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Antisemitism in Islam: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Images-nazism-0022.jpg|210px|right|thumb|''Mein Kampf'' is a best-seller in the Muslim World, 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>]] | [[File:Images-nazism-0022.jpg|210px|right|thumb|''Mein Kampf'' is a best-seller in the Muslim World, 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>]]While 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, in recent times the Islamic intellectual, social, and political milieu has grafted itself onto more Western notions of antisemitism, 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"). | ||
According to [[Islam and Scripture|Islamic scripture]], the Jews, like Christians and [[Christians Jews and Muslims in Heaven|other pre-Islamic religious groups]] considered "[[People of the Book]]", were given guidance from [[Allah|God]] (in this case the [[Taurah (the Torah According to the Qur'an)|Torah, or Taurat]]) which, being corrupted by those amongst them entrusted with safeguarding it, lost its original message and thereafter led them astray. In addition to this general accusation of [[Corruption of Previous Scriptures|corrupted scripture]], Islamic scriptures often single out Jews as being guilty of certain sins and crimes, both historically and into perpetuity. As a result of these misdeeds, Jews are reported by Islamic scriptures to have suffered certain punishments at the hand of God (being turned into pigs and apes) and at the hand of [[Muhammad]] (being executed, expelled, [[Slavery|enslaved]], and extorted by [[Sahabah|Muhammad's companions]] in [[Medina]]). | |||
According to many modern, critically-oriented and source-skeptical historians of Islam, 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, and mainstream Islamic scholars stand firmly by the narrative found in the hadith literature. | According to many modern, critically-oriented and source-skeptical historians of Islam, 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, and mainstream Islamic scholars stand firmly by the narrative found in the hadith literature. | ||
==Islamic vs. Western antisemitism== | ==Islamic vs. Western, Christian antisemitism== | ||
Any notion of Islamic antisemitism must be distinguished from the distinct form of antisemitism which has, and in a few places continues to, oppress Jews in the West. The English term of antisemitism itself usually refers to the Western hatred of Jews by Christians which, at least historically, was deeply rooted in Christian religious beliefs about the status of Jews as responsible for the murder of God (or deicide) in the form of Jesus Christ. There was also the idea of the failure of the Jews to embrace the New Testament and the new covenant with God advanced by Christians. These two ideas, coupled with historical allusions to the religious failures of early Jews according the Old Testament and stereotypes about Jews (such as their financial cunning and exaggerated physique) which accreted in the centuries after Jesus' demise, worked together to constitute a uniquely acute and religious hatred of the Jewish people which in some ways, if not formally than practically, almost amounted to a Christian religious doctrine. | Any notion of Islamic antisemitism must be distinguished, through both comparison and contrast, from the distinct form of antisemitism which has, and in a few places continues to, oppress Jews in the (usually Christian) West. The English term of antisemitism itself usually refers to the Western hatred of Jews by Christians which, at least historically, was deeply rooted in Christian religious beliefs about the status of Jews as responsible for the murder of God (or deicide) in the form of Jesus Christ. There was also the idea of the failure of the Jews to embrace the New Testament and the new covenant with God advanced by Christians. These two ideas, coupled with historical allusions to the religious failures of early Jews according the Old Testament and stereotypes about Jews (such as their financial cunning and exaggerated physique) which accreted in the centuries after Jesus' demise, worked together to constitute a uniquely acute and religious hatred of the Jewish people which in some ways, if not formally than practically, almost amounted to a Christian religious doctrine. | ||
Technically, Arabs, Ethiopians, and Assyrians can be described as Semitic people, however in the context of "Anti-Semitism" it is commonly understood to refer to people who identify as Jewish. | Technically, Arabs, Ethiopians, and Assyrians can be described as Semitic people, however in the context of "Anti-Semitism" it is commonly understood to refer to people who identify as Jewish. | ||