GATESTONE
by Salim Mansur
June 19, 2014

The contemporary resurgence of post-Shoah anti-Semitism in Europe is an indisputable reality. It rides on, or is fuelled by, the even more menacing spread of global Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism – driven by anti-Jew and anti-Israeli hatred, packaged as religiously sanctioned by clerics. These include Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Qatar-based leader of the Muslim Brotherhood from Egypt, and the clerically based political leadership of the Islamic Republic in Iran. Discussing it, therefore, requires questioning to what extent it is traceable to the Quran and the life of Muhammad, and to what extent it is imported from the West and symptomatic of the deep-seated civilizational crisis within the Muslim world.

There are a number of reasons why it is important to examine whether the Quran and the Sira (the biographical literature on the Prophet) sanction Islamic bigotry towards the Jews. If they do, there is no reprieve from the cycle of Islamic Judeophobia. It would then follow that any relationship with Israel and Israelis based on mutual respect and interest, as sought by the late President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, is forbidden from a Muslim perspective. It would also follow that opposition to Muslim anti-Semitism by Jews, Christians, other non-Muslims and even by other Muslims invariably would lead to a conflict with more or less the entirety of Islam.

If one assumes, however, that Arab/Muslim anti-Semitism is a modern phenomenon, attempts by Muslims to legitimize the politics and culture of hate by citing the Quran or the traditions of the Prophet are not merely misguided, but constitute an abuse of Islam and its sacred texts.

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http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4364/arab-muslim-antisemitism