127: Does Islam hate Jews? With Prof. Meir Litvak

June 30, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In 1839, the entire Jewish community of Mashad, Iran, was forced to convert to Islam after being accused of slaughtering a dog during a Muslim religious procession to make the ritual invalid. For the next century, they lived as crypto-Jews, outwardly Muslim and inwardly Jewish, until they were finally allowed to return to Judaism in the 1930s. This episode is one of many that Professor Meir Litvak, a historian of the Middle East at Tel Aviv University, uses to illustrate the complex and often brutal history of Jewish life under Islam—a history that is neither a golden age of harmony nor a millennium of constant persecution, but something more specific and more troubling.

The Foundational Tension: Muhammad and the Jews of Medina

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What you'll learn

1 (00:04) **Introduction and Guest** - Haviv introduces Prof. Meir Litvak, a leading scholar on Islamist anti-Semitism and modern Shia Islam, to address the history of anti-Semitism in the Muslim world.
2 (03:12) **Foundations: Muhammad and the Jewish Tribes** - Prof. Litvak explains the early Islamic encounter with Jews in Medina, from initial attempts at attraction to violent conflict.
3 (07:07) **The Dhimmi System: Tolerance Without Equality** - The rules governing Jews under early Islamic rule, established by Caliph Omar.
4 (09:25) **The Fragile Reality: Maimonides and the Muwaḥḥidūn** - The story of Maimonides illustrates the precariousness of Jewish life under Islam, with periods of tolerance and violent persecution.
5 (11:00) **Everyday Life Under the Dhimma** - A nuanced look at the daily experience of Jews under Muslim rule, including social interactions and legal pressures.
6 (14:22) **The Exception: Shiite Iran and the Muwaḥḥidūn** - The worst cases of persecution, particularly in Shiite Iran under the Safavids.
7 (18:34) **The 19th Century Shift: From Tolerance to Modern Anti-Semitism** - The decline of Muslim power and the rise of European influence transformed traditional anti-Judaism into modern anti-Semitism.

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Show Notes

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What’s the real history of antisemitism in the Muslim world?

Haviv sits down with Prof. Meir Litvak of Tel Aviv University, one of Israel’s foremost scholars of modern Shi’a Islam, Iran, Islamism and Islamist antisemitism, to trace the story of Muslim hatred of Jews from Muhammad’s encounter with the Jews of Medina to the dhimmi system that arose in early Islam, from the medieval mix of tolerance and discrimination to the modern-day shock of European power, Zionism and the 1948 war.

The result of this sweeping survey is neither a comforting myth of Muslim-Jewish harmony nor a simplistic story of eternal persecution. It is a harder, more disturbing picture: a long religious tradition of Jewish inferiority transformed in the modern age -- by European conspiracy theories, Muslim political collapse and the humiliation of defeat by Jews -- into one of the world’s most openly genocidal forms of antisemitism.

And the final question is the hardest one: can Muslim societies find a way out?

This episode was sponsored by an individual who chose to remain anonymous but asked us to share this message: “I was invited to hear a former IDF officer, blinded in a Hamas tunnel, speak about the Israel Guide Dog Center. I wish to highlight this incredible organization. It is far more than a place for adorable puppies -- it’s a lifeline for people across Israel.

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Thank to our sponsor for that dedication. The Israel Guide Dog Center can be found at https://israelguidedog.org.

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