Words that kill
Neil Kressel: Too few condemn a swelling tide of Muslim anti-Semitism
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Dr. Neil J. Kressel says he hopes to start a conversation about anti-Semitism in the Muslim world.
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January 16, 2013
Neil Kressel, an expert in religious extremism and the rise of terrorism and genocide, says he never expected to write a book on virulent anti-Semitism in the Muslim world.
Growing up in West Orange and attending Congregation Beth El in South Orange (he believes his was among the first b’nei mitzva ceremonies presided over there by Rabbi emeritus Jehiel Orenstein), he was not among those who heard breaking glass or the crunch of jackboots behind every swastika scrawled on a wall.
“My focus has been on understanding the mindset of people who participate in mass atrocities. I’ve written chapters on Nazism but I always viewed anti-Semitism as historical, not contemporary,” said the Wayne resident, a professor of social psychology at William Paterson University. “If you had asked me in 1980 if the Holocaust was important, I would have said yes. But if you asked me if I thought there were good prospects of a virulent anti-Semitic movement rising anywhere in the world [today], I would have said no.”
And yet his new book, The Sons of Pigs and Apes: Muslim Antisemitism and the Conspiracy of Silence (Potomac Books), is all about the threat of rising anti-Semitism in the Muslim world and his analysis of why the rest of the world is turning a blind eye.
In his book, he lays out the evidence of the ways in which Jew-hatred (he avoids the term anti-Semitism, calling the 19th-century coinage a mischaracterization of the phenomenon) has become commonplace in the Muslim world. He notes that the 19th-century anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is commonly accepted as truth in many Muslim countries, and that prominent Muslim leaders, including those widely considered moderates, often discuss their hatred of Jews matter-of-factly, or regularly refer to the ways in which Jews control the world.
He shows the ways in which Muslim leaders are complicit in propagating old stereotypes. “People who express an alternate point of view run into a problem in the Muslim world,” said Kressel, who holds a PhD in social psychology from Harvard University.
‘Genocidal mentality’
Kressel also points out stunning levels of hatred among the general population in many of those countries. According to one of the few studies available — a 2005 survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project — 99 percent of Jordanians, and similar numbers of Lebanese have a very unfavorable view of Jews, compared to 77 percent in the United States who have a favorable view of Jews.
The title of the book comes from a common epithet for Jews in Muslim countries, derived from a traditional story about Jews who sinned against God and were turned into pigs and apes. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is heard using the term in a 2010 video translated this month.
Kressel acknowledges that these attitudes haven’t led to mass murder, but points with concern to those who have been targeted because of their Jewish identities, including slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, the Jewish victims of the 2009 attacks in Mumbai, and last March’s deadly shootings of a rabbi and three schoolchildren in Toulouse.
“The mentality behind each of these is genocidal,” said Kressel. “What keeps the body count low is the axis of the American army, the Israeli army, and the fact that people who hold these views do not have the power to implement them. In Iran right now, the mentality of virulent anti-Semitism will soon be wedded with nuclear weapons.
“The consequences of that nobody knows.”
Most of the book analyzes why there is not more analysis of the phenomenon.
“When I started to look at the question of anti-Semitism in the Muslim world, I found there were close to zero studies. And texts dealing with racism and prejudice did not mention this at all,” he said. “The obvious question is why there is so little that has been done on this topic.”
Although the book’s subtitle is “Muslim Antisemitism and the Conspiracy of Silence,” Kressel acknowledged that he does not believe there is an organized plot to suppress discussion of the issue.
What he is saying is that “there is an extreme reluctance to focus on the problem of Muslim anti-Semitism.” The possible reasons he gives for this reluctance range from a general desire not to say anything bad about another religion for fear of being called a bigot, to a perception that such anti-Semitism is merely spillover from the Arab-Israeli conflict, to fears by those on the Left that to condemn Muslim attitudes is to risk being labeled a right-winger.
Kressel said he hopes the book will start an “open and honest debate about why there is so much anti-Semitism and what to do about it.” He added, “I’d like to see the anti-racist and human rights communities engaged in it. Right now, it’s only the Right and strongly pro-Israel organizations interested, but I think all Americans should be interested.”
Comments
ROSENBERG
January 16, 2013
Abbas Exposes His Deeply-Held Views in a Message Full of Hate
As the child of parents who survived the concentration camps, I have dedicated my academic career and clerical calling to educate the next generation to learn the lessons of the Nazi horrors. The first lesson of the Holocaust is that the murder of 6 million Jews in 21 nations did not begin with an edict to cast the Jews into the ovens. It began with a policy of demonizing the Jews as if they were less than human. Throughout WWII, the exiled Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, operated out of Hitler’s bunker and broadcast on Nazi radio his rantings that called for the murder of the Jews, in the Arabic language…a daily radio message that was beamed to the Middle East, while the Mufti actively recruited Arabs to join SS units that systematically rounded up and executed thousands of Jewish families in the Balkans.
Mahmood Abbas, the leader of what the UN has defined as the State of Palestine, issued a speech in which he praised the legacy of the Mufti of Jerusalem and of a slew of Arabs who have murdered Jews over the past generation. To ignore Abbas’s message is to ignore the first lesson of the Holocaust, which is that anyone who glorifies those who murder Jews is to be held culpable in the advocacy of mass murder.
It is therefore incumbent upon every person of conscience to condemn Abbas and to break off all relations with him and the entity that he represents.
I await a response from representatives of every Jewish organization and from every responsible cleric.
There is an adage in the Talmud which says “SILENCE IS AGREEMENT
Morris L. Givner,Ph.D.,FCAB,FCIC
January 16, 2013
There are many in every nation who fear to speak the truth.The history of Islam goes back 1400 years when Mohammed ordered the murder of all Jewish men in Medina and the enslavement and rape of their women and children.We prefer to ignore that Islam conquered and successfully expanded throughout the world by offering countless defeated peoples three stark choices:conversion to Islam ,survival but slave-like-status or death by violence.Today,millions of Americans fear to admit that the gun culture and their lobbyists are destroying the fabric of their nation.Americans are reluctant to face the bitter reality that for the past 30 years their presidents,congresses,the multinationals and their lobbyists have outsourced all meaningful jobs to Asia in pursuit of insatiable greed.
Americans have not paid for their wars since Viet Nam and today they are controlled by their creditors China,Saudi Arabia, etc.Truth often brings tears but also hope not to repeat the blunders of the past.However,one has to look in the mirror every morning and see the problem.It is not the foreigner but the image in the mirror.
ROSENBERG
January 16, 2013
What is the response of the gov’t of Israel to the Abbas embrace of the Mufti?
Will the Israeli gov’t issue a condemnation? rabbi dr. bernhard rosenberg
rosenberg
January 17, 2013
What is the the response of the United States STATE DEPARTMENT Abbas’S embrace of the Mufti and those who have murdered Jews?
Here is the text of Abbas’s speech:
http://www.wafa.ps/arabic/index.php?action=detail&id=145853
Here are two news clips about the Mufti’s speech
Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas spoke glowingly of the “legacy” of infamous Nazi collaborator Hajj Amin al-Husseini
http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=5282&q=1
Cone of Silence Over Abbas speech praising Hitler ally, the Mufti,Envelopes Media & Politicians
http://israelbehindthenews.com/bin/content.cgi?ID=5303&q=1 RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG, PRESIDENT Israel Advocy TASK FORCE
jerome rosinger
January 17, 2013
can you suggest more reading on the topic of anti jewish hatred. I am reading
” iIn the Garden of Beasts” by Erik Larson he documents the rise of anti Jewish
hatred in pre world war 2 Germany especially through the eyes of mr Dodd, the
American Ambassador to Germany.
Wayne Resident
January 17, 2013
Perhaps the author should write a new book exploring why Jews stole PLestine from the Arabs and then connect the dots, and why they’re still genocidal maniacs currently killing Muslims in Palestine. Maybe he should take a page out of the Torah and rabbis in his synagogues so we can all hear about how racist and genocidal they are against Arabs.
ROSENBERG
January 23, 2013
Abbas wrote his PHD that the Nazis were helped by the Zionists to conduct mass murders of Jews. He wrote this PHD while he was at the KGB’s prize propaganda institute 1974- 1983, while the Soviets were promoting ZIONISM IS RACISM resoltution at the UN
With the inception of the PA education system in 2000, Abba’s PHD was incoporated into the new PA curriculum. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG, CHAIRMAN HOLOCAUST COMMISSION
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Abbas claims link between Nazis and Zionists
January 22, 2013
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told a Lebanese television station that the Nazis and Zionists worked in collaboration before World War II.
The subject was the topic of Abbas’ dissertation for his doctorate in history from the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow.
“I challenge anyone to deny the relationship between Zionism and Nazism before World War II,” Abbas said during the Jan. 21 interview with Al-Mayadeen, a television station based in Beirut that is affiliated with Hezbollah and Iran. Abbas insisted that he has “70 more books that I still haven’t published” about the alleged collaboration.
Abbas’ dissertation is called “The Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement.” A book based on the dissertation published in 1984 is titled “The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism.”
In the book, Abbas claimed that the Zionist movement inflated the numbers of dead in the Holocaust for more material gain and that the number of Jewish victims is in the tens of thousands. He also wrote that the Zionist movement helped the Nazis wipe out the Jewish people in exchange for the transfer to then-Palestine through the Jewish Agency of the assets of the German Jews who immigrated there.
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh denied that Abbas spoke of a link between Nazism and Zionism. He also said in a statement that Abbas is “committed to the peace process.”
rosenberg
January 25, 2013
Anonymous pro-Israel blogger Elder of Ziyon, who first picked up on the story, took issue with the assertion. “This is, of course, a sickening implication. There were contacts before World War II as Zionists tried to save Jews from Germany; for example, the Ha’avara Agreement. Abbas is however trying to spin it as if Zionists and Nazis were cooperating in genocide, which puts him beneath contempt.” rabbi dr. bernhard rosenberg
ROSENBERG
January 28, 2013
Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote in the 16th Century, “At the End of Days, Israel is destined to experience the Ishmaelite exile. This fifth and last exile will be the most difficult of all. It is the exile of Ishmael, who is called ‘pe’re adam,’ a wild man.” Be strong, cling to your faith and we will see Moshiach wipe all this away. As we sing in Shir Hamaahlot (Psalm 126), we were like dreamers, meaning before our redemption, now in the end times. RABBI DR. BERNHARD ROSENBERG