2008 Woodie Awards
Panel discusses Jewish- Christian-Muslim relations
Chelsea Eakin
Issue date: 3/2/07 Section: News & Features
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Sponsored by the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement, the talk entitled "Convivencia: Why Can't We All Get Along? Christians, Jews, and Muslims in Medieval Spain" surrounded a period of harmony that existed between the three religions in Muslim Spain from about 800-1050. The talk served as a jumping off point for discussion as to why such conflict exists between the three major religions today.
Cohen began by saying that many believe the high Middle Ages to have been "the golden age of Jewish Muslim harmony." He went on to provide four reasons for this phenomenon, first being theological and religious tolerance for other monotheistic religions embedded in the Koran. Islam did not have to struggle to gain acceptance as a religion, Cohen said, which made it more accepting of other views. As opposed to pagans, Muslims did not force others to convert to their religion. "The Koran contains the nucleus of religious pluralism," he said.
Cohen's second explanation for this period of harmony was the legal position that Jews held in Muslim Spain at the time. During the period the same law governed both Jews and Muslims, and Jews were not singled-out. On the contrary, many Jews were given the chance to participate in the government and hold positions in the court bureaucracy or as diplomats or translators.
The third reason Cohen presented was in reference to economics and the role that Jews played in Muslim Spain as merchants and international traders. "Islam bore no prejudice again profit and trade," Cohen said, "Islam encouraged trade; Muhammad himself was a merchant." The near equality that existed between Jews and Muslims in the marketplace allowed for traversable boundaries and interface relations, he said.
Finally, Jews were indigenous inhabitants of the land that was conquered by the Islamists and they held a position in the social order. "Jews had a lowly place, but a place nonetheless," Cohen said. There were not many acts of violence against Jews in Muslim Spain, however Cohen was quick to stress that this does not mean that Jews were not oppressed in Muslim Spain. Although there did not exist the extreme of "an unbreakable chain of persecution" that existed in other parts of the world, Jews did experience some degree of oppression.
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