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This article traces the development of antisemitism in the Arab world, outlining major clusters of the phenomenon-Islamic anti-Jewish motifs; classic Western antisemitic tropes; and major themes in Holocaust discourse. It also highlights Arab voices critical of Arab antisemitic discourse, bigotry, and incitement against Jews-a subject largely neglected in the scholarly literature thus far. As in other societies, Arab antisemitism is not a phenomenon that is isolated from other social and political trends, but is part and parcel of the ongoing debate between competing worldviews.
On May 5, 2016, journalist 'Ali Gad published the first of a series of five articles on "The Talmudic Schemes of the Jews" in the Egyptian government daily newspaper, al-Ahram. In an attempt to understand the situation of Middle Eastern societies and states-rife with political strife, endless wars, poverty, and insecurity-Gad allegedly discovered the answer in an unidentified study that exposed a Jewish plan to control the world. The study claims that the conflicts in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon and the penetration of Iran and Russia, have politically divided the region, a circumstance Israel exploits "to implement the Talmud's doctrines," turn the political conflict into a sectarian one, and let the Arabs ruin themselves. Gad concludes: "This is the secret behind [the Jews'] endeavor, to spark a sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shi'ites to exhaust the Muslims' power." According to Gad, the aim of the Jews' "hidden conspiracy," as derived from the Talmud's teachings, is to first control the world economically and then dissolve all existing governments and subordinate all nations to a united global government. In view of such a plan, Gad asks, "[H]ow [can] the Arabs be stigmatized as extremists and terrorists, when they are hostages of an international hand intent [on igniting] the region?"1
Clearly drawing from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Gad introduces examples in his consecutive articles about Jewish successes in carrying out their schemes to destroy other religions, mainly Christianity and Islam, by inventing and promoting communism and atheism.2 The most dangerous thing about Judaism, he goes on to say, is its creation of "international organizations" like Masonry and Zionism, with their "Talmudic and Zionist Protocols" and their idea to separate religion and government.3 Referring to and quoting from "the famous American...