Senior Research Fellow, YIISA
Professor Emeritus of International Relations, University of Goettingen, Germany
A.D. White Professor-at-Large, Cornell University
From Sayyid Qutb to Hamas: The Middle East Conflict & the Islamization of Antisemitism
Online ISSN: 1940-6118 ISBN: 978-0-9819058-9-1
ABSTRACT:
The major concern of this study is to relate the lack of a conflict resolution in the Middle East to the ongoing process of an Islamization of European Antisemitism carried out by the Islamist movement. This study is a political analysis combined with a history of ideas. Historically, there exists Judeophobia in Islam, but not Antisemitism. Based on the research of Hannah Arendt and Bernard Lewis, a distinction is made between Judeophobia and Antisemitism, both are evil, but to a differing degree. While Judeophobia is a hatred and prejudice, Antisemitism is a genocidal ideology that identifies the Jews as evil and calls for their eradication. This genocidal sentiment did not exist in classical Islam. The story of Antisemitism in the Middle East exists in two segments, one is secular (pan-Arab nationlism), the other is religious-fundamentalist (Islamism). The focus of this study is the latter. In terms of the history of ideas, the Islamization of Antisemitism can be traced back to the work of Sayyid Qutb, the mastermind of Islamist ideology. Following the explanation of this phenomenon and the identification of its main features, the work of Qutb is analyzed. This study relates the history of ideas as background to the contemporary reality of the Palestine conflict, which is now dominated by Hamas. This Islamist movement subscribes fully to the Antisemitism Islamized by Qutb. Hamas combines the Islamist ideology with Jihadist action. This paper demonstrates that the religionization of the pending issues renders the conflict intractable. Islamist Antisemitism closes the door for a negotiation of the conflict through its religionization.