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Are you friends with Muslims or do you think that you COULD be friends with any? Have Muslims ever attacked you in some way or made rude comments?
Has anybody ever traveled to Muslim counties (I am mostly talking Saudi Arabia or UAE etc.) and can tell a little about what it is like for a Jew to go there for business reasons or visit for whatever reason? Are there synagogues? I guess in most counries the answer would be no. Can you wear a kippah? I assume it varies from country to country but what has been your experience?
EDIT: You can share any positive encounters as well, of course!
I am sure that it varies greatly worldwide, and individually. When I was in the U. S. Navy, I traveled once to Cairo, seeing some of the sights. I believe that I was with other sailors, but I do not remember for sure. I remember being in some public park and playing Egyptian (I presume) backgammon with some fellow who was there with his family. A friendly sort, and he clearly recognized me as Jewish. Morocco, also, is apparently not entirely anti-Jewish, either, at least when Jews are spending money in the market. The king of Morocco was not anti-Jewish, AFAIK. I do not know know whether that is still true. Most Arab countries have NO synagogues and hardly any Jews, with possibly Morocco and Iraq as exceptions. Turkey, of course, has a few.
My experience with Muslims has been almost universally positive. I was good friends with an extended Iranian family growing up who were devoutly Muslim - they received more backlash than I did as a Jew (which was sizable in of itself) so I think that really impacted how I see the world and how I treat others. My best friend in high school's father was a Palestinian whose family left during the Nakba when he was an infant. We obviously disagreed on Israel, but there was absolutely no animosity there. Plus, he was the one who gave me my best hummus recipe.
The only tension I've ever really experienced was living in the East End of London during the Gaza Appeal. For those that don't know, the East End is predominantly Muslim. There was some tension around Israel and on a few occasions, negative words were spoken about Jews in that context but they were IMMEDIATELY shouted down by the rest of the group. Many of my perceptions were changed chatting about makeup and careers with women who were fully covered.
Since that experience, I've made it a point to participate in interfaith dialogue and break the fast after Ramadan with Muslim friends. They break the fast at Yom Kippur with me. Talking: it's a beautiful thing.
It's mostly Chrstians that scare me in the U.S. They tend to be the dangerous ones.
What with jihad terror I would doubt that, but anyway:
"When Americans consider religious groups other than their own, Jews receive the warmest overall ratings – an average of 63 – followed by a 58 rating of Catholics by all non-Catholics. One-in-ten Americans (10%) rate Jews coldly (33 or below), which is lower than the percentage who give similarly cold ratings to all of the other groups. Among all the religious groups in the survey, white evangelical Protestants express some of the most positive feelings toward Jews, an average rating of 69. The feeling, however, is not mutual. Jews give evangelical Christians a 34 – among the lowest they give any group.
Evangelicals’ positive feelings toward Jews may not be surprising, given the role of Judaism in the history of Christianity and the place of Jews in the Bible. Born-again or evangelical Christians tend to express a strong belief in the Bible as the word of God, and in a survey we conducted last year, a substantial majority of white evangelicals (82%) said that God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people.
The reasons for Jews’ relatively cold feelings toward evangelicals are not as clear. Possible explanations could include differences over proselytism (evangelicals often seek converts, while Jews traditionally do not), separation of church and state, and politics in general (evangelicals tend to be conservative, while U.S. Jews are mostly liberal)."
There is Pew polling on Muslim nation attitudes towards Jews but I can't find that right now. (But they don't seem to like Jews very much from what I remember.)
"The survey also gauged Muslims’ attitude toward religious groups, including Jews. Here, at least, the Palestinians can’t be accused of being ahead of the rest. Ninety-five percent of Egyptians, 97% of Jordanians, 98% of Lebanese, and 97% of Palestinians registered an unfavorable view of Jews; among non-Arab Muslims—Turkey 73%, Indonesia 74%, Pakistan 78%—the rates were only somewhat lower."
The OP asked for our personal interactions, not what a Pew survey showed.
And if Pew wants to know why Jews have "cold feelings" towards Evangelical Christians, then they should ask us.
The OP asked for our personal interactions, not what a Pew survey showed.
Yes but it's close enough to the topic that the OP poster may have an interest in such results.
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