The Jew Is Not My Enemy

The Jew Is Not My Enemy Review

Not many books have been written by moderate/liberal Muslims speaking out against the extremist acts. Tarek Fatah, a Canadian of Pakistani descent, is a journalist and the founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, a liberal group. In his introduction to the book he says that he is on a jihad against Muslim anti-Semitism.

Prior to the terrorist attack on Mumbai in 2008, the small Indian Jewish community had not been the target of anti-Semitic attacks. The fact that the terrorists came from Pakistan, which has no Jewish population, horrified Fatah and inspired him to write this book about the origins of Muslim anti-Semitism.

Fatah relates the history and development of anti-Semitism in Islam', and the factors that encouraged it from the Qur'an to the policies of the modern state of Israel. 

The purpose of the book is more to persuade his fellow Muslims that anti-Semitism is not a core tenet of Islam than it is to make an apology to non-Muslims. Fatah makes a distinction between the authority of the Qur'an and the writings of the Hadith in order to make his point. He also argues that the creation of an independent Palestinian state would help reduce Muslim anti-Semitism.

Fatah states and is correct that Muslim countries are terribly mismanaged and that this has nothing to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict or with US actions. But Israeli actions do adversely impact the lives both of Palestinians and those of neighbouring countries. Similarly, American policies seriously harm Muslim countries, producing mass resentment.

Fatah ridicules the allegations that Israel practices apartheid. He quotes Arab Israelis as saying that they enjoy far more human rights than people in most Muslim countries. This is true, but Israeli laws severely discriminate against non-Jews and relegate them to second-class status. This was acknowledged in Ottawa by respected Israeli journalist Gideon Levy and by Haneen Zoabi, an Arab Israeli member of the Knesset. Both spoke as loyal Israelis and also as people of conscience trying to correct a horrible injustice.

Although Fatah devotes much of his book to the first point, the second is a theme that weaves through his narrative. By virtue of rapid communications, an idea that was once the province of a small group of ideologues has grown exponentially, one website, blog and opinion at a time. This is not the cause of malicious tribalism, but is certainly one of its consequences.

Fatah is unsparing in his indictment of those who publish theories about Jewish conspiracies against the Muslim ummah: "The Muslim world seems frozen in time," he notes, "obsessed with the past ... left paralyzed in the quagmire of stagnation." His broad-brush sociology may lack for nuance - the worlds in which Muslims live is diverse and lively, even (as the United Nations has documented) if its human security lags behind in many regions - but his description of "the global Muslim community's false sense of victimhood, which is leaving a deep scar on our consciousness," is written with dismay more than rancour.