To: MuslimCanadianCongress@yahoogroups.com; muslimchronicle@yahoogroups.com
From: tarek.fatah@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:40:36 -0500
Subject: Debunking the myths that fuel a fire of hate: The Suburban of Montreal reviews "The Jew is Not My Enemy"
22 December 2010 at 13:38
Debunking the myths that fuel a fire of hate
Tarek Fatah examines the origins of Muslim anti-Semitism
By Anthony Bonaparte
The Suburban, Montreal
http://www.thesuburbannews.ca/content/en/7231
(McClelland & Stewart),
Hardcover, 272 pages, $26.99.
More than 60 years after the creation of the state of Israel, the divide between Muslims and Jews is stronger than ever. The result — political Islam, terrorism and jihad — is as clear to all as the long lines at airport security check points. But what are the true origins of this divide?
This is what author, journalist and political commentator Tarek Fatah examines in his latest book, The Jew is Not My Enemy: Unveiling the Myths that Fuel Muslim Anti-Semitism.
Fatah, 61, a secular Muslim, is one of Canada's most intrepid critics of Islamism — political and ideological Islam. In this, his follow-up toChasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State, Fatah addresses the historical and theological basis for Muslim hatred of Jews, and debunks the myths and supremacist doctrines that fuel the fire.
Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Fatah settled in Canada 23 years ago. As the founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress — a grassroots organization that provides a voice to progressive, liberal, pluralistic, democratic, and secular Muslims — Fatah is always looking for ways to eliminate the friction between the communities.
He was prompted to write The Jew is Not My Enemy soon after the Nov. 26, 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. When it happened, two things came to mind.
One was his personal connection to Mumbai. "This is the city where my grandfather grew up. My father and sister were born there. And it is a city that encompasses every aspect of contemporary human life," said Fatah, whose parents migrated to Pakistan in 1947. The second reason was the bombers' origins — 10 Pakistani villagers, who had never met a Jew in their lives, who set out on a bloody mission where one of their targets was a Jewish community centre. "I compared that to, on the other side of the world, the story of four African-Americans — two Baptists, one Catholic and a Haitian — who go to prison and by the time they come out, they've converted to Islam and the first thing they want to do is blow up a synagogue."
He says these unrelated events told him that something profound was turning some young Muslim men into monsters. "This book is an attempt to find out who, what, where, when and how — and what to do about it."
Fatah says the answer partially lies in a toxic mixture of medieval superiority complexes amongst some Muslims. "Not only are we benevolent to Jews, but if they misbehave, our prophets massacre them.
That is one side of the issue. The other is the introduction of Christian anti-Semitism and European fascism that filtered through into the Ottoman Empire and the Arab world after the First World War. And after the Second World War, our countries became home to many of the Nazis who converted to Islam, became experts on European affairs and determined foreign policy."
How the Muslim world dealt with the emerging state of Israel, he said, was an ensuing catastrophe.
Hatred of the Jew is not evenly spread across the Muslim countries and Fatah identifies his native country as presently being at the top of the heap. "Most of the anti-Western terrorism is not taking place at the hands of Palestinians or Iranians… All are either Pakistanis or Pakistani-based. That is the epicentre of hatred and it is being fuelled by, or subcontracted by, Arab Gulf money," he said, ominously adding, "And on a very sophisticated level, millions of dollars are pouring into Canadian and American mosques."
But why Pakistan? Fatah said it started with the nation's creation in 1947. "Pakistanis were told that they are not Indian, which is equivalent to saying to the French that they are not European… So they are dysfunctional and have an identity crisis with an empty vessel of ethnicity. And that empty vessel can easily be filled up with anything."
And he knows that it wasn't always like this. "I grew up going to a Catholic school with Jewish students. In fact, we thought the Catholics were a little distant from us but the Jewish students were just like us — the cuisine, the culture, the habits, the prayers. We would go to a synagogue without hesitation," remembered Fatah, who pointed to another example — the Peshawar region of Pakistan, now the heart of Taliban country, where in the 1930s and '40s, Jews were in charge of the textile trade before they moved to Israel in the mid-'50s.
To reverse this fundamentalist tide, Fatah said two things must happen: Muslims must stand up and confront it, and opponents must avoid the increasingly common temptation to slander Islam or its prophet. "Attacking Islam and mocking Muslims is exactly what the anti-Semites want you to do," said an emphatic Fatah.
"The issue is not Islam, the problem is Islamism. And if reasonable people cannot see the distinction between the two, we are going to spend another 10 years and not make a dent into this."
And though it may seem like a hard struggle lay ahead, the author has hope. "One can't help but be optimistic because the laws of science and logic and reason usually triumph over magic and hatred," said Fatah. "We've seen the cycles of human history. Progress can't be stopped."
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