It was an obvious misunderstanding of Jewish culture, especially since Judaism demands its adherents especially in those times to not talk to the secular or other religions and to keep yourself a distance from the other non-Jews, it most likely was a misinterpretation on the part of Mohammed.
The Jews of Medina were pretty much intergrated into the Arab society. One of the Jewish leaders, Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, actually came from a mixed marriage (his father was an Arab polytheist, and his mother was Jewish).
They weren't particularly zealous about their faith.
What do you mean protest?
If it was a misrepresentation on the part of Muhammad (sall Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam), then they would have protested and pointed out that they don't believe in this.
First, off were the Jews of Medina reading the Quran?
The Qur'an wasn't a book concealed amongst the Muslims and only read by the scholars or something. It was recited daily and openly, especially during the prayers. It was something everyone could hear.
Second, they most likely were not even interacting with Muslims unless nessesary.
Oh, they were. But of course you consider every Muslim record of this to be a forgery and a lie, right?
Thirdly, the Jews have had to deal with the claim that jesus was Messiah when we believe this to be untrue. We are not running around in protest, because Judaism teaches us to not care what other religions say.
But it was a direct statement about these particular Jews. If it was untrue, they would protest and point out that it wasn't true. But they didn't, that's the point. There is explicit mention of the fact that this passage of the Qur'an was read out to some Jews, who didn't protest. From the book "The Qur'an and the Orientalists":
Al-Baydawi futher points out that the 'ayah in question was read out and recited as usual but no Madinan Jew came forward with a contradiction (fn.Al-Baydawi, Tafsir, I, second Egyptian impression, 1968, p. 412).
That is your third mistake. The Jews did not or avoided as much as possible interaction with the non-Jews. In Europe, this is also what borught much anti-semitism against the Jews. The refusal to assimilate or interact with the majority non-Jewish public, a practice which Muslims do today by refusing to assimilate, and staying in their neighborhoods for the most part, although Muslims have not gone to the extremes that Jews have done to do so.
First of all, we're talking about the medieval Jews of Medina, not the Jews of today. Second of all, if you want to bring up what's going on today - can it really be said that Jews, in general, segregate themselves? If you look at the US, UK, Australia etc. do the non-religious Jews really do this?
If I tell you that some Jews in my community have assimilated into the Swedish society, would you claim that this is impossible since Jews don't integrate into society?
By the way, your point about the similarity in how the Jews and Muslims of Europe didn't/don't want to assimilate is interesting. Do you have any links or something with more information about this?
Second of all, there are plenty of reports where it is shown that the Jews of Medina did indeed interact with Muslims. But since you refuse to accept them on the account that they're sources preserved by Muslims, I don't see why you participate in this discussion at all? Nothing about Jewish life at that time can be known according to you, since the Muslims were the ones who recorded the documents.
The Jews, if Muslims made a mistake of what they were doing would not go out of their way to point this out, since in those times, and today some rabbincal authorities say Jews should not teach non-Jews about Torah.
Ah, but they did protest when it came to other matters. And they did debate with the Muslims.