An Interview with Professor Richard L. Rubenstein in The World & I, 1991

The following interview appeared in The World & I in February 1991, twenty four years ago.

W&I: Could you speak on the Jewish­ Islamic issue from the point of view of a Jewish scholar?

RUBENSTEIN: I don’t think there is a pecific Jewish-Islamic issue. First, I be­lieve that Islam regards itself as the origi­nal true religion, whose fundamental meaning was revealed by the Prophet Mo­hammad, and that Islam regards both Ju­daism and Christianity as distorted views of the original true religion, so that inevitably Islam has an interpretation of both Judaism and Christianity that nei­ther can accept. Second, I believe that in the history of Christendom there have been three possible and two actual chal­lenges to Christendom. One was Juda­ism. The second was Islam, and the third was atheistic communism. Judaism was not a real challenge to Christendom for the simple reason that the Jews simply were not that culturally influential or numerous for Judaism to be a challenge af­ter Christianity became the religion of the Roman world.  more>>>