October 26, 2003

Last week Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad told the world's Muslims to modernize and unite to defeat the world's Jews. At a major gathering of Islamic leaders of 57 countries, he said "the Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million. But today the Jews rule this world by proxy: They get others to fight and die for them." He got a standing ovation. None of the leaders objected to his assertion of Jewish supremacy.

Many European leaders and President Bush denounced the hateful remarks.

The emergence of the new global anti-Semitism has signaled the end of the post-Holocaust respite, where Jew-hatred as a mobilizing force, was put on the shelf. Last week's conference was indication of the growing indecency enveloping the undemocratic leadership of many Islamic countries.

Why? Bernard Lewis, the wise man of Islamic studies, writes that Islam is a civilization which feels humiliated in the face of modern progress: it cannot provide its people with decent economies, political life, democracy, women's rights. When it asks, "What Went Wrong?" (The title of Lewis's exquisite analysis) it takes the easy path, excuses itself, and blames the Jews.

Jews have known about Islamic anti-Semitism for decades: Saudi royals routinely hand out The Protocols to visitors of the Kingdom; the Syrian Defense Minister Mustapha Tlass published a book offering "evidence" Jews use blood to make matza. Throughout the Oslo years, the Palestinian Authority taught children that Jews are less than human, have no right to self-determination, and deserve to be killed. Egypt's government-controlled television last year aired a series based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was broadcast throughout the Islamic world. The Saudis fund the teaching of Jew-hatred in Wahabi mosques and schools throughout the Islamic world.

The increasing Muslim immigration to Europe and America raises concerns that some of the new arrivals will bring with them the culture of anti-Semitism so prevalent in their home countries.

Indeed, the Jews of Europe, now dwarfed by the Muslim immigrants, are under significant stress. Synagogues and cemeteries and Jews themselves are attacked. Some Jews in France are contemplating leaving their country.

Even in America, the Washington Post revealed that Muslim schools in Virginia teach that Judgment Day will come when Muslims kill Jews and Christians. Steven Emerson has secretly filmed meetings in several American cities where Muslim leaders call for people here to kill the Jews.

The problem of Islamic anti-Semitism is one that the Jewish community has largely ignored over the past decade, although it recently has been getting more attention.

Why? I see 4 general reasons:

1. Psychological denial. Who wants to think, 60 years after the Holocaust, that a new, religious campaign against the Jews could be taking shape? We liked to think the hatred from the Arab world was "street talk" that would dissipate "when peace came." It probably won't.

2. Media's selective reporting: The media is reluctant to discuss the religious dimensions of the conflict in the Middle East, because its preferred prepackaged view is that this is a secular struggle for national liberation. It is also reluctant to report negatively about Islam. Steve Emerson is boycotted by PBS.

3. Jewish Politics: Many in the Jewish community want very much to think that the war in Israel is primarily over borders, where compromise is possible. To think that the conflict is about the Jewish right of self-determination in the Islamic realm is daunting. They are also concerned that examples of Islamic anti-Semitism may be used to justify certain Israeli policies.

4. Political correctness: We are a liberal people and do not want to speak badly about a race, religion or a people. We seem unable to distinguish between simple factual truth and bigotry. I our multicultural society, we have not yet developed a public language to describe Islamic anti-Semitism without potentially being accused of insensitivity or prejudice.

Some Jewish organizations with a mission to protect us from anti-Semitism have been slow to deal with new global anti-Semitism. They seem to be fighting the last war. Hatred is a weapon of mass destruction; anti-Semitic rhetoric has already killed hundreds of Jews in the Middle East and Europe. We must cut through the Jewish political confusions and the political correctness that stymies an honest understanding of the situation. Moreover, the broader American population must also confront Islamic anti-Semitism because too often 'the Jews' are a proxy for the West and its values.

We have a responsibility to educate ourselves about this threat. Given today's sensibilities, we cannot always rely on the media or even on some of our secular or religious leaders, who may not feel comfortable speaking about these things, and prefer not to be labeled alarmists.