Hey folks (Christians and maybe others)!
Just a Muslim here, wandering around in these waters, kinda like a lot of you christers are. Wanted to share a thought that's been bugging me for a while, especially after seeing threads like the ones I'll link below:
https://mlpol.net/ub/8162@200
https://mlpol.net/mlpol/389423@200
What's really strange to me as a Muslim is this relationship and respect that it seems many of Christians have towards jews. I'm not saying I know every single detail in your Bible or your theology, no. But from our Muslim perspective, pretty much all jews throughout history have been our enemies, and still are, just like they were for Christians. Think about all the prophets and good people they killed or harassed. And even remember stories like the People of the Pit (Ashab al-Ukhdud), where believers (understood as Christians) were burned alive just for their faith. This shows how they treated those who followed God's path. So, it's weird to me that you guys have to respect them so much, or at least feel obliged to accept them.
We Muslims, especially us Shias, actually don't have a problem with Christians at all. On the contrary, we even respect them. Maybe you'll be surprised, but we believe Jesus Christ (a great prophet of God) will return at the end times and appear alongside Imam Mahdi. And when Christ comes, real Christians will see the truth of Islam and believe in it. That's why a lot of Shias see sincere Christians as future Muslims, and prefer them to stay firm in their faith for now. This idea is very very rare concerning jews, because like I said, they've mostly been enemies.
Now, about the historical enmity between Muslims and Christians, like the Crusades or current conflicts: most of that stuff was just a political game for power, not a real religious war. And sadly, as history has shown and current evidence suggests, a lot of these games and divisions have been orchestrated by people whose name is jew, and unfortunately, they are run by them. They've been behind many of the conflicts between Muslims and Christians, trying to keep us divided. Both sides (Muslims and Christians) shouldn't fall for this.
Maybe you'll say Sunnis are different? I'm not super familiar with the exact details of all Sunni denominations either, but as far as I know, they also believe in respecting other monotheistic God-believing religions (except maybe jews, because their history is different). But about Shias, I can confidently say there's no particular enmity towards Christians, and it's even recommended to unite with other religions in these times of godlessness and immorality.
So, who is our real common enemy? The immorality and godlessness that's spread so much in modern society... and the jews. Not everyone whose name is jew, no. I mean the ones who are only jews by name, otherwise they haven't gotten a whiff of their own religion. If they were real jews and acted according to their book, over 90% of them would have converted to Christianity or Islam by now! So the ones who remained and are doing these things... well, they're not "real jews" in my opinion, but rather agents of a specific agenda.
I think now, in this sensitive global situation, we need to be careful. Who are the real enemies of humanity? It's these "jews" (by my definition) and anti-human/anti-religious ideologies like lgbt and all the other stuff destroying morality.
Those talks you see in these forums and elsewhere, saying Christianity destroyed european civilization, that comes from the exact same place that says Islam destroyed the Iranian Aryan civilization! All of this is made up by the same people who want to create division between Islam and Christianity. Their goal is to make us fight each other so they can do their work easily.
If we actually practice our religions properly, the result isn't destruction, it's the opposite! We had the Islamic Golden Age (which owed a lot to Iranian scientists by the way) in history, you had the Renaissance. These are results from times when people adhered to certain principles, not the current state of degeneracy and immorality.
So please, change your minds, go study, and see how much they have lied and are lying to us. This isn't a war between us and you. The main enemy is somewhere else.
I'm really eager to hear your thoughts. Since I don't know much about the details of the different Christian denominations (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and all those sub-branches...) and the history of Judaism's place in Christianity, I'd appreciate it if someone could give a brief explanation. And if any of you Christians can explain why there's so much respect for Judaism in Christianity despite everything, I'd be interested to hear (from the perspective of ordinary people, not university professors).
Looking forward to your comments!