Islam and Antisemitism - Antisemitism in The Islamic Middle East

Antisemitism in The Islamic Middle East

Antisemitism has increased in the Muslim world during modern times. While Bernard Lewis and Uri Avnery date the rise of antisemitism to the establishment of Israel, M. Klein suggests the antisemitism could have been present in the mid-19th century.

Scholars point out European influence, including that of Nazis, and the establishment of Israel as the root causes for antisemitism. Norman Stillman explains that increased European commercial, missionary and imperialist activities during the 19th and 20th centuries brought antisemitic ideas to the Muslim world. Initially these prejudices only found a reception among Arab Christians and were too foreign for any widespread acceptance among Muslims. However, with the rise of the Arab-Israeli conflict, European antisemitism began to gain acceptance in modern literature.

Read more about this topic:  Islam And Antisemitism

Famous quotes containing the words middle east, antisemitism, middle and/or east:

    There’s no telling what might have happened to our defense budget if Saddam Hussein hadn’t invaded Kuwait that August and set everyone gearing up for World War II½. Can we count on Saddam Hussein to come along every year and resolve our defense-policy debates? Given the history of the Middle East, it’s possible.
    —P.J. (Patrick Jake)

    Worst of all, there is no sign of any relaxation of antisemitism. Logically it has nothing to do with Fascism. But the human race is imitative rather than logical; and as Fascism spreads antisemitism spreads.
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

    Of all the barbarous middle ages, that
    Which is most barbarous is the middle age
    Of man! it is—I really scarce know what;
    But when we hover between fool and sage,
    And don’t know justly what we would be at—
    A period something like a printed page,
    Black letter upon foolscap, while our hair
    Grows grizzled, and we are not what we were.
    George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)

    I’m glad we’ve been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face.
    Elizabeth, Queen Mother (b. 1900)