Matthias Kuentzel
Islamic Antisemitism: Its Origins, Nature, and Contemporary Consequences
November 22, Noon, Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Islamic antisemitism is a particular form of Jew-hatred, based on the fusion of Islamic anti-Judaism from the old scriptures with modern European antisemitism. Hence, it is a combination of the most negative perceptions of Jews in both the Islamic and Christian worlds. Islamic antisemitism has strengthened an exclusively anti-Jewish reading of the Islamic scriptures, has popularized European conspiracy myths in the Arab world, and continues to agitate against Israel in genocidal terms. Matthias Kuentzel discusses some prominent features of Islamic antisemitism: What distinguishes it from other forms of Jew-hatred? Dr. Kuentzel deals with the origins of Islamic antisemitism and the role that Nazi Germany played in this and will address some of its current consequences.
Matthias Küntzel is a political scientist based in Hamburg. Between 2004 and 2015, he was an external research associate at the Vidal Sassoon International Centre for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Küntzel is the author of several books, including Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11 (2009) and Germany and Iran: Past and Present of a Fateful Friendship (2014). His most recent book, published in German in 2019 is titled Nazis und der Nahe Osten. Wie der islamische Antisemitismus entstand (Nazis and the Middle East. How Islamic Antisemitism came into being). Dr. Küntzel’s essays on Islamism, antisemitism, and Iran have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Jerusalem Post, Die Zeit, and elsewhere. More information is available on www.matthiaskuentzel.net.
The College of Arts