Anti-Semitism, Semitism, Terrorism and Islam
Mohammad Ali Salih, since 1980, Washington, DC, full-time correspondent for major Arabic newspapers in the Middle East
— — — — — — — — — — -
Summary:
1. Semitism is more than about Jews (and Arabs); it is about the Bible and the Quran: Prophet Sam is the father of Semitism.
2. Antisemitism is more than anti-Jews (and anti-Arab); it could be anti-Bible and anti-Quran.
3. Westerners, moving away from religions, have neglected religious Semitism.
— — — — — — — — — — — —
In May, 2024, I started a silent, lonely and occasional “jihad” in front of the White House, holding a huge banner, hovering over my head, with three questions on each side: “What Is Semitism?”, “What Is Terrorism?” and “What Is Islam?”
In 2008, I did the same, but with only two questions: “What Is Terrorism?” and “What Is Islam?”
Then, as now, I resorted to this physical expression of my opinions because major American newspapers refused to publish my critical opinions about these specific issues. Also, this time, some social platforms sent me warnings and suspensions.
In 2010, in an opinion in “The Washington Post” with the title “Why I hold a jihad at the White House,” I wrote: “Since Sept. 11, 2001, I have felt sadness, anger and frustration because of what I had come to believe were President George W. Bush’s subtle wars on Muslims. Because I had no outlet for this opinion in U.S. newspapers, I launched my one-man campaign.”
In 2023, I felt vindicated when a report by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs “Costs of War” project said that “905,000–940,000 the number of people killed directly in the violence of the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere.” The report added that “several times as many more have been killed as a reverberating effect of the wars — because, for example, of water loss, sewage and other infrastructural issues, and war-related disease.”
Part of that opinion in “The Washington Post” could address the current campus student protests, which I strongly support, but believe it should have been peaceful: “I wasn’t a stereotypical demonstrator. No shouting, arguing and marching. I wasn’t wearing jeans and raising handwritten slogans; nor did I camp in front of the White House or chain myself to the fence. Believing that my conduct was part of my message, I dressed in dark suits, refused to engage in discussions, and only briefly and quietly answered questions.”
— — — — — — — — —
Antisemitism
In May, 2024, continuing my “What Is Terrorism?” and “What Is Islam?” I added “What Is Semitism?” because I believe that the centuries-old discussion about “Antisemitism” has largely ignored “Semitism” itself: The belief among followers of the Bible and the Quran in Shem (Sam in Arabic), the son of Noah, as a prophet, and as the father of the “Semitic People” that include the Jews, the Arabs and some other Middle Eastern groups.
During the 19th Century, when the term “Antisemitism” first started in the West, it involved two forms of discrimination: against the Jews, and against religions — part of secularism that has been increasing since then.
In my banner, “What Is Semitism?” reflects the irony of discussing “Antisemitism” and ignoring “Semitism” — discussing the counter-point and ignoring the point itself.
I start with definitions of “Antisemitism.”
First, the Oxford Dictionary: “Prejudice, hostility, or discrimination towards Jewish people on religious, cultural, or ethnic grounds; anti-Jewish.”
Second, Encyclopedia Britannica: “Hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious or racial group.”
Third, the definition of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) added “description of antisemitism in its various forms, including Holocaust denial, prejudices against Jews, and the denial of Israel’s right to exist.”
Fourth, U.S. State Department’s “working definition”: “A certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews …”
Fifth, the definition that was recently passed by the House of Representatives included “claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel.”
— — — — — — — — -
Semitism
First, the Oxford Dictionary, after saying that “Semitism” is a “cultural characteristic attributed to the Semitic peoples, especially in ancient times,” declares that the term is “obsolete, rare.”
Second, Cambridge Dictionary, avoiding the religious definition, declares that “Semitic people belong to one of the groups that speak Semitic language.”
Third, Merriam Webster Dictionary, also avoiding the religious definition, says “a Samite is a member of a modern people speaking a Semitic language.”
Fourth, Wikipedia declares that “Semitic people or Semites is an obsolete term for an ethnic, cultural or racial group associated with people of the Middle East.”
Gemini, Google’s AI: “Semitism is rarely used today. The more common term for Jewish culture and traditions is Judaism.” And ChatGPT: “The term ‘Semitism’ is not as commonly used or recognized as its counterpart, ‘anti-Semitism’”
Another irony: Belittling, or cancelling, the Bible’s definition of “Semitism” has been accompanied by accusing the Bible of being “antisemitic”:
First, a search in Google brought up many topics with titles like “Antisemitism in the New Testament;” and “Christianity and the Origins of Antisemitism.”
Second, a search in Amazon Books, brought up many titles like “Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate” and “Christian Antisemitism: Confronting the Lies in Today’s Church.”
— — — — — — — — —
Muslims’ “Antisemitism”
On the steps of the above-mentioned campaign of “antisemitism” in the Bible, the Quran has its share, which is limited because of the Westerners’ less knowledge of the Quran — worsening the bias.
Searching Amazon Books, there are titles like: “The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History” and “The Sons of Pigs and Apes: Muslim Antisemitism and the Conspiracy of Silence.”
Then, there was Bernard Lewis, a prominent Jewish American professor who died a few years ago, and wrote about 30 books on Islam and Muslims, including: “The Cambridge History of Islam”; “The Jews of Islam”; “Islam and the West”: and “Semites and Anti-Semites”.
Although these titles are less extreme than the earlier ones, Lewis’ academic interest in Islam and Muslims was very much clouded by his negative opinions about Muslims and Arabs, particularly accusing them of being antisemitism. In one of his above books, he elaborately argued that anti-Semitism has reached “tidal proportions … (and) some Arab countries, now joined by Iran, have become the main centers of international Anti Semitism.”
Another irony, illustrated in Lewis’ own writings, is that most of these accusations were raised after the establishment of Israel in 1948, whereas, historically, greater tolerance for Jews by Muslims was documented. Lewis wrote in “The Jews of Islam”: “Generally, the Jewish people were allowed to practice their religion and live according to the laws and scriptures of their community.”
— — — — — — — — —
Religions in the West
Westerners’ secularism and moving away from religions have been reflected in their concept of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute: it is more about nationalism (a homeland for the Jews) than about religion (historical wars and conflicts among Jews, Christians and Muslims).
According to a 2021 report by the Pew Research Center, American Jews have, also, been moving away from their religion; the headline was: “Jews in U.S. are far less religious than Christians and Americans overall …”
This has been reflected in the Jews’ secularization of two subjects:
First, antisemitism is not particularly a religious issue.
Second, Israel is not particularly a religious country.
Another irony is that the accusations of antisemitism among Arabs and Muslims have been more religious than secular, exploiting the many Quranic anti-Jewish verses. And that has been serving two important goals, particularly after the establishment of Israel in 1948:
First, to convince Jews who were living for centuries in Arab and Muslim lands to move to Israel.
Second, to gain more support in the West where there has been an abundance of negative stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims.
— — — — — — — — — —
The Quran
On the other side, many Arabs, and non-Arab Muslims, strongly influenced by the Quran, believe the Israel-Palestinian dispute has been more about religion, and less about nationalism.
About one-third of the Quran is, directly and indirectly, about the Jews, most of it negative — with repeated references to the Jews as “killers of prophets.” These accusations were elaborated in the Jewish Virtual Library website, where this verse was high-lightened: “Allah has cursed them on account of their unbelief.”
According to Jordan-based “Mawdoo3” Arabic major website, the Quran doesn’t elaborate on Sam and Semitism as the Bible does, but pays respect to Sam and other Noah’s children as fathers of their respective descendants. Scholars of the Quran, usually using the Bible to help them in explaining the Quran, believe that the children were prophets in their own rights.
A Hadith attributed to the First Arab, Prophet Muhammad, said: “Sam is the father of the Arabs, Ham of the Ethiopians (Africans) and Japheth of the Romans (Westerners).”
Muhammad’s ancestors are believed to go back to Sam, through Abraham, the other father of the Jews and the Arabs.
The connections between the Quran and Arabism, as in the Quran’s repeated pride itself for being sent in Arabic, and its many stories about Arabs, has made “Semitism” more than just about the Arabs and the Jews. It implies, particularly for many non-Arab Muslims, the religion of Sam, and other Sematic prophets, many of them are mentioned in the Quran.
— — — — — — — — —
Sam’s Grave
In non-Arab Muslim Iran, there is a site near Semnan, east of the capital Tehran, that is believed to be Sam’s grave, according to “Alwifaq” Iranian newspaper. It is an elaborate mosque and shrine, said to being visited by many pilgrims.
In Muslim-Christian Lebanon, there is a site in Shmestar, in the eastern part of the country, that is believed to be, also, Sam’s grave, according to “Mazarat, “ a YouTube channel.
In Christian Armenia, a visiting American archaeologist wrote, in 2017, in TheologyArchaeology website, about his documentation of writings showing the grave of Sam, near the capital Yerevan.
American Mark Twain’s book, published in 1869, described his visit to a site in Lebanon that said to be of Noah, and that “Shem, the son of Noah, was present at the burial, and showed the place to his descendants, who transmitted the knowledge to their descendants, and the lineal descendants of these introduced themselves to us to-day.”
Obviously, there are many graves and supposed-graves in the Middle East of prophets of the Bible and the Quran, but these about Sam illustrate that he was, more than the father of Jews and Arabs, a great prophet. And that Semitism is a more religious term than its Western secular meanings, as shown above.
— — — — — — — — — -
“Orientalism”
In 1978, Edward Said, a Palestinian-American professor, published “Orientalism,” a pioneering book about the subject, in which he declared that “The Orient and Islam have a kind of extrareal, phenomenologically reduced status that puts them out of reach of everyone except the Western experts.”
Now, as the Israel-Hamas war continues, some of these “Western experts” remembered Said’s courageous books and lectures. But, instead of them all resorting to the historical “European-Atlantic power over the Orient that was permanent, lasting, and self-renewing (Said’s words),” a few of those experts seem to have taken an exception.
For Said, orientalism was the source of antisemitism because the Jews were perceived by many 19the European intelligentsia as belonging to an inferior oriental culture — which included the Arabs.
As expected, Said, a Semite, was severely attacked for being antisemitic (even anti-American), but, until his death he remained the courageous Palestinian, as in famous debates with the above-mentioned professor Bernard Lewis.
Said didn’t elaborate on religious Semitism, but he, a Christian, wrote a book in 1981: “Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World.”
— — — — — — — — -
Arab Social Media
Religious Semitism, as mentioned before, has been, historically, closely related to Islam.
Far away from Israel, non-Arab Muslims, mostly in South Asia, in India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia, totaling about 900 million, because of their strong belief in the Quran, seem to believe more than the Arabs themselves that the conflict with Israel has been more about religion than about nationalism.
Many writers in Arabic in social media, refute the Western neglect of religious Semitism and confining the meaning of Semitics mostly to languages.
These are some Arabic comments on the subject:
In 2017, a report in the website of the Palestinian Center for Israeli Studies: “While the Jews in the U.S. are moving away from their (Semitic) religion, they are complaining for being attacked for being Semitics.”
In 2019, an opinion in Qatari daily newspaper “Alwatan”: “It is not only wrong, but, also, laughable that antisemitism is being directed against us the Arabs, while we have always been Semites.”
In 2021, an opinion in Saudi “Alarabiya” TV Network: “The Westerners’ demonization of the Jews was because they were an internal thread, and of the Arabs was because they were an external one.”
Last March, an opinion in Qatar-based “Aljazeera” Network: “The Western secularization of “Semitism” has been because, not only them, but also the Jews themselves, were moving away from religion.”
Finally, some books have been written about philosemitism, the opposite of antisemitism, in “defense, love, or admiration of Jews and Judaism,” quoting one of those books. Philosemitism “can indeed easily recycle antisemitic themes, recreate Jewish otherness, or strategically compensate for Holocaust guilt.”
The Arabs and the Muslims, because they didn’t, a long time ago, move to Europe like the Jews, didn’t suffer from discrimination, pogroms and “holocaust.” But the Europeans invaded their lands, colonized, killed, jailed and humiliated them for centuries.
It is time to, also, apply philosemitism to the Arabs and the Muslims.
============
“The Washington Post”: My first White House “Jihad,” 2008
============
“Medium” Magazine: My second White House “Jihad”, Wednesday, June 29, 2024
https://mohammadalisalih.medium.com/press-conference-in-front-of-the-white-house-40e6fe5d9f96
=============
