Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe: A Shared Story?

Ben Gidley is Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. His research focuses on racisms, multiculture, diaspora, and urban diversity. He is the co-author of Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today (2010).

James Renton is Reader in History at Edge Hill University, UK. His research focuses on racism, empire, and the genealogy of global politics. He is the author of The Zionist Masquerade: The Birth of the Anglo-Zionist Alliance, 1914-1918 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).

This is the first book to examine the relationship between European antisemitism and Islamophobia from the Crusades until the twenty-first century in the principal flashpoints of the two racisms. With case studies ranging from the Balkans to the UK, the contributors take the debate away from politicised polemics about whether or not Muslims are the new Jews. Much previous scholarship and public discussion has focused on comparing European ideas about Jews and Judaism in the past with contemporary attitudes towards Muslims and Islam. This volume rejects this approach. Instead, it interrogates how the dynamic relationship between antisemitism and Islamophobia has evolved over time and space. The result is the uncovering of a previously unknown story in which European ideas about Jews and Muslims were indeed connected, but were also ripped apart. Religion, empire, nation-building, and war, all played their part in the complex evolution of this relationship. As well as a study of prejudice, this book also opens up a new area of inquiry: how Muslims, Jews, and others have responded to these historically connected racisms.

The volume brings together leading scholars in the emerging field of antisemitism-Islamophobia studies who work in a diverse range of disciplines: anthropology, history, sociology, critical theory, and literature. Together, they help us to understand a Europe in which Jews and Arabs were once called Semites, and today are widely thought to be on two different sides of the War on Terror.

Uncovers the connection and separation of antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe

Introduction.- PART I: CHRISTENDOM.- 1. Ethnic and Religious Categories in the Treatment of Jews and Muslims in the Crusader States; Andrew Jotischky, Lancaster University, UK.- 2. Uniting Judeophobia and Iatrophobia: Medicine and the Antisemitic Conspiracy Theory in the Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World; Francois Soyer, University of Southampton, UK.- PART II: EMPIRE.- 3. Fear and Loathing in the Russian Empire; Robert Crews, Stanford University, US.- 4. The End of the Semites; James Renton.- PART III: DIVERGENCE.- 5 . The Case of Circumcision: Diaspora Judaism as a Model for Islam?; Sandor L. Gilman, Emory University, US.- 6. Is Islamophobia Equivalent to Racism or Antisemitism? The View from the Balkans; Marko Attila Hoare, Kingston University, UK.- 7. Anti-Semitism and its Critics; Gil Anidjar, Columbia University, US.- PART IV: RESPONSE.- 8. Struggles against Antisemitism and Islamophobia in France: Understanding Divergences and Convergences; Daniel Gordon, Edge Hill University, UK.- 9. The Price of an Entrance Ticket to Western Society: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Heinrich Heine and the Double Standard of Emancipation; David Wertheim, Menasseh Ben Israel Institute, the Netherlands.- 10. The Impact of Antisemitism and Islamophobia on Jewish-Muslim Relations in the UK; Yulia Egorova, Durham University, UK and Fiaz Ahmed.- 11. Afterword; Bryan Cheyette, University of Southampton, UK.