Apostate prophet scratches his head; Judeo-Christian hatred of Islam?

In answer to the video "The Hateful World of Islam"

2:120 isnt about liking Muslims or not. It is about jealousy. Here is the proper context. While in Mecca itself, God instructed the Muslims, through His prophet to face Jerusalem in prayer. This, as a side note, and contrary to the Islamophobic rant, means the prophet was facing Jerusalem at a time when the Jewish involvement in his life was totally insignificant.

Also, the political, cultural, social and every other interests in Mecca were to stay with the Kaaba as the center of prayer and considering that the Prophet's purpose from the very beginning was to restore the Abrahamic religion to its purity, which included cleansing the House of God from idolatry, means that the move was contrary to all political wisdom.

The Arabs and Muslim hypocrites would argue that those who turned away from Kaaba were traitors that abandoned the age-old Arabian traditions, customs, heritage, and culture, so intertwined with it.  Some critics argue that at the first stage of his migration to Medina the prophet sought validation from the Jews, but due to their rejection, the qibla to Jerusalem was changed to Mecca. Yet when the prophet arrived in Medina, among the first people to convert and join Muslim ranks was Abdullah ibn Salam, the most respected and knowledgeable religious figure of the local Jewish community. Had the prophet's motivations been what the critics allege, he would have kept Jerusalem as the qibla regardless of the Jewish layman's rejection of him. The revelations as regards the qibla, as will be shown below, were unrelated to these suppositions.

It was, before anything, a tense period of spiritual resolve among the Muslims. The idea that Muhammad would then change the qibla to appease a minority group of people is absurd. The religious, political and economical centers of interest were, as stated earlier, in Mecca and controled by the pagan Arabs, some of whom had recently converted to Islam.

And in fact we read in the Quran that it was the Jews and Christians themselves, out of envy and jealousy, who wanted him to follow their religion and join their ranks, not the other way around, as depicted in the verses 2:120 which this youtuber attempts to misrepresent, as well as earlier in

2:109"Many of the followers of the Book wish that they could turn you back into unbelievers after your faith, out of envy from themselves, after the truth has become manifest to them, but pardon and forgive so that Allah should bring about His command. Surely Allah has power over all things".

The polytheists similarly went out of their way and tried all possible means to make him yield somehow to their position and compromise some of his principles with theirs. It is also interesting to note that, when the second change of qibla was issued in Medina, away from JErusalem to the Kaaba exclusively, the people of the book took offence and protested, which is contrary to what one would expect from someone claiming to be on the truth, but everything one would expect from a group of people looking at another out of jealousy

2:109"after the truth has become manifest to them".

Besides basic tribal prejudice, these envious Jews and Christians disliked the Qibla change away from Jerusalem because of a deeper reason. And while some learned men among the Jews and Christians let go of their pride, joining the Muslim ranks, many remained blinded by their prejudice

2:147"Those whom we have given the Book recognize him as they recognize their own sons, and a party of them most surely conceal the truth while being aware".

They could not help but see the unfolding of the divine will infront of their eyes, through the change of qibla, the removal of a group from being the torch bearers of the truth to the nations, in favor of another group which their scriptures despised

2:142-6"..what has turned them from their qibla which they had?...those who have been given the book most surely known that it is the truth from their Lord. And Allah is not at all heedless of what they do...and if you follow their desires after the knowledge has come to you, then you shall surely be among the unjust".