Anti-Semitism fueled by radical Islam and leftist ideology

By Yosuke Yamazaki, a U.S.-based journalist

From the Spring Issue of the electronic “Salaam Quarterly Bulletin”, No.48, Feb 2024

---

Since the attack on Israel by the Islamic organization Hamas last October 7, there has been a sharp increase in incidents of violence and threats based on anti-Semitism on university campuses in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere. Experts point to a link between radical Islamism and leftist ideology as the reason for this.

Spike in Accusations against Israel and Anti-Semitic Incidents

Immediately after the attack by Hamas, there was a wave of assertions at U.S. universities unilaterally blaming Israel, which was supposed to be the “victim” of the attack. A letter signed by more than 30 student groups at Harvard University was published, stating that “only the apartheid regime is to blame” and denouncing Israel as “responsible for all the violence.”
Also at Cornell University, a history professor was later forced to apologize after describing the Hamas massacre as an “exhilarating and energizing” event at a rally in New York City on the 15th of that month.
Against this backdrop, incidents that appear to be based on anti-Semitism have skyrocketed. According to the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish human rights group, in the three months since Hamas attacked Israel last October 7, there have been 3,283 anti-Semitic incidents in the US, a 360% increase over the same period last year. This includes physical assaults (60 cases), vandalism (553 cases), and verbal and written harassment (1353 cases).

DEI program fosters anti-Semitism

One program that has been identified as promoting anti-Semitism is the “Diversity Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) program that has spread to colleges and universities across the United States. This program is supposed to create an environment that eliminates discrimination, but in reality, conservatives strongly oppose it because of its discriminatory treatment of white students and its imposition of radical leftist ideology.
The DEI is based on the firm belief that “the world is divided into oppressors and oppressed. Jews are classified as oppressors and Israel is branded as a genocidal colonialist state.” Tabia Lee, the DEI director at De Anza College in California, charged in an op-ed in the New York Post last October 18. Lee, who complained that she was fired when she challenged the college’s policies, criticized the “harmful DEI ideology, which deliberately stirs up hatred against Israel and the Jewish people.”

Anti-Semitism

Where did this ideology, which decries Jews as “oppressors,” come from? In this regard, Charles Asher Small, director of the World Anti-Semitism Policy Institute, interviewed by the author last November, mentioned the name of the late Edward Said, a philosopher who inherited the ideas of the Frankfurt School (one of the sources of neo-Marxism).

Said, a professor at Columbia University, is known as one of the founders of “decolonialism.” This is an appeal to rethink the modern history of the West from the perspective of those who have been exposed to the “violence” of colonialism, and to counter these “legacies of imperialism.”
Said argued that the ideology of Zionism (the Jewish homeland-building movement) is “an extension of Western imperialism that has erased the voice and history of the Palestinian Arab people.” He expressed the view that Jews, victims of the Holocaust, have become “perpetrators” against Palestinians.
Said called himself “the last Jewish intellectual,” despite his Palestinian background. On the other hand, he accused the Jewish intellectuals of the time of “dehumanizing and demonizing the Palestinian people” and helping the Jewish state destroy the lives of Palestinians by supporting Israel.

Oil Money Fueled Said’s Anti-Semitism

According to Small, people at the time considered these ideas of Said’s somewhat insane, but over time they gradually gained influence. And the view that the founding of the state of Israel itself was a colonialist endeavor and that the Jewish people were “colonialists who oppress the Palestinians” is now gaining ground in U.S. universities and elsewhere.
Small said this was fueled by the massive financial support for U.S. universities from Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar, which has an abundance of oil money. A study by the Global Anti-Semitism Policy Institute found that in the 20 years since 2001, about $5 billion has flowed into U.S. universities from Qatar. The Qatari influence has helped spread anti-Semitic discourse in universities by providing professorships, establishing research institutes, and controlling the publishing sector.

Muslim Brotherhood blends European anti-Semitism with Nazism and perverted Islamic doctrine

The organization in close relationship with Qatar is the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic organization founded in Egypt about 100 years ago. Small pointed out that it is “the intellectual and spiritual leader of the Qatari royal family, and Qatar is essentially the Muslim Brotherhood.” He added that the Muslim Brotherhood “has taken European anti-Semitism and Nazism and merged it with perverted Islamic doctrine. “They call for the murder and destruction of Jews around the world and seek to destroy democratic societies and replace them with a caliphate [successor to the Prophet Muhammed],” he accused.
Hamas, which has carried out brutal attacks against Israel, also has the Muslim Brotherhood as its parent organization. The theoretical founders of the Muslim Brotherhood are also respected by Iranian leaders.
At U.S. universities, which have received significant funding from Qatar, the discourse that Jews are “white supremacists,” “colonialists,” and “Nazis” has spread. Small calls this an “alliance of red (symbolizing communism) and green (symbolizing Islam)” by Islamic extremists and far-left forces.
Small said, “Islamic extremists are opposed to the ‘hegemony’ of the United States and other Western countries and want to remove the influence of these countries from the Middle East region. Marxists agree with them. They are united in their goal of undermining democracies,” he warned.

---