Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- Islam orders Muslims to have good ties and to be on friendly terms with all people. Good neighborliness is a basic Islamic characteristic. It makes no difference whether the neighbor is a Muslim or not as the tolerant teachings of Islam dictates kindness to all and sundry, including animals let alone brothers in humanity.
2- Speaking about the necessity of being kind towards neighbors, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, is reported to have said: “Gabriel continued to recommend me about treating the neighbors kindly and politely so much so that I thought he would order me to make them as my heirs.” (Al-Bukhari)
In his response to the question, Dr. Muzzamil Siddiqi, former president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), states:
You should be good to your Jewish neighbors, treat them with respect, and show them your courtesy, and whenever you have an occasion to talk to them, explain to them the suffering and the pain that the Zionist ideology has caused to millions of Palestinian people.
You can have dialogue with them, and discuss the negative aspects of Zionism. You may disagree with a person’s views, but as neighbor you still have to deal with him and recognize the neighbor’s rights.
It is reported that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had a neighbor who used to throw garbage in his way, but when the Prophet heard one day that the neighbor was sick he went to visit that neighbor.
This is the way of Islam. Allah Almighty says: {The good deed and the evil deed are not alike. Repel the evil deed with one, which is better, then lo! He, between whom and thee there was enmity (will become) as though he was a bosom friend.} (Fussilat 41:34)
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.