The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History Review.

[Mr.Flint]

A review of the book by Benny Morris.



The New Republic
The Darker Side by Benny Morris
Post Date Wednesday, September 10, 2008


The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History
Edited by Andrew G. Bostom
(Prometheus Books, 766 pp., $39.95)
Icon of Evil: Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam
By David G. Dalin and John F. Rothmann (Random House, 227 pp., $26)
Scholars in the West have begun to devote time and space to anti-Western jihadism and Muslim anti-Semitism--and a good thing, too, as these are very much on the contemporary international and Middle Eastern political and military agendas and, I fear, will grow in significance during the coming decades, as the Huntingtonian "clash of civilizations" widens. That such a "clash" is going on is all too apparent, from the riots in Nigerian streets, where hundreds died following the announcement of an impending beauty pageant on Nigerian soil, to the murder of an Italian priest in Turkey following the publication of the Muhammad cartoons in Denmark. Yet, Western liberals hesitate to tackle the subject of Muslim anti-Semitism, lest it seem anti-multicultural or provoke the hornet's nest of Allah's minions. Even the use of the word "jihad" has become taboo among appeasers of Islam--and even among some non-appeasers, such as George W. Bush, who, like other Western leaders, refuses to call the phenomenon by its precise name (and the name that its own practitioners use). People speak of "international terrorism" when they should be speaking of "international Muslim (or Islamist) terrorism."

http://ad.ca.doubleclick.net/N3081/ad/tnr.ca/politics/story;loc=bigbox;sz=250x250;ptile=2;kw=ron;kw=politics;kw=tnr;ord=92913349? (http://ad.ca.doubleclick.net/N3081/jump/tnr.ca/politics/story;loc=bigbox;sz=250x250;ptile=2;kw=ron;kw=politics;kw=tnr;ord=92913349?)

The compendium of anti-Semitic Muslim texts about Jews in Islamic Arab lands assembled by Andrew G. Bostom, a professor of medicine with a dark hobby, kicks off, unusually, with an explanation of the painting reproduced on the dust jacket. It is by Alfred Dehodencq, from 1860, and it portrays a group of Muslims, one of them brandishing a scimitar, handling roughly by her hair a kneeling dark-eyed damsel, her hands tied behind her back. The group, on a raised platform, is surrounded by an apparently enthusiastic mob. The scene is Fez, in Morocco, in 1834. The girl is named Sol Hachuel. She is seventeen years old, and she is about to be beheaded. She was accused of secretly adhering to her Jewish faith after converting to Islam--a charge tantamount to apostasy (still punishable by death in most Arab lands). Hachuel denied that she had ever converted. The governor of Tangier, Arbi Esudio, had accused her of "having provoked the anger of the Prophet." The Sultan agreed and ****ounced the death sentence. She went bravely, reiterating her Jewishness and refusing to recant, with "Shema Yisrael," the Judaic profession of faith, on her lips.
The case was certainly unusual--but it typified, in Bostom's view, the sorry lot of the Jews in the Muslim Arab world since the rise of Islam and its expansion around the Mediterranean basin in the seventh and eighth centuries. At the start of his book, Bostom provides a monographlength background survey of the "theological-juridical origins" of Islamic anti-Semitism, illustrating his points with a brief review of its "historical manifestations." At the level of principle, Muslim attitudes toward the Jews (and, less so, toward Christians) were--and are--informed by a basic ambivalence. Jews and Christians deserved, and received, a formal measure of respect as "People of the Book" and as the first to adopt monotheism; Islam had followed in their footsteps. But at the same time Jews and Christians were the "enemy," the rival religion and, in certain times and places, the political and military foe.
It was this second attitude that dominated actual Arab practice during most of the fourteen centuries since the birth of Islam. In the lands stretching from Persia to Spain and Morocco, Jews (and Christians) were always second-class subjects, humiliated and discriminated against, often oppressed and persecuted, sometimes forcibly converted or slaughtered. There are almost no substantial Jewish or Christian minorities (the Copts of Egypt and the Christians/ animists of southern Sudan are exceptions) left in the Arab world today; and the few remaining Christians in Iraq and Palestine are rapidly fleeing westward. (Note the recent murder of the Arab owner of a Christian bookshop in Gaza.)
The story peddled by latter-day Arab propagandists (and reinforced by some Jewish scholars, who tended in decades past, sometimes for apologetic reasons of their own, to highlight the medieval "Golden Age" of Islamic Spanish Jewry)--that the Jewish minorities in the Muslim Arab countries before the advent of Zionism enjoyed a pleasant fraternal existence among the majority populations--has often been trotted out for the benefit of ignorant Westerners, to illustrate Muslim Arab tolerance of minorities and, politically, to promote plans for a multi-ethnic, one-state solution for Israel/ Palestine. It also has taken hold among Western intellectuals. Thus as prominent a journalist as Lawrence Wright, in The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, writes that "until the end of World War II, there was little precedent in Islam for the anti-Semitism that was now warping the politics and society of the region. Jews had lived safely--although submissively--under Muslim rule for 1,200 years, enjoying full religious freedom," until Christian missionaries, Nazi propaganda, and the rise of Israel twisted their minds and propelled them toward anti-Semitism. Or consider Esther Webman, of Tel Aviv University's Dayan Center, who has written that "antisemitism did not exist in the traditional Islamic world.... Antisemitism is, in fact, a relatively new phenomenon in the Arab world." She attributed its rise to three factors: the nineteenth- and twentieth-century penetration of Western thought into that world; "the collapse of traditional political systems and of the loyalties" associated with modern nationalism; and, "most crucial, the development of the conflict [with Zionism] over the domination of Palestine."
But this construct, in Bostom's view (and in my own), is wholly false. It flies in the face of the evidence, much of it presented in Bostom's tome. Certainly modern Christian influences, nationalist enthrallment, and Jewish nationalism (and its success) have added layers to traditional Islamic anti-Semitism. But they were building on firm foundations. From its inception, Islam and its adherents, beginning with Muhammad himself, saw Judaism (and Christianity) as rival parent religions that had to be fought and overcome for Islam to succeed. The initial struggles, in the early seventh century, were existential, a matter of survival, for the Muslims bent on dominating Hijaz and then breaking out of the dismal, arid, thinly populated confines of Arabia. The first Muslims shared a deep sense of vulnerability and threat.



Review continued... (http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=701916b5-4f75-4a2b-8fa2-535badfb4ffe&p=2)




I think im going to pick up that book.

[Vorian]

Clear case of Islamophobia...

jews obviously didn't live in Eden under the Muslims, it was still Middle Ages. However they did have much more freedom than in Christian states. If Jews were so discriminated as the author suggests why did the Jews of Spain migrate to the Ottoman empire a Muslim state?

Modern Arab backwardness is not only a product of Islam but also the direct result of centuries of oppression. First by the Turks who destroyed the Arab chalifates that were beacons of civilisation.
Most people that gained independence from the Ottomans had degraded to a savage level cause of the empire's practice of completely ignoring the provinces as long as the local lord sent the expected taxes to the capital. That led to serious oppression since the local lords overtaxed the population, punished rebellions etc.

For example the Greek fighters in the war of independence were -in the eyes of a European- barbarians. The Arabs were extra unfortunate to be rich in oil, luring the European powers there, taking control, creating artificial borders, turning one against the other, in general, messing the region even more.

When young people look around and all they see is ****, they turn to things that give them some hope. And if not hope at least something to turn their rage to. Radical Islam is the way for those people for the last century or so.

[Mu-Meson]

I think I'll pick that book up too.

Yo Vorian,

If Jews were so discriminated as the author suggests why did the Jews of Spain migrate to the Ottoman empire a Muslim state?

Considering European policies at the time, I think no other nation would have let them in. Thus they had no choice. Hardly a glowing endorsment for Islam. "Islam - when your only other option is death". Cool.

[Vorian]

I think I'll pick that book up too.

Yo Vorian,


Considering European policies at the time, I think no other nation would have let them in. Thus they had no choice. Hardly a glowing endorsment for Islam. "Islam - when your only other option is death". Cool.

Well at least Islam allowed them to live somewhere.

[Mu-Meson]

^ True. Too bad they aren't so welcoming these days.

[seraosha]

Thanks for the post, I'll be picking this up as well, if I can't wait for Christmas.

[Calanen]

Clear case of Islamophobia...



That is such a stupid word, a made up word and one that the Islamic lobby made up to generate sympathy, copying the gay lobby's use and invention of the word 'homophobia'.



jews obviously didn't live in Eden under the Muslims, it was still Middle Ages. However they did have much more freedom than in Christian states. If Jews were so discriminated as the author suggests why did the Jews of Spain migrate to the Ottoman empire a Muslim state?



Hatred of jews is well entrenched in Islamic theology. It is also well practised by the theocratic islamic states.


Modern Arab backwardness is not only a product of Islam but also the direct result of centuries of oppression. First by the Turks who destroyed the Arab chalifates that were beacons of civilisation.

Rubbish. The backwardness stems from a backwards system - a theocratic dictatorship called Islam.




When young people look around and all they see is ****, they turn to things that give them some hope. And if not hope at least something to turn their rage to. Radical Islam is the way for those people for the last century or so.


Its been the way for the last 14 centuries or so. It's just now had a resurgence through the use of modern assymetric warfare against civilians.

[Mr.Flint]

Clear case of Islamophobia...
A false construct, attempt to make something to appear equal to racism.
Tell me, why no one yet screams Christianophobia? Why all criticism of christianity (and often even judaism) is not considered a phobia that eqauls racism?



jews obviously didn't live in Eden under the Muslims, it was still Middle Ages. However they did have much more freedom than in Christian states.
As in christian state it was varied from time to time.
allow me to quote a two pieces that you obviously missed:
12th century, the Almohads rule Spain:

By the twelfth century, the great philosopher Maimonides, a successful Jew in the Islamic world, the doctor to sultans, was to lament: "God has cast us into the midst of this people, the nation of Ishmael, who persecute us severely, and who devise ways to harm us and to debase us.... None has matched [them] in debasing, humiliating, and hating us."year 1860.

In the cities, the Jews live in separate quarters ... called the Mellah, or the salted earth, dry and cursed. They are locked in from sundown to sunrise and on holidays, all day. They pay the Moorish guards who protect them.... They [pay] the capitulation tax ... that the government sets for each Mellah.... They have eight days to pay the tax; after that, and without warning the Mellah can be pillaged.... According to the laws, the Jews cannot cultivate earth, own land or houses outside the Mellah, ride a horse in front of a town other than on a saddle for a mule ... hit a Moslem, even to defend themselves except in their own house if it has been violated, be a witness in front of a court.... They cannot bid for food in Moslem market, or walk in some streets, in front of Mosques or Koubas, without holding their slippers in their hands, or get married without the permission of the Sultan.... They have to dress only in black or dark colors, wear a black hat different from the turban and not to tie with more than one knot the black scarf holding their headgear.Quote number one has nothing to do with Ottomans.



If Jews were so discriminated as the author suggests why did the Jews of Spain migrate to the Ottoman empire a Muslim state?
Because perhaps at the time it was the best option? an escape from certain death?
Besides the Ottoman Empire wasnt the only destination, many migrated to various "gasp" European nations.

You fail to understand a simple fact - it was pretty much the same in Christian Kingdoms and states and Muslim ones.
Some where tolerant, others were not, some became tolerant others became intolerant, but the second class status, the near complete deprivation of rights, the ghettoization, happened in both places.



Modern Arab backwardness is not only a product of Islam but also the direct result of centuries of oppression. First by the Turks who destroyed the Arab chalifates that were beacons of civilisation.
Most people that gained independence from the Ottomans had degraded to a savage level cause of the empire's practice of completely ignoring the provinces as long as the local lord sent the expected taxes to the capital. That led to serious oppression since the local lords overtaxed the population, punished rebellions etc.
The Caliphates did a pretty good job destroying each others, and extinguishing that "beacon" of civilization, long before the Ottomans. The only difference the Ottomans made, is that they made an inhereted corruption an official part of their vast bureaucratic mechanism.


I have a strong suspicion that you didnt read the entire review, the quotes from muslim scholars from different ages etc.

[el borracho]

Arabs are a Semitic race also, so saying "Islamic anti-Semitism" is a misnomer.

[Zathras]

Yeah muslims have always been full of hatred for the jews, thats why jews in the middle ages fled Europe and went to oh let me guess, damn it was muslim countries..

[Mr.Flint]

Arabs are a Semitic race also, so saying "Islamic anti-Semitism" is a misnomer.
Main Entry:an·ti–Sem·i·tism http://www.merriam-webster.com/images/audio.gif (javascript:popWin('/cgi-bin/audio.pl?antis01w.wav=anti-Semitism'))****unciation: \ˌan-tē-ˈse-mə-ˌti-zəm, ˌan-ˌtī-\ Function:noun Date:1882 : hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group
— an·ti–Se·mit·ic http://www.merriam-webster.com/images/audio.gif (javascript:popWin('/cgi-bin/audio.pl?anti_s02.wav=anti-Semitic')) \-sə-ˈmi-tik\ adjective
— an·ti–Sem·ite http://www.merriam-webster.com/images/audio.gif (javascript:popWin('/cgi-bin/audio.pl?anti_s03.wav=anti-Semite')) \-ˈse-ˌmīt\ noun

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anti-semitism



So no, its not a misnomer.



Yeah muslims have always been full of hatred for the jews, thats why jews in the middle ages fled Europe and went to oh let me guess, damn it was muslim countries..
:cantbeli:
Its a myth, that all jews were fleeing to muslim countries. They were fleeing to European countries too.

Read the review might even learn something :bash:.

[Zathras]

So? Many still went to muslim countries and lived there for a long time without persecution, the recent persecution of jews is due to the formation of Israel and the results of that.

[Mr.Flint]

So? Many still went to muslim countries and lived there for a long time without persecution, the recent persecution of jews is due to the formation of Israel and the results of that.
:cantbeli:

Please read the article, you will learn something about "long time without persecution".

[Calanen]

Yeah muslims have always been full of hatred for the jews, thats why jews in the middle ages fled Europe and went to oh let me guess, damn it was muslim countries..

Under the Almohades.


The Jews in Granada suffered severely, also, from the persecutions of the Almohades; and only on pretending to accept Islam were they allowed to remain in the city. In order to shake off the hard yoke and to overthrow the dominion of the fanatical Almohades the Jews formed a conspiracy with the Christians, who were likewise persecuted. On a certain day the revolutionists advanced with a considerable following before Granada, and the Jews of that place, under the leadership of a champion of freedom named Aben Ruiz aben Dahri, helped them to capture this important stronghold.

Their joy was, however, of short duration: the Almohades reentered the city, and the Jews were severely punished. They were more successful a few years later. The brother of the emir Al-Ma'mun, Ya'ḳub al-Manṣur, advanced with an armed force, and, with the aid of the Jews, drove the Almohades out of Granada and back to Africa (1232).

The situation of the Jews in Granada, the only Spanish kingdom that remained independent under the califs for some centuries longer, took on its former aspect. Of their political status very little is known. In 1306 the calif Mohammed built his bath out of the income from Jews and Christians in Granada; and in 1312 his successor levied a new tax on their houses and baths. It is difficult to believe what the Arabian chroniclers state, that Isma'il Abu al-Walid ibn Abu-Zaid Faraj (1315-26) commanded the Jews to wear a badge distinguishing them from Mohammedans. In the great persecution of the Jews in 1391 many refugees found shelter and protection in Granada.

After a long struggle Granada was forced to succumb to Castilian power (Jan. 2, 1492). The Jews also had a part in the victory. According to a compact entered into Nov. 25, 1491, by the contending rulers, all Jews in the city and suburbs of Granada, as well as all living in other cities and towns in the kingdom, were allowed to depart like the Moors. Those Jews who had accepted Christianity were granted a month for withdrawal. It was in Granada, at the Alhambra, that Ferdinand and Isabella signed the edict (March 31, 1492) expelling the Jews from Spain.

http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=412&letter=G&search=Granada

The Treatment of Jews
in Arab/Islamic Countries

By Mitchell Bard


When Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) were perceived as having achieved too comfortable a position in Islamic society, anti-Semitism would surface, often with devastating results: On December 30, 1066, Joseph HaNagid, the Jewish vizier of Granada (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Granada.html), Spain, was crucified by an Arab mob that proceeded to raze the Jewish quarter of the city and slaughter its 5,000 inhabitants. The riot was incited by Muslim preachers who had angrily objected to what they saw as inordinate Jewish political power.

Similarly, in 1465, Arab mobs in Fez (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Fez.html) slaughtered thousands of Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html), leaving only 11 alive, after a Jewish deputy vizier treated a Muslim woman in "an offensive manner." The killings touched off a wave of similar massacres throughout Morocco (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/morocjews.html).(6) (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Jews_in_Arab_lands_(gen).html#N_6_)

Other mass murders of Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) in Arab lands occurred in Morocco (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/morocjews.html) in the 8th century, where whole communities were wiped out by Muslim ruler Idris I; North Africa in the 12th century, where the Almohads either forcibly converted or decimated several communities; Libya (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/libyajews.html) in 1785, where Ali Burzi Pasha murdered hundreds of Jews; Algiers (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/algjews.html), where Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) were massacred in 1805, 1815 and 1830 and Marrakesh, Morocco (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/morocjews.html), where more than 300 hundred Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) were murdered between 1864 and 1880.(7) (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Jews_in_Arab_lands_(gen).html#N_7_)

Decrees ordering the destruction of synagogues (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/shul.html) were enacted in Egypt (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/egjews.html) and Syria (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/syrianjews.html) (1014, 1293-4, 1301-2), Iraq (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/iraqijews.html) (854-859, 1344) and Yemen (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/yemenjews.html) (1676). Despite the Koran's prohibition, Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) were forced to convert to Islam or face death in Yemen (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/yemenjews.html) (1165 and 1678), Morocco (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/morocjews.html) (1275, 1465 and 1790-92) and Baghdad (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/iraqijews.html) (1333 and 1344).(8) (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Jews_in_Arab_lands_(gen).html#N_8_)
As distinguished Orientalist G.E. von Grunebaum has written:

It would not be difficult to put together the names of a very sizeable number of Jewish subjects or citizens of the Islamic area who have attained to high rank, to power, to great financial influence, to significant and recognized intellectual attainment; and the same could be done for Christians. But it would again not be difficult to compile a lengthy list of persecutions, arbitrary confiscations, attempted forced conversions, or pogroms.(9) (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Jews_in_Arab_lands_(gen).html#N_9_)
The situation of Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) in Arab lands reached a low point in the 19th century. Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) in most of North Africa (including Algeria (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/algjews.html), Tunisia (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/tunisjews.html), Egypt (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/egjews.html), Libya (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/libyajews.html) and Morocco (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/morocjews.html)) were forced to live in ghettos. In Morocco (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/morocjews.html), which contained the largest Jewish community in the Islamic Diaspora, Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) were made to walk barefoot or wear shoes of straw when outside the ghetto. Even Muslim children participated in the degradation of Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html), by throwing stones at them or harassing them in other ways. The frequency of anti-Jewish violence increased, and many Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) were executed on charges of apostasy. Ritual murder accusations against the Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) became commonplace in the Ottoman Empire (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Ottoman.html).(10) (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Jews_in_Arab_lands_(gen).html#N_10_)

By the twentieth century, the status of the dhimmi in Muslim lands had not significantly improved. H.E.W. Young, British Vice Consul in Mosul, wrote in 1909:

The attitude of the Muslims toward the Christians and the Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) is that of a master towards slaves, whom he treats with a certain lordly tolerance so long as they keep their place. Any sign of pretension to equality is promptly repressed.(11) (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Jews_in_Arab_lands_(gen).html#N_11_)
The danger for Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) became even greater as a showdown approached in the UN (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/UN/untoc.html) over partition (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/parttoc.html) in 1947. The Syrian delegate, Faris el-Khouri, warned: "Unless the Palestine problem is settled, we shall have difficulty in protecting and safeguarding the Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) in the Arab world."(12) (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Jews_in_Arab_lands_(gen).html#N_12_)
More than a thousand Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) were killed in anti-Jewish rioting during the 1940's in Iraq (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/iraqijews.html), Libya (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/libyajews.html), Egypt (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/egjews.html), Syria (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/syrianjews.html) and Yemen (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/yemenjews.html).(13) (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Jews_in_Arab_lands_(gen).html#N_13_) This helped trigger the mass exodus of Jews (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/jews.html) from Arab countries.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Jews_in_Arab_lands_(gen).html

[Player]

the recent persecution of jews is due to the formation of Israel and the results of that.

Explain please.

[el borracho]

Main Entry:an·ti–Sem·i·tism http://www.merriam-webster.com/images/audio.gif (javascript:popWin('/cgi-bin/audio.pl?antis01w.wav=anti-Semitism'))****unciation: \ˌan-tē-ˈse-mə-ˌti-zəm, ˌan-ˌtī-\ Function:noun Date:1882 : hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group
— an·ti–Se·mit·ic http://www.merriam-webster.com/images/audio.gif (javascript:popWin('/cgi-bin/audio.pl?anti_s02.wav=anti-Semitic')) \-sə-ˈmi-tik\ adjective
— an·ti–Sem·ite http://www.merriam-webster.com/images/audio.gif (javascript:popWin('/cgi-bin/audio.pl?anti_s03.wav=anti-Semite')) \-ˈse-ˌmīt\ noun

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anti-semitism



So no, its not a misnomer.


I understand that anti-Semitism as a term applies to Jews 99% of the time, but Arabs are a Semitic race. Since many Muslims are also Arab, and therefore Semitic, using the term "anti-Semitic" to refer to Muslim-Jewish relations doesn't make sense.

[Calanen]

I understand that anti-Semitism as a term applies to Jews 99% of the time, but Arabs are a Semitic race. Since many Muslims are also Arab, and therefore Semitic, using the term "anti-Semitic" to refer to Muslim-Jewish relations doesn't make sense.

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/7897/notthisagain2xp7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

In every thread about anti-semitism, someone comes along and says 'BUT ARABS ARE SEMITES TOO!' like they have discovered something important and new. Just drop it, we've heard it a million times before.

[Mr.K]

Benny Morris is jewish.

[Mr.Flint]

Benny Morris is jewish.
So?
12345678

[Mr.K]

So?
12345678
So, expect great bias in his research , its like having a Sam Webb writing a book explaining why communism is the only system that works.
Honestly i find it regretful that the only people that write and research extensivley antisemitism are jews and antisemites. :(

[Calanen]

So, expect great bias in his research , its like having a Sam Webb writing a book explaining why communism is the only system that works.
Honestly i find it regretful that the only people that write and research extensivley antisemitism are jews and antisemites. :(

I think your comments reflect your bias, not those of Benny Morris. A jew cannot do independent research without being part of the Zionist conspiracy?

[Mr.K]

I think your comments reflect your bias, not those of Benny Morris. A jew cannot do independent research without being part of the Zionist conspiracy?
What zionist conspiracy? Benny Morris went from a pro-palestinian revisionism to an anti-muslim attitude. No this book is biased. Linking hate to a religion makes no sense, usually it's an antisemitic tactic.

Sorry buddy you'll have to keep the "YOU'RE AN ANTISEMITE NAZI HOLOCAUST DENIER " card for someone else.

[el borracho]

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/7897/notthisagain2xp7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

In every thread about anti-semitism, someone comes along and says 'BUT ARABS ARE SEMITES TOO!' like they have discovered something important and new. Just drop it, we've heard it a million times before.

I've never seen anyone mention it, but whatever. I'm not trying to enlighten everyone, I'm just saying that it sounds odd.

[Mr.Flint]

So, expect great bias in his research , its like having a Sam Webb writing a book explaining why communism is the only system that works.
Honestly i find it regretful that the only people that write and research extensivley antisemitism are jews and antisemites. :(
Err, you havent been paying attention - Benny Morris reviewed the book, the writer is Andrew G. Bostom who, AFAIK is not a jew. Satisfied? :)

[Mr.K]

Err, you havent been paying attention - Benny Morris reviewed the book, the writer is Andrew G. Bostom who, AFAIK is not a jew. Satisfied? :)
Indeed I haven't. Just visited Dr. Bostom page (A hardcore neo-con), apologies.