“Whatever the Jews did, the Muslims pushed it to the extreme.”
Except that Muslims (and Orthodox Jews) don’t follow the one Jewish example that makes all these other issues moot. Ironic, isn’t?
The Law of Moses was taken to extremes by those who “interpreted” it for the people: the Chief Priests, Scribes, Lawyers, and Pharisees, who were more about power and control than religion or truth. Jesus Christ, in part, came to show people the true intent of the Law. The fact that there are still people to this day who choose the example of the Pharisee over that of Christ simply illustrates the level of control some people want over others.
Your analysis is pretty accurate. Christ's followers (all Jews) created Christianity and set out to do the exact same thing - power of interpretation, power of control and built the edifice of the Church.
There are Jews, Christians and Muslims who try to follow G-d’s way in humble, modest and simple way without deriding others but these simple folk get lost in the firebrand extremism though I would point out several major differences:
1) Judaism does not proselytize, does not actively seek out new followers and makes it difficult to convert to being a Jew, it is not recruiting and never has.
2) Christianity does proselytize, does seek out followers, does actively recruit.
3) Islam does proselytize and forcibly convert (by the sword) Infidels. It tries to spread Islam by the application of force.
These are big differences. If we could all live according to the original, basic premises, the world MIGHT be a little quieter.