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11/04/2005:

"Anti-Semitism and Arabs"

by Ghali Hassan

...The term ‘anti-Semitism’ has nothing to do with religion. It originated in 18th century Europe where philologists used the term ‘Semite’ to distinguish languages from each other by grouping them into ‘families’ originating from the so-called ‘mother’ tongue to which they are related. Despite the lack of a common ancestral language, Arabic, Aramaic, Amharic, Assyrian, Hebrew, etc. where grouped as ‘Semitic’ languages. For both Arabic and Hebrew, the classification was incorrect. In other words, neither Arabic nor Hebrew is Semitic.

With the rise of European racism against minorities in the 19th century, European Jews where targeted. Differences between Jews and other European citizens have to be manufactured. Since European Christians (the Protestant Reformists) adopted the Hebrew bible, religion was not an option for those differences. The Jews were identified as ‘Semites’ based on the incorrect assumption that their ancestors spoke Hebrew, which wasn’t the case. Ancient Hebrew tribes were Aramaic speakers.

Therefore, the Europeans who hated Jews were identified in philological taxonomy as ‘anti-Semites’. In a word, European Jews became the object of hatred by European anti-Semitism, at a time when Muslims, Arabs in particular, were not present in Europe. The term was first used in 1879 by the German, William Marr, who founded the ‘League for Anti-Semitism’. Marr’s racist views (Europe’s biological racism) were that Jews constituted a distinct racial group which was both physically and morally inferior. Hence, ‘anti-Semitism’ is a form of European racism specific to Europe, and not to be confused with any anti-Jews outside Europe. Since then Zionism, which is an anti-Semitic racist ideology, has used the term ‘Semite’ to racially identify Jews for political purposes.
axisoflogic.com