Why is anti-semitic only used with Jews and not with Arabs.?

Question

From what I have heard it refers to ancestry and not all jews are semites. There are alot of hateful things that are said about Arabs but no one calls that anti-Semitic, why?

I'm not Arab by the way, just curious.

Answer 1

It is a term used in American Law to include Judaism under "hate crimes."



A Semite is a native speaker of a Semitic language such as Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and many more.



From “The Multiple Identities of the Middle East,” by Bernard Lewis.

“Semite” and “Aryan” belong to the same vocabulary, and have undergone the same perversions. Both date from the beginnings of modern philology in the 18th and 19th centuries, and from the momentous discovery that languages could be classified into cognate groups or families. In 1781, a German philologist called August Ludwig Schlozer suggested the term Semitic, from Noah’s son Shem, to designate the family of languages to which Assyrian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Ethiopic belong. Similarly the term Aryan, meaning “noble” and used by the ancient inhabitants of Persia and India to describe themselves, was adopted as the name of a group of related languages including Sanskrit, Old Persian, and some others. As far back as 1861 the great German philologist Max Muller pointed out that confusing the history of languages with the history of races would falsify everything. Nevertheless, race theorists, particularly those anxious to establish their own uniqueness and superiority, eagerly seized on this new vocabulary, and misappropriated it to their own use.

The defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, and the discovery of the appalling crimes that had been committed in the name of racism, brought a change of attitude and, consequently, of usage. But not completely. ***Few nowadays outside the lunatic fringes would use the word “Aryan” as a racial designation, but the same taboo does not apply to the equally tainted and misleading use of the word “Semite.” Even otherwise respectable writers and journals sometimes permit themselves such pronouncements as that “the Jews and Arabs are both Semites.” If this statement has any meaning at all, it is that Hebrew and Arabic are both Semitic languages!



According to Professor S. D. Goitein, "the word 'Semitic' was coined by an l8th-century German scholar, concerned with linguistics. The idea of a Semitic race was invented and cultivated in particular in order to emphasize the inalterable otherness and alien character of the Jews living in Europe."



The eminent Arabist, Bernard Lewis, dates the invention of the term "anti-Semitism" to 1862, although "the racial ideology that gave rise to it was already well established in the early 19th century. Instead of -- or as well as -- an unbeliever ... the Jew was now labeled as a member of an alien and inferior race... "

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Answer 2

The term was coined by an antisemitic German to make the hatred of Jews sound much better than just saying "Jew hatred". This usage was perfect for the 19th century, since the average European was more likely to encounter a Jew rather than an Arab. Anti-semitism is accurate, since modern science has shown that a great amount of Jews do seem to be semitic. While the term can mean Arab, it has historically been reserved for Jews.



Edit: Houda, believe it or not there is DNA evidence that suggests that Ashkenazis, for the most part, are descendant of the Israelites, and not the Khazars like you suggest. I'll admit, I do have a little Khazari blood in me, but that is only known because my grandfather got a DNA test. He also found out that he has the Cohen gene, which is the same in all Jews (Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi) who have it. This also suggests that Ashkenazim are semitic. I guess I should also point out that Judaism is a semitic religion, so the term is always appropriate in that context, and that it really doesn't matter what race you are, anti-semitism is anti-semitism. Also, I'm going to mention that there are a lot of Mizrahi and Sephardi who will argue against your statement that Ashkenazi solely run the state of Israel.



Rami: Last time I checked, Jacob had twelve sons. How do you get nine?

Answer 3

The term was coined by an antisemite (Willhem something) to specifically mean antiJewish hate on a racistist, ethnic level.



It doesn't mean semitic or Arab any more than pineapple is an apple with pines. This is basic lingistics. Anti-Arab, anti-Muslim hate has a different dynamic & totally different history & should have a word of it's own. Often Islamophobia is used.



The entire concept of Jews as a race or ethnicity is itself introduced by antisemites. Judaism defines itself as a religion & because of it's origins, tends to use nation-citizen style definition. Like a country, citizenship has nothing do with ethnicity but a lot of people marriying each other in a country tends to make or keep a similar dna background.



The term antisemite itself is differentiated from antijudaism specifically by when the hate turned from against the religion where you could convert & get rid of your "evilness"... into being against the people where even converts out could still be killed (such as Nazis did). That difference is scholastically discussed & a topic of importance about the change with the Holocaust.



This answer I gave more details:

https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20091124033615AArJyQK&show=7#profile-info-64X5RxRbaa



This site describes it well too:

http://www.jewfaq.org





Note: Sometimes there is efforts to remove the term for hating Jews, antisemitism, from Jews & to make it about Muslims as well - FOR political reasons. The term antisemtiism has such a stinging feel that for those that have a problem with Jews, all the better to water down the term. What better way that to redefine away it's meaning - as representing the specific & horribly intense hate that Jews have received over the centuries resulting in death of 1/3 of the world's Jews? Oy, doesn't everything get so tricky?



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Disciple of Yeshua

What history? I had an argument tonight with my dad stemming from his Holocaust experience. You are expressing one of the modern twisted versions of antisemitism, "it's the victims's fault, they're so whinny, I didn't do anything, no one did, they got that black eye all by themselves".

Answer 4

Anti-Semitism is a term coined at Jews in the 1800's, when racial hatred first overtook the traditional anti-Judaism (religious hatred towards people who practice the Jewish religion). Anti-Semitism was only used to describe hostility towards Jewish people, and remains that way to this day.

Arabs are only part Semite according to the bible: Hagar, mother of Ismael, and the wife she picked for her son were both Egyptians. Ancient Egyptians were the descendants of Ham (son of Noah).

Anti-Arabism is the term to be used in the case of racial hatred towards Arabs. It is not to be confused with hatred of Islam, known as "Islamophobia" since 9/11.

Answer 5

honestly, "semitic" would not relate to genetic lineage, it refers to a linguistic similarity. present day Arabic and Hebrew are related to eachother in that each "descended" from the comparable ascertain language, besides the reality that the particularly historic previous of each language has been distinctive for the reason that they chop up, probably a number of thousand years in the past. The Semitic languages share a number of issues, including being written from appropriate to left, a number of unique phonemes, and a impressive form of comparable words (eg. Hebrew "Beth" and Arabic "Bayt" the two certainly advise "homestead"). the main in all probability commencing place of the Semitic Languages became in South Arabia the place deciphered inscriptions from the civilizations of Sabea and Hadramaut (and others) are interior the Semitic family contributors tree. additionally the Nabateans of the international popular city of Petra (ca. one hundred BC -3 hundred advert) spoke a Semitic language heavily related to fashionable Arabic. even with the undeniable fact that, languages have no longer something to do with organic populations, and a impressive form of communities communicate the languages of their biologically distinctive acquaintances, commerce companions, conquerors, etc. So, to reply to your question: in basic terms by using fact Jewish people communicate a Semitic landquage, and Arabic Moslems additionally communicate a Semitic language, it does no longer mean that one and all Arabs, and all Hebrews are biologically correct.

Answer 6

The term was coined by a man named Wilhem Marr in the 1800s specifically to refer to the Jews, whom he regarded as a race, or a genetic entity who were threatening the Germanic peoples by conquering them by controlling businesses, exc. Quite an antisemite himself, Marr coined the term to express his belief that his hatred for the Jews was different from the prior religious hatred that had existed before, making his hatred for the Jewish people a more sophisticated, racial-political enmity between the Jewish "race" and the German people. No longer a religious grouping, the threat of the Jews could no longer be contained by their religious and other assimilation into the hegemonic culture (you can see where this led...). Marr seemed to want to make his fears that the Jews were taking over Germany appear more modern/secular and less crude than the blind religious hatred of earlier German history.



Anyway--the "Semitism" in the word refers to the fact that the Jews speak a Semitic language (Hebrew), not necessarily a genetic grouping of people. There are black Ethiopians who speak semitic languages (the Amharic language is facinating. So is Somali)--they are not related to the Arabs. The relation between (the majority of the) Jews and Arabs, genetically speaking, is fairly distant, compared with relations to the Kurds (who themselves speak an Indo-Iranian language related to Hindi, Farsi and Pashto). It was only until later that people found loose genetic correlations among people who spoke Semitic languages--even though this is not even consistent. It's a long story-but arguing that all speakers of Semitic languages are genetically "Semites" makes about as much sense as an arguement that Irish and Bengali people are both genetically related Indo-Europeans, or that Polish and Slavic speakers are genetic "Aryans", but not the Hungerians. As a linguist myself, I say--speakers of a "genetically related" groups of languages are NOT necessarily genetically related themselves. Language contact/drift does not happen that way.



There is a relatively recent movement of people who complain that 'antisemitism' shouldn't "belong" to the Jews (as if we just coined the word for ourselves and "stole" morpheme-rights to "Semitism"!) and needs to refer to other "Semitic" (again, how is this defined?) groups. Generally, these people may also be the same folks who mourn that they are forever being called 'antisemites' in efforts to 'silence' them, somehow. I generally find such claims to be very politically motivated, petulant, and perhaps, depending on the person, a bit antisemitic.

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And yes, Houda is wrong...the Khazar leadership and perhaps a few hundred other Khazars is believed to be the only ones who converted to Judaism, leading to a migration of Jews to Khazaria, who were scattered after the collapse of the kingdom. Most Khazars were believed to have been assimilated or wiped out upon the death of their kingdom. While I have no doubt that there is some Khazar influence on the Ashkenazim--and indeed, there are some Khazar villiages in Europe, it is grossly exaggerated by the Jew-haters (who, for some reason that is beyond me, seem to believe that Khazar blood in the Ashkenazim would destroy their claim to Jewishness). The Ashkenazim have been proven many times over to have genetic linkages with the Sephardic, Mizrahim, and other groups of Jews. Not that this matters-Jews are a RELIGOUS group, not a RACIAL one.

Peace

Answer 7

The word antisemitic (antisemitisch in German) was probably first used in 1860 by the Austrian Jewish scholar Moritz Steinschneider in the phrase "antisemitic prejudices" (German: "antisemitische Vorurteile").[11] Steinschneider used this phrase to characterize Ernest Renan's ideas about how "Semitic races" were inferior to "Aryan races." These pseudo-scientific theories concerning race, civilization, and "progress" had become quite widespread in Europe in the second half of the 19th century, especially as Prussian nationalistic historian Heinrich von Treitschke did much to promote this form of racism. In Treitschke's writings Semitic was synonymous with Jewish, in contrast to its usage by Renan and others.

Answer 8

Because what people don't realize is Arabs, Jews, and other middleeasterners are considered caucasian and personally why hate on Arabs theyre cool people, and it should be called flat out hatred not anti-Semitism, because to judge based on anything someone cannot change is just hatred, and it makes sick to think someone would bash another ethnic group or religious group and I'm not Arab either by the way just your run of the mill Romany

Answer 9

Semite just means off-spring of Shem. In that respect, Arabs are Semites. But the common usage is now for Jews.



I think most of the "hateful" things said are specifically about Muslims, not Arabs. And it's because of the killing the radicals do.

Answer 10

answer: because the idiot that invented the term only meant it to be used against Jews and wanted a term to sound all scientific and logical.



The usage has made it specifically about Jews. Incorrect but the usage has determined it and it won't change, the Nazis cemented that.

Answer 11

A Semite is (from what a remember) a decendant of Abraham/Ibrahim... so Jews, Christians and Muslims are all semites.

Answer 12

The Arabs father is Ishmael (peace be upon him) the son of Abraham (pbuh).



Also when the Arabs refer to the Jews as their cousins they mean the sons of Jacob (pbuh), or they say "We are all from nine men", so the nine men means the 9 sons of Jacob (pbuh).



That's why the Arabs are considered from the Semitic race.

Answer 13

Both are descendants of Semites just as you state, but only one of them culturally dwells upon the past and ritualizes the injuries and slavery inflicted upon their ancestry. This of course has created some to become prejudical and hateful towards the Jewish race for not forgetting the past and letting by gones be by gones. Within law, this has become being "anti-semitic" or "against" those of the Jewish race. Guess it sounded better just to say "anti-semitic" rather than "anti-jewish." I have always found it odd that these two descendants of Semites can not learn to get along. Must go back to the days of King David stealing Bathsheba for himself............

Answer 14

but in dictionary , refering to a group of races including jews and arabs:semitic peoples

Answer 15

here are some sources for you

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/27646/anti-Semitism



you'll find the term does mean hatred of jews

Answer 16

Good question



The only SEMITIC JEWS are Arab Jews-or Mizrahim

-Yemeni Jews

-Iraqi Jews

-Lebanese Jews

-Syrian Jews

-Morrocan Jews

-Egyptian Jews



Many Jews today, are NOT SEMITIC, they are European, or Ashkenazi, and these are the people who run and created Israel

-Polish Jews

-Russian Jews

-German Jews

-Ukranian Jews

-Hungarian Jews

-Lithuanian Jews

Answer 17

its alright to hate arabs

Answer 18

After WWII the meaning has changed greatly from its original definition.

Answer 19

Because political correctness is not factual correctness

Answer 20

Because they do this: http://www.thestoning.com/ as a law for the whole country to abide by.