Naeem's Blog

Recently, I've been having this discussion with a friend on the existence of anti-Semitic sentiments found in the Muslim community.

I'll begin with his points first:

Let us first begin with the proper understanding of the term Anti-Semitism. Basically it's a European phenomenon founded on hatred of Jews solely for their being Jewish. Such sentiments are foreign to the religion of Islam as well as to the historical instances of the Muslim community. Hatred of Jews for their 'Jewish-ness' is nowhere to be found in Islamic history.

Secondly, the more recent trend found in the Muslim community of ill-will towards Jews can be explained by their occupation of the Holy Land and the ensuing oppression of the Palestinian people. Thus, the strong feelings against Jews is not a theological one, but a political one. If the root cause of this hatred were to be addressed, the tension between the two communities would cease to exist and would thus return to the equilibrium that existed for the previous 1400 years.

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I countered that while the origins of the term may be as he described, the current-day, common usage has changed and is now come to mean 'any hatred of the Jewish peoples' regardless of the reason. Let us move beyond the etymological roots of the word and focus on the colloquial usage.

As to the root cause being the political tussle between Israelis and Palestinians, how does that explain the constant barrage of hatred towards Jews with regards to their role in the banking sector, control of the media and Hollywood, their conniving role in the American government, and other conspiracy theories. Even if peace were to prevail in the Middle East, the Muslim street would remain abuzz with such nonsensical talk.

Additionally, too many Muslims have used this hatred to twist verses of the Quran and sayings of the Prophet (saw). Where there was never any anti-Semitic sentiment over the first 1400 years of Muslim understanding of the Quran and Sunnah, the past 50 years have introduced such racists ideology such as all Jews are descendants of apes and pigs, they are the killer of prophets, and even the trees and rocks hate the Jews for they will reveal them hiding in the midst of battle (as narrated by our beloved Prophet (saw)).

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His reply: It is essential that we adhere to the original usage of the term for such hatred of Jews is strictly a Euro-Christian phenomenon. It is an emotion predicated on nothing but the religion of the Jews. The problems of their (Xian) civilization must not be juxtaposed onto our faith community. The ill-will that you (Naeem) speak of does indeed exist, but it cannot be referred to as anti-Semitism. Doing so allows Western commentators to impose this disease onto the Muslim community, which simply has never been the case, past or present.

This sickness of blaming the Jews for various conspiracy theories or hating the Yahud for killing the Palestinians can be called many things, but it must NOT be called anti-Semitism. Muslims must not allow the Christian world to share their collective guilt of hating and oppressing the Jewish people (explicitly founded on their being the killers of Jesus Christ) with the Muslim world.

By so flagrantly accusing the Muslim community of anti-Semitism, you (Naeem) are fanning the flames of the fire begun by the West, who is intent on not only propagating the falsehood that Muslims as a people are anti-Semitical, but that Islam as an ideology is anti-Semitical. And this is the greatest disservice we can do to our very own religion.

Finally, you (Naeem) undermine the significance of the political problem of Israel and Palestine. Muslims the world over have an emotional attachment to that part of the world and to see it so viciously occupied leaves a scar never before seen in our community. I recall Ghandi even having said something to the effect that if the Palestinian problem persists, tensions in the Indian Muslim community will become unbearable. He understood the emotional explosiveness of this issue. Why don't you?

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I hope I summarized the argument of my friend correctly. If he ever gets the time to read this through and finds my presentation lacking, he is free to chime in with any corrections.

In conclusion, I must agree with his argument against using the term anti-Semitism for it projects a feeling that is simply foreign to the Muslim world. No where in our texts can it be found that Jews are to be hated for simply being Jews. So no matter what ill-will may be found in our community, it must not be called anti-Semitism. Muslims will never be like the Nazis or the KKK.

That being said, we do have a serious problem in our community where too much Jew-bashing takes place. Part of the problem undoubtedly arises from the political situation in Palestine. Part of it comes from our weakened state of mind which leads us to constantly look for conspiracies to explain our failed state. Part of it comes from twisted minds who have twisted teachings of our religion to shed a negative light on the Jewish people.

Those issues must definitely be addressed.

But nowhere can we say that this ill-will comes from anti-Semitic thought in our people or in our religion. That is clearly evident. I hope more Muslims begin to pick up on this nuance, which may be subtle but is very weighty.