Old Fears, New Threats - What European Islamophobia and anti-Semitism have in common--and what they don't. Since the September 11 attacks in America, and the subsequent terrorist attacks by al Qaeda on European soil, the Continent has witnessed a rising tide of hostility toward Muslims living there, from violent rhetorical outbursts to physical attacks on mosques and businesses. (...) It is hard to avoid comparing this new animosity toward Muslims to the traditional manifestations of a much older hatred--anti-Semitism. The fear of a minority that practices an unfamiliar form of worship and is believed to be worming its way into Christian or Western culture, undermining its values, shaped the relationship between Europe and the Jews in its midst for hundreds of years. This comparison between "Islamophobia" and classic anti-Semitism is much favored among European politicians, intellectuals, and human rights workers who are trying to prevent, or at least mitigate, the "culture war" that is being waged on the Continent. This concept is embodied in the Warsaw Declaration, adopted by the Council of Europe on May 17, 2005, which condemned "all forms of intolerance and discrimination, in particular those based on sex, race, and religion, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia." Opinion columns in major European newspapers now regularly claim that "Muslims are now getting the same treatment the Jews had a century ago." The temptation to draw parallels between past and present is unquestionably strong--but is it justified? There are certainly some notable points of similarity between prewar European anti-Semitism and the enmity directed toward the Muslim immigrants living in Europe now. However, there is a quintessential difference between the two: The fear of a Jewish conspiracy against European civilization had no basis in fact, whereas fear of the expansionist ambitions openly expressed by senior figures in the Muslim-Arab world, and shared by some ordinary Muslims, is not groundless. Understanding this difference is of crucial importance if one wishes to properly assess the nature and magnitude of the challenge certain interpretations of Islam pose to Europe, and to deal with this challenge accordingly. [really, really, long cut...] This is the crucial difference between the Jewish and the Muslim imagined nations: It is the fluidity and flexibility of Jewish identity that makes it possible for the anti-Semite to project his darkest fears onto the Jews and to attribute to them the desire for world domination. The enduring popularity of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and innumerable other theories regarding a Jewish "conspiracy" stem from this source. But Islam's ambition to spread its rule over the entire world is not a fantasy of paranoid or prejudiced Europeans, but an accurate perception of what leading Muslim-Arab thinkers themselves openly preach. There is no escaping the obvious conclusion: From a purely ideological point of view, European fear of Islam is not mistaken. The Muslim believer living on the Continent is potentially exposed to an ideology that imposes upon him a religious and political duty to proselytize Christians and impose the rule of the Islamic nation everywhere possible, including Europe itself. [another very long cut...] The European Muslim on his way to the mosque is different from the European Jew on his way to the synagogue. He represents a potential member of an imagined community that envisages the West as Muslim and Islam as the new world order. To fear such an eventuality is not pure xenophobia; it is firmly grounded in reality. The challenge that Muslim thinking poses to European society is not simple, especially because the memory of anti-Semitism reverberates in the collective European consciousness. Europe knows just how short the distance is from alarmist newspaper articles about a foreign minority infiltrating the nation to a murderous outburst against that minority; from abuse hurled at people in the street because their beliefs and external appearance are different to an actual pogrom. Indiscriminate, blind, arrogant and chauvinistic hostility toward Islam and Muslims is a phenomenon that Europe must denounce and correct, if it wishes to prove that it really has learned anything from its past. But there is another warning that history has given Europe: Dangerous ideas should not be ignored because only a very few are loyal to them. Today, Europe is once again witness to the growing power of an ideology that despises territorial borders, undermines the liberal political system, and rejects Western concepts of human rights. There is indeed cause for alarm. As restricted and minimal as its influence may be, the imagined Nation of Islam is not just an idea; instruments of immense power have been pressed into its service. If Europe closes its eyes, if it chooses to label all critical analysis of Islam and its adherents as a xenophobic equivalent to anti-Semitism, that imagined nation, left without resistance or opposition, may very well succeed in undermining the foundations of the order in which it functions. Mr. Shavit is a historian of the Middle East researching Islam in Europe for the Minerva Foundation, a subsidiary of the Max Planck Society
Since the September 11 attacks in America, and the subsequent terrorist attacks by al Qaeda on European soil, the Continent has witnessed a rising tide of hostility toward Muslims living there, from violent rhetorical outbursts to physical attacks on mosques and businesses.
(...)
It is hard to avoid comparing this new animosity toward Muslims to the traditional manifestations of a much older hatred--anti-Semitism. The fear of a minority that practices an unfamiliar form of worship and is believed to be worming its way into Christian or Western culture, undermining its values, shaped the relationship between Europe and the Jews in its midst for hundreds of years. This comparison between "Islamophobia" and classic anti-Semitism is much favored among European politicians, intellectuals, and human rights workers who are trying to prevent, or at least mitigate, the "culture war" that is being waged on the Continent. This concept is embodied in the Warsaw Declaration, adopted by the Council of Europe on May 17, 2005, which condemned "all forms of intolerance and discrimination, in particular those based on sex, race, and religion, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia." Opinion columns in major European newspapers now regularly claim that "Muslims are now getting the same treatment the Jews had a century ago."
The temptation to draw parallels between past and present is unquestionably strong--but is it justified? There are certainly some notable points of similarity between prewar European anti-Semitism and the enmity directed toward the Muslim immigrants living in Europe now. However, there is a quintessential difference between the two: The fear of a Jewish conspiracy against European civilization had no basis in fact, whereas fear of the expansionist ambitions openly expressed by senior figures in the Muslim-Arab world, and shared by some ordinary Muslims, is not groundless. Understanding this difference is of crucial importance if one wishes to properly assess the nature and magnitude of the challenge certain interpretations of Islam pose to Europe, and to deal with this challenge accordingly.
[really, really, long cut...]
This is the crucial difference between the Jewish and the Muslim imagined nations: It is the fluidity and flexibility of Jewish identity that makes it possible for the anti-Semite to project his darkest fears onto the Jews and to attribute to them the desire for world domination. The enduring popularity of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and innumerable other theories regarding a Jewish "conspiracy" stem from this source. But Islam's ambition to spread its rule over the entire world is not a fantasy of paranoid or prejudiced Europeans, but an accurate perception of what leading Muslim-Arab thinkers themselves openly preach.
There is no escaping the obvious conclusion: From a purely ideological point of view, European fear of Islam is not mistaken. The Muslim believer living on the Continent is potentially exposed to an ideology that imposes upon him a religious and political duty to proselytize Christians and impose the rule of the Islamic nation everywhere possible, including Europe itself.
[another very long cut...]
The European Muslim on his way to the mosque is different from the European Jew on his way to the synagogue. He represents a potential member of an imagined community that envisages the West as Muslim and Islam as the new world order. To fear such an eventuality is not pure xenophobia; it is firmly grounded in reality.
The challenge that Muslim thinking poses to European society is not simple, especially because the memory of anti-Semitism reverberates in the collective European consciousness. Europe knows just how short the distance is from alarmist newspaper articles about a foreign minority infiltrating the nation to a murderous outburst against that minority; from abuse hurled at people in the street because their beliefs and external appearance are different to an actual pogrom. Indiscriminate, blind, arrogant and chauvinistic hostility toward Islam and Muslims is a phenomenon that Europe must denounce and correct, if it wishes to prove that it really has learned anything from its past.
But there is another warning that history has given Europe: Dangerous ideas should not be ignored because only a very few are loyal to them. Today, Europe is once again witness to the growing power of an ideology that despises territorial borders, undermines the liberal political system, and rejects Western concepts of human rights. There is indeed cause for alarm. As restricted and minimal as its influence may be, the imagined Nation of Islam is not just an idea; instruments of immense power have been pressed into its service. If Europe closes its eyes, if it chooses to label all critical analysis of Islam and its adherents as a xenophobic equivalent to anti-Semitism, that imagined nation, left without resistance or opposition, may very well succeed in undermining the foundations of the order in which it functions.
Mr. Shavit is a historian of the Middle East researching Islam in Europe for the Minerva Foundation, a subsidiary of the Max Planck Society
Europeans are racist and anti-semites (eww, evil). But Muslims (sigh... we used to have Arab immigrants until Set. 11) are even eviler and we're right to treat them with suspicion. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Today, Europe is once again witness to the growing power of an ideology that despises territorial borders, undermines the liberal political system, and rejects Western concepts of human rights.
You mean neoconservatism? :)
Today, Europe is once again witness to the growing power of two opposing ideologies that despise territorial borders, undermine the liberal political system, and reject Western concepts of human rights.
That right there is what we're up against in America.
The elite really believe this over here. No good can come of this.
But devout, religious types.
"Next year will be the re-establishment of the caliphate" sort of sounds like "next year in Jerusalem" when you really think about it.
There are certainly some notable points of similarity between prewar European anti-Semitism and the enmity directed toward the Muslim immigrants living in Europe now.
I re-read White this morning and see that my memory is at fault. My comment is over-simplified. The Persians followed by the Arabs had modified combat because of the stirrup before the Europeans. The real social and technological revolution came with Charles Martel even if the stirrup had been found in Lithuanian and Prussian burial sites in an earlier period. The presence of an artifact does not necessarily imply its general diffusion and a paradigm shift.
And algebra and trig and Euclid's Geometry and Aristotle, and Plato and Public Libraries and medicine and spices and dyes and chemistry and Public Health and astronomy and scientific instruments.
Aside from that, what have the Muslim's contributed to Western Civilization? A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run
Does anyone recall the name of the Israelian lady who has made it the focus of her life to denounce alleged Islamic conceptions of territorial claims? Something that has to do with Fitna...
