Antisemitism in Islam: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Images-nazism-0022.jpg|210px|right|thumb|''Mein Kampf'' has at times sold well when published in some countries in the Muslim world and elsewhere, and is often sold along-side religious literature.<ref name="Alastair Lawson">Alastair Lawson - [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8382132.stm Mein Kampf a hit on Dhaka streets] - BBC News, November 27, 2009</ref><ref name="AFP Mar 18 2005">[{{Reference archive|1=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Arts/Mar/18/Hitlers-Mein-Kampf-sells-50000-copies-in-Turkey-in-three-months.ashx#axzz1mYj9kPvg|2=2012-02-16}} Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' sells 50,000 copies in Turkey in three months] - Agence France Presse, March 18, 2005</ref> Depicted above are Islamists employing the Nazi salute.]] Jews have historically suffered [[Dhimmitude|dhimmi]] status under [[Khilafah (Caliphate)|caliphates]] of the past, like all religious minorities permitted to keep to their faiths under Islamic rule. At times and places this co-existence was had a quality of tolerance, sometimes persecution. In recent times the Islamic intellectual, social, and political milieu has to a considerable extent grafted itself onto more Western notions of anti-semitism, especially as expressed and ideologized by Nazi Germany. Modern '''Islamic antisemitism''' is consequently based upon a medley of Islamic scriptural citations and new-fangled Western (and especially Nazi) terminologies and tropes. In illustration of this, modern Islamic anti-Jewish polemics often feature in Arab book-fairs and bookstores alongside Arabic translations of Hitlers ''Mein Kumpf'' (sometimes translated in Arabic as "My Jihad"). Some academic scholars date the modern increase in anti-semitism in the Muslim world to the beginnings of the Arab-Israeli conflict, while others trace it to the 19th century and possible influence from Arab Christians.

According to many modern academic historians and modernist Islamic scholars engaged in the ''historical-critical method'', it is likely that Muhammad himself was not hostile to Medinan Jews. These historians argue that many verses in the [[Qur'an]] (which is generally considered a source contemporary to Muhammad) that directly address the fate of Muhammad's contemporary Jews are rather tolerant and that truly violent intolerance would have been unlikely to emerge from the highly cosmopolitan environment of pre-Islamic Arabia. This, they argue, contrasts sharply with the much later [[hadith]] sources which are frequently intensely vitriolic in their address of Jews and record such events as the expulsions, persecution, enslavement, and [[The Massacre of the Banu Qurayza|execution of Medinan Jews]] en masse. Historians who incline towards this line of reasoning argue that this content found in the hadith was only invented later by Muslim authorities as polemical material to employ against Jews and Judaism. Not all historians are convinced by these arguments, however, as indirect mention of the Jews in the Quran itself is often highly critical and at times straightforwardly insulting. This debate is, however, a strictly academic one, while mainstream Islamic scholars generally stand firmly by the narrative found in the hadith literature.

==Islamic scholars and antisemitism==

===Early Islamic scholars===

The views expressed in early Islamic writings and authoritative Qur'anic commentaries ([[Tafsir|tafsirs]]) demonstrate that Islamic hatred of Jews is not an entirely modern phenomenon. Instead, a strong hatred of the Jewish people has been a part of the Islamic scholarly tradition from the earliest times. The changes that have taken place are more a matter of degree than species. While Islamic antisemitism is more frequent and reliant on pseudoscience than it was in the past, the religious justification for it has effectively stayed the same.

===Contemporary Islamic scholars===

When you look at the many anti-Semitic sermons and articles by Muslim Scholars, the inspiration behind them is hard to miss. Without the anti-Semitic sentiments found within Islamic scripture and classical Muslim thinking, these attacks on the Jewish race would lose much of their meaning and impact among the Muslim listeners.{{Quote|Sayyid Qutb (D. 1966), In the Shade of the Qur'an, vol. 8: Surah 9|History witnessed repeated violations by the Jews of their treaties with the Muslim state in Madinah, as also their scheming against the Muslims. These violations led to the encounters with the Jewish tribes of Qaynuqa, al-Nadir and Qurayzah, and also the Battle of Khaybar. Their efforts to bring together all the forces hostile to Islam in an unholy affiance, with the aim of exterminating Islam altogether, are well known.

Anti-Semitic incidents around the world more than doubled in 2009 compared to the previous year, and most violent attacks in Western Europe came from people of Arab or Muslim heritage.

Jews left Sweden when hate crimes double  

==Modern revisionist perspectives and challenges thereto==

Some modern and especially Western Islamic authorities make efforts to portray Muhammad in a better light vis-a-vis Jews by suggesting that he attended a Jew's funeral and forgave a Jewish woman who used to throw garbage and carrion at his doorstep.<ref>A repetitive example can be found here: [http://tablighijamaattruth.blogspot.in/search?q=jew]</ref> Traditionally these stories are considered [[Mawdu' (Fabricated Hadith)|weak or fabricated hadiths]] are therefore not considered legitimate basis for doctrine by traditional and mainstream Islamic authorities<ref>http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1204985</ref><ref>Bukhari 1250 is misquoted here: [http://dailyhadith.abuaminaelias.com/2011/03/30/the-prophet-stood-up-for-the-funeral-of-a-jew-out-of-respect-for-his-humanity/]. The site quotes Sahih Muslim correctly but ignores [https://sunnah.com/muslim/11/31 this] hadith from the same book, where Muhammad says the dead Jew is being punished eternally.</ref>. most often these favorable anecdotes from the prophet's life are taken from hadith and sira books that are otherwise dismissed by the same modern and western authorities as unreliable, such as [[Ibn Ishaq]], Ibn Saad and ''Al-Mustadrak alaa al-Sahihain''.<ref>http://seekershub.org/ans-blog/2011/02/11/is-it-true-that-someone-threw-trash-on-the-prophet-peace-and-blessings-of-allah-be-upon-him/</ref><ref>http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/index.php?page=showfatwa&Option=FatwaId&Id=283960</ref>

'''Further reading'''

'''In the news'''

'''From the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)'''