Did Jesus Actually Exist?

I throw up my hands in amazement.

as "church and state", not "mosque and state" or "synagogue and state". You won't find much separation between state and religion in Israel or in most Muslims countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Ottoman_Empire




Sultan Bayezid II sent Kemal Reis to save the Sephardic Jews of Spain from the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 and granted them permission to settle in the Ottoman Empire.

The Sultan issued a formal invitation to Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal and they started arriving in the empire in great numbers. A key moment in Judeo-Turkic relations occurred in 1492, when more than 150,000 Spanish Jews fled the Spanish Inquisition, many to the Ottoman Empire. At that point in time, Constantinople's population was a mere 70,000 due to the various sieges of the city during the Crusades, the so-called Black Death of the 14th century, and the Ottoman's military conquest of Constantinople, so this historical event was also significant for repopulation of the city. These Sephardic Jews settled in Constantinople as well as Salonika. The Sultan is said to have mocked the Spanish monarch's lack of wisdom: "Ye call Ferdinand a wise king he who makes his land poor and ours rich!".[16][17] The Spanish Jews were allowed to settle in the wealthier cities of the empire, especially in the European provinces (cities such as: Istanbul, Sarajevo, Salonica, Adrianople and Nicopolis), Western and Northern Anatolia (Bursa, Aydın, Tokat and Amasya), but also in the Mediterranean coastal regions (for example: Jerusalem, Safed, Damascus, Egypt). Izmir was not settled by Spanish Jews until later. The Jewish population at Jerusalem increased from 70 families in 1488 to 1,500 at the beginning of the 16th century. That of Safed increased from 300 to 2,000 families and almost surpassed Jerusalem in importance. Damascus had a Sephardic congregation of 500 families. Istanbul had a Jewish community of 30,000 individuals with 44 synagogues. Bayezid allowed the Jews to live on the banks of the Golden Horn. Egypt, especially Cairo, received a large number of the exiles, who soon out-numbered the native Jews. Gradually, the chief center of the Sephardic Jews became Salonica, where the Spanish Jews soon outnumbered their co-religionists of other nationalities and, at one time, the original native inhabitants.

http://zachor.michlalah.edu/english/khila/Pkhila-10.asp

Spain had been the most advanced center of Jewish life and in the famous passage in Elijah Capsali's Seder, "Eliyahu-Zvta," it is stated that the king of Spain was considered in the Istanbul court circles to be a fool for having enriched an enemy with productive citizens at the expense of his own kingdom. Indeed, Baziad II was known to have made the following statement: "you call Ferdinand a wise king, he who impoverished his country and enriches our own, by expelling the Jews?"

Treaty of Tripoli ratified in 1797 by Congress


Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

I don't know wtf we're arguing about. You're absolutely right but nobody has said anything different. Btw, do you know how to read (and comprehend) English?

LOL our friend Olivier5 is trying to sell the idea that the concept of keeping government and church apart is somehow and in some way tied into the teachings of the Christianity and that could not be further from the truth.

The western concept of separating church and state can be traced back to "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God"

No it does not, it have to do with governments having a history of setting up state approve religions and punishing those who will not be members of that church and then having a nation with founding fathers who was largely free thinkers who embrace the concern of allowing religion freedoms.

Whether the majority of the population of the US at it founding was Christian or not have zero to do with the writing of the separation of church and state into the US Constitution by the founding fathers.

That was my point, pretty much.

It's the 'render unto Caesar' passage which enabled the governments of more than 1,500 years later to oppose those 'state approve[sic] religions. So what are you arguing against here?