Quote:
Originally posted by Sexual Harassment Panda
Perhaps a silly question, but anyhoo...does the Arab hatred of Israel and Jews predate the establishment of the Israeli state? Is the basis of the fundie Muslim objections that this is holy ground, such that any group who occupied that land would be now hated (e.g., Mennonites, Yankee fans, African-American Muslims)? Or would they still hate Jews (perhaps slightly less) even if the state of Israel did not exist, or existed outside of the old Caliphate?
I'm trying to figure out how much of this conflict is historical (as in pre-1948) and how much of it has to do with (rightly or not) the perceptions of injuries inflicted upon Muslims in the half century since then.
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I don’t think that the Muslims and Arabs hated Jews that much before Zionism caught momentum. I believed they hated the Western Christians much more because they were occupying most of their land. They believe that the western Christian nations artificially chopped up Arabia into colonies. I think they also believe that the Western Christians (namely Britain) gave part of Palestine to the Jews because of guilt for the Holocaust. They feel that the only reason there were sufficient Jews in the Holy land to create a nation was because the Western Christians controlled their land and let the Zionists in. In other words, if they had been in control of their own land at the critical time, the Zionists would have never been allowed into the country (at least not in large numbers). So (in their mind) if the western powers had honored their promise to the Arabs after WWI for revolting against the Turks there would be barely any Jews in Palestine, and certainly no Jewish state. So to them the west allowed the Jews in and then let them create their own country right on their land. So the Arab hatred of the Jews derives mainly out of nationalism and a feeling of being victimized by the Western Christian occupiers to the benefit of the Jews. This is why the secular Arab groups (like the PLO and the Baathists) hate Israel so much.
The rest of the Muslim world feels like the Arabs were mistreated and screwed because they were fellow Muslims. So they see the west and the Christian world allowing the Jews to "Screw" the Arabs because they were Muslim. They believe that if Muslims didn’t occupy Palestine, the Jews would never have been allowed to create a state there.
Obviously their version of history is a little screwed up.
They also believe that the Jews control the United States (clearly most of them aren’t that familiar with Idaho or how small the Jewish population in the US is) and that is why the US is so supportive of Israel.
And on top of all that, all the Muslims resent Israel, because Israel is now occupying the third most holy city in Islam: Jerusalem.
So in sum, the Jews, I don’t believe were that big on the Muslim radar screen, and had been tolerated and treated much better in the Muslim world than in the Christian world prior to the creation of Israel, but after that the Jews became the number one enemy.
