the earliest period of Islam. 

In contrast, modern claims that portray Islam as inherently antisemitic rely on selective readings of texts, decontextualized historical episodes, and contemporary political agendas. This often includes the conflation of Judaism with Zionism, while ignoring the long and well-documented history of Muslim–Jewish solidarity, intellectual exchange, and mutual protection.