Spoerl / The Levantine Review Volume 2 Number 1 (Spring 2013)
MODERN ILLUSTRATIONS OF AN ANCIENT STEREOTYPE
The negative depiction of Jews in the sira continues to influence Islamic discourse to the present day, as a few examples will illustrate.
- In his radio broadcasts for Nazi Germany, the founding father of the Palestinian Arab national movement, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, drew heavily on the Islamic tradition to craft his vicious anti-Semitic propaganda, telling his audience “Every Moslem knows that Jewish animosity to the Arabs dates back to the dawn of Islam. Every Moslem knows they opposed and hurt the prophet […] So that the Koran says ‘You shall find that the most hostile people are the Jews’ [cf. Koran 5:82].”[1] As Jeffrey Herf observes, Hajj Amin al-Husseini’s anti-Semitic propaganda was based almost entirely on Islamic sources, not on Nazi sources like Mein Kampf or the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[2]
- A few years after the Second World War, one of the most important theoreticians of the Muslim Brotherhood, Sayyid Qutb, penned an essay entitled “Our Struggle Against the Jews” in which he traces the struggle back to the life of Muhammad: “Our community is concerned about Jewish deception and plotting: ‘O People of the Book, Why do you wittingly cover the truth with falsehood and thereby hide the truth?’ [cf. Koran 3:70-71] This is a characteristic of People of the Book, which Muslims must understand and take warning from: deception and plotting […] The Jews began in this way from the first moment [… The Jews] replaced truth with falsehood in the whole [Islamic] heritage – except for [… the Qur’an] whose preservation Allah has guaranteed forever.”[3]
- Dr. Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi held the most prestigious Sunni Muslim religious posts in Egypt as Grand Mufti (1986-1996) and as Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque and Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar University (1996-2010). In 1969, Tantawi wrote a doctoral dissertation on the role of the Jews in Islamic history. In addition to repeating the Blood Libel (that Jews use the blood of murdered Gentiles to mix their matzoh bread) and the conspiracy theories of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Tantawi draws theme after theme from the Koran and the sira, alleging that “the Koran describes them [the Jews] as infidels and liars, as ungrateful, selfish, arrogant, and cowardly, as naggers and cheaters, rebels and lawbreakers […] they violate treaties and agreements and act wrongly towards Allah; […] they contemn the Koran and distort its words […]”[4] Tantawi also echoes Ibn Ishaq in several specific ways, e.g. by adopting Ibn Ishaq’s interpretation of verses 3:113ff: “[The] Qur’an describes the Jews with their own
- ↑ Jeffery Herf, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, p. 153.
- ↑ Ibid., pp. 197, 213.
- ↑ Andrew G. Bostom ed., The Legacy of Islamic Anti-Semitism, p. 356.
- ↑ Middle East Media Research Center, Special Dispatch #3108, July 20, 2010, http://www.memri.org/report/en/print4463.htm.
ISSN: 2164-6678
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