Modern communications, and the important work of organizations like the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), have provided us with a view of the violent anti-Semitism that motivates much of the Arab world. recent footage, out of a pre-war Iraqi mosque, is new only in its dramatic quality; yet, it is still chilling to watch. It is powerful enough to transport the viewer back in time to the streets of Germany before World War II, as Adolph Hitler roused thousands to spontaneous chants of ?Heil Hitler!?, or to an Eastern European Jewish village 150 years ago as pogromists rampaged through.
The Moslem religious leader - the imam - stands before a crowded, central mosque. He begins a standard tirade against America, his tone and voice slowly rising. Then, quickly, almost surreptitiously, he mentions ?the Jews? and rants against them, becoming more and more animated. Arms shaking as he leans on what appears to be his walking stick, he calls on Moslems to battle against the Americans and the Jews. He paraphrases from the Hadith (the oral traditions attributed to Mohammad or his followers), saying, ?[The day will come when] a rock will say, ?Oh Moslem! There is a Jew behind me! Come, cut off his head!?? With that, the imam suddenly draws a long sword from his ?walking stick? scabbard and wildly waves it in the air, chanting, ?Oh Jews! Allah hu Akbar! Allah hu Akbar (Allah is great)!? The frenzied worshipers in the mosque spontaneously and thunderously chant along with the sword-waving imam, ?Allah hu Akbar! Allah hu Akbar!?
After that bone-chilling image faded, it was quickly replaced by another one that was, in some ways, far more worrisome. In France, during one of the massive rallies ostensibly protesting the war against the Saddam Hussein dictatorship, marchers waved aloft a banner that featured, among uniquely grotesque anti-American sketches, a Star of David with a Nazi swastika in its center. There is a historical perversity involved in ?peace protesters? portraying the Jews as the new Nazis, rather than the sword-waving imam and his colleagues throughout the Middle East.
Meanwhile, in England, Moslems and others chanted ?Death to Israel!? as they marched alongside mainstream, left-wing politicians against a US-led war on Iraq. The leftist British politicians, presumably, turned a stone-dead blind eye to their fellow ?peaceniks?, or maybe they didn?t really care one way or another - or worse. In the past, Western, intellectual Jew-hatred - disguised as anti-Zionism - served to legitimize and prettify the more visceral, bloodthirsty hatred promoted and practiced in the Arab world. However, now, even the line between effete, intellectualized hatred and the old-fashioned barbaric variety is non-existent.
The public sphere of the Arab world promotes anti-Semitism, hatred of the West and unbridled violence. Friday sermons in the Arab world periodically include variations of the fervent prayer voiced not long ago by a Qatari imam: ?O God, destroy the aggressor, treacherous Jews. O God, destroy the aggressor Americans. O God, destroy the fanatic pagans. O God, destroy the tyrannical Crusaders.? The Arab media throughout the Middle East regularly broadcasts calls for destruction of the Jews, promotes blood libels, supports terrorism and features religious incitement.
In fact, it may be argued, there is no difference between most of the Arab world today - in all of its various dictatorial incarnations - and the German state under Adolph Hitler. Read that again, carefully. There is no difference - in terms of murderous anti-Semitism, in terms of totalitarianism, in terms of paranoid views of the outside world - between most of the Arab world today and Europe under the Third Reich. It is no accident that Hitler?s Mein Kampf sells so well throughout the Middle East; Nazi Germany?s kampf (struggle) has today been replaced by an Arab jihad (struggle). And once again, it is against the Jews.
?I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator. By struggling against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord,? Hitler wrote. Similarly, the Hamas Covenant says that Arab Islamic groups ?are best equipped for their future role in the fight against the warmongering Jews.? Less circumspect jihad enthusiasts write of eventually ?knocking on the doors of the churches with the skulls of the Jews.?
All of this is not to say that every Arab is a Nazi, but then, not every German was a Nazi, either; and yet, the Allies bombed, burned and occupied the German state nonetheless, for only in that way could the malignancy of Nazism be decidedly eradicated from Europe. In the Arab world, the elimination of regimes such as those of Saddam Hussein or Yasser Arafat will go a long way towards achieving a similarly critical de-Nazification.
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Nissan Ratzlav-Katz is opinion editor at IsraelNationalNews.com - Arutz Sheva. His commentaries have been published internationally and translated into several languages. He can be reached at opinion@IsraelNN.com or through his homepage, www.nrk-online.com.
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Spend Passover with Arutz Sheva at a resort in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Kfar Pines (near Hadera). Click here for info.
The Moslem religious leader - the imam - stands before a crowded, central mosque. He begins a standard tirade against America, his tone and voice slowly rising. Then, quickly, almost surreptitiously, he mentions ?the Jews? and rants against them, becoming more and more animated. Arms shaking as he leans on what appears to be his walking stick, he calls on Moslems to battle against the Americans and the Jews. He paraphrases from the Hadith (the oral traditions attributed to Mohammad or his followers), saying, ?[The day will come when] a rock will say, ?Oh Moslem! There is a Jew behind me! Come, cut off his head!?? With that, the imam suddenly draws a long sword from his ?walking stick? scabbard and wildly waves it in the air, chanting, ?Oh Jews! Allah hu Akbar! Allah hu Akbar (Allah is great)!? The frenzied worshipers in the mosque spontaneously and thunderously chant along with the sword-waving imam, ?Allah hu Akbar! Allah hu Akbar!?
After that bone-chilling image faded, it was quickly replaced by another one that was, in some ways, far more worrisome. In France, during one of the massive rallies ostensibly protesting the war against the Saddam Hussein dictatorship, marchers waved aloft a banner that featured, among uniquely grotesque anti-American sketches, a Star of David with a Nazi swastika in its center. There is a historical perversity involved in ?peace protesters? portraying the Jews as the new Nazis, rather than the sword-waving imam and his colleagues throughout the Middle East.
Meanwhile, in England, Moslems and others chanted ?Death to Israel!? as they marched alongside mainstream, left-wing politicians against a US-led war on Iraq. The leftist British politicians, presumably, turned a stone-dead blind eye to their fellow ?peaceniks?, or maybe they didn?t really care one way or another - or worse. In the past, Western, intellectual Jew-hatred - disguised as anti-Zionism - served to legitimize and prettify the more visceral, bloodthirsty hatred promoted and practiced in the Arab world. However, now, even the line between effete, intellectualized hatred and the old-fashioned barbaric variety is non-existent.
The public sphere of the Arab world promotes anti-Semitism, hatred of the West and unbridled violence. Friday sermons in the Arab world periodically include variations of the fervent prayer voiced not long ago by a Qatari imam: ?O God, destroy the aggressor, treacherous Jews. O God, destroy the aggressor Americans. O God, destroy the fanatic pagans. O God, destroy the tyrannical Crusaders.? The Arab media throughout the Middle East regularly broadcasts calls for destruction of the Jews, promotes blood libels, supports terrorism and features religious incitement.
In fact, it may be argued, there is no difference between most of the Arab world today - in all of its various dictatorial incarnations - and the German state under Adolph Hitler. Read that again, carefully. There is no difference - in terms of murderous anti-Semitism, in terms of totalitarianism, in terms of paranoid views of the outside world - between most of the Arab world today and Europe under the Third Reich. It is no accident that Hitler?s Mein Kampf sells so well throughout the Middle East; Nazi Germany?s kampf (struggle) has today been replaced by an Arab jihad (struggle). And once again, it is against the Jews.
?I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator. By struggling against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord,? Hitler wrote. Similarly, the Hamas Covenant says that Arab Islamic groups ?are best equipped for their future role in the fight against the warmongering Jews.? Less circumspect jihad enthusiasts write of eventually ?knocking on the doors of the churches with the skulls of the Jews.?
All of this is not to say that every Arab is a Nazi, but then, not every German was a Nazi, either; and yet, the Allies bombed, burned and occupied the German state nonetheless, for only in that way could the malignancy of Nazism be decidedly eradicated from Europe. In the Arab world, the elimination of regimes such as those of Saddam Hussein or Yasser Arafat will go a long way towards achieving a similarly critical de-Nazification.
--------------------------------------------------------
Nissan Ratzlav-Katz is opinion editor at IsraelNationalNews.com - Arutz Sheva. His commentaries have been published internationally and translated into several languages. He can be reached at opinion@IsraelNN.com or through his homepage, www.nrk-online.com.
************
Spend Passover with Arutz Sheva at a resort in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Kfar Pines (near Hadera). Click here for info.