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Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia
Lessons From History
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By Alexander Gainem**
Freelance Journalist – Canada
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Feb.
23, 2006
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Alexander
Gainem traces the origins of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in
European history, drawing an analogy between the two concepts and
foreseeing more violence if Islamophobia is not taken more
seriously.
Do
you think that Islamophobia can be compared to anti-Semitism? Do you
think it can lead to similar consequences? Join
us with your comments.
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With
feelings of superiority dominating Nazi Germany, Jews were seen
as inferior — untermenschen.
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Introduction
The
current European debates on the merits of publishing the cartoons
that depict the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist and portray Muslims
as bloodthirsty wife-beaters may be rooted to events that took place
on the continent in the 1930s.
The
similarities between the socio-political conditions that allowed
racism against Europe’s Jewish community to flourish and the
current cultural ignorance of Islam cannot be dismissed offhand.
By
tracing the origins of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in European
history, one can better understand the climate in which the cartoons
seem to have thrived and been boisterously defended.
In
reflecting on the horrific results of anti-Semitism in the
Holocaust, one can derive lessons which could positively impact on
Islam-west relations.
Medieval
Anti-Semitism
Between
1096 and 1150, Jewish communities in Europe were wiped out or
forced into accepting Christianity. |
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According
to the Medieval Sourcebook, anti-Semitism can be traced back to the
16th century when the myth of Anderl Von Rinn, a Christian allegedly
killed by Jews, spread throughout Europe.
In
his book, Triumph Cron Marter Vnd Grabschrift des Heilig
Unschuldigen Kindts (1619), Hippolyt Guarinoni (1571-1654) wrote
of a "a boy [allegedly] put to death by Jews out of hatred for
Christ at Rinn near Innsbruck, Austria."
The
story is thought to be inspired by the Cult of Little St. Hugh of
Lincoln, England, whose body was found in a well in 1255, his death
ascribed to Jews. Noted playwright of The Canterbury Tales,
Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in A Prioress’ Tale:
O
you young Hugh of Lincoln, slain also
By cursed Jews, as is well known to all,
Since it was but a little while ago,
Pray you for us, sinful and weak, who call,
That, of His mercy, God will still let fall
Something of grace, and mercy multiply,
For reverence of His Mother dear on high. Amen.
The
anti-Semitic undertones in European literature built on the
hostility shown to Jews during the Crusades a few centuries earlier.
The
Crusaders depicted the Jews as “demonic murderers of God.” |
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It
was during the First Crusade that the Jews' legal status in Europe
was seriously threatened. While Pope Urban II stirred up passions
against the Eastern Turk, many Crusaders felt they could begin the
purification of Jerusalem by killing off “easterners” in their
midst.
Between
1096 and 1150, Jewish communities were wiped out — or forced into
accepting Christianity — in several European cities.
Joel
Carmichael, noted scholar of Russian history, believes that
anti-Semitism took on fanatical hysterics when Crusaders labelled
Jews inhumanly evil and satanically entranced.
The
Crusaders depicted the Jews as “demonic murderers of God.” This
was taught extensively to young Christian children and nurtured a
hatred of all things Jewish. (Joel Carmichael, The Satanizing of
the Jews: Origin and Development of Mystical Anti-Semitism,
1992).
Jews
would continue to be viewed with suspicion and hatred until the 20th
century, when such passions would lead to devastating consequences.
Post-World
War I Cultural Despair
It
was in the aftermath of the Great War, World War I, hailed as the
war to end all wars, that European society found itself at the
crossroads between 20th century modernism while simultaneously
grasping to long held traditions of race and creed.
The
crushing defeat of the Deutsches Reich and the helplessness
of the Great Depression of 1929 helped turn economic despair into a
fertile forum for racial discrimination and hatred.
Ironically,
the Weimar Republic, which rose from the ashes of defeat in 1918,
was known to be Germany's first taste of liberal democracy. But
democratic principles would not stave off the growing tide of
racism.
Hatred
and distrust of the Jews had been growing steadily for centuries and
the defeat and helplessness at the end of the war became fodder for
finding a scapegoat.
Jews
were blamed for the defeat in World War I and for selling their
German loyalties for financial gain.
It
was during this period that anti-Semitism, specifically
anti-Judaism, peaked and would transform into a powerful social and
military dynamic.
Anti-Judaism
was also inadvertently fuelled by the influence of the science of
eugenics and the growing popularity of social Darwinism. Darwin’s
evolutionary theories and the notion of “survival of the
fittest” fuelled the Germanic people to view themselves as
superior Aryans, the infamous word of history.
With
this feeling now paramount in German social development, a group of
people had to be termed inferior. Unfortunately, it was the Jews who
were now seen as inferior — untermenschen — and
harassment and persecution soared.
The
actual term of "anti-Semitism" came about in 1879 when
German writer Wilhelm Marr sought a scientific term to explain and
legitimize the hatred Jews were now facing.
Feeding
on this cultural ignorance and hatred of Jews, the media in Germany
at the turn of the century slowly began a virulent campaign against
the community.
Jews
in Caricature
Jews
were often depicted in caricature as all dressed in black,
brandishing menacing looks, with thick dark eyebrows, bent over as
if to conspire against Europe and the world. In some cases they were
depicted as lean, disfigured entities. In others, they were obese,
smiling, as if to indicate they were fattened up by greed and
opportunism.
In
May 1934, Der Stürmer newspaper ran the headline Jewish
Murder Plan Against Gentile Humanity Revealed. The newspaper
warned Europeans that Jews were the greatest enemies of the Germanic
and European people.
The
newspaper ran nearly daily cartoons of Jews in various depictions
with captions such as "Jews are our misfortune”, "The
Jew is our greatest enemy, beware of the Jew”, “Germans defend
yourselves against Jewish atrocity propaganda", "Germans
defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews!"
The
February 1943 of Der Stürmer depicted a bearded Jew wearing
a skull-cap (Yarmulke) with the caption Der Satan — the
Satan. Such racism was supported by the National Socialist (Nazi)
ideology — people of the same blood and race share a common
culture. Jews were seen outside of that culture.
The
racism against Jews exploded during Kristallnacht — or more
appropriately, Pogromnacht — when Germans avenged the
killing of a German diplomat in Paris at the hands of a German Jew
allegedly incensed by the racism against Jews in Berlin.
Thirty
thousand Jewish males were detained in mass arrests as 1,350 Jewish
synagogues were burnt to the ground or destroyed in one night. Up to
100 Jews were killed and some 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed.
Fear,
Ignorance of Islam Through the Ages
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In
Dante's Divine Comedy, Prophet Muhammad and his cousin
Ali were cast to the ninth circle of Hell.
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The
attitudes which prevailed in early 20th century European history and
gave rise to the Holocaust are similar in nature to the climate of
fear Muslim communities increasingly contend in contemporary Europe.
Today,
Muslims in Europe are also seen as outside of a democratic culture.
During the controversy surrounding the cartoons, many pundits who
defended their depictions on freedom-of-speech grounds also
maintained that Muslim culture could not cohabit with liberal
freedoms.
This
resurgence of social Darwinism as applied to libertarian theory —
that democratic ideals are inherently superior to ideals of other
cultures — alienated Muslims and created a cultural backlash
against cultural integration.
But
the disenfranchisement of Muslim communities from those of their
hosts in Europe is itself also rooted in history.
A
hostile view of Islam began in the 8th century when Muslims expanded
into the Iberian Peninsula. Islam as a faith was rejected as a
fundamental religion and seen as a direct challenge to Christianity;
Muslims were seen as heretics and their prophet a diabolical fraud.
By
the time of the Crusades, Muslims were viewed as a geopolitical
threat and military means were seen as the only ways to address the
danger to the Church.
Ignorance
of Islam and abject rejection of Muslim culture reached its peak in
Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, itself considered the
pinnacle of Western literature in the 13th century.
Dante
saw fit to cast the Prophet Muhammad and his cousin Ali to the ninth
circle of Hell — one created for schismatics and sowers of
discord. The discord Dante refers to is a rebellion of the Christian
church. Just as Satan was seen as the great rebel, his minion
Muhammad was too, according to Dante.
The
ideology that Muhammad was hell-bound was further explored in a 1415
painting by Giovanni Da Modena. The Last Judgment, which
adorns a cathedral in Bologna, depicts a scantily clad, turbaned,
and bearded Muhammad in agony as he is pulled into the pits of hell
by demons.
As
international trade routes expanded and dialogue between nations
increased after the Renaissance, a more concerted effort to
understand Islam was exerted by orientalists.
However,
with increased migration of Muslims into traditionally Christian
countries — Europe, North America, and Australia — fear of a new
eastern culture in the midst of Western idiosyncrasies dominated the
discourse.
This
would also reach its peak in the 20th century.
Rise
of Islamophobia
With
Muslims' increased migration to Europe, fear of an Eastern
culture in the midst of Western idiosyncrasies dominated the
discourse. |
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Just
as anti-Semitism endured into the modern age, anti-Islamic — or
Islamophobic — attitudes also survived into contemporary times.
Soumayya
Ghannoushi, a researcher in the history of ideas at the School of
Oriental & African Studies at the University of London, believes
“the medieval Christian view of Islam as a deviant, violent,
licentious and heretical creed was secularised, stripped of its
transcendental character and rearticulated within a modern
essentialist philosophy that continues to define the terms of
Western discourse on Islam, in its mainstream at least."
Islamophobia
in its basest terms is defined as prejudice against Muslims. In
1997, the London-based Runnymede Charity published a report entitled
"Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All."
Launched
by then Home Secretary Jack Straw, and updated in 2004, the document
found:
1)
Islam is seen as a monolithic bloc, static, and unresponsive to
change.
2)
Islam is seen as separate and "other." It does not have
values in common with other cultures, it is not affected by them,
and does not influence them.
3)
Islam is seen as inferior to the West. It is seen as barbaric,
irrational, primitive, and sexist.
4)
Islam is seen as violent, aggressive, threatening, supportive of
terrorism, and engaged in a "clash of civilizations."
5)
Islam is seen as a political ideology and is used for political or
military advantage.
6)
Criticisms made of the West by Islam are rejected out of hand.
7)
Hostility towards Islam is used to justify discriminatory
practices towards Muslims and exclusion of Muslims from mainstream
society.
8)
Anti-Muslim hostility is seen as natural or normal.
The
findings echo anti-Semitic attitudes prevalent in early 20th century
Europe.
Similarities
Between Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism
Given
the growing distrust of Muslims as the “other” and the
conclusion that anti-Muslim hostility is itself found normal, the
publication of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons in recent weeks
can no longer be dismissed as mere experiments in libertarian
freedom of speech and censorship.
The
cartoons were not borne in a vacuum.
Earlier
political cartoons of Jews and Christians had been rejected on the
grounds they would be deemed offensive. No such considerations were
appropriated to the Jyllands-Posten cartoons.
Furthermore,
in April 2005, Danish Queen Margrethe told a biographer, "We
are being challenged by Islam these years. Globally as well as
locally … We must take this challenge seriously. We have simply
left it flapping around for far too long, because we are tolerant
and rather lazy.”
The
cartoons depicted the "challenge," if not danger, of a
terrorist Muhammad. Could such a depiction have been totally
unaffected by social conditions (encouraged by Queen Margrethe)
existing in Danish society?
The
recent Jyllands-Posten cartoon depicting a bearded Prophet
Muhammad with a bomb in his turban is suspiciously similar to the Der
Satan cartoon.
Both
Muhammad, a Muslim, and the Der Stürmer Jew are bearded.
Both wear religious head gear, and both are depicted as icons of
evil in contemporary society.
In
the 20th and 21st centuries, Muslim communities in non-Islamic
countries have come to fear the very pogroms which targeted the Jews
in 1930s Europe.
For
example, as shown above, Pogromnacht came about when a German
diplomat was killed by a Jew. The stage had been set with repeated
anti-Jewish commentary in German media.
In
the days following the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, who
directed a film many Muslims found offensive, by an Arab immigrant
in 2004, attacks against Muslims soared in the Netherlands. Just as
in Nazi Germany, the stage here had also been set by repeated
anti-Islamic commentary in the media.
Just
as synagogues were burned during Pogromnacht, mosques and
Islamic schools in Rotterdam, Breda, Huizen, Utrecht, and Eindhoven
were attacked, vandalized, and in some cases set ablaze.
Attacks
Against Muslims
Given
the growing distrust of Muslims, the Danish cartoons can’t be
dismissed as experiments in libertarian freedom of speech. |
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Even
prior to the tragic 9/11 acts of terrorism, in which 19 Muslim Arabs
are purported to have caused the deaths of some 2700 Americans,
attacks against Muslims were frequent.
According
to data compiled by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
several mosques and Islamic centers were vandalized or attacked by
arsonists in Michigan, Indiana, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois,
Tennessee, Minnesota, and Georgia between 1994 and 2000.
Once
again, these attacks were inspired by media coverage of Muslims as
outsiders unable to conform to Western ideologies and overly
militant in nature.
After
9/11, these attacks multiplied with fatalities reported in various
hate crimes committed against Muslims, or in one case, against a
turban-wearing Sikh who was mistaken as a Muslim.
In
Australia, Muslims fared no better: A report by the Human Rights and
Equal Opportunity Commission showed that 90 percent of Muslim women
there report harassment, attacks, or verbal assault.
"We
listened to stories of women, mostly Muslim women wearing the hijab,
anxious to walk their children to school in fear of being spat on,
abused or ridiculed," acting discrimination commissioner
William Jonas said at the release of the report (Agence France
Presse, June 16, 2004).
Can
Islamophobia Be Combated?
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The
murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh led to soaring attacks
against Muslims in the Netherlands.
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While
many countries around the world have enacted anti-hate speech laws
and legislature to combat anti-Semitism, Islamophobia is still
leagues away from being internationally recognized as racism.
In
fact, Islamophobia is dismissed as a myth.
Kenan
Malik, a British writer and broadcaster, wrote in 2005: “In
reality, discrimination against Muslims is not as great as is often
claimed … For Muslim leaders, inflating the threat of Islamophobia
helps consolidate their power base, both within their own
communities and wider society.”
Daniel
Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, believes Muslims should
abandon the “discredited term” of Islamophobia and examine the
problems that Islamic societies have. “Rather than blame the
potential victim for fearing his would-be executioner, they would do
better to ponder how Islamists have transformed their faith into an
ideology celebrating murder and develop strategies to redeem their
religion by combating this morbid totalitarianism,” Pipes wrote in
the New York Sun in 2005.
By
ignoring the existence of Islamophobia (as much a socio-political
phenomenon as anti-Semitism) fear and ignorance of Islam continues
to grow.
In
its 2004 annual report The European Commission against Racism and
Intolerance (ECRI) found “certain groups of persons, notably
Arabs, Jews, Muslims, certain asylum seekers, refugees and
immigrants, and certain visible minorities have become particularly
vulnerable to racism and racial discrimination across many fields of
public life.”
ECRI
also said that Islamophobia was on the rise in Europe:
Islamophobia
continues to manifest itself in different guises. Muslim communities
are the target of negative attitudes, and sometimes, violence and
harassment. They suffer multiple forms of discrimination, including
sometimes from certain public institutions. ECRI is worried about
the current climate of hostility against persons who are or are
believed to be Muslim.
There
is, indeed, a cultural divide as ECRI points out: “One of the new
faces of racism today is “cultural” racism. According to this
notion of racism, cultures are pre-defined entities, largely seen as
homogenous, unchangeable and, more importantly, incompatible with
each other.”
Islamic
Holocaust?
By
ignoring the existence of Islamophobia, fear and ignorance of
Islam continue to grow. |
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If
the conditions which led to the Holocaust exist now as they did
then, is it far-fetched to consider that Muslims in Europe could
face a similar outcome?
While
a Holocaust against Muslims may seem far-fetched, the rhetoric
against the Islamic world has increased significantly in recent
months. There is no means of predicting how violent a backlash
against Muslims will be if another Von Gogh is killed, or another
crime on the scale of 9/11 is committed.
The
phrase du jour is that Muslims simply cannot accept Western ideals.
By such presumed predisposition, Muslims are rendered outcasts, or
in Adolf Hitler’s terms, untermenschen.
So
popular was anti-Semitism that Hitler would expound himself as a
proud anti-Semite. “Gradually I began to hate them. For me this
was the time of the greatest spiritual upheaval I have ever gone
through. I have ceased to be a weak-kneed cosmopolitan and have
become an anti-Semite” (Adoph Hitler’s Mein Kampf).
Jews
around the world hold remembrance ceremonies of the Holocaust and
say "never again."
As
violent demonstrations against the cartoons continue to rage in a
few Muslim countries, it becomes incumbent upon Muslim and
non-Muslim leaders to carefully face the great cultural gap that
divides them.
First
and foremost, Islamophobia needs to be recognized as an existing and
imminent racial threat to cultural cohesion. By the same token,
Muslims need to carefully ponder how actions within their
communities are perceived by those who may not be knowledgeable of
their cultures and norms.
Violence
must be rejected outright, whether that includes the burning of a
mosque in Holland or an embassy in Libya.
If
wiser minds do not prevail, Europe may soon find itself repeating
the horrors of the past.
**Alexander
Gainem is a freelance journalist who has written extensively
on Middle East issues.
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