Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

256 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 1:253
624 and 625 expulsions of the Quaynuqa and Nadir Jewish tribes from
Medina. He continued in 627 with the slaughter of all Qurayza Jewish men
and enslavement of their women and children. 23 In 628, he besieged and
banished the Jews of the Khaybar oasis. 24 On his deathbed, Mohammed
instructed his heirs to ban Jews from Arabia—a goal consummated in 643
and 644 by Caliph Umar. 25
Bostom is not alone in observing essential facts concerning this foundational
hatred. Hebrew University’s Robert Wistrich had previously noted
that the Koran contains “notably harsh passages in which Muhammad
brands the Jews as enemies of Islam and depicts them as possessing a
malevolent, rebellious spirit.” Wistrich cites verses that purport to justify
the Jews’ “abasement and poverty” and describes them as “laden with
God’s anger” for disobeying Allah. Mohammed instructed Muslims to
humiliate Jews, Wistrich observes, “because they had disbelieved the signs
of God and slain the prophets unrightfully” (Sura 2:58/61). The Koran also
claims that both David and Jesus cursed “the unbelievers of the Children of
Israel” (Sura 5:78/82). The penalty for disbelieving God’s supposed signs
and the miracles of Mohammed, Wistrich notes, was to be transformed into
apes and swine (Sura 5:60/65). Moreover, Islamic oral tradition—the deeds
and sayings of Mohammed (hadith)—claims that the Jews, in accordance
with their purportedly perfidious nature, deliberately poisoned Muhammad,
causing his painful, protracted death. Finally, Wistrich notes that according
to tradition, the “malevolent, conspiratorial Jews are to blame for the sectarian
strife in early Islam, for heresies and deviations that undermined or
endangered the unity of the umma (the Muslim nations).” 26
Indeed, even modern Muslim clerics often cite these historical Islamic
data in statements, judicial texts and charters, despite frequent attempts to
whitewash that history. In June, 2009, at Cairo’s Al-Azhar university, for
23. Bostom, “Muhammad, the Qurayza Massacre, and PBS,” FrontPageMagazine.com,
December 20, 2002, http://97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=
20581 (accessed Oct. 29, 2009).
24. James M. Arlandson, “Muhammad and the Jews,” Answering-islam.com, as
revised from American Thinker, June 30, 2005, http://www.answering-islam.org/
Authors/Arlandson/jews.htm (accessed Nov. 20, 2009).
25. Yosef Tobi, The Jews of Yemen: Studies in Their History and Culture (Brill:
1999), 21, http://books.google.com/books?id=GobE2eQx8gUC&pg=PA21&lpg=
PA21&dq=umar+xpells+jews+rom+arabia+643&source=bl&ots=SRdF6l8pfP&sig
=pE9BVlbXVEWX1SW4C_F835Gk300&hl=en&ei=-v4NS_DaCszPlAfh0tGSBA
&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBMQ6AEwBA#v=one
page&q=&f=false (accessed Nov. 25, 2009).
26. Robert Wistrich, as quoted in Bostom, “Muhammad, the Qurayza Massacre,
and PBS,” ibid.