Muslim Anti-Semitism is a very real, but whether or not hatred of Jews is either typical among contemporary Muslims, at least in America, or reflective of traditional Islam, is another story. That appraisal probably disturbs people on each side, with half already screaming that I am an Islamaphobe and the other half that I am a shill for the Muslim community.
Whether my assessment is correct or not, one thing is for certain: no problem, whether between individuals, communities or nations, gets better until each side can imagine that they are more guilty than they like to admit and that the other side is not as bad as they like to imagine. And all the attempts to avoid that, however well-intentioned, simply fuel the fires of hatred and suspicion on both sides.
Beliefnet's Islam editor Dilshad Ali shared with me a piece by Muslim Next Door author, Sumbul Ali-Karamali which falls prey to some of that avoidance. Ms. Ali-Karamali largely ignores the real challenges of Muslim anti-Semitism, opting instead to explain how hatred of Jews has no place in classical Islam and has been rarely manifested among Muslims. And as beautiful as her conclusions are, it makes me wonder what she could be thinking.
Even if one makes a solid case for the relative merits of Islam over Christianity vis a vis the past treatment of Jews, which is entirely appropriate, we can not ignore the second-class status imposed upon Jews even under the crescent. Of course, as Ali-Karamali proudly points out, Jews were honored as people of the book, but they were hardly equal citizens. Jews were also relegated to the status of protected minorities forced to pay a Jewish head tax.
A good comparison may be to the status of Black Americans living under Jim Crow laws in more tolerant communities. Her failure to point that out turns her reflections on Muslim anti-Semitism into little more than patting her own tradition on the back, and misses an important opportunity for the kind of balanced exploration which is needed if she wants to be heard by those she hopes to convince.
But I guess that's the point. She is trying to convince, not to explore a serious problem.
It's not unlike Jews failing to see how windy speeches about the Bible's commandments assuring full legal equality to all who live in the land of Israel, do not prove that Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews are always treated equally.
From Muslim/non-Muslim intermarriage to the history of Muslim leaders during the Holocaust, her work is both historically inaccurate and in the same direction. That will simply not get the job done, if the job is really to make things genuinely better and not simply to convince those outside a community that they have nothing about which to worry.
I agree with Ms. Ali-Karamali that the real issue is choice. We all need to make choices about how to tell the story of our people. W all need to know that any telling in which we are always the innocent misunderstood ones is likely to be very wrong and can be very dangerous.
I believe that the future to which both Ms. Ali-Karamali and I aspire is probably quite similar and even attainable. But getting there will require a much more honest confrontation with the past. It will require cultivating a love of the traditions we follow based on their ability to attain that longed-for future, despite the fact that they have more than a few dark moments in that past which we must confront.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
This 'Jewish head tax' to which the Rabbi refers is erroneous and inflammatory. There was no tax applied specifically to Jews. The jizya tax--made much of by Islamophobes, racists and other alarmists--applied to all non-Muslims (including both Christians and Jews) under Muslim rule. The reason it was applied at all is because non-Muslims don't have to pay the (much higher) mandatory zakat tax that Muslims must pay!
The zakat tax (still mandatory for all Muslims who are able to pay) goes toward the Muslim poor, in a system similar to modern welfare. Very sensibly, Shari'a stipulates that non-Muslims should not have to pay it--but they must still be taxed for the maintenance of the state, just as we are all taxed today. This is the sum total of the jizya tax.
There WAS a Jewish head tax in many parts of medieval Christian Europe, which Rabbi Hirschfield fails to mention.
If the goal is greater honesty, Rabbi, we should be able to hold you to the same standard to which you hold us.
There was a time, long ago, when Muslims and Jews lived together in high scholarship and understanding, much higher than the scholarship of Christianity (e.g., Maimonodes). There was a time, long ago, when Christians and Jews, infidels, were "tolerated" by Islam, but had to pay high taxes. There was a time when both Muslims and Jews were called heritics by Christians (in Spain), and were expelled, exiled, or forced to convert during the Inquisition. There was a time when Christians killed the Jews while crossing through Europe to kill the Muslims who controlled the Holy Land. There was a time when Christians killed Jews, believing that they sacrificed children and killed Christ. There was a time when Europeans decided to eliminate Jews alltogethr. There was a time when Zionists determined to settle Palestine, unaware that the Arab population could not coexist with them. History has so may faces! Lucy
Dear Rabbi Hirschfield,
I do appreciate your broad point; self-critiquing is needed on both sides. However, this small point is misleading, and requires more thinking: "Jews were also relegated to the status of protected minorities forced to pay a Jewish head tax." The head tax a) was imposed (and not in every country or era) on Christians as well, and in india on Hindus, so you cannot say Jews were singled out, or that this was anti-Semitic; and b) was a replacement for military service, which was required of Muslims, as was the higher tax of zakat. The jizya, or "head tax" was not intended as a derogatory mark in the earliest instances to my knowledge but was part of a broader norm of tribal practices. One thing to do is to compare how the Jews were treated in various historical Muslim states to how they were being treated at the same time in history by any other people. There were far worse things than being a "protected minority." This may not measure up to modern secular democratic pluralism, but it was an mprovement on how Jews were treated in nearly every Christian polity in history up until modern times, and nearly everywhere else except perhaps in Persia under Cyrus.
Perhaps it is handed down in the Jewish community that "we had to pay a head tax under the Muslims" and people saying it did not realize that this was not a tax the Jews were singled out for. This is like the person who describes the elephant as being one long wet trunk, because that is the only part they touched. It does not describe the whole picture.
Respectfully,
Mohja
ps The first synagogue in my Arkansas hometown is being built (profits donated) by a Palestinian Muslim!
pps May I also urge you to consider acknowledging "Palestinians" in Israel, not just "Israeli Arabs."
Rabbi Hirschfield,
I wrote ten questions for Ms. Ali-Karamali, including one that addresses the plight of Jews under Islam:
http://revuse.wetpaint.com/page/Ten+Questions+for+the+Muslim+Next+Door
Here's Robert Spencer's take:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/023818.php
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.