???? Urban Legend.
???? Urban Legend.
No, NOT an urban legend. Until the 20th century and the politics of the modern Mideast intervened, Moslem countries DID treat Jews fairly well. Jews were still 2nd class citizens, but for the most part were left alone as long as they didn't commit such heinous crimes as building a synogogue taller than the local mosque. Look at the Jewish experience in Spain until the (Christian) Expulsion in 1492 - for well over 500 years Jews could do pretty much anything, and rose to high levels in government and business (kind of like the US now). The Moslem Turks took in a tremendous number of Jews after the Spanish Expulsion/Inquistition. Compare and contrast this with the massacres during the Crusades, the multiple expulsions from virtually every European country or principality, the treatment of Jews during and immediately after the Black Death (it was the Jews' fault, don't you know, even if they also died in very large numbers - thus it was "OK" to burn 2,000 Jews alive at Strasburg (in what is today France) on St. Valentine's Day of 1349, the virulent anti-Semitism of eastern Europe and Russia (including the near destruction of the Jewish population of the Ukraine region by Chmelnicki in the mid-1600's).
Yes, there are many examples to the contrary in both the Moslem and Christian worlds - but the earlier statement is largely the truth, not some PC defense of the Moslems. FWIW, I'm Jewish and I've studied the history of this matter . . . and without attempting to be nasty in any way, I'd say that you might benefit by studying it as well.