If I were a Jew, I would be a bit worried about many of the folks who express their passionate support for Israel or the US or Canada or “Our Way Of Life” by demonizing Islam.
Humanity doesn’t change much from generation to generation, or, for that matter, from culture to culture. Fear of “the other” is hardwired into our species: a major function of “civilization” is the creation of systems (religion and law being two of them) that give human intelligence precedence over that little reptile who lives in our amygdalae, screaming “Different? KILL!” At their most basic level, these systems mediate the relationships between people: and over the millenia it’s interesting to note that our laws and our religions are evolving, with excruciating slowness, away from world in which hatred of the other is a given. The Old and New Testaments each portray very different ways of relating to “the Other”.
However “civilized” we get, though, we still hear the whisper of the reptile within. All of us. And there’s always an “Other” to fear or to hate.
The current crop of Islam haters profess the noblest of motives. Patriotism. Support for Israel. Concern over the rights of women. Those are all worthy ideals. Unfortunately, in many cases, those expressions of pious concern seem oddly incongruous. Many of the folks who are now weeping bitter tears over the oppression of women in Iran, for instance, are the same folks who’d forbid them to emigrate, or deny them daycare funding to enable them to work or go to school, or cut funding for women’s shelters in Canada.
It’s hard to believe that these folks are actually doing anything more noble than indulging in a little virtuous hatred.
They come in a range of flavours. Some are simply stupid, thuggish hatemongers. Some are articulate, and try to qualify their hatred with modifiers; they’ll tell you they have nothing against “the so-called moderated Muslims, if they really exist”. Some are quite blunt in their hatred, and some very quiet…they just provide link after link after link to other hatemongers, without the guts to actually take responsibility by articulating their hatred themselves.
But here’s what they all have in common. They believe you can classify a human collective as evil, by race or by religion or by ethnic origin. They believe that your memberhip in a particular religion is all they need to know about you in order to judge and despise you.
No human tribe is immune to group-hate, either as victim or as perpetrator. It’s not the exclusive property of any race, religion, or end of the political spectrum. It’s funny to see right wingers and left wingers vying to ascribe inherent “anti-Semitism” to each other - or it would be funny, if it didn’t illustrate how low political discourse has sunk.
Of all groups on earth, one would think that the Jews would understand this. Here we have a nation, a religion and a culture that lived in exile and under brutal oppression for millenia - the favourite “Evil Other” for Europe and Christianity, the whipping boy of czars, princes, and priests whenever a “Scary Dangerous Outsider” was needed. Portrayed as secretive, murderous, treacherous, conspiratorial, and of course, obsessed with World Conquest. They can’t be trusted, you know - they CLAIM to be good citizens, but we all know where their loyalty REALLY lies.
Now, of course, we have Islam, the New Enemy of Mankind. Secretive, murderous, treacherous, conspiratorial, and of course, obsessed with World Conquest. They can’t be trusted, you know - they CLAIM to be good citizens, but we all know where their loyalty REALLY lies.
A depressingly large number of people are discovering how much fun virtuous hatred of The Other can be - and a depressingly large number of Jewish pundits and bloggers seem to be joining in, and fanning the flames.
What’s ironic about that, of course, is that the Jewish pundits who cheer on the Islamophobes are encouraging exactly the same folks who partied on Kristallnacht, who burned the shtetls, who dropped the black ball during the membership vote.
The target may change - the hate goes on forever. Be careful of your new buddies, my Jewish friends.
Bablucian:
Is there something specific you saw from someone or a group in the news that you’re referring to with this column?