The Expanding Umbrella of Anti-Semitism - Nonie Darwish

by Nonie Darwish

Centuries before Hitler, the challenge of Jewish values seems to have threatened an Arabian notion of supremacy.

• Islam did not trick Western nations; the West brought itself to the embrace of Islam.
• The center of the original Islamic message seems to have been to convert, kill or drive away Christians and Jews, rather than to meet the spiritual needs of Muslims. To this day, the central preaching of Islam still appears to be an intolerance of non-Muslims.
• What made America great is being discarded together with America's imperfect past, without acknowledging that America has taken -- and is still taking -- steps to correct its injustices, as many Middle Eastern nations have not.
• There is a good possibility that, with the impact of Islam -- and the replacement of the active values of personal responsibility and "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps" by the passive values of victimhood for blackmailing, redistribution and abdication to "government" -- the West's humanistic values, which welcomed Islam in the first place, may not survive.

The famous expression "Never Again" was coined after the world, during World War II, almost exterminated its Jewish population. But instead of anti-Semitism being eradicated, a worldwide rebellion against the people who gave us the Ten Commandments continues today, and has now expanded to include other groups.

While the Jewish people are still at its center, there are now also violent protests, hatred and rejection cleverly camouflaged as demonstrations against supposed "bigots," and "hate groups" -- meaning not only those who support Israel and the Jewish people, but also against those who are patriots, who love God, family and country and who want to protect their nation's sovereignty from the world's hostile forces. These individuals are now often viewed as evil, mean-spirited or racist.

Anti-Semitism is a bit more complicated than just hating Jews. Much of the world seems always to have been challenged by the values of the Torah, the Gospel and the Ten Commandments. Living according to Biblical standards of good and evil, and treating one's neighbors as oneself, is not easy for most people. There is a rebellious, dark side of human nature that every generation needs to conquer if we are to maintain a way of life based on the values set forth by the Ten Commandments and the Bible. But in the West's secular, popular culture of today, generations are being brought up believing that these values stand in the way of "progress," however that is variously defined.

Many people seem to think that the values of the Ten Commandments and the Bible are universal; that most people happily agree with them and are eager to adopt them. There seems, on the contrary, to be no shortage of individuals -- largely in the worlds of politics, entertainment and academia -- eager to find excuses to violate them while at the same time judging others by standards they would not dream of applying to themselves.

After the Holocaust against the Jews and others, some Europeans appear to have begun a rebellion against their own Biblical roots -- those that helped to create Western civilization. Many in Europe -- both wittingly and unwittingly -- not only brought Islam into Europe, but also gave it a special status of protection against criticism from their own people by calling those who criticize it "Islamophobes." Islam did not trick Western nations; the West brought itself to this embrace of Islam.

The dilemma regarding the acceptance of Judeo-Christian values has existed since the beginning of Jewish history. The Jews' commitment to valuing life as precious, not bowing to tyrants and striving for excellence -- and treating children, animals, slaves and even fields with deference and respect -- has brought them much envy. When Jews achieved success, anger against them intensified even further. Centuries before Hitler, the challenge of Jewish values seems to have threatened an Arabian notion of supremacy.

The cultural clash between Islamic values and Biblical values did not start between Europe and the Middle East, but from inside the Arabian Peninsula and directed against Christians and Jews, the "people of the book." Arabia was the last area of the Middle East to be introduced to Biblical values. Proud Arabia, however, was never going to be just another municipality of Byzantium. Arabia was not going to follow in the footsteps of Egypt and the rest of the Christian Byzantine Empire, and adopt Biblical values. A rebellion against the Bible and its values was the alternative Muhammad clearly chose.

Islam became the driving force to stop the sweeping impact of the Byzantine Empire, as well as Jewish tribes in the region. Islam found, it sometimes appears, nearly any means acceptable when it came to countering its non-Muslim enemies -- lying, terrorizing, killing, stealing the property of kafirs [unbelievers] and raping their women. The center of the original Islamic message seems to have been to convert, kill or drive away Christians and Jews rather than to meet the spiritual needs of Muslims. Muhammad won. He conquered Byzantium, chased away Christians and Jews, and left them to take their Biblical values not to Arabia but to Europe. To this day, the central preaching of Islam still appears to be an intolerance for non-Muslims.

It is not a coincidence that Adolf Hitler collaborated with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, in their mutual wish to eliminate Jews. Hitler even lamented belonging to the wrong religion:

"'It's been our misfortune to have the wrong religion,' Hitler complained to his pet architect Albert Speer. 'Why did it have to be Christianity, with its meekness and flabbiness?' Islam was a Männerreligion — a 'religion of men' — and hygienic too. The 'soldiers of Islam' received a warrior's heaven, 'a real earthly paradise' with "houris" and 'wine flowing. This, Hitler argued, was much more suited to the 'Germanic temperament' than the 'Jewish filth and priestly twaddle' of Christianity."

Hitler also said, "The Mohammedan religion too would have been more compatible to us than Christianity," and complained:

"Had Charles Martel not been victorious at Poitiers . . . then we should in all probability have been converted to Mohammedanism, that cult which glorifies the heroism and which opens up the seven Heavens to the bold warriors alone. Then the Germanic races would have conquered the world. Christianity alone prevented them from doing so."

Adolf Hitler meets with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, on November 28, 1941. (Image source: German Federal Archive)

Today the Western and feminist alliance with Islam -- the non-Muslim defense of Islamic law, sharia, and importing millions of Muslims -- seems to have become the secularists' solution to putting an end to the West's Biblical past and the revolution in ethics that founded Western civilization. The West's liberal media has made it a daily routine to support this effort.


What made America great is being discarded together with America's imperfect past, without acknowledging that America has taken -- and is still taking -- steps to correct its injustices, as many Middle Eastern nations have not.

There is a good possibility that, with the impact of Islam -- and the replacement of the active values of personal responsibility and "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps" by the passive values of victimhood for blackmailing, redistribution and abdication to "government" -- the West's humanistic values, which welcomed Islam in the first place, may not survive.

Nonie Darwish, born and raised as a Muslim in Egypt, is the author of the book "Wholly Different; Why I Chose Biblical Values Over Islamic Values".

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11310/antisemitism-biblical-values

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Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.