Dr.

Ambreen Agha
Caf Dissensus

A Tale of Two Brothers

History of Estrangement and the birth of two Religions
Caf Dissensus, January 7, 2016
ISSN No: ISSN 2373-177X
One important point should be made right away. There is little sign of any deep rooted
emotional hostility directed against Jews [in Muslim lands...] such as the anti-Semitism of the
Christian world. There were, however, unambiguously negative attitudes. These were in part the
normal feelings of a dominant group towards a subject group, with parallels in virtually any
society.
---------- Bernard Lewis, 1984: 32
The history of mutual existence, toleration and cooperation shared between the Jews and Muslims who,
today, stand against each other, hardened with negative perceptions that have percolated beyond the
borders of political-territorial dispute between Israel and Palestine, is the cornerstone of recognizing the
myth and reality that has come to dominate this hostile relationship. Born out of the same paternal
roots, the two estranged brothers, Ishmael and Isaac, Abrahams children, unknowingly parted ways
resulting out of the passions, jealousies and complexities of two women and Abrahams wives, Hagar
and Sarah. While Hagar came to become the mother of Islam, from Sarah emerged both Judaism and
Christianity. The story of these two women, their marital relationship with Abraham and human
insecurities gave birth to two separate religions, Ishmaels Islam and Isaacs Judaism.
As a result of the high passions and emotions, Sarah succeeded in convincing Abraham to abandon
Hagar and her son Ishmael. This moment in the history of the three Abrahamic faiths bears relevance till
today. Abrahams dilemma, emotional anxiety and helplessness that he suffered in executing this
decision made by Sarah, of parting with his first child and second wife, is point of debate and discussion
about the eventual separation of the two brothers who grew up unaware of the circumstances and
human failings suffered by their mothers. However, Abraham, the patriarch, is the common and central
figure to fall back upon. It is through Abraham that the three world religions, Christianity, Judaism and
Islam trace their lineage.
A nuanced reading of history further delineates the troubled relationship between the wives of
Abraham, their struggle and contestations for inheritance, and the subsequent religions that came into
existence. At this juncture, it is crucial to state that the past relationship between Jews and Muslims has
often been harmonious and peaceful. It was in the twentieth and twenty first century that the enmity
between Muslims and Jews became evident and of global significance, in particular with the coming of
the Arab-Israeli conflict. In the Muslim tradition, Christians and Jews are considered the People of the
Book, and hence a point from where the idea of mutual co-existence and tolerance emerges. Since the
coming of Islam in the seventh century and Prophet Muhammads military campaigns the Jews were
subjects of their Muslim rulers across the large swathes of lands and lived under the status of Dhimmi or
the People of the Book, a reference to the common roots of Abrahamic religions. Though Dhimmi was
an inferior status attributed to the non-Muslims in Islamic States, history shows the relaxation of
Dhimmi rules and reduction of jizya tax (or the head tax) for the Jews, thus, integrating them with
respect in society. A perusal of history makes one question, if this has been the historical benevolence of

Dr. Ambreen Agha

Caf Dissensus
the Islamic State towards the People of the Book or the Protected People, then what has caused the two
communities, with the same roots, to drift apart?
Scholars who have extensively worked on the subject of Islam and Judaism argue in the strain of
historical misperceptions that have been exploited and formed the popular Muslim perception of Jews
and the fraught Muslim-Jew relations. Keeping history as the point of his argument and reflecting on the
14 centuries of Jewish life under Muslim rule, Bernard Lewis, a Jewish scholar on Muslim and Jew
relations, convincingly argues that the situation of Jews living under Islamic rulers was never as bad as
in Christendom at its worst, even if it was never, as good as in Christendom at its best. Corroborating
his finding that the relations between Jews and Arabs were more harmonious than the lachrymose
relations between Jews and Christians in Europe, Lewis further writes, There is nothing in Islamic
history to parallel the Spanish expulsion and Inquisition, the Russian pogroms, or the Nazi Holocaust.
The Muslim-Jew relation has been one of accommodation and contestation. The history of
accommodation is long and goes back to the joint military campaigns between the Jews and Muslims in
638 century under the rule of Omar ibn al-Khattab, Prophets companion who ruled from 634-44.
During that year the Muslim army under Omar conquered several Christian cities, and in this conquest
Omars army was openly aided by the Jews who wanted to liberate themselves of Christian persecution.
In this military coalition the Jews fought along with the Muslim soldiers, provided provisions, including
food to the Muslim army and acted as local guides to their Muslim soldiers in the area familiar to them.
The military cooperation seen during Omars time was further extended under different Muslim rulers.
After sixty years, Caliph Abd al-Malik appointed Jews as the guardians of the Temple Mount, known to
Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (The Noble Sanctuary). There were Jews who held important administrative
and other positions of responsibility.
It was later, with the politicization of the Israel-Palestine conflict, that history of coexistence was
replaced with the history of confrontation and contestation. The emergence of Zionist movement in the
late nineteenth century in the year 1890 for the return of Jews to their homeland and the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel led to the embittered relations between the
Jews and Muslims. There is a kind of cynicism that is visible in the existing Muslim-Jew relations. The
political struggle between Israel and Palestine has translated into a religious war between the progeny
of the two sons of Abraham. This Israel-Palestine conflict has transcended space and time, polarizing
and negatively impacting the relations between the two communities across the globe, to wherever
Muslims live and to wherever Jews live.
The transcendence of the Arab-Israel conflict is seen reflected in the local Muslim-Jew narratives. It may
be for medias biased reporting or ignorance that the sensitive Muslim-Jews relations have undergone
an uneasy path in Lucknow, the capital of the State of Uttar Pradesh, over the alleged occupation of
the Freemason Temple that has stood in Lucknows busy fish market of Narhai since 1879, by the Jews.
The perception that the Freemasons are Jews is part of the larger understanding of Muslims who view it
as a Zionist conspiracy against Islam. This misperception of taking Freemasons to be Jews has led to the
initiation of a movement in 2011 under the leadership of Shia cleric Kalbe Jawad to liberate its building,
which used to be an Imambargah before being leased by the British to the Freemasons, from the alleged
Jewish control.

Dr. Ambreen Agha

Caf Dissensus
In an interview to this scribe, the leader of the liberation movement of this Masonic Temple Kalbe Jawad
firmly reiterated that the Freemasons are Jews. Relying heavily of the Zionist conspiracy theory against
Islam he said, Freemason is a Jewish organization. However, it also has some Christians as its members.
Unfortunately, some opportunists among Muslims are also a part of this movement that is a conspiracy
against Islam. To him the freemasons are the worshippers of Satan. He goes on to tell me, You should
read the Jewish book Talmud. It is a very dangerous book. I call it dangerous because it states that only
Jews have the right to live. If given a choice between saving a non-Jewish human life and a life of the
dog, the Jew should save the dog. This is the kind of religious instruction given to Jews in their book.
Now you can understand yourself. Belonging to the revisionist school that is critical of the glorious days
of Jews under Muslim rulers, Jawad categorically states, There are old roots to this enmity. Our first
Imam, Hazrat Ali, the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad, led a war against the Jews in the year 629 in
Khyber. However, despite this revisionism that the Maulana exhibits, he also hopes for peace between
the two communities. Quoting an incident from Prophets life Kalbe Jawad said, One day during the
month of Ramzan (fasting) when Prophet was sitting with his followers a Jew came and offered him a
date. The Jewish man insisted that Prophet Muhammad eat it in front of him. On his request, Prophet
ate the date, leaving his followers sitting beside him shocked. As the Jew left, Prophets fellows asked
him, Why did you break your fast before time for that Jew? To this, the Prophet replied, I prefer
breaking my fast over his heart.
It is from here that the Muslims and Jews should forget their old hostilities, says Jawad, adding, The
Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, never broke anyones heart, be it a Jew or a Christian. The Muslims of
today should learn from the life of Prophet and conduct themselves accordingly. However, on the issue
of the Freemason Temple, he says that it is a Jewish conspiracy against Islam, and a legal battle is being
fought to wrest control of the building from Jewish hands.
This Muslim version of the dispute is challenged by the caretaker of the Temple Lodge, who outrightly
rejected the presence of Jews in the premises of the building. Though initially skeptical of saying
anything to me, the caretaker after a long conversation on the issue disclosed that the Masonic Temple
has nothing to do with Jews in particular. In fact, it is open for all communities, and the minimum
criterion of membership is to be a post-graduate. He took me around the Lodge, narrating his great
grandfathers migration from Rae Bareilly to Lucknow in early nineteenth century, and the subsequent
handover of the building, as a caretaker, from the then British authorities. He asserted, I am a Hindu.
This is no religious place. People come here, especially lawyers, on every third Saturday of the month to
hold their meetings. But these meetings are secretive. I have been living here since my birth, but have
never attended the meetings conducted in the Lodge. After a pause, he took me to the backside of the
Lodge, where he showed me a small corner that served as a place of worship for him and his family.
There was trishula (three-pronged sacred weapon of the Hindu deity Shiva) embedded on a high mud
platform, and a tulasi (holy basil) plant. He emphasized, This is our God and we are Hindus.
For Jawad and other Shia Muslims living in Lucknow, the Masonic Temple belongs to the Jews and is part
of the Zionist conspiracy. One Zaidi (name changed) said, Why do these Freemasons work in secrecy? If
there is nothing controversial about them, then why dont they open their Lodge for the public? Jews
have always worked secretly against Islam. They conspire with their Christian partners in their war
against Islam that is seen in the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. After going through the two accounts,
one of the Shia cleric and the Muslims on one hand, and the other of the caretaker of the Temple, which
he insists to call a Lodge, also inscribed on its board, it can be understood as manufacturing of a
controversy, in the words of a Jew living in Delhi.

Dr. Ambreen Agha

Caf Dissensus
This conspiracy theory is a manifestation of European anti-Semitism that has come to dominate the
Muslim psyche and the Muslim world. It was in Germany in the nineteenth century that Jews and
Freemasons began to be perceived as working in collusion for challenging the traditional Christian
society. The anti-Semitism that arose then in Europe has today travelled to the Muslim world, further
deteriorating the Muslim-Jew relations, which are seen through the political lens of Israel-Palestine. The
Muslim-Jew relation has been a victim of the ignorance, false perceptions and misuse of history.
However, it is important to note that every Jew is not a Zionist. Hence, for a constructive future of
Muslim-Jew relation it is important to deconstruct the idea of Judaism-Zionism as a homogenous
identity, working in tandem against Islam. The clarion call is inter-faith gatherings for Jewish-Muslim
reconciliation.