Anti-Semitism and Islam

Anti-Semitism isn’t creeping back; it’s lunging forth according to Kevin Deutsch of the Daily News:

• In New York’s Jewish neighborhoods, the fear is palpable and the evidence mounting that there’s a surge in anti-Semitism. (Monday Nov. 14, 2011)

On the same page, Weichselbaum and Nelson wrote about,

• A recent spate of hate crimes and violence that has left the Jewish community on edge…The torching of three cars in Midwood, Brooklyn, the spraying of swastikas and the brutal beatdown of a Hasidic man in Williamsburg.

This escalation should not take us by surprise. Nor should we brush it off as merely unconnected events. They are occurring all over the West – wherever there are sizable Islamic minorities:

• In 2004, France experienced rising levels of Islamic antisemitism and acts that were publicized around the world. In 2006, rising levels of antisemitism were recorded in French schools. Reports related to the tensions between the children of North African Muslim immigrants and North African Jewish children. The climax was reached when Ilan Halimi was tortured to death by the so-called "Barbarians gang", led by Youssouf Fofana. In 2007, over 7,000 members of the community petitioned for asylum in the United States, citing antisemitism in France.

• There were recorded well over a hundred antisemitic attacks in Belgium in 2009. This was a 100% increase from the year before. The perpetrators were usually young males of immigrant background from the Middle East. (wiki)

• After Germany and Austria, Sweden has the highest rate of antisemitic incidents in Europe.[177] A government study in 2006 estimated that 39% of the Muslim population, harbor strong and consistent antisemitic views. Former Prime Minister Göran Persson described these results as "surprising and terrifying". (wiki)

• In 2010, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation after one year of research, revealed that anti-semitism was common among Norwegian muslims. Teachers at schools with large shares of muslims revealed that muslim students often "praise or admire Adolf Hitler for his killing of Jews", that "Jew-hate is legitimate within vast groups of muslim students" and that "muslims laugh or command [teachers] to stop when trying to educate about the Holocaust". (wiki)

• Anti-Semitic incidents in Canada also reached record highs in 2009, according to an annual report released by the B'nai Brith Canada organization. The survey showed an 11.4 percent jump in the number of incidents over the previous year, 2008…The organization noted there has been a five-fold increase in anti-Semitic incidents in Canada over the past decade. According to the Toronto Muslims website, Muslims living in Canada today number more than 750,000, with some 61 percent of those residing in Ontario, where the majority of the anti-Semitic incidents occurred.
The outbreak of anti-Semitism even seems to be worse in the Netherlands:

• Sixty percent of Dutch Jews are ready to pack up and leave the country. The cause is a boom of Islamic antisemitism in the famous multicultural Netherlands.
• The list of Dutch victims is dramatic: from the killing of the anti-Islamist political leader Pim Fortuyn to the persecution of the Somali dissident Ayaan Hirsi Ali to the murder of the director Theo Van Gogh, condemned to death for his film "Submission," a denunciation of the crimes of Muslim theocracy. Fortuyn's successor, Geert Wilders, has lived under 24-hour police protection for many years. Now the Dutch Jews are ready to flee Holland.

Why? The article cites many reasons including, “attacks on the street, the appalling security around Jewish institutions, the attempted burning of synagogues…”

• From the data of the last report of the Dutch police, the number of anti-Semitic acts in the country has increased by 48 percent this year… Lester M. Wolff van Ravenswade described the difficulties faced by Jews living in Amsterdam. "I cannot go to public events dressed as a Jew, let alone go out on Saturday night. Which party do I have to vote for in order to live safely with the kippah on my head? ".

Israel is often blamed for the outburst of violence. Some argue that when the Israel – Palestinian problem is resolved, there will be peace among Jews and Muslims. However, this doesn’t seem likely. Anti-Semitism is embedded within the very fabric of Islam:

• Muslim religious schools operating in Britain are using poisonously anti-Semitic textbooks from Saudi Arabia to teach children as young as six that Jews are descended from "monkeys" and "pigs," and that Zionists are plotting to take over the world. The schools are also instructing children on how to chop off the hands and feet of a thief as per Islamic Sharia law. These are just a few of the findings of a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) exposé of Saudi-run Muslim schools in Britain.

Where do these allegations “that Jews are descended from ‘monkeys’ and ‘pigs’ come from? They are part of the sacred writings of Islam, deriving from the Muhammad’s disdain of the Jews for not receiving him as their prophet and his subsequent genocide of at least one Jewish tribe. Consequently, we find that the Koran states,

• [Surah 2:65, 5:60, 7:166] “Jews are those who were cursed and transformed into apes and swine…”

• [Surah 8:55-56; 98:6] “Jews are the worst of Allah’s creation…”

The various collected sayings of the Prophet Muhammad also encourage violence:

• Muhammad the messenger of Allah said, “Do not greet Jews or Christians with peace if you meet one of them in you way then push them over to a ditch or a narrow path.” (Hadith Number 4030, Reported by Al Muslim)

• Muhammad said that “the hour will not come until Muslims fight and kill the Jews and the Jews will hide behind trees and rocks, and these trees and rocks will cry out saying, ‘O Muslim, slave of Allah, this Jew is hiding behind me, come and kill him.’” (Hadith no 5203; Reported by Muslim)

If Jews are no better than “swine,” it is not surprising to find such violent teachings. In light of the Islamic foundations for violent anti-Semitism and the escalation of anti-Semitism all over the West, it is imperative that the West take adequate actions to counteract both the hate crimes and the teachings that encourage them.

Instead, we find in the West a naïve assumption that if we are commodious enough to our Islamic minorities, they will assimilate and accept Western values. Such an assumption is unfounded and receives no support from any nation where Islam has planted itself. Rather, we need to understand the belief system that now confronts the West. It should be understood that Muslims can’t take others as friends. Consequently, any show of friendship by serious Muslims is only feigned in order to win others to Islam:

• [Surah 3:27] “Let not the believers take the disbelievers for friends rather than believers. And whoever does this has no connection with Allah

• [Surah 5:54] O ye who believe, take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors. They are but friends and protectors to each other.

• [Surah 60:1] “O you who believe! Take not My enemies and your enemies (i.e. disbelievers and polytheists) as friends, showing affection towards them, while they have disbelieved in what has come to you of the truth”… [60:4] “Indeed there has been an excellent example for you in Ibraaheem (Abraham) and those with him, when they said to their people: ‘Verily, we are free from you and whatever you worship besides Allaah, we have rejected you, and there has started between us and you, hostility and hatred for ever until you believe in Allaah Alone’”

Jesus instructed His followers to be “as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves.” However, gentleness only represents wisdom as long as there remains a viable justice system to suppress evil. We therefore need to pray and to petition our leaders to be wise in this regard.