Peace Be upon You: The Story of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Coexistence (review)

Not Samuel Huntington but Maureen Dowd has written recently that “history has shown the hardest thing on earth is three faiths sharing.” Karabell offers plentiful examples from the past to contradict this view. Religious hatred is not fated. We seldom find realms, it is true, to gratify Nathan the Wise, who wanted members of different faiths to value commonalities and live together in respectful tolerance. Instead the more customary “let live” pattern resembles a modern apartment building where families hardly know each other except for meetings in the elevator. Much of this book is about the Ottomans, who were often very nasty, but seldom so on religious grounds; for them, pluralism was simply more practical than policing. Even today, the sheikhs of Dubai, for hardheaded business reasons, maintain pluralistic apartment houses. As the Ottomans wore their Islam lightly, so Karabell wears his impressive learning; and as the sheikhs of Dubai are hardheaded, so this author keeps a level head.