Muslims, Christians and Antisemitism
In the UK on 2nd October 2025, there was a violent terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester carried out by a Muslim. Shortly after, there were demonstrations against the war in Gaza in London with hundreds arrested. Later in October, football fans from the Maccabi Tel Aviv Football Club were banned from travelling to watch their team play Aston Villa in Birmingham. The thing these local British events all had in common was that they were labelled by some as being antisemitic – a deliberate expression of hatred toward Jews.[1] It is undoubtedly true that antisemitism has once again reared its ugly head in Europe and any civil society cannot and should not tolerate hatred and bigotry directed at any one group of people.[2] However, the labelling of events as being antisemitic is a difficult and controversial topic that should be handled extremely carefully.
The demos were labelled insensitive and antisemitic by some politicians and community leaders in Britain – and Israel. And due to some confused government thinking, they were also connected with terrorism. However, it seems clear that the peaceful protestors did not want – even inadvertently – to support terrorism. Nor were they antisemites. They were protesting against the war in Gaza which has killed tens of thousands of civilians and were wanting to protect free speech. They were Palestinians, Muslims, Christians and others who wanted the terrible human suffering to stop and for there to be justice for the Palestinian people.
Whether or not the football fan ban was justified because of a risk of hooliganism, as the police claimed, or was an anti-Israel decision, as claimed by some politicians, is harder to know. But, for most people, the Manchester attack was clear cut. As Shabana Mahmood, the British Home Secretary, said in a statement to parliament, this was ‘an evil act of antisemitic terrorism … carried out by a terrorist pledging his allegiance to the warped ideology of Islamism’.[3] For some people, however, including some Christians, this wasn’t an extremist anomaly. They believe that Islam – not Islamism or extremism – but Islam itself commands this sort of antisemitic violence and the attacker was therefore just being a ‘true’ Muslim.
The question of what drives Muslim terrorism has been a recurring inquiry ever since 9/11 and Christians answer it in different ways. Is it because of the political injustice and powerlessness experienced by Muslims – or is it because Islam is inherently violent? Is it because of the teachings of a few Muslims who promote de-contextualised, literalist interpretations of texts – or is it because of the normative history of Islam? Is it anger over the injustice experienced by Palestinians over the past 80 years – or is it because Islam is essentially antisemitic?
Antisemitism – Muslim and Christian
Some Christians have taken the opportunity of the Manchester attack once again to suggest that Islamic scriptures are by nature antisemitic. This is a common assumption amongst those who are critical of all aspects of Islam. For instance, Tim Dieppe in his 2025 book, The Challenge of Islam, is careful to point out that he does not accuse Muslims of necessarily being antisemitic. ‘It is not about Muslims, and whether they are antisemitic. It is about Islam, and Islam is defined by its texts.’[4] He goes on to examine texts from ‘the Qur’an, the Hadith and the Sirah (biographies of Muhammad)’ and finds many anti-Jewish verses and actions. He eventually concludes that ‘antisemitism is integral to Islam and is part of Islamic doctrine, as defined by its texts’. He suggests that this explains why ‘surveys show higher prevalence of antisemitic attitudes amongst Muslims than amongst the rest of the population’.[5]
However, before being too quick to point the finger, Christians should remember their own texts and history.[6] There are passages about Jews in the New Testament that could be understood negatively. I have recently been listening to an audio reading of the Gospel of John and have been struck by how many times ‘the Jews’ are mentioned – often in opposition to the work of Jesus. For instance, there are verses that, in the original Greek, say ‘the Jews’ (hoi Ioudaioi) called for the death of Jesus (John 19:7) and that the disciples were afraid of ‘the Jews’ (John 20:19). Modern English versions of the Bible translate some of these instances as ‘the Jewish leaders’ to make clear that the gospel authors – often themselves Jews – did not mean all Jews. After all, Jesus himself was a Jew. Even so, such passages have led some Jews, even today, to feel that the New Testament stigmatises them. I remember once talking to a very angry Jewish woman who told me that, if every time the word ‘Jew’ appeared in the New Testament the word ‘black’ was inserted instead, the book would have long ago been banned as being racist.
Of course, the vast majority of Christians today do not understand these verses to be about ‘all Jews’ – but some do. Christians at many times and in many places in history have been virulently antisemitic. In fact, says one Christian author, ‘the irony is so stark that it’s hard to process: a Jewish movement with a Jewish founder and all-Jewish original followers becomes, in the matter of a couple of decades, viciously anti-Jewish.’[7] In the early years of the church, some Christians came to see Jews as collectively guilty of Jesus’ death. They called them ‘Christ killers’ and terrible libels were circulated about them. It was said they abducted babies to use them in sacrifices or that they stole the host (the communion bread) in order to desecrate it. Jews eventually became associated with money lending and greed (just think of Shakespeare’s Shylock). They became victims of the Crusades as much as Muslims and Eastern Christians were. Popes – although not all – spoke against Jews and it was the church which began ideas of the ‘ghetto’, special clothing and symbols to mark Jews out. They were expelled from England in the 13th century and from Spain in 1492. Later, pogroms in Eastern Europe were often instigated by church leaders. Parts of the Protestant Church were also deeply antisemitic in its early days. Martin Luther wrote against the Jews and shockingly his book, The Jews and Their Lies, was reprinted and used as Nazi propaganda to justify Hitler’s ‘final solution’.[8] This litany of antisemitism, along with the failure of some parts of the church to speak out against the Holocaust which followed, is indefensible and has left a terrible stain on Christian-Jewish relations. There is much to be ashamed about in this history, although in recent years there has been a lot of soul searching and repentance on the behalf of Christians.[9]
Islam too has challenging texts and a checkered history when it comes to its relations with Jews. Israeli scholar Uri Rubin draws parallels between how the New Testament and the Qur’an each speak of Jews. There is ambiguity in both. The Qur’an labels Jews as both believers, People of the Book (Q2:62, Q5:68-69), and as sinners who rejected the prophets (Q2:91). Obedience is to be rewarded but they have been punished for wrongdoing (Q4:160-162). They are under a covenant (Q2:40), but yet are hostile (Q5:82).[10]
The hadith traditions are particularly problematic. Muhammad initially saw Jews as allies but later fought some of the Jewish tribes when they broke a treaty with him. So, the Hadith contains punishments for Jews, predictions that Muslims and Jews will fight each other and accounts of a stone asking a Muslim to kill a Jew hiding behind it.[11] There are also plenty of books detailing occasions in history when there has been animosity between Muslims and Jews.[12] Some Christians seize on these works and write books of their own. For instance, Mark Gabriel, a Christian convert from Islam, wrote a book called Islam and the Jews: the unfinished battle. He acknowledges that there are ‘nice words about Jews’ in the Qur’an but points out that they are all early verses from Meccan suras and that once the Jews rejected Muhammad, he punished them. He claims from his personal experience growing up in Egypt that even today some Muslims are systematically taught in school, home and mosque that ‘Jews hate Islam and want to destroy it’.[13]
For Christians who wish to criticise Islam or confront Muslims, these texts and history, along with contemporary events such as the Manchester attack and the 7th October massacre by Hamas, prove that Islam is inherently violent causing Muslims to hate Jews. These Christians argue that they are exposing the ‘true nature’ of ‘real’ Islam. It’s a zero-sum game of ‘we are right’ and ‘they are totally wrong’. It allows for no humanity on the other side, no trace of God’s goodness in any other religious community. Of course, this sort of black and white thinking is easy and mirrors that of the terrorists. This was a danger that Bill Musk, an Anglican bishop, warned about in his 2008 book The Certainty Trap.[14] He challenged Muslims and Christians to move beyond what he called the ‘literalist’ readings of both their own and the other’s texts. However, the interpretation of texts in different expressions of both Muslim and Christian tradition is complex. A nuanced recognition of this is much more difficult to navigate than the stark back and white of literalism.
Reading the Texts
Simplistic readings of texts ignore the ways that Muslims today interpret their own scriptures. Otherwise, why is it that millions of Muslims do not seek to kill their non-Muslim neighbours? Why do many Muslims live peaceably with Jews – albeit with tensions around the situation in Israel-Palestine? Why is it that there are Muslims who do not follow the apparently clear commands of their scriptures?
It is because they have other interpretations. I recently asked my Muslim colleague how, as an imam and religious scholar, he handles the difficult Hadith accounts. After emphasising that true Muslims are not antisemitic, he gave four aspects he personally would use to interpret the above hadiths:
Historically, he says, they have not been widely interpreted in ways that lead to hostility with Jews. Otherwise, he asks, how is it that Jews and Muslims have at times lived together side by side in harmony, such as in Andalusia up to the 15th century.[15]
Then he points out that many of these hadiths are eschatological, that is they are speaking of ‘the Hour’, meaning the end times. These are not for now but for an end time battle when they would only apply to Jews who are ‘soldiers of the Dajjal’ (antichrist), not to innocent Jewish bystanders.[16]
Furthermore, he argues that they are descriptive not prescriptive. In other words, they are not a command to go and do something. They merely describe what will happen in the future.
Finally, he points out that some Muslims question the authority and place of certain hadiths or even all Hadith. After all, the Qur’an is the primary lens for all Muslim understanding of issues like this – although, as we have seen, texts still need careful interpretation.
He also pointed out that there are similar passages in the Torah. He suggested Leviticus 26 as ‘a strikingly severe series of divine warnings directed at the Israelites’. After a promise of ‘peace in the land’ (v6) as a reward for obedience, God threatens to punish disobedience with terror, sickness, defeat and loss of the land. He even said that he would ‘abhor them’ (v30). So, he went on, ‘if one were to adopt the logic sometimes applied to the Qur’an — that divine criticism of Jews equates to antisemitism — then the Torah itself would necessarily be deemed more antisemitic’, given the harsh warnings of punishment for Israel’s disobedience. Christians and Jews, of course, do not read these passages in that way.
Similarly, he argues, ‘the Qur’an contains verses of admonition toward certain Jewish groups, but it also provides a clear path to reconciliation and divine favour. Surah Al-Maidah (Q5:66) states: “If only (the Jews) upheld the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been sent down to them from their Lord, they would enjoy abundance from above them and beneath their feet”. This verse affirms that redemption and blessing remain open to those who act righteously, regardless of community’. He went on to say that:
To claim that Islam is antisemitic at its essence while excusing the far harsher tone of Leviticus is inconsistent. Both texts employ divine reproach as a means of ethical correction, not as an expression of ethnic or religious hostility.
‘Reading’ the People
So, what about the people? Is it fair to ignore the diversity and convictions of the followers of the texts in the different traditions? There have undoubtedly always been Muslims who were antisemites, but not all Muslims are. There were more who became so around the time of WWII and the subsequent foundation of the State of Israel.[17] It is certainly the case that there is now rising antisemitism in Muslim communities in no small part due to the actions of the Israeli military against Gaza and the unconscionable collateral civilian slaughter. Of course, some protesters on marches calling for an end to the war will be antisemitic – and a few may even be supporters of Hamas – but that does not mean that all are.
Moreover, Jews around the world, and even in Israel, should not be equated with the Israeli government or blamed for the actions of the Israeli military. There is a huge diversity of opinion amongst Jews worldwide. Indeed, it is reported that support for Jewish Zionism amongst Jews in the US is beginning to erode because of the war. There are many Jews, such as Jewish Voice for Peace, who themselves protest against the war. Efforts to stifle such protests, such as those of the British government, can only further fuel anger and frustration, increasing the danger of terrorist attacks.
At the same time, many, particularly American evangelical, Christians continue to voice strong support for Israel and the war in Gaza. However, there are also reports of a dramatic decrease in support for Israel among young evangelical Christians – even before the Gaza war.[18] This may explain reports that the Israeli government is spending millions in an attempt to bolster support amongst US Christians.
Consequences
If Christians highlight only the violent, antisemitic texts and the simplistic interpretations of the Muslims who are bent on killing and violence, do they not run the risk of convincing everyone – including Muslims – that there is no alternative interpretation? That the only way for Muslims to be ‘true’ Muslims is to hate Jews? Presumably the hope of the Christians who do this is that Muslims will see Islam to be false and so turn away and become Christians. However, may it not also cause Muslims to feel unheard, disrespected and turn them away from a consideration of Christianity? For some, it may even confirm them in their literalistic, de-contextualised interpretation of their texts – and push them towards terrorism.
We continue to grieve the 7th October attacks and gaze in horror at the devasted ruins of Gaza, whilst hoping that the latest peace initiative succeeds in ending the war. But we must not let the above sorts of argument over Muslim antisemitism and terrorism mask the reality of the inhumane suffering that is going on in Gaza. To protest against the killing of civilians is not to support terrorism. To question the actions of the Israeli government is not antisemitic. It is part of the freedom to speak out against and debate the injustice and cruelty that has been visited on ordinary Palestinians by the Israeli military and – yes – by the fighters of Hamas.
Muslims rightly feel passionately about this issue. They care deeply about what is happening to their fellow Muslims. They do not understand why some Christians have not spoken out more strongly or why some Christians unconditionally support the State of Israel. This undoubtedly harms Christian-Muslim relations and will be discussed in a later blog. It also harms the relationship between Christians in the West and Palestinian Christians, who have called for ‘western theologians and church leaders who have voiced uncritical support for Israel … to repent and change’. They believe that ‘double standards’ and support for Israel have ‘gravely hurt Christian witness’ – not just to Palestinian Christians but to Muslims too.[19]
[1] The definition of antisemitism proposed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance has become widely accepted: ‘Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities’. The ‘contemporary examples’ the IHRA listed have been more contentious. https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism
[2] See EU 2024 report Jewish People’s Experiences and Perceptions of Antisemitism
[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/manchester-synagogue-terror-attack-statement
[4] Tim Dieppe. 2025. The Challenge of Islam: Understanding and Responding to Islam's Increasing Influence in the UK, London, Wilberforce Publications, 142.
[5] Ibid, 188.
[6] This is something that Dieppe does in his chapter but finds that ‘there are no antisemitic texts in the Bible’, so it cannot be ‘used to justify antisemitism’, 187.
[7] Brian McLaren. 2022. Do I stay Christian?: a guide for the doubters, the disappointed, and the disillusioned, New York, St. Martin's Essentials, 26.
[8] Richard Harvey. 2017. Luther and the Jews: Putting right the lies, Eugene, OR, Cascade Books, 27.
[9] For instances, in 2022 I attended an event in Christchurch Cathedral to mark 800 years since anti-Jewish laws were introduced by the church at the 1222 Synod of Oxford. It offered a symbolic opportunity for Christians to apologise to the Jewish community for the shameful historic actions of the Church.
[10] Uri Rubin. 2003. Jews and Judaism. In Jean McAuliffe. (ed.) Encyclopaedia of the Qur'ān - Volume Three (J-O). Leiden, Brill, 21-34.
[11] Sahih al-Bukhari Vol. 4, Book 52, Hadith 177
[12] For instance, Andrew Bostom (ed). 2008. The legacy of Islamic antisemitism: from sacred texts to solemn history, Amherst, N.Y., Prometheus Books. This edited volume is often quoted by other authors. For a contrasting account see Meʼir Bar-Asher. 2024. Jews and the Qur'an, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press.
[13] Mark Gabriel, M. 2003. Islam and the Jews: the unfinished battle, Lake Mary, FL, FrontLine, 73–6, 159.
[14] Bill Musk. 2008. The Certainty Trap: can Christians and Muslims afford the luxury of fundamentalism?, Pasadena, CA, William Carey.
[15] The history of ‘Convivencia’ (coexistence) in Spain is itself complex and contested. For instance, Rosa Menocal in The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians created a culture of tolerance in medieval Spain (Boston, Back Bay Books, 2002) presents a very positive picture which Dario Fernandez-Morera challenges in The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Muslims, Christians, and Jews under Islamic rule in medieval Spain (Wilmington, ISI Books, 2016).
[16] See also, Yaqeen Institute. 2017. Is Islam Antisemitic? Analyzing the Hadith About Jews, the Dajjal and the End of Times Prophecy.
[17] See for instance, Klaus Gensicke. 2011. The Mufti of Jerusalem and the Nazis: the Berlin years, London; Portland, OR, Vallentine Mitchell.
[18] The authors Motti Inbari & Kirill Bumin expand on their research in Ch.4 of their 2023 book Christian Zionism in the twenty-first century: evangelical public opinion on Israel, New York, Oxford University Press. They find that
‘young evangelicals (18– 29 years old) are less supportive of Israel … and have warmer feelings towards Muslims than the older respondents’ to their survey, 113. An interesting find I hope to explore more.
[19] Kairos. 2024. A Call for Repentance: An Open Letter from Palestinian Christians. https://www.kairospalestine.ps