Why Do Islamists Hate Jews?

The recent Bondi terror attack shows how much Islamists hate Jews. The terrorists chose one of the most important festivals and a happy occasion on the Jewish calendar to kill Jews. The question is why? The answer is rooted in the teaching of Prophet Muhammad and the Quran. However, Islam and Muslims are complex. Many Muslims are neither violent nor wanting to kill Jews. The reason lies in the fact that the Quran is inconsistent. Different sects have different interpretations of the Quran. 

The Old Testament books were written between 1400 B.C and 400 B.C. The New Testament books were written in the first century. Muhammad was born 570 AD in Saudi Arabia. By that time, Judaism and Christianity were well established religions. When Muhammad was born, there were already some Jewish and Christian tribes. Muhammud had heard biblical stories as a youth. (There were several versions of how the Quran was given to Muhammud but the details are not important here.)  Many passages in the Quran have biblical origins. For example, the story of Joseph in the Quran was similar to that in the OT. When Muhammad claimed to be a prophet from God, he expected that he would be regarded as a prophet by Jews and Christians. They did not. In fact, Jews (and the OT) have very stringent criteria for a prophet (Deuteronomy 18:14-22). Muhammud clearly did not satisfy the requirements. Prophets in the OT as well as Jesus did satisfy these criteria. 

Muhammad originally asked his followers to treat Jews and Christians well, because they were the people of the Book (i.e. the Bible from God). However, when Jews and Christians did not regard him a prophet from God, he became hostile toward them. His rationale probably was if I kill those who refused to acknowledge my prophet status, others might change their minds. The Quran has both types of verses.  

Interpreting the Quran is hard. There are at least two huge problems. First, the Quran is poetic, thus its meanings often are obscure. The Bible at times is also hard to interpret. However, over more than 3000 years many interpretation approaches have been developed. One thing I am sure is that the Bible is from God while the Quran is not (this would need extensive explanations). God said that He is one. Even though we cannot explain some passages in the Bible we might understand one day in the future. That is not true for the Quran. The second big problem is that the Quran is inconsistent, even from a pure logical viewpoint. For example, it is well-known that Islam recognized five great prophets before Muhammad and Jesus is one of them. However, the Quran said that Jesus is not the Son of God. This is obviously a contradiction. It is crystal clear from the Bible (NT) that if a true prophet speaks, then what he said is from God thus must be true. Several places in the NT clearly stated that Jesus is the Son of God. In addition, there are other contradictions. 

Although in the history of Christianity there were antisemitic sentiments (discrimination or hatred), they acted against the Bible or incorrectly interpreted the Bible. Romans 11:13 I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry 14 in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. … 17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. Paul here used grafted branches to refer to believers other than Jews. Jews are the root. Christians must treat Jews with respect because they were the root, the original recipient of God’s word. 

On the other hand, there is no requirement for a consistent interpretation of Muslim’s Holy book, the Quran. How Muslim treat Jews is drastically different in different parts of the Quran. Islamists follow radical interpretations of the Quran. Therefore, Islamists hate and want to kill all Jews.