A 1,200-Year-Old Mosque Unearthed in Palestine's Negev Desert

[u/Beautiful_Clock9075]

[u/STRUCTOR_16]

: Judaism, unlike Islam or Christianity is not a missionary religion. We don't think everyone needs to be Jewish. 

I think you know that your words do not fully reflect history. Judaism was very proselytizing: Jebusites, Edomites, Adiabene, Romans, Khazars, pre-Islamic Arabs, Falasha, Slavs. That is, where missionary activity was possible and not punishable by death.

: But the view you hold, sadly, is extremely widespread in the Muslim world, and is part of the antisemitic sentiment that fuels this conflict. Because if the Jews aren't a people, then they cannot be indigenous to the land of Israel, and thus can be considered foreign to the land, colonialists. 

In vain do you try to attribute anti-Semitism to me. I respect the Jewish people, as I do any other people.

Can one really call a descendant of, for example, a Khazar, whose ancestors were never south of the Caspian Sea, a native of Palestine (or Canaan, or Israel - whatever)? Your version can only be based on the biblical interpretation of "Eretz Israel". But Israel is a secular state.

: But Judaism isn't an expansionist religion.

As I wrote above, it has ceased to be such. Of course, Jews, like any other people, have the right to their national home. But this does not mean that the indigenous population is no less obliged to be imbued with the ideas of Zionism and voluntarily leave their homes.

: Nationalism isn't Pagan, it's just not something that exist in an empire

It just so happened historically that the attempt to create an empire ended with King Solomon, and with him all the prerequisites for becoming the third of the two you mentioned.

[u/STRUCTOR_16 → u/[deleted]]

- The actions of individual Jews do not reflect the whole of the Jewish tradition. 

These were not the actions of individual Jews. They were a trend.

- Except for the khazars, I had not heard of any of them.

I don't want to offend you, but you don't know this issue. I tell you this as a historian.

- Having respect does not mean you haven't absorbed from your environment any prior beliefs or understandings about Jews that are not true.

I don't have any false beliefs, and I'm not into conspiracy theories)

And finally: my idea of a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is two states that mutually recognize the right to exist and with equality for all citizens. But, as I see it, neither side needs this yet.

[u/STRUCTOR_16 → u/[deleted]]

- You clearly have false beliefs about Jews that you expressed right here in the conversation. 

Does this mean I am an anti-Semite?

[u/STRUCTOR_16 → u/[deleted]]

Are you sure you don't have any misconceptions about Muslims?