Perspectives on Antisemitism
How to Tackle Antisemitism and Anti-Americanism in the Muslim World
Prejudice against or hatred of Jews — known as antisemitism — has plagued the world for more than 2,000 years. The Holocaust, the state-sponsored persecution and murder of European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945, is history’s most extreme example of antisemitism. Yet even in the aftermath of the Holocaust, antisemitism remains a continuing threat. Today, there are signs of increasing antisemitism and bigotry across Europe and the Islamic world, including hate speech, violence targeting Jews and Jewish institutions, and denial of the Holocaust.
In an effort to better understand this phenomenon and to develop recommendations to address it, Akbar Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, DC, recently traveled to eight countries in the Muslim world, where he spoke at universities, mosques, and madrassahs and interviewed President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, as well as a number of clerics, scholars, and others.
At the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Dr. Ahmed discussed his findings publicly for the first time.
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View video of Dr. Akbar Ahmed's comments on:
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What can be done to encourage dialogue between Western and Muslim societies, and how can such dialogue tackle antisemitism, anti-Americanism, and Islamophobia?
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Museum