Self-Criticism and Confronting Anti-Semitism

Author(s):  
Ronen A. Cohen

Much has been said and written about anti-Semitism in the Islamic and Arab world, concerning its roots and its significance in political life all over the Arab world and beyond. However, within the volume of religious and secular ideas of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Arab and Islamic world, we can find few voices that express views that contrast the deep-rooted conventional hatred toward Jews. These voices present a tolerant and inclusive approach that opposes both religious and secular anti-Semitism. This study focuses on anti-Semitism in the Islamic world, presenting rather the other voices in the Arab world, those that oppose anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-550
Author(s):  
Azmi Bishara

This article tackles the historical basis and development of the issue of anti-Semitism and examines its perception and impact in the Arab world. The author argues persuasively that anti-Semitism is specific to European racism against Jews. He does not attempt to deflect the term by arguing, as some have done, that Arabs are a Semitic people, but rather unequivocally condemns anti-Semitism and racism of any sort. The author debunks major myths or misconceptions about anti-Semitism and deals frankly with questions of its political utility with regard to Zionism, Israel and Palestine. In the present day, Holocaust denial is unconscionable and, in the end, is not only morally unacceptable, but in the words of the author ‘just plain stupid’. The author castigates Arab and Muslim groups which may take such a stance, arguing that the correct response and Arab reaction to the Holocaust was the simple, straightforward and rational one – a European tragedy, but not one for which the Arabs should assume responsibility.


2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilbert Achcar

The specificity of the type of Holocaust denial on the rise in Arab countries since the 1980s is explored in contradistinction to Western Holocaust denial. The latter, rooted in anti-Semitism, is a substitute for open hatred of the Jews in countries where this hatred has not been tolerated since World War II. Holocaust denial in Arab countries, on the other hand, finds its roots in Israel's exploitation of the Holocaust for political purposes. It also serves as a simplistic explanation for Western support of the Zionist state and as an outlet for frustrations created by Israel's oppressive supremacy.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 63-89
Author(s):  
Mohammed El-Msaoui

Many debates between Islamists and secularists have taken place in the Arab political sphere with the aim of building bridges of communication between the two actors who contributed to the transformations that have taken place in the Arab world. Despite the multiple dialogues between Islamists and secularists, conflict and tension have prevailed on both sides, with conflict taking on all forms of material and moral violence. One of the most significant indicators of the crisis in communication is the emergence of violence. That being so, this study broaches the problem using Habermas’s basic idea, which focuses on violence as a disease of human discourse and communication. According to Habermas, violence is the result of distorted discourse between fundamentalists and others; it is a distorted discourse because it does not recognize the other as it is. The study employs the Habermas communicative action theory as a central concept. Accordingly, Habermas’s theory of communication is invoked to understand the causes of the escalation of violence in the Arab political sphere.


Author(s):  
Harith Qahtan Abdullah

Our Islamic world passes a critical period representing on factional, racial and sectarian struggle especially in the Middle East, which affects the Islamic identification union. The world passes a new era of civilization formation, and what these a new formation which affects to the Islamic civilization especially in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon. The sectarian struggle led to heavy sectarian alliances from Arab Gulf states and Turkey from one side and Iran states and its alliances in the other side. The Sunni and Shia struggle are weaken the World Islamic civilization and it is competitive among other world civilization.


TAJDID ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Ahmad Tholabi Kharlie

Tafsîr al-Manar is one of the most popular exegesis of the Qur`anic studies. Al-Manar magazine, which contains this interpretation periodically, namely in the early 20th century, is widespread throughout the Islamic world and has an important role in enlightening thoughts and religious counseling. The influence of Sheikh Muhammad Abduh, along with his student, Sayyid Muhammad Rasyîd Ridhâ, on the development of religious thought in the Islamic world, thus, cannot be underestimated.This article is a result of a previous study of the Qur’an exegesis method of the two prominent Muslim scholars, Muhammad Abduh and Muhammad Rashid Ridha. The study reveals two main conclusions, they are (1) personally both Muhammad Abduh and Muhammad Rashid Ridha are independent who have extensive, well-known, and versatile insight and knowledge, have personality traits that are steady, honest, brave, passionate, intelligent, determined, and a number of other advantages, like other leading commentator (2) Al-manâr book, with its superiorities, is well recognized as a monumental work that broadly contributes to the development of Islamic thought, particularly in modern exegesis field. In regard to exegesis of Qur’anic legal verses, though it is not a special legal book, Al-manâr is able to explain deeply and comprehensively the Qur’anic legal verses just like the other legal exegesis works.


2004 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Herb

Several Arab monarchies have held reasonably free elections to parliaments, though all remain authoritarian. This article compares the Arab monarchies with parliaments in other parts of the world, including both those that became democracies, and those that did not. From this I derive a set of prerequisites, potential pitfalls, and expected stages in the monarchical path toward democracy. This helps us to understand not only the democratic potential of the parliamentary experiments in the Arab monarchies, but also the role these parliaments play in the political life of these authoritarian regimes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-208
Author(s):  
Mitri Raheb

Abstract Peace between Israel and the Arab world appears to be progressing like never before. It started with the UAE, followed by Bahrain and Morocco, and then with Sudan. A “new” Middle East is finally becoming a reality. Yet, on the other hand, the colonization of Palestinian land is progressing at full speed ever since President Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the American Embassy there. During both the Embassy move and the so-called Abraham Accords with Arab countries and throughout the Trump era, biblical language has been employed. This paper will examine these political developments and biblical connotations. At the heart of the issue lies the question of what constitutes real peace. This paper argues that ‘the deal of the century’ was a form of Pax Romana rather than Pax Christi.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-69
Author(s):  
Ibrahima Sarr

Senegal is a melting pot of several civilizations mainly originated from the West (Europe) and the East (the Arab world). Assuming that language and culture are intrinsically related, the settlement of those people and their status as dominant minority sparked and strengthened the use of their languages in formal domains. In the long ran, as they became domesticated, thus now considered African languages because they have contributed to mold the cultural identity of younger generation, they involve in all linguistic interaction. Arab, in its classical form, remains a symbol of Islam which earns it a certain degree of sacredness. Nevertheless the contact situation with the other languages forced it to crossbreed in special ways like borrowings and interferences. As for the other foreign languages, namely French, English, Spanish, and German at a least extent, they are made to carry the weight of local cultures.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
EkramBadr El-din ◽  
Mohamed Dit Dah Ould Cheikh

The current study tries to examine the military coups that have occurred in Turkey and Mauritania. These coups differ from the other coups that occurred in the surrounding countries in the phase of democratization as these coups served as a hindrance to the process of democratization in Turkey and Mauritania. The problem of the study revolves around the analysis of the coups that happened in Turkey and Mauritania in the phase of democratic transition. The research is designed to answer the following question: what are the reasons that prompted the military establishment to intervene in political life in the shadow of the process of democratization in Turkey and Mauritania? The study aims at understanding reasons that pushed the military establishment to intervene in the political life. To discuss this phenomenon and achieve the required results, the analytical descriptive approach is adopted for concluding key results that may contribute to understand reasons that pushed the military establishment to intervene in the political life in Turkey and Mauritania in the aftermath democratization occurred in the two countries. The study concluded that the military establishment in both countries engaged in the political action and became ready to militarily intervene in the case of harming its interests and acquisitions. 


Human Affairs ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Skowroński

AbstractIn the present paper, the author looks at the political dimension of some trends in the visual arts within twentieth-century avant-garde groups (cubism, expressionism, fauvism, Dada, abstractionism, surrealism) through George Santayana’s idea of vital liberty. Santayana accused the avant-gardists of social and political escapism, and of becoming unintentionally involved in secondary issues. In his view, the emphasis they placed on the medium (or diverse media) and on treating it as an aim in itself, not, as it should be, as a transmitter through which a stimulating relationship with the environment can be had, was accompanied by a focus on fragments of life and on parts of existence, and, on the other hand, by a de facto rejection of ontology and cosmology as being crucial to understanding life and the place of human beings in the universe. The avant-gardists became involved in political life by responding excessively to the events of the time, instead of to the everlasting problems that are the human lot.


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