Antisemitism in the Arab world has a longstanding historical basis
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It’s called the world’s oldest hatred for good reason: antisemitism goes back to the beginning of the sixth century with the birth of Islam in what is now Saudi Arabia.
That is why Troy Media columnist Gerry Chidiac’s assertion in Debunking the myth of Arab antisemitism that “the belief that we [Arabs] are inherently antisemitic and have been in conflict with Jews for centuries” is one of “many common misconceptions about Arabs” is itself a misconception.
This does not mean he was incorrect in denying that Judaism and Zionism are synonymous. Indeed, many Jews are not Zionists, while many Gentiles are its most assertive supporters. But this does not negate that although modern Zionism originated in eastern and central Europe in the latter part of the 19th century, its core motive was bolstering the ancient attachment of the Jews and Judaism to the ancient historical region called Eretz Israel, the Promised Land of Israel.
More particularly, there is a need to challenge Gerry’s acceptance that antisemitism began as a “European malady … born in Europe in the Middle Ages” and that “There was no tradition of antisemitism in the Arab world. It was exported from Europe to the Middle East … There was no antisemitic literature, so antisemitic literature had to be translated from European languages to Arabic.”
 Photo by Joe Catron |
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On the contrary, antisemitism is an ancient ideology, nearly as old as Judaism itself, combining racial, religious, and ethnic prejudice. While it has been well-documented in Christian societies, as Gerry rightly notes, it is now far more prevalent in the Muslim world. In the Middle East, this antisemitism centres on the goal of destroying the Jewish state of Israel, driven by beliefs that go far beyond regional territorial disputes involving Palestinians – contrary to Chidiac’s view that it stems primarily from Zionism.
A deeply rooted antisemitic hatred that dwarfs the Palestinian statehood and land claims is featured in sacred Muslim texts that invite hostility against Jews. The Koran and the Hadith (a collection of sayings attributed to the Prophet Mohammad) can be interpreted in ways that suggest Muslims and Jews are enemies, that Jews will be killed at the end of times, that Jews falsified scripture, and that Jews tried to kill Mohammed.
Hamas’s 1998 Charter directs the killing of Jews, drawing on the hadith saying: “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: ‘O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.’”
The fact that Mohammed killed and enslaved the Jews in Medina has also been used to incite violence against Jews.
In the early 20th century, the growing movement of political Islam saw Christians and Jews as waging war against Muslims and for being responsible for the alleged decay and Westernization of Islamic societies. Sayyid Qutb, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and one of the movement’s most influential thinkers, wrote a widely disseminated pamphlet entitled “Our Struggle with the Jews,” where he drew parallels between contemporary developments and Mohammed’s struggle with the Jews.
Qutb also saw the return of Jews to Palestine as an evil that demanded punishment.
“Let Allah bring down upon the Jews people who will mete out to them the worst kind of punishment, as a confirmation of His unequivocal promise: ‘If you return, then We return,’” he wrote.
As well, Articles 22 and 25 of the updated Hamas 2017 Charter state:
“The liberation of Palestine is the duty of the Palestinian people …. Resisting the occupation with all means and methods is a legitimate right guaranteed by divine laws [in the Koran] and by international norms and laws. At the heart of these lies armed resistance, which is regarded as the strategic choice for protecting the principles and the rights of the Palestinian people.”
The Oct. 7 invasion was only the latest expression of these divine beliefs based on Hamas’s continuing support by a large majority of Palestinians.
Accordingly, focusing mainly on the importation of European antisemitism and a chronic land claim dispute as explaining the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack to the exclusion of Islamic chauvinism is perversely short-sighted.
Arab antisemitism is not a myth.
Hymie Rubenstein, editor of REAL Indigenous Report, is a retired professor of anthropology, University of Manitoba. He is co-author of Positive Stories About Indian Residential Schools Must Also Be Heard for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, where he is a senior fellow.
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