Antisemitism rising from history of hatred

Zionist propaganda tries to extend the historical antisemitism of Europe to the Muslim world and make it into a centuries-long horror, writes Bilal Cleland.

AUSTRALIA HAS BEEN hit by a series of antisemitic incidents in recent months, against Jewish property, against individuals and there was a terrible threat of a mass murder of members of the Jewish community from a caravan with enough explosives to reach a diameter of four metres, according to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

That antisemitism exists in this Australian community is obvious but not all the incidents are transparent.

The Melbourne non-Zionist synagogue burning, the Sydney synagogue graffiti and the caravan were suspicious. Since then, we have had police confirmation that the exploding caravan was a false flag and there have been no arrests for the arson or graffiti.

The ASIO statement about criminal activity stymied the hasbara. At least one of those arrested in connection with such incidents did have a Muslim name but was not seen as being motivated by ideology.

Weaponising antisemitism

A campaign by right-wing Liberals to link Muslims with fascism and anti-genocide demonstrations to antisemitism is on shaky ground.

As reported in the ABC:

‘An alleged former chief of the Nomads bike gang who is accused of orchestrating arson attacks on two businesses at Bondi Beach in Sydney's east has faced court.’

Much of the commentary has alluded to “ancient hatreds” and “a history of conflict” to explain antisemitic incidents, the underlying assumption being that the Muslims, who hate the Jews and have always done so, are somehow involved.

This is part of the Zionist propaganda used to explain why Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims in general oppose Israel. They avoid any discussion of the Nakba, Jewish supremacy laws or the occupation of Palestinian land.

Zionist propaganda tries to extend the antisemitism of Europe to the Muslim world and make it into a centuries-long horror.

Members of the Jewish community committed to truth tend to disrupt this narrative.

As written in The Jewish Chronicle:

Islam saved Jewry. This is an unpopular, discomforting claim in the modern world. But it is a historical truth. The argument for it is double. First, in 570 CE, when the Prophet Mohammad was born, the Jews and Judaism were on the way to oblivion. And second, the coming of Islam saved them, providing a new context in which they not only survived, but flourished, laying foundations for subsequent Jewish cultural prosperity - also in Christendom - through the medieval period into the modern world.

As the article continues, it points out that without Islam the separation of the Judaism of Babylon and the Judaism of Western Europe would have remained separated and would have disappeared from Europe.

Islamic Spain is often given as an example of the relations between Jews and Muslims, which is contrasted with relations between those communities and Catholic rule.

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Jewish leaders and scholars in the Muslim world

The chief minister of Muslim Granada, a poet and brilliant military leader, was Samuel Ha-Nagid, also known as Samuel ibn Naghrillah, in the 11th Century.

Ibn Hazm, a contemporary Islamic scholar of Spain, made the attitude of the time clear when he proclaimed:

‘Put your trust in a pious man, even if the religion that he practises is a different one from your own. Do not put your trust in anyone who scorns sacred things, even if he claims to belong to your own religion. As for a man who defies the commandments of the Almighty, do not ever trust him with anything you care greatly about.’

The great Jewish scholar Maimonides was born in Muslim Cordova in 1135.

When he was 13, the Almohades, a fanatical group from North Africa, took over from the ruling dynasty and persecuted Muslims and others who rejected them.

The family settled in Morocco, travelling to Palestine and then Egypt in 1165.

Apparently, Maimonides studied the great classical medical writers and Rhazes of Persia, Al-Farabi and Ibn Zuhr, the Spanish-Arabic physician.

When Saladin took over Egypt in 1171, he appointed Maimonides as his personal physician and Rais ul Yahud (leader of the Jewish community).

When he died in 1193, his son, Al-Afdal ibn Salah ad-Din, became Sultan. Maimonides, as court physician, had to care for the whole family, retainers and officers. It was in this period that he wrote his major works.

According to the National Library of Medicine:

‘At age 33, in the year 1168, shortly after settling in Fostat (old Cairo), he completed his first major work, the Commentary on the Mishnah. In 1178, ten years later, his magnum opus, the Mishneh Torah was finished.’

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Ethnic cleansing

On 31 March 1492, in the Alhambra’s Hall of the Ambassadors, Ferdinand and Isabella signed the Alhambra Decree, expelling the Jews from Spain. This document gave Spanish Jews four months — until 31 July. There had been a Jewish community there since Roman times.

The Doctrine of Purity of Blood was also established.

Jewish and Muslim “blood” was designated as tainted, inferior and ineradicable. Even baptism did not protect them.

As written in Ilmfeed:

‘As a response, the Caliph of the Islamic state, Sultan Bayezid II, sent out the Ottoman Navy under the command of Admiral Kemal Reis to Spain in order to evacuate them safely to Ottoman lands. More than 150,000 Jewish refugees sought refuge with the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan had sent out fermans (Imperial Edicts) throughout the Empire that the refugees were to be welcomed.’

The Sultan proclaimed that it was a Muslim responsibility ‘to take care of the descendants of the Prophets Abraham and Jacob, to see that they had food to eat...’

The governors of all the European provinces were instructed to receive Spanish refugees and to treat them well.

The establishment of Hertrzl’s Altneuland in Palestine, thanks to the Balfour Declaration and the British need for a friendly base near the Suez Canal, has disrupted relations with the section of the Jewish population that embraces Zionist Jewish supremacy and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

It cannot disrupt it entirely as the People of Earlier Revelations are respected on the authority of the Quran.

There are signs that the broad acceptance of the Zionist philosophy is being challenged by a growing number of Jewish scholars, of strictly Torah Jews and the general liberal-minded Jewish community.

The hard-line nationalist fanaticism of the present Israeli Government is repulsive not only to the world community, as reflected in UN General Assembly votes, but also to a growing proportion of Jews, both secular and religious.