Islamic history made me a Zionist.

The history of Jews in Islam, and with 25 percent of today's world identifying as Muslim, make obvious the need for a Jewish state.

The Western Wall and Temple Mount in Jerusalem (photo: Josh Appel/Unsplash)

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This is a guest essay written by Jens Heycke, author of “Out of the Melting Pot, Into the Fire.”

You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.

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As a scholar of Islamic history, I might seem like an improbable Zionist.

Yet, my study of Islamic history is part of what has motivated my support for the modern Jewish state.

It is not that Islam has always been intolerant of Jews and Judaism — it hasn’t. It is because of how quickly and repeatedly it has swung from tolerance to nasty persecution throughout history.

This phenomenon recapitulates the broader Jewish experience in the gentile world and underscores the precariousness of the Jewish position in it. The best solution for that precariousness is for Jews to have a national sanctuary, and the most logical place for that sanctuary is their ancestral homeland.

It is often overlooked how much Islamic doctrine draws from the Torah and halakha (Jewish law). Not only does the Qur’an reiterate the Abrahamic emphasis on strict monotheism and abhorrence of idolatry; it also recounts many biblical tales of Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Jonah, Joseph, and so on. Muslim dietary restrictions largely overlap Jewish ones, and the Qur’an refers to Moses 136 times, more than any other person. (Abraham garners 69 mentions.)

Given the shared Abrahamic traditions of Islam and Judaism, it is no surprise that Muslim leaders institutionalized an ethos of ecumenical fellowship at the dawn of Islamic history. The 7th-century “Constitution of Medina” recognized Jews as part of the Islamic community (ummah) of “believers” and assured them the right to their own religious observances. Islamic doctrine explicitly calls for toleration of Jews; the Qur’an asserts that “there is no compulsion in religion” and promises rewards for Jews and other non-Muslims who believe “in God and the Last Day” (Qur’an 2:62).

Over the centuries, many Islamic rulers observed a policy of tolerance, granting Jews far better treatment than they received under contemporary Christian regimes. Beginning in the 7th century, Umayyad rulers (a Muslim dynasty that ruled the Islamic world from AD 660 or 661 to 750, claiming descent from Umayya, a distant relative of Muhammad) appointed Jews to prestigious posts, including a governorship. This continued in Islamic Spain, with several Jews attaining the top post of vizier.

In 1492, when Christians persecuted and expelled Jews from Spain, Sultan Bayezid II sent his navy to evacuate them to the Ottoman Empire, where he assured them security and a significant degree of self-governance. Bayezid famously ridiculed the Spanish monarchs for sending some of their most productive citizens to the Ottoman Empire:

“You venture to call Ferdinand a wise ruler, he who has impoverished his own country and enriched mine!”

But Islamic regimes’ treatment of Jews was inconstant, oscillating from tolerance to vicious persecution. Only a few decades after an Umayyad caliph (chief Muslim civil and religious ruler) appointed a Jewish governor, the “Pact of Umar” was instituted. This pact comprised a set of rules that imposed onerous taxes and legal restrictions on Jews, such as the requirement to wear distinctive clothing, including a yellow belt — a precursor to the Nazis’ yellow star.

Not long after a Jew became vizier in Islamic Spain, Muslim mobs killed thousands of Jews in the 1066 “Granada Massacre.” This was followed by years of harsh treatment under the Almohad dynasty, impelling them (and many Christians) to flee the Iberian peninsula.

Jews enjoyed a more extended period of tolerant treatment under the Ottoman Empire, founded in 1299. But even that was abruptly interrupted by the 1834 Genocide of Safed (Tzfat in Hebrew, one of the four Jewish holy cities in the Land of Israel). Ottoman divide-and-conquer strategies also pitted Christians against Jews, spurring several pogroms (e.g. the “Damascus Affair” blood libel in Ottoman-era Syria).

In the modern era, the Jewish population in Muslim countries plummeted as mass killings persecution drove Jews out, including but not limited to a massacre in Hebron (another one of the four holy Jewish cities) during 1929 and “The Farhud” pogrom in Baghdad during 1941. Even Morocco, long heralded as a tolerant haven for Jews, saw its Jewish population dive from 265,000 in 1948 to only 2,100 today.

The 1,400-year history of Jews under Islam mirrors a broader historical pattern spanning millennia. Beginning in ancient Egypt and Persia and continuing into modern Europe, Jews often became trusted and valuable members of other societies, sometimes rising to high status. However, their contributions and status were never sufficient to prevent the rug from suddenly being yanked out from under them and having those societies turn on them. This was most tragically demonstrated in Nazi Germany, where Jews — including many patriotic World War One veterans — who had assimilated and were esteemed participants in German society suddenly found themselves persecuted and eventually exterminated.

Many of us have hoped today’s Western would would be an exception, defying the tragic patterns of history by providing Jews with a home where they could integrate and prosper without ever fearing that their heritage might be held against them.

Recent events have tested that hope, with protestors barring Jewish university students from going to their classes and, in some cases, violently assaulting them. The response from university administrations has been insouciant and feckless. One protest leader at Columbia University in New York told a school administrator in January that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and spoke of killing them. Yet that protestor was only recently barred from campus when a video of their comments circulated on social media and embarrassed the administration into acting.

While many groups have been persecuted over the millennia, Jews have a unique history in that they have faced repeated persecution for nearly 3,500 years, often in regimes that had previously espoused tolerance for them. This is best exemplified in the 14 centuries of Islamic history, during which the tolerance various regimes demonstrated to Jews had a limited shelf-life.

Because of this, the existence of the Jewish State of Israel — a singular haven where Jews can be Jewish without fear of persecution — is essential. We should strive to make America and other countries safe and hospitable for our Jewish citizens, but we need to acknowledge the longstanding historical reality, made obvious in particular by Islamic history, that benign tolerance of Jews often proves fleeting.

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