The Muslims' "Christian Problem"

By Clifford May

In one of his many magnificent books, Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis notes that in 641 C.E., the Caliph Umar "decreed that Jews and Christians should be removed from all but the southern and eastern fringes of Arabia, in fulfillment of an injunction of the Prophet uttered on his deathbed: 'Let there not be two religions in Arabia.'" I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that this had nothing to do with Jewish settlements in the West Bank or American support for Israel.