Why are Muslims often labeled as "anti-semitic" or "racist" against Jewish people?

Question

Arabs and other populations living in the Middle East are classified as Semites, correct?

Also, isn't Judaism a religion? I've taken note of Jews from Europe, The Middle East, India, Ethiopia, etc. I don't think race has anything to do with being Jewish. Also, one can convert to Judaism from my understanding.

So, I think these two words are being thrown around a little loosely..without regard to their actual definitions..

I read a news article today in regard to the France school shootings. Totally messed up. However, I couldn't help notice the words being used. It brought me back to my school days when we would learn about the Holocaust and how the Germans classified themselves as "Aryans"..and the Jews as "Semites". So, I had done some research on those terms..and found that the majority of the people in the Middle East are actually Semites as well..so it was always confusing to hear Jewish people labeling Arabs or Palestinians are anti-Semitic. I would think that one would have to hate themselves..if this was the case..

What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

No idea since historically Jews fled to Islamic countries to escape the persecution of Christian Europe



Since Jews are the fellow monotheists of Muslims there were few rights they didn't have in Muslim countries. They were even allowed to pray in public

Answer 2

Anti-Semitic has come to mean anti-Jewish. I swear, muslim complain about EVERYTHING related to Jews. "Anti-Semitic" really is a term for the muslims, not the Jews. Jews caused 9/11. Jews cause the problems in the middle east. Jews deserve what they got in the holocaust. Let's dance and pass out candy when muslms kill Jews. Lets not speak out in protest when a man goes into the house of a sleeping Jewish family and kills them all. Let's blame the Jews. Israel is ours, not the Jews. Yes, we might have had an army of several muslims countries that attacked Israel but darn it, they should have all just died so lets blame the Jews. Lets' fire rockets into Israel and then blame the Jews for their lack of trying to get peace. Let's kidnap a soldier and hold him hostage until Israel gives us back 1000 terrorists and then scream that Israel has not made any overtures for peace. Let's blame Israel and as well, Israel is really all Jews everywhere, lets blame Jews in general.



Language is an idicator and so is race. Jews and arabs actually have simliar DNA and in many cases is closer than the non-Jews in countries where Jews have lived.



I have a friend who is considered black. His mother is part Ethiopian (Jewish) and part Polish (Jewish) and his father is a Jew from Russia. He is very pale but on his birth certificate he is listed as black. It is simply a label and like it or not, labels are here to stay.



I don't think the world is going to change the term to "anti-Jewish" just because a few muslims want it that way. Besides, most anti-Semites (oh sorry, anti-Jewish people) now use the term "anti-Zionist" to make it appear more politically correct.



BTW, Hitler didn't use "Semite" as much as he used the word Jew and he thought Jew was a bloodline that went back 3 generations and as the grand mufti of Jerusalem actually met with Hitler and there were muslim units in the German Army, it would stand to reason that he did not consider arabs Semitic or probably even care about the term in relation to them. He was anti-Jewish and as the term "anti-Semitic" was already in usage as meaning "anti-Jewish". that is what the world describes the nazi regime as.



This is from Wikipedia, which not a reliable source is right on this case:



"In 1873 German journalist Wilhelm Marr published a pamphlet "The Victory of the Jewish Spirit over the Germanic Spirit. Observed from a non-religious perspective." ("Der Sieg des Judenthums über das Germanenthum. Vom nicht confessionellen Standpunkt aus betrachtet.") in which he used the word "Semitismus" interchangeably with the word "Judentum" to denote both "Jewry (the Jews as a collective) and "Jewishness" (the quality of being Jewish, or the Jewish spirit). Although he did not use the word "Antisemitismus" in the pamphlet, the coining of the latter word followed naturally from the word "Semitismus", and indicated either opposition to the Jews as a people, or else opposition to Jewishness or the Jewish spirit, which he saw as infiltrating German culture"



Are you saying YOU are Jewish?

Answer 3

answer: because the definition of 'antisemitism' is the irrational hatred of Jews



and ONLY Jews.



blame it on the rabid hater of Jews that invented the term so he would sound more intelligent than he was.



It has NOTHING to do with "semites" or "semtism" which refer to a language, not an ethnicity



It means "Anti-Jew" - irrational hatred of Jews just for being Jews.



Whether it contradicts actual definitions about some ethnic groups - blame it on the inventor of the term and the usage.



The usage has determined the ONLY definition: irrational hatred of Jews for being Jews



a pineapple is not a combination of a pine cone and an apple but the usage of the label has determined it's definition



Political? Antisemitism existed LONG before Israel was reformed, including a LONG history of antisemitism by Muslims



I never claimed all Muslims or Arabs were antisemitic. The label was invented by a German. Anyone can be antisemitic. I merely gave you the history of the term and the fact that Muslims and/or Arabs can be antisemitic because of the definition of "antisemitic/antisemitism"



I also never said that Jews were a race. I fight against that ignorant statement daily in R/S

Answer 4

You're entirely correct in saying that Judaism is a religion and not anything racial. And yes, one can convert. I did.



It's not true to say that Middle Eastern PEOPLE are classified as 'semitic'. There's a group of middle-eastern languages which are known as 'semitic languages'.



The term anti-semitic doesn't derive from Jews. It was invented by a German who was rabidly anti-Jewish but wanted his prejudice to appear more 'scientific'. We're stuck with it. The word has simply come to mean "anti-Jewish" and is the term routinely used. It's not the choice of Jews.



I don't actually think you're right in your initial assertion that Muslims are labelled in this way, anyway. ANYONE who demonstrates a prejudice against Jewish people is labelled 'anti-semitic' and the 'race' issue comes into it only because most countries that have laws concerning prejudice seem to subsume legal restrictions on anti-Jewish actions under their anti-racism laws. It's a rather inaccurate way of doing things, but we seem to be stuck with that too. I know Muslims who are not remotely anti-semitic/anti-Jewish. And I have encountered non-Muslims who hatred of Jews, as Jews (not the government of Israel or whatever) is palpable.



EDIT: Please provide with me any links or references to proper academics referring to 'semitic' being used as a racial designation. I'm not doubting it happens, but I sincerely hope they recognise that it's very imprecise. The word ORIGINALLY referred ONLY to the languages spoken.



The racist who started using the term 'anti-semitic' didn't give a toss what was real. He just wanted to look clever. He most certainly wasn't interested in theology and I'm not quite clear why you bring that in.



The Saudi government is scarcely representative of Muslims worldwide!!! Of course there are Muslims who are anti-Jewish. My point was that it's not exclusive to Muslims, to put the point rather mildly. Neo-Nazis aren't Muslims, for example, but sadly many apparently sane people are prejudiced against Jews.



By the way, my name is Ambivalent.

Answer 5

Did you ask this question simply to rebuke and rant against those you disagree with or is there a higher purpose. You appear to be relatively knowledgeable about this topic and are unwilling to accept the beliefs of others that are based not only their opinions but also life experiences.



Ambivalent, Aravah, Short and sweet, and Feivel have provided great answers which are historically based and also upon life experiences. Semitic is a general term that applies to a group of related languages rather than a set of recognizable communities. Semitic languages are characterized by the importance of consonants where three are typically used to form the root of a word. Arabic and Hebrew are the two most significant surviving Semitic languages.



In other words, one can not be considered antisemitic if they also speak a Semitic language as do the Arabs. In this case semitic refers to the family of Afro-Asiatic languages spoken by more than 200 million people in northern Africa and South Asia. No other language family has been attested in writing over a greater time span from the late 3rd millennium to the present. Both traditional and some recent classifications divide the family into an eastern and western group. Until recently the sole known East Semitic language was Akkadian; now some scholars add Eblaite, the language of a cuneiform archive found at the ancient city of Ebla, with documents dating from 2300 to 2250 . West Semitic contains as one major subgroup Northwest Semitic, which includes Ugaritic, known from alphabetic cuneiform texts of 14001200 ; the closely related Canaanite languages (including Moabite, Phoenician, and Ancient Hebrew); and Aramaic. Further sub grouping is controversial; traditionally, Arabic was placed in a distinct South Semitic subgroup of West Semitic, though a more recent classification puts it together with Northwest Semitic. The South Semitic languages include Epigraphic South Arabian; Modern South Arabian (or Modern South Arabic), a group of six languages spoken in eastern Yemen, southwestern Oman, and the island of Socotra; and Ethiopic.

Not all Muslims are Arab. These atrocities are committed by not only Jew haters but also against those who support Israel, which by the way, includes the KKK et al.



For example, Insult to WWII servicemen Graves of British troops, smashed and desecrated by Libyan Wahhabi AlCIAeda NATO RATS,, Bernard Henry Levy’s new allies in Libya.A furious Wahhabi mob has desecrated dozens of Commonwealth War Graves in a Libyan cemetery.Headstones commemorating British and Allied servicemen, killed during World War II campaigns in the Western Desert between 1942 to 1943, lay smashed and strewn across Benghazi Military Cemetery. Muslims Destroy Graves of WWII Heroes | Conservative Byte

http://conservativebyte.com/2012/03/muslims-destroy-graves-of-wwii-heroes/



This offends me since my father fought in WW 2 and those buried in this cemetery fought in the North Africa campaign. North Africa the Germans and their Italian allies controlled a narrow strip along the Mediterranean coast between Tunisia and Egypt with an army numbering some 100,000 men under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.



Were these acts of desecration a form of antisemitism? It very well could be since the graves held the remains of men who fought against antisemitism. You decide!!!



gatita



Degree in History (focus Jewish studies) and Spanish, New Mexico State U. 1990

Answer 6

Because Muslims blame 9/11 on the Jews.

Answer 7

It helps to understand the history of antiJewishism to understand what antisemitism is. In scholarly circles there is a difference.



Until the age of enlightenment & scientific reawakening, antiJewish sentiment was expressed at them as a "religious group." If you wanted to leave the hate, you could covert out.



Then the idea of races came into existence with science. Along with that Jews were redefined by racists (not by Jews) to be *inherently* evil. So now when a Jew wanted to leave the hate, the only option was killing them.



That shift from religious grouping antiJewishism to inherent character antiSemitism, is the scholarly difference between the two stages of hate at Jews. Books describe this, such as "The Pope Against the Jews" by David (something like) Ketzer. A renown history scholar who was let into the Vatican secret records to research for his book.



From that shift, came room for the Holocaust, and enmass killing, when before it was more in pockets & efforts to convert.



Wilhem Marr invented the word antisemitism to label his antiJewishism -- as a way to make it sound more scientific. He incidently was incorporating that shift that was taking place.



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To add - a pineapple isn't an apple with pines (a few of us find that example of linguistics helpful.) The word isn't literally anti -- semitic languaged people. It's antisemitic, the hate at Jews. It is different & unique from any other hate in the world. Also it's fully robust with so much to it, that it can't be wrapped into other general hates. Hate at other semitic languaged people such as Arabs have a different dynamic and deserve their own word.



So it includes:

- Accusing Jews of killing Jesus and therefore deserving to be harmed themselves. The call of "christ killers" was used a lot in pogroms & the crusade killings of jews in Europe (before they got to the Middle East.)



- Accusing Jews of control & aim to control, the world, media, money, everyone's minds.



- Accusing Jews of greediness, conniving, clever back stabbing, etc..



- Accusing Jews of being capitalist pigs, and communists. (Never said the hate made sense!)



- Blood libels, black plague libels, the cause behind ever evil that happens.



- Thinking they are superior (chosen which isn't what it means in judaism), being physically inferior and weak, and mentally inept (200 years ago that was the view, not the current one)



Etc.



Meanwhile anti Arab sentiment includes by contrast:



- Claiming they are barbarians who aren't civilialized and can't learn to live in this world.



- Claiming they are backwards shepards, dirty





Anti Islamic sentiment has an even different set of libels against it.





Also as for antisemitism being more political than with religion, in many ways that's true. The original antireligious themes, developed into the secular world and have taken on their own life. Many a king kicked out jews to avoid any debts he had from borrowing money and simultaneously to distract his peasants from being mad at him. That's politics. The "Protocol of the Elders" written as a fake for the Russian Czar for just that purpose.... was a keystone in the Nazi hate and is a best seller in pockets of the Middle East ... and it very much is a politically motivated and based set of libels.



I can keep going on the history. You might find this book interesting, "The Anguish of the Jews" by Father Flannery. It goes through the history, and was the first seminal non-Jewish look at that history that eventually led to dramatic attitude changes at antisemitism. The beginning history is based on NT and not accurate (historically verifiable), but the rest is good.



"Constantine's Sword" is supposed to do the same, but I haven't read it & it has more objections to the Catholic theology in it -- is more about theology too.



If you'd like more history on any aspect of how the hate developed, let me know.



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Glancing thru your question, I'll add --- during colonizing the European antisemitism was imported into the M-E. It was used by Vichy g'vt, & so on to distract the Arabs by having them blame the Jews. So there are elements that lead to antiArab sentiment at Jews, & history of antiArab/Muslim at Jews OUTSIDE of the European. That TOO has a long history, just not as bad as the European.

.

Answer 8

If I am correct...Muslims actually do not hate Jews...but they hate Zionist and the concept of Zionism. They hate the fact that...Israel was created in Palestine land...and the Zionist idea. Most Zionist happen to be Jews....So probably that's why it seems they hate Jews.

Answer 9

Because you are. anti-semitic means hatred of Jews. And followers of IsLame are anti-Semites.