Anti Semitism Revisited
by Samuel Tadros
My previous post on Anti-Semitism in Egypt created a lot of debate and was criticized by many people. That was not entirely unexpected.
I believe that people are blinded by their hatred to Israel and do not see that it has turned to hatred to Jews as Jews. This growing Anti-Semitism in Egypt and the Arab world in general largely remains unchallenged.
This media campaign has continued even after the Camp David Accords and the Peace Treaty with Israel. Even thought the government had officially made peace with Israel, it allowed Anti-Semitism to grow and flourish until it became impossible to distinguish between a person’s position towards Israel and his hatred to Jews. Myths like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion continued to be advocated reaching its climax in the October 2002 T.V. Drama.
The latest example of such failure to distinguish between the State of Israel and Judaism occurred in Rome. The leaders of the Muslim community in Rome, represented by the Islamic Cultural Center and its affiliated Rome Mosque, were scheduled to pay a visit to the Rome Synagogue. The visit was part of the continuous efforts on dialogue between religions. The visit was scheduled to take place on the 23rd of January, but was cancelled after Al Azhar intervened. While the Egyptian Ambassador to Italy denied such claims and stated that Al Azhar does not intervene in the administration of the Islamic Cultural Center, Al Azhar’s role was stated in an interview by Al Azhar’s Deputy Leader, Abdel Fattah Allam, in which he said that in Al Azhar we have a positive stand towards the dialogue between religions, but in regards to the dialogue between Islam and Judaism this is not an option until rights are returned to its rightful people.
It is of course eye catching that Al Azhar would intervene in the running of the main Islamic Center in Italy. This role of religious institutions in Egypt and Saudi Arabia has had a negative effect on Islamic centers and leaders in Europe and the US and has pushed them to more fundamentalist positions.
The question that haunts me is why Egyptians keep mixing up between their political position towards Israel and Jews. This failure to distinguish between a political stand and a hatred to Jews is a serious threat to all of us and should not be ignored.
As Martin Niemoller said in his famous poem:
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
We all stood silent when they targeted the Jews. We all stood silent when Egypt lost its Jewish population. We felt it wasn’t our problem and we not only didn’t care, we participated actively.
We all stood silent as the Shiite’s were arrested and tortured. We all stood silent when the Christians were denied their rights to build Churches. We all stood silent when the elections were forged. We all stood silent when political prisoners were tortured. And we are all standing now silent as the Baha’is are being denied their basic rights.
The question is when are we going to stand up and speak???