Maimonides strongly put forth the view that Muslims were not idolaters. Although, to be sure, Islam was heresy,<ref>See Hilchot Teshuvah 3:8 (uncensored version).</ref> this did not stop Maimonides from expressing a positive view about Islam - or even about Christianity, which he considered to be idolatry.<ref>Regarding Christianity, see the uncensored versions of his commentary to Mishnah Avodah Zarah 1:3 and Hilchot Akum 9:4.</ref> He ruled that although Islam and Christianity are both in error, they still have some value in that they prepare the world eventually to accept the true religion, namely Judaism.sovereignty of G-d<ref> Hilchot Melachim 11:4 (uncensored version): All those words of Jesus of Nazareth and of this Ishmaelite [i.e., Muhammed] who arose after him are only to make straight the path for the messianic king and to prepare the whole world to serve the Lord together. As it is said: "For then I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech so that all of them shall call on the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord" (Zephaniah 3:9) </ref>
In Maimonides' system there was one point on which Christianity, although idolatrous, actually stood above Islam. The Talmud states that it is forbidden to teach Torah to Gentiles, and this interdiction is clasified as halacha by Maimonides. However, he makes an exception for Christians, because they believe in the same text of the Bible as the Jews and it is thus possible that, after having studied, they will recognize the error of their ways. For Muslims, however, because they do not accept that the five books of Moses are Divine, such a possibility is not to be considered. It is, therefore, forbidden to teach them Torah.<ref>Teshuvot ha-Rambam, ed., Joshua Blau (Jerusalem, 1989), no. 149.</ref>
