Posted on 05/10/2002 9:04:13 AM PDT by swarthyguy
WASHINGTON, 10 May — The American Jewish Committee has issued an offensive new label for “the anti-Semitism raging though Arab and Muslim societies and infiltrating Europe.” The term is: “Islamic Fascism.”
Launching its new report entitled, “Muslim Anti-Semitism, A Clear and Present Danger,” at a press briefing at the National Press Club on Tuesday, the AJC author criticized Arabs and Muslims by drawing parallels between “Islamic Fascism” and Nazism, and said they are similar because of their “common search for world domination and their ruthlessness in its pursuit.”
“This is exactly what I’ve been warning my foreign ministry about for over a year,” said a European deputy chief of mission after reading the AJC releases. “This maliciousness is no longer limited to extremist Jewish groups on the East Coast, this mentality of hatred is now permeating the midlands of America. This is very disconcerting,” said the diplomat, who asked not to be identified.
“You don’t fight bigotry with bigotry. You don’t fight sweeping generalizations, stereotypes and prejudices with sweeping generalizations, stereotypes and prejudices,” Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman at the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, told Arab News. He said CAIR was banned by AJC from attending Tuesday’s briefing.
“Obviously, no one approves of anti-Semitism or anti-Semitic speech, but you have to be wary of lumping Israel’s brutal policies with anti-Semitism, they’re not the same thing,” said Hooper.
According to the author, Robert Wistrich, a Neuberger professor of Modern European and Jewish History at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, this parallel is “underscored” by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The AJC report, “traces the evolution of anti-Semitism in the Islamic world.”
The aim of “the Arab-Islamic anti-Semites,” Wistrich claimed, “is not simply to morally delegitimize Israel as a Jewish state and a nation entity in the Middle East, but to dehumanize Judaism and the Jewish people.”
“This publication is intended as the sounding of an alarm bell for a very clear and immediate threat to Jews worldwide — and, by extension, to democratic values as well,” said David Harris, executive director at the AJC.
“The latest battle is one that we have engaged fully, for it is at our doorstep as well as half a world away in the Middle East, and has also spread to Muslim communities from Europe to South Africa.”
In his analysis, the author notes past efforts by some Arabs and Muslims “to differentiate between anti-Semitism and the more politically correct anti-Zionism.” Wistrich says that differentiation “has been almost totally eroded, and the anti-Semitic virus has taken root in the body politic of Islam to an unprecedented degree.”
Harris and Wistrich’s main focus of alarm dealt with the Arab and Muslim press. Several examples were cited and distributed at the press briefing.
“The irresponsible speech in the Arab and Muslim world has caused problems that have to be addressed,” admitted CAIR’s Hooper.
Geez - it took the American Jewish Committee all this time to figure this out.
For over a year! Well....golly, this guy must be one of the brighter ones.
A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.
Oppressive, dictatorial control.
Virtually every Islamic society in the world clearly fits the definition.
ISLAM=FASCISM
luckyluke needs a dictionary.
In case you are not inclined to click, the ONLY definition offered is, "hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group".
You will also note the date of origin is 1882, which is when the Anti-Semitic party was founded in Germany. In short the word was specifically coined as a less harsh sounding synonym for the common term of the day, "Jew-Hatred" (Judenhass). It has never meant anything else. It does not now and never has denoted opposition to semites. It means hostility to JEWS.
And you're thinking, Geeze, at least ONE European diplomat "gets it," until...
"This maliciousness is no longer limited to extremist Jewish groups..."
It's so hard to read the news nowadays. I get headaches just from rolling my eyes and slapping my forehead.
I looked it up. You're right. I stand corrected.
I'm always amused by the near universal attempt to deflect accusations of anti-semitism with this worn-out canard.
Maybe they don't like themselves much, either.
In case you are not inclined to click, the ONLY definition offered is, "hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group".
Which in no way makes him wrong about the Arabs being semites.
FRom the Merriam-Webster Collegiate dictionary;
One entry found for Semite.
Main Entry: Sem·ite
Pronunciation: 'se-"mIt, esp British 'sE-"mIt
Function: noun
Etymology: French sémite, from Semitic Shem, from Late Latin, from Greek SEm, from Hebrew ShEm
Date: 1848
1 a : a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs b : a descendant of these peoples
2 : a member of a modern people speaking a Semitic language
Islamic Fascism is a blend of anti-Western, national socialism, and anti-Israel ideology.
Heh... heh. :-)
American Jews are hypocrites. It takes a pogrom to wake them up from their stupor.
The etymology of a word does not always decide its meaning. The term "anti-Semitism" was coined in 1879 by an Austrian journalist named Wilhelm Marr. Marr himself was an antisemite and the term was coined specifically as a term to denote the anti-Jewish beliefs he was commending. It has never been used any other way or to refer to hostility to any other group of "Semites." Hitler, who can surely be considered a classical antisemite, had no visible desire to exterminate Arabs, and was chummy with the Mufti of Jerusalem, the ideological founding father of the Palestinian movement.
However, if it seems tidier to you, you can just insert "exterminationist Judeophobia" or perhaps the more direct "murderous Jew-hatred" at all the points where the article talks about "antisemitism" among Arabs. The point is the same.
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