oped a special relationship with Ottoman Jewish
communities. Former dhimmis became agents
who worked for the European colonial govern-
ments, which exacerbated interreligious tensions
among Muslims and non-Muslims.
Strong nationalist currents in Europe coupled
with growing anti-Semitic propaganda gave rise
to the Zionist movement among European Jews
in the late 19th century. The chief objective of the
Zionists was to establish a homeland for Jews in
Palestine, which had been part of the Ottoman
Empire, but became a British mandate territory
after World War I. The Zionist cause won limited
British support and finally succeeded in creat-
ing a modern Jewish nation-state in 1948 in the
aftermath of the first Arab-Israeli war. Israel was
founded primarily by European Jews, many of
whom had survived the horrors of the Holocaust,
but, once created, it encouraged immigration of
Jews from North Africa, the Arab Middle East,
and iran. At the same time, nationalist currents in
these regions victimized the Jews, or made them
feel unsafe in the countries where they had lived
for centuries. Muslims appropriated many of the
anti-Semitic stereotypes that had circulated in
Europe and used them to legitimate their harsh
treatment of Jews. As a result, the Jewish popula-
tions of countries such as morocco, Egypt, syria,
Iraq, Yemen, and Iran seriously dwindled. Small
Jewish populations continue to exist in parts of
North Africa, lebanon, Syria, and Iran, but most
Middle Eastern Jews have emigrated to Israel,
Europe, or the Americas.
Today, Israel has achieved peace agreements
with Egypt and Jordan, and it has friendly rela-
tions with tUrkey. Conflict continues, however,
between Israelis and Palestinians, with radical
Islamic groups becoming more influential in the
last 20 years. Israel is also at war with Shii militias
in Lebanon, especially hizbUllah. Despite these
conflicts and the heated polemics exchanged
between Israel’s supporters and enemies, far-
sighted Jews and Muslims are exploring new
opportunities for dialogUe in North America and
in Israel-Palestine. Such dialogue involves redis-
covering the Judeo-Muslim symbiosis of former
times as but one element in the articulation of a
more peaceful convivencia in the 21st century.
See also arab-israeli conFlicts; christianity
and islam; conversion; ottoman dynasty; proph-
ets and prophecy; sephardic JeWs.Further reading: S. D. Goitein, Jews and Arabs: Their
Contacts through the Ages (1974. Reprint, New York:
Dover Publications, 2005); Bernard Lewis, The Jews
of Islam (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,
1984); Maria Rosa Menocal, The Ornament of the World:
How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture
of Tolerance in Medieval Spain (Boston: Little, Brown,
2002); Gordon D. Newby, A History of the Jews of Arabia
(Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989);
F. E. Peters, The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christi-
anity and Islam, 2d ed. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Uni-
versity Press, 2006); Marilyn R. Waldman, Muslims and
Christians, Muslims and Jews: A Common Past, A Hopeful
Future (Columbus: The Islamic Foundation of Central
Ohio, 1992); Steven W. Wasserstrom, Between Muslim
and Jew: The Problem of Symbiosis under Early Islam
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995).Judgment Day
After belief in one god (allah) the belief in a
final judgment, or Judgment Day, is a fundamen-
tal tenet of islam. On that day, which marks the
end of the present world, all human beings will
be resurrected and judged on an individual basis
according to their righteousness or sinfulness.
The righteous will be rewarded with a blissful life
in paradise and sinners will experience the tor-
ments of the Fire (hell).
Before Islam’s appearance, belief in a final judg-
ment had already become a widespread one in the
Middle Eastern–Mediterranean region, as seen in
the biblical and post-biblical writings of Jews and
Christians. References to the “day of the Lord”
when God would punish the wicked occur in
many of the prophetic books of the Hebrew BibleJudgment Day 413 J