Claudius Quotes
Therefore it is right that also the Jews, who are in all the world under us, shall maintain their ancestral customs without hindrance and to them I now also command to use this my kindness rather reasonably and not to despise the religious rites of the other nations, but to observe their own laws
The Roman Empire of 70 million people contained at the time 7 million Jews—the vast majority of the world’s Jews.
Claudius, 10 BC-54, Roman Emperor, Edict, 41
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
He was referring to whether or not Iraq should be a Muslim state.
Parton observed that the United States, by giving legal rights to Jews, set an example which improved the condition of Jews in many countries of Europe. There was much personal Anti Semitism in America then, but there was little difficulty for Jews in dealing and interacting with the government. America’s very existence and success since Independence was observed by much of Europe, and many tended to emulate the United States in some things. For many Europeans, the fact that Jews could be given all the rights of citizenship and nothing adverse was caused by that was the first time they had ever seen what their old cultures had feared for generations. The Papal States and Russia were as officially anti-Semitic as in the past while Sweden had recently given Jews full rights as citizens just as in the United States.
At the time Turkey was the only Muslim majority country where there was coexistence with secularism but with Christians and Jews as well. Ataturk, the great Turkish leader, turned Turkey around, modernized it, Westernized it, and made it a secular state with freedom of Religion, much like the United States. However, Erdogan’s party was constantly trying to make the state more Islamic as his electoral base were the poor, religious, Muslims.
This quotation illustrates that a narrow orthodox view of Islam is not the only one in Arab nations. Khaled is not an obscure cleric, but a popular television personality. While his views are considered heresy by many orthodox Muslims, the narrow view is by no means universal. Orthodox Islamists believe that God has commanded that all mankind be Muslims and the ones who are not are either ignorant so need to be “educated”, or evil and therefore should be killed. However, Muhammad ordained that an exception should be made for “Children of the Book”—Jews and Christians who revere the Old Testament. This was at a time when Christians would not allow any other form of worship but Christianity. Christianity, Judaism and most other religions have become tolerant of other religions and allow open alternative worship. Islam which early on led the way to tolerance, has in many countries gone back to the intolerance that existed amongst many Christians at the time of Muhammad.
The place of non-Muslims in an Islamic country, if any, has been a point of great anxiety among Christians, Jews, Bhais, and others. These have been persecuted and expelled from numerous Islamic countries while in others such as modern Turkey there is no problem. This particular cleric is seen as more “modern” and “liberal” than most. Even he has little concept of equality and freedom of religion.
Claudius was Roman emperor from AD 41 to 54. Born to Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia Minor at Lugdunum in Roman Gaul, where his father was stationed as a military legate, he was the first Roman emperor to be born outside Italy. Nonetheless, Claudius was an Italic of Sabine origins and a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Because he was afflicted with a limp and slight deafness due to sickness at a young age, his family ostracized him and excluded him from public office until his consulship, shared with his nephew Caligula in 37.
