To advance interfaith understanding we need to do more than declare that Jews and Muslims are brothers, cousins -- Salam, Shalom! We need to build a real dialogue recognising that not everything was ever sweetness and light between Jews and Muslims. Dialogue based on an illusory past of peaceful coexistence under Muslim rule not only threatens to divide the Jewish community, but marginalises moderate anti-jihadist Muslims and Arabs, argues the French journalist Veronique Chemla in a key radio interview on the Nice-based Jewish station Chalom Nitsan.
Here is a summary in English of Veronique Chemla's interview:
Initiatives such as the 'islamically-correct' Aladdin project obscure the conflicts between Jews and Arabs/Muslims: Muslim antisemitism, dhimmitude, the links between Arab leaders and Nazism, notably Haj Amin al-Husseini's collaboration with Nazism, and the forgotten and largely forced exodus of around 900, 000 Jews from the Arab world between the 1940s and 1970s. One cannot begin by denying the history of Sephardi Jews - an integral part of Jewish history.
Through ignorance and fear of a clash with religious and political authorities, some are contributing to propagating this myth of harmonious and peaceful interfaith coexistence under Muslim rule. This 'islamically correct' narrative is in danger of splitting the Jewish community. The Jewish leadership finds itself at odds with ordinary Jews who have read published studies of these taboo topics (by Bat Ye’or, Alexandre del Valle, Pierre-André Taguieff, Shmuel Trigano, etc.) seen documentary films eg – La croix gammée et le turban, and heard lectures. These ordinary Jews are tempted to distance themselves increasingly from their leaders whose narrative does not reflect reality.
We need to go beyond the perennial We are brothers, cousins, shalom, salam! and engage in a real dialogue with the Muslim word in which we recognise what unites us but also what divides us. We need to air our disagreements in order to build enduring and deep relationships. Jihad targets 'Jews and Crusaders'. We need to enter into a real dialogue with Muslims and non-Muslims in order to make them understand the jihadist threat and build alliances with them.
Initiatives such as the 'islamically-correct' (anti-Holocaust denial) Aladdin project marginalise and isolate moderate Muslims and distance Jews from their anti-jihadist allies. It is not denial and revisionism which feeds antisemitism but the demonisation and delegitimisation of the State of Israel. There were 832 recorded acts of antisemitism in France in 2009 (354 in January alone), as against 474 for the whole of 2008.
Here is a summary in English of Veronique Chemla's interview:
Initiatives such as the 'islamically-correct' Aladdin project obscure the conflicts between Jews and Arabs/Muslims: Muslim antisemitism, dhimmitude, the links between Arab leaders and Nazism, notably Haj Amin al-Husseini's collaboration with Nazism, and the forgotten and largely forced exodus of around 900, 000 Jews from the Arab world between the 1940s and 1970s. One cannot begin by denying the history of Sephardi Jews - an integral part of Jewish history.
Through ignorance and fear of a clash with religious and political authorities, some are contributing to propagating this myth of harmonious and peaceful interfaith coexistence under Muslim rule. This 'islamically correct' narrative is in danger of splitting the Jewish community. The Jewish leadership finds itself at odds with ordinary Jews who have read published studies of these taboo topics (by Bat Ye’or, Alexandre del Valle, Pierre-André Taguieff, Shmuel Trigano, etc.) seen documentary films eg – La croix gammée et le turban, and heard lectures. These ordinary Jews are tempted to distance themselves increasingly from their leaders whose narrative does not reflect reality.
We need to go beyond the perennial We are brothers, cousins, shalom, salam! and engage in a real dialogue with the Muslim word in which we recognise what unites us but also what divides us. We need to air our disagreements in order to build enduring and deep relationships. Jihad targets 'Jews and Crusaders'. We need to enter into a real dialogue with Muslims and non-Muslims in order to make them understand the jihadist threat and build alliances with them.
Initiatives such as the 'islamically-correct' (anti-Holocaust denial) Aladdin project marginalise and isolate moderate Muslims and distance Jews from their anti-jihadist allies. It is not denial and revisionism which feeds antisemitism but the demonisation and delegitimisation of the State of Israel. There were 832 recorded acts of antisemitism in France in 2009 (354 in January alone), as against 474 for the whole of 2008.
The Aladdin got favorable exposure on the France24 broadcasting service. There is reason to think that it is French govt sponsored, likely by the foreign ministry.
ReplyDeleteAlexandre del Valle and Pierre-Andre Tagieff are not Jews but have written sympathetically about Israel's situation as a target of militant Islam and in the paranoid imagination of 21st century Judeophobes.
I have made some amendments to the translation which I hope clarifies any ambiguity.
ReplyDeleteOne myth which deserves to be shredded, is that of saintly Albanian Muslim treatment of Jews during the war.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, the Muslim campaign goes far beyond the Jewish Naqba and the myth of historical co-existence. Islam is actively attempting to eliminate all vestiges of Jewish national identity, by
- denying the three-millennia-long Jewish history
- denying the Jewish connection to the holy land
- usurping the identity of Jewish historical icons such as Rambam
- usurping the identity of Jewish cultural icons such as Ofra Haza
- destroying all traces of Jewish identity at Ezekiel's tomb
- destroying priceless archeological artifacts of Jewish identity under the Temple Mount
- demanding the elimination of Israel's Jewish identity
etc.
It's as if the Muslim world, having realised it cannot successfully implement the first half of the NSDAP programme (physical elimination), has decided to implement the second half (cultural elimination - erasing the Jews from history).
It's shocking and disgraceful that Jewish organisations collude in this, even in ignorance.
Izzat Darwaza
ReplyDeleteThe Arab War Effort: A Documented Account. United States: American Christian Palestine Committee, 1946, p. 7:
A group of Arab leaders was concentrated in Turkey where they conducted espionage activities on behalf of the Germans. Some of these sent to Germany intelligence received from agents in the different Arab countries was concentrated in Turkey.
Among them were: Izzat Darwaza, Akram Zuaytar, Muin al-Madi, Adil Arslan, Adil al-Azma, Nabih al-Azma and some of the Iraqi rebels. One group of Arab leaders did not succeed in reaching Germany, but was arrested by the British authorities in Iran and sent to Rhodesia. This group included Jamal al-Husseini, who was permitted to return to Palestine in 1946.
__
The Wiener Library bulletin. United Kingdom: 1961, p. 37:
The Moderm Arab Movement .
A Tale of Frustration. [Review on Muhammad Izrat Darwaza's book]:
"Unity, the author feels, will be achieved by gradually advancing education. He pleads that illiteracy be abolished, that schools be built, and life generally modelled on the Koran. Women should be educated too and allowed to take part in public life, though Government service should be open to them only if they have no other means of existence.
All public services must be drastically overhauled, he urges, adding the special point that gatherings of friends and acquaintances in Government offices must stop.
Some such reforms will strengthen the Arab cause, Darwaza thinks, and enable a nationalist generation to do away with that "stain of disgrace," the Jewish State . In a tirade of characteristic 'Arab antisemitism,' Darwaza :...
They are said to be seeking domination [Darwaza rants] over the Arabs just as they have done [Darwaza rants] in Germany before Hitler and as they were doing in the United States. "