One thousand years ago, when the United States of America did not exist and Oxford and Cambridge were backwaters of ignorance, the light of human reason shone brightly in places like Tunis, Cairo, and Baghdad. During the Abbasid caliphate for much of the 8th through middle 11th centuries, and also sporadically thereafter, tolerance of certain non-Muslim groups was enshrined in law.

Christians have shrugged off Maimonides' interpretation of the Messiah prophesy with their belief that Jesus will fulfill the Jewish Messianic prophesy in a second coming -- a second coming that has been forecast as imminent since the first century in the teachings of Saint Paul.