The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #93525   Message #1802966
Posted By: artbrooks
06-Aug-06 - 06:12 PM
Thread Name: BS: Who came first, the Arab or the Jew?
Subject: RE: BS: Who came first, the Arab or the Jew?
There are Arab Moslems, Arab Christians, Arab Druze, Arab Ba'hai, Arab Atheists and, yes, Arab Jews. One of the issues that Mohammed had during his conquest of the Arabian Peninsula was that there were nomadic Jewish tribes there as well as Arab tribes worshiping other gods. Many of the Jews expelled from the Arab and other Moslem nations in 1949 were physically indistinguishable from their former hosts. Among those who came to Israel after it was founded were a group of Ethiopians who trace their lineage to the priests who came to Axum after the Queen of Sheba's visit to Solomon. Other Jewish emigrants included ethnic Chinese, Russians and Europeans.

By the way, it is a myth that Jews were treated well in the Arab nations prior to the mandate or the establishment of Israel, except for a very brief period in Spain in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Just as in Western Europe, they were restricted as to the occupations they were allowed to pursue, the neighborhoods in which they were allowed to live and were sometimes required to wear special articles of clothing. Christians were subject to much the same kind of restrictions.