Anti-Semitism

This a series of posts explores anti-Semitism, its origins, the motivations behind it, its various manifestations, its consequences, and its possible future. The series also proposes a method for determining when an act or statement is anti-Semitic and concludes with some suggestions for remedying the consequences of anti-Semitism. A series of discussion questions is also included.

Review of the previous post.

The previous post, post number 18 of 33,was the seventh  post in the series of eight posts discussing other causes of anti-Semitism and focused on the Jewish view of Paul.

Preview of this post.

This post, post number 19 of 33, is the eighth post in a series of eight posts discussing other causes of anti-Semitism and focuses on Muslim teaching.

Other Causes

(3) Muslim teaching

There is teaching in the basic texts of Islam, such as Muhammad’s view of Jews when he writes of Jews charging them with mendacity, disobedience, usury, corruption and malevolence, and describes them as degraded unbelieving, ignorant, envious, dishonest, untrustworthy, usurious, hedonistic, perverse, treacherous, hateful and murderous. Muslim teaching has interpreted the Koran as foretelling that Jews would remain in “abasement and poverty” forever^[1].

The theological teaching which has been propounded in some Christian churches and has morphed into viewing Jesus as a Palestinian who was persecuted by the Jews. This view is used to discredit Israel and is reflected in statements such as the following which was published by a Fatah advisor named Adel Abd al-Rahman:

Jesus, may he rest in peace, is a Canaanite Palestinian. His resurrection, three days after being crucified and killed by the Jews…reflects the Palestinian narrative, which struggles against the descendants of modern Zionist Judaism, in its new colonialist form, that conspires with the Western capitalists who claim to belong to Christianity.

Following this line of reasoning, the true inheritors of Israel are not the Jews but the Arabs.

While many Muslim texts view Jews as simply inferior and not objects of hatred, this view is only a small step away from hatred based on the fact that the people are Jews. This is especially pertinent since the rise of a powerful Israel (especially after the 1967 war) has dispelled the Muslim idea that Jews are subordinate and inferior. This raises the question regarding modern Muslims in Europe and elsewhere that rail against Jews because, so they contend, the Jews in Israel have occupied land that rightfully belongs to Muslims. Are they hiding anti-Semitism beneath the cloak of nationalism (and anti-Zionism), or has their attitude changed to base anti-Semitism?

(3) Conclusion regarding teaching and bias associated with religion

Given the above theology, both Christian and Muslim views, the outlook for ending anti-Semitism is dim at best. Actually, this view is frightening.

Preview of the next post.

The next post, post number 20 of 33, discusses the effect of Haskalah and Jewish Emancipation on anti-Semitism.

[1] See, Haggai, Ben-Shammai, “Jew Hatred in the Islamic Tradition and the Koranic Exegesis,” in Bostom, ed. Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, p. 223.Se also the classical Muslim texts, such as the Hadith and Sira and Maghazi which follow this negative portrayal of Jews.