What you are missing is that the treatment of the Jews was indeed unique - to be (barely) tolerated, subject to periodic expulsions and massacres … yet to have survived.
Ceratinly, some groups have been subject to masssacre and have disappeared, More have simply evolved into something different (the vast majority of the pagan tribes of Europe fall within this category - it isn;t as if the Christian Romans conquored them rather than the other way around! ).
When the Muslims came a-visting in Europe, they tended to be the ones doing the conqouring and enslaving - though that tide turned the other way the last few centuries (people often forget the fact that the Muslims were not exactly peacable in their relations with Christendom - and that the Turk was hammering at the gates of Vienna as late as the 17th century).
But we are. You are trying to argue that Muslims accept Jesus as “the messiah,” which makes them sympatico with Christians. What you are missing is that that word has a totally different meaning to Christians than it does to Muslims and Jews, and in point of fact, Islam does NOT accept Jesus as the Messiah in the way that Christians define that term. It’s not just that Muslims don’t think Jesus was God, by the way, they have an entirely different set of criteria for what a Messiah is supposed to do.
Muslims don’t believe that Jesus is part of God and they do object to the Trinitarian concept of God, but their concept of the Messiah is far closer to the Christian concept.
Jews don’t believe that the Messiah walked the earth, that he was Jesus, that God faked his death at the crucifixion and that he will return at the End of Days to battle it out with the anti-Christ, who will look exactly like him.
Obviously, there are many similarities between Judaism and Islam since Islam, like Christianity grew out of Judaism, but Islam was far more influenced by Christianity(probably because Muhammad met far more Christians than Jews).
That’s why Muslims generally speaking have felt closer kinship with Christians despite far more conflict between the two than between Jews and Muslims(prior to 1948 of course).
It’s also why for a time Christian scholars thought of Muslims as heretical Christians while I’ve never heard of Jewish scholars having similar beliefs about Christians or Muslims.
The idea that there is going to be ONE anti-christ, and that that person will be some kind of Big Bad here on Earth, is a relatively recent gloss on Scripture. And I’ve never heard the idea that such an anti-christ will be some mirror universe analogue of Jesus, nor that the End Times will involve some sort of Street Fighter deathmatch between Jesus and this anti-christ. Even the denominations that believe the anti-christ is the Satan-herald Big Bad don’t believe in a knock-down, drag-out between him and Jesus, mano a mano, so to speak.
No, that’s not a cite. You need to cite or you’re just making seriously unsubstantiated claims that no one else here is familiar with.
Yeah, I’m not sure why people would have their citizenship removed, but the Right of Return was based on parentage. If people were expelled and happen to be Christian, that does not mean they were expelled for being Christian. If people were expelled for being Christian on that basis alone, it makes little sense.
Only a small number of Christians believe in an anti-Christ who is independent of Satan, AFAIK. And I don’t think any of them think that the anti-Christ will look exactly like Jesus Christ.
They do. He’s referred to as “Al Masiah” throughout the Quran.
Obviously, they don’t think of him as being God the way that Christians do, but their beliefs are heavily influenced by Christianity.
By comparison, the Jewish couple in Israel who were stripped of their citizenship and expelled pointed out that they came from Jewish families and that while they saw Jesus as the Messiah, they didn’t consider him divine.
They also pointed out that most of the members of Chabad believed their leader, Menachem Schneerson(who was IIRC alive at this time) was the Messiah, yet they were not being stripped of their citizenship and declared non-Jews.
In short, the government of Israel with the enthusiastic support of the religious authorities declared that if you believe Jesus is the Nessiah, you’re not Jewish.
Which has a completely and totally different meaning than the New Testament title of Christos.
Not as much as by Judiasm.
I’m skeptocal that this happened in the way that you describe (it sounds like maybe a couple of Christians tried to scam the Right of Return), but if they were Messianic Jews, they were Christians by definition. That is a Christian denomination.
Your confusion on this once again stems from your mistaken impression that the word “messiah” means the same thing in Christianity as it does in Judaism. Messianic Jews have a completely different set of theological beliefs than the followers of Rabbi Schneerson.
They’re correct. You’re not. At least not religiously.
Literally, “anointed,” as was the practice for kings and high priests. Figuratively it can also refer to people specially chosen by God. In Judaism there have been many mosiachs (high priests, kings in the line of David and others…even the Persian king, Cyrus, is called mosiach by God himself).
While the Right of Return initially applied to anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent, it has since been modified, in IIRC either the 70s or the 80s to exclude people who “practice a religion other than Judaism” which, to me at least, makes sense since practicing Christians and Muslims shouldn’t be considered Jews.
That’s why some Falashas have been expelled when they were discovered to be practicing Christians, though there have been many complaints about this not being done to Russian immigrants who clearly are practicing Christians with predictable accusations as to why the Falashas are being treated differently.
Anyway, the case I’m referring to was covered by the New York Times in the early 90s.
I’m not sure why you’re upset by it since I’d have thought you’d have agreed with the court’s decision.
I was being a little facetious with my remarks above about Sharia, but certainly there are Muslim countries where those kinds of remarks are accurate. There ARE Muslim states who still practice stoning.
For what it’s worth, though, I fear Christian zealots more than Muslim ones.
I’m not a Zionist so I don’t agree with the Right of Return at all and I think it’s odious that any Jew who wants to can immigrate there while Palestians born in Haifa or Jaffa are excluded.
As to the decision, well I’ll let the Israeli government decide who is and isn’t a Jew.
Similarly, if the religious parties ever succeed in pushing through a law mandating that converts to Reform, Reconstructionist, or Conservative Judaism be excluded.
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