the roots of muslim anti-semitism

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    2a) (add below)-

    To all the people who hate Jews and say Jews all over the world are evil I ask the following question: what have the Jews done to you? Even if you hate Israeland believe that gov't has oppressed the Palestinians (not true) are all Israelis responsible for the actions and policies of their gov't? Of course not, justlike all Palestinians aren't responsible for the horrible actions of Hamas. But even if you were to make the insane claim that all Israelis are responsible for what Israel does because they're Israeli citizens and therefore support what their gov't does, what about the rest of the Jews around the world who don't livein Israel? Why do you hate them? Surely they can't be guilty or have blood ontheir hands for the fighting between Israel and Palestine, right? So the onlyexplanation is you were brainwashed as a young child into believing all jews areevil because they are an evil race who have oppressed muslims throughout history (of course not true). There's plenty of evidence to back this up, because unfortunately muslim children in madrasas around the world are being taught to hateIsrael and all Jews, even though no Jewish people have done anything to hurt them in any way. There's no logic or merit to this hate, it's completely irrational and has no basis in anything but envy and giving into tribal instincts, whichare the characteristics of all forms of hate.

    As I see it, there are 5 diff causes of this hate: 1)groupthink and crowd rage/mentality- it's just easier to hate a group of people who are different

    than you (the Jews) when people are in the streets protesting and it's the popular thing to do. It also involves evolution going way back to the days of our ancient ancestors when everyone belonged to a different tribe. There was no individuality, everything was done within the context of the tribe, and all members of the other tribes were viewed as outsiders and potentially dangerous, and for good reason since the tribes often fought over territory and resources and killedeach other. So we evolved to not trust or like people who look, think, and actdifferently than us, and if that distrust is encouraged it breeds hate. Many muslims today have that tribal mentality still, and their leaders encourage it, which leads to 1a)-Muslim imams, scholars, and rulers use this hatred of a common enemy to stoke the flames of violence andto increase their influence while maintaining their power. It's a very cynical

    deception on their part because although they do hate the Jews, their primary motivation and intention behind their preaching and teaching of hatred is raise their own status in the muslim world, which they care about more than destroying the Jews. In most of their countries there's rampant poverty and corruption within the gov't, where the gov't officials and wealthy elites who bribe them get richer and the poor get poorer. So the leaders within the gov't and within thoselocal communities have an incentive to maintain the status quo out of fear of apopulist uprising such as the ones that occurred in Iran and Egypt.

    They can prevent this by either using brute force and strict enforcement of sharia law, which they already do to varying degrees, but they can also control thenarrative and distract people by putting all the focus on those evil Jews who are "murdering" innocent Palestinians. They know that without a common enemy tha

    t everyone can rally against, there's a lot more pressure on them to actually improve the lives of all those suffering people and to give them honest answers totheir questions, which they often don't have because they spend most of their time instigating violence or enjoying the good life with other rich and influential people.

    These leaders also have their own insecurities and inferiority complexes. Someof them have great ambitions but were prevented from achieving them because of the country they grew up in, and some of them are envious of countries like Israel which enable people from all walks of life to achieve their dreams, something

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    that isn't possible in most muslim countries, certainly not for people who growup poor and without connections. So they overcompensate for these psychologicalissues by directing their anger and frustration at the Jews to distract themselves from their own doubts and deep-seated issues, and to get the validation fromthe masses for their leadership in this hatred, the same validation they wantedgrowing up for the abilities they never developed or the goals they never reached.

    2)insecurity over one's own beliefs, especially among muslim women, who are uncomfortable defending their roles as second class citizens in muslim countries,but also i think it's true for muslim men in those countries who are often poorand see their jewish counterparts becoming doctors, lawyers, scientists, etc while they're stuck in the dark ages. Hating the Jews gives them all a common enemy and cause to rally behind and to take the focus off of their own lack of opportunities, and to distract them from their own struggles and doubts.

    3)similar to #1- isolation- this is especially true for muslims in first-worldcountries like france, the UK, the US, and Australia. The muslims in these countries for the most part refuse to integrate into the customs and habits of those countries, which inevitably leads to conflict between them and the rest of thecountry. They stay within their comfort zone, which is only spending time around other muslims. This of course excludes Jews, so they don't know any Jews, and this makes it much easier to hate them cause it's always easier to hate a group of people you don't know when you never interact with them or even see them in

    person, especially if it's a group that's very different than the group you belong to, which leads me to #4.

    4)muslims and jews have very diff cultures and religious practices and beliefs,which has been the historical basis for their constant fighting, in addition tofighting over land. These differences can be overcome however, because any differences between two groups can be overcome if the intentions of the groups arepure and there's a sincere desire to have peace, understanding, and racial/religious harmony. But that's not the case here since muslims have never wanted peace with Israel or the Jews, in fact they've wanted them wiped off the face of theplanet, or at the very least ostracized and forced to leave the middle east forever. There are many cultural and religious differences between them, such as the following: israelis view women as equal to men, muslims still believe they're

    inferior; israel respects minorities of all kinds, including gays and membersof other religions, muslims believe these groups should be oppressed or killed;israel believes in science and technology as means to advance their society andmake progress, muslims are still stuck in the dark age and believe tech and science are weapons used by the western world to corrupt and and confuse practicingmuslims; israelis believe all religions can live together in harmony and that acountry should be run by a secular gov't which is democratically elected, muslims believe Islam is the only true religion and therefore all other religions mustbe oppressed and eventually destroyed, and that all muslim countries must be theocracies run by religious rulers who enforce sharia law.These differences only serve as an excuse for muslims to express and apply theirhatred for Jews.

    5)the Quran states that only Islam should exist as a religion on Earth and anyone who doesn't practice it is an infidel who must be converted, enslaved, or killed. Many muslim scholars use these passages in the quran as a justificationfor terrorist bombings and other atrocities against innocent civilians in countries around the world. I should note here that the majority of muslims who die in areas of conflict are killed by fellow muslims (google it,I already did). So instead of blaming Israel and the Jews for the deaths of innocent muslims, the so called "moderate" muslims around the world should blame Hamas and other radical islamic terrorist groups, who use women and children as shields for their bombs and their leaders and who are on record as saying their go

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    al is to cause more of these civilian deaths in order to make Israel look like the bad guy. Also, to use the deaths as a propaganda tool to get the rest of theworld on their side by manipulating the coverage of the conflict to only show the deaths without showing the cause of the deaths, which is Hamas building tunnels under schools, homes, and hospitals and using palestinian homes to store their weapons.

    Is it any wonder these groups are so willing to die for their twisted beliefs and will do whatever it takes to kill Jews, when imams and scholars who are respected within the worldwide muslim community say the quran justifies the killing of civilians and the extermination of all Jews? This is the fundamental problem with Islam, and it isn't just the radical muslims who have use their owninterpretation of the words of the quran to justify their heinous actions. Thequran itself has many passages advocating for intolerance, violence, and jihad,and while there are also passages that advocate for peace that seem to contradict those passages, where does that leave the average muslim? Most aren't scholars and therefore rely on their imams and scholars to interpret the quran for them, and unfortunately up to this point the majority of these scholars and imams around the world advocate for the more violent verses and ignore the more peaceful, tolerant verses.

    So this is what muslim children grow up learning in general, and when you add in all the other factors that lead them to hate Jews, this is just throwing moregas on that fire of hatred. As we now from neuroscience and psychology, what on

    e learns during early childhood often lasts a lifetime because that's when the brain is developing, and it's very hard to unlearn what one is taught or experiences during those years, at least not without a massive effort, introspection, and outside help. So if you're trained to hate the Jews before you even know whata Jew is or what they believe, or why you're supposed to hate them, that hate will become ingrained in your brain, and if you grow up surrounded by other people who have that same hate, and are encouraged by all the adults you see to continue that hate, then it's no wonder most muslims around the world hate Jews. It's only the ones who go outside their comfort zones and are forced to confront their hatred head-on and defend it intellectually who realize it's indefensible and completely irrational. But this is a tiny minority of muslims, for proof of that all you have to do is read the headlines from the past week, which showed massive anti-semitic protests in major cities around the world that involved all k

    inds of slurs and vile statements from the protesters such as saying Hitler wasright to kill the Jews and that all Jews will end up in hell.

    So will there ever be an end to this hatred, or a renaissance within themuslim world? It's hard to see how that's possible as long as the billons of its members devoutly follow a book which advocates for the extermination of all people who don't share their beliefs. As far as I can tell, there are only 2 ways the muslim world can adapt to modernity and become a part of the civilized world: 1)the inevitable spread of technology will open up even the most repressive muslim countries to western culture, and no matter how the authorities there try to crack down on it, it will develop an underground following that will lead to arevolution that will eventually overthrow that regime, like Egypt did with the

    MB. This would then lead to a democratic gov't and a leader who would be sympathetic to the inflence of western culture and freedom in general, and allow the citizens of his country to act, dress, buy, and believe in whatever way they desire to.

    2)a group of intellectuals within the "moderate" muslim community will get together and have some kind of worldwide conference that would involve issuing a statement about a new set of interpretations the quran that are more adaptable andapplicable to muslims living in the modern civilized world. It would be like the 2nd vatican council was for catholics, who muslims could really learn from wh

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    en it comes to updating practices and beliefs while still maintaining core dogmaand truths. The problem for muslims is that they haven't even had the equivalent of a first vatican council yet, much less a 2nd. For whatever reason they'vedecided to go backwards into history instead of forwards into the future. Apparently they haven't realized you can retain the most ancient and important aspects of your religion while reinventing its most outdated and inapplicable aspectsso as a whole it can be applied to life in the modern world.

    Maybe the pope and leaders of other religions can be the catalysts for this change within the muslim world, but in the end the desire for change and for not being left in the dust of history has to come from muslims themselves. Who will initiate this process? So far it seems the moderate musims cower in fear at the thought of offending the more radical minority, and to some degree rightly so. But courage is necessary to bring about radical change, and this is no different. Maybe it will require some tragic event such as the destructionor occupation of israel, or the disintegration of a muslim country such as iranor iraq for muslims around the world to wake up and realize the error of their ways when it comes to anti-semitism. it doesn't look like it'll happen within my lifetime, but in order for this deep-seated and widespread anti-semitism to bepulled out by the roots, and for the vicious cycle of violence in the middle east to end, the thinkers within the muslim world have to take a long, hard look at the quran and either throw out the parts that advocate for violence and intolerance against all non-muslims, or come up with a more nuanced interpretation ofthose verses that dont' allow for the justification of radical jihad or intolera

    nce of any other religion, not just with Jews.

    Catholics have the Catechism, which explains everythingthe average catholic needs to know about how to interpret the Bible and apply itto their everyday life in the modern world. It also contains answers to questions surrounding all of the most important and controversial issues and subjectscatholics must deal with. Is there any such book for muslims? If not, why not? I think it's far past the time for such a book to be created, and it must bewritten by muslim leaders who are tolerant, open-minded, peaceful, compassionate, living in the modern, civilized world, and most importantly, logical and rational, and not biased against any group of people or beliefs.

    If such a book existed, and there was more guidance for the average muslim about

    how to interpret the quran and why it's wrong to hate the Jews, and if the quran was updated to reflect our diverse, tolerant, and free societies, then radicalmuslims couldn't use the quran as an excuse when to justify their acts of terror. Furthermore, no imam could continue to preach hatred for Jews or other radical beliefs without being condemned and isolated by the rest of the muslim community, who would be following what I call The New Islam, or Updated Islam. This change in islamic beliefs, and the change in law, practice, and teaching and preaching as a result of it, would allow an entire generation of muslim kids to growup believing in tolerance, freedom, charity, and peace, and would end the cycleof violence, hatred, and bigotry. It would also bring freedom to muslim womenand greatly decrease the abuse they currently experience. It would change theworld.But for now we're in a tunnel of darkness and few can see the light of peace and

    tolerance at the end of that tunnel, and we're travelling at a snail's pace while we're in it. In the meantime, all those of us outside this conflict can do is be witnesses to the truth and open the eyes of all the people who have been blinded by their hatred of the Jews or anyone who thinks and believes differentlythan they do.