Can Muslims be friends with Jews and Christians?

"O believers, take not Jews and Christians as friends; they are friends of each other. Whoso of you makes them his friends is one of them. God guides not the people of the evildoers." Qur'an 5:51

The Quran has various passages on this subject, the above passage appears to be quoted most commonly and frequently. The Arabic word translated as "friends" in the above verse is: awliyaa. It is often argued or translated to mean "allies, guides, protectors".

However if we presume these translations provided are correct, Mohammed directly violated a prohibition of the Quran, as Sam Shamoun points out:

"Third, this exposes more of Muhammad’s hypocrisy and inconsistency since he permitted the Muslims to seek refuge with and the protection of the Christian leader of Abyssinia, the Negus, when the Meccan pagans were persecuting them. How convenient that Muhammad didn’t forbid his followers from seeking protection in a Christian land, and forbidding them from living amongst Christians. It is obvious that when Muhammad was the underdog he didn’t find it objectionable to befriend either the Jews or Christians if it helped protect both his followers and himself."

In addition, a problem exists, the word awliyaa in fact can and does mean friends in the Quran, otherwise the Quran would become even less coherent than it already is! As Shamoun points out:

"The Quran refers to believers as auliya of Allah!

Lo! verily the friends of Allah (auliyaa Allahi) are (those) on whom fear (cometh) not, nor do they grieve! S. 10:62 Pickthall 

In another place it refers to the friends of Satan:

The believers fight in the way of God, and the unbelievers fight in the idols' way. Fight you therefore against the friends of Satan (auliyaa alshshaytani); surely the guile of Satan is ever feeble. S. 4:76 

It is obvious that neither Allah nor Satan is in need of human protectors, which means that in these specific contexts auliya can only mean friends. But applying Dr. Badawi’s argument we must render these passages to mean that both Allah and Satan have and need protectors!"

Nearly all the translators of the Quran agree that "friends" is the most appropriate translation, given the reason for revelation, the context provided in the Sunnah.

For further examination of why auliyaa ought to be translated as friends, please read this article here.