New Hate Politics Anti Religions

Most liberal religious people would agree that the ideology that threatens Jewish communities, and the one that threatens Muslim communities, are the same. For generations, white supremacist movements have targeted Jews with conspiracy theories about power and control while portraying Muslims as dangerous outsiders with a hidden agenda — people who don’t belong in America. That same ideology has fueled attacks on Black churches, Sikh gurdwaras, immigrant communities and many others. It rejects the pluralistic democracy that both of our faiths depend on. White supremacy does not distinguish between the communities it seeks to intimidate. Our resistance shouldn’t distinguish between them either.

Jewish and Muslim organizations have stood together  after attacks on houses of worship. Rabbis visited mosques after acts of anti-Muslim hatred; and imams have stood beside Jewish congregations after anti-semitic violence. Together, our communities have partnered on feeding the hungry, welcoming refugees, advocating for civil rights and strengthening our democracy. Too much of our public conversation today rewards outrage over relationships. Social media amplifies the loudest voices. Every act of hate is met with more anger, feeding a cycle in which fear becomes normalized.

This moment calls for people of faith to have moral courage. Jewish leaders should continue speaking out unequivocally against Islamophobia — not because it’s politically convenient but because justice demands consistency. Muslim leaders should continue speaking out against antisemitism with equal clarity — not because every political disagreement has been resolved but because hatred toward Jews has no place in any movement for justice. And members of both communities must resist those who profit from keeping us divided.

People who hate religion in general, and Islam and Judaism in particular, often attack Jews and Muslims by claiming that circumcision is a cruel, barbaric religious ritual lacking any positive outcome. Others attack it on secular humane grounds as a needless, cruel procedure. And some attack circumcision for hidden political reasons of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

Islamophobia has reached record highs, with U.S. anti-Muslim complaints hitting an all-time high of 8,658 in 2024, a 7.4% increase from 2023 driven by geopolitical tensions. Over 60% of U.S. Muslims report experiencing discrimination, with 76.7% of women reporting personal experiences of Islamophobia.

And among Jews who were Mamdani voters, 84% supported a two-state solution, putting them at odds with their candidate, whose anti-Zionism would preclude a Jewish state as a two-state solution.

Jews and Muslims have always known that doing something that God wants Muslims and Jews to do must be good. But in the last few years scientists have discovered that a benefit of circumcision is that it provides heterosexual men with considerable protection against infection by HIV and other sexually transmitted viruses. Christian men in Africa are now being urged by doctors to become circumcised. The report, which appeared in mBio, finds that when the foreskin is removed from the head of the penis, resident microbes become exposed to oxygen and many bacteria flee the scene.

Of course, Muslims and Jews have been circumcising their sons for many centuries; long before any human knew of the medical benefit of this religious duty. For most religious Jews and Muslims, it comes as no surprise that a traditional religious duty should have beneficial physical effects.

Muslim and Jewish philosophers have long debated the following question: are all religious laws rational (meaning that if we had enough knowledge we could rationally understand why everyone should obey these laws for our own benefit); or are some/most religious laws trans-rational, spiritual laws that help the members of each religion become closer to God in a way special to that particular religion.

Muslim philosophers like Al-Kindi (801-873), Al-Farabi (870-950), Al-Biruni (973-1048), Ibn Sina (980-1047), Al-Ghazali (1058-1111), and Ibn Rushd (1126-1198) debated this question, Jewish philosophers also did so in the same way. People who know the teachings of various Muslim philosophers will see how similar the following Rabbis are to Muslim philosophers.

Saadia Gaon (882-942), thought some of the commandments are an obligation because they are required by reason; while other commandments are transrational and given only through revelation. The latter must be accepted for no other reason than they were proclaimed by God.

Bachya ibn Pakuda (11 century), whose outlook was very similar to that of his Sufi friends, combined Saadia’s division of the commandments with his own focus on “duties of the body” and “duties of the heart”. Bodily duties are of two kinds: duties of reason, and duties neither demanded nor rejected by reason (like the prohibition of eating milk and meat together). The “duties of the heart,” are intellectual reasons or emotional reasons, such as trusting and loving God. For Bachya, commandments with no apparent reason are simply opportunities for spiritual growth through acts of holiness, reverence and love that are intended to bring our souls closer to God.

Judah HaLevi (1075-1141), a poet and philosopher, classified the commandments under three headings: rational laws which had to do with belief in God and ethical justice; governmental laws having to do with the general functioning of a society; and revealed divine laws whose function was to elevate people, especially Jews, to commune with God.

Maimonides (1135-1204), perhaps the greatest of all Jewish philosophers, did not distinguish between so-called “rational” and trans-rational laws. In his opinion, all of the commandments in the Torah had useful purposes and reasons for the welfare of the soul or the body. If we cannot explain the reasons rationally it is because we do not have enough knowledge. Perhaps future generations will understand.

Nachmanides (1194-1270), a mystically inclined commentator on the Torah, maintained that there was a reason for every commandment in the Torah, although many of the reasons were transnational and would only become clear on Judgement Day or in the world to come.

Already in January 2019 the European Commission published the results of a Euro-barometer face-to-face survey of 27,643 people in the 28 Member States of the EU, who were asked about their perception of Antisemitism. There are significant differences in perception among Member States.

People saying that Antisemitism is a problem is highest in countries where physical attacks against the Jewish community have taken place, including Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, UK, and Belgium. Swedish (81%) and French (72%) respondents are the most likely to say that Antisemitism is a problem in their country. Non-Jewish Europeans with Jewish friends and acquaintances are more likely to be aware of the increase in Antisemitism. To their credit, are those who themselves belong to other minorities.

Perhaps European minorities have learned the important lesson taught by the German Protestant theologian Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis’ rise to power; and the subsequent purging of their chosen targets, one group after another group:

First they arrested Socialists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Socialist.
Then they arrested Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they arrested Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

In the USA a poll from a year before President Trump’s first election showed a majority of Americans (56 percent, including even larger majorities in all the major Christian denominations) said the values of Islam are at odds with American values. That’s a significant rise of nine points in just the four years since 2011, when Americans were evenly split, with 47 percent saying Islamic values were incompatible while 48 percent disagreed. Today sadly both Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are probably 15 or more points higher.

As in Europe three large groups of Americans had a major increase in Islamophobia; and three smaller minority groups only had a very small rise, or no rise at all.

The three groups of Americans having large numbers of people agreeing with the statement that the values of Islam are at odds with American values are:
white evangelical Protestants (up 14 points to 73 percent from 59 percent in 2011);
white mainline Protestants (up 16 points to 63 percent from 47 percent);
and Catholics (up 20 points to 61 percent from 41 percent).

The three groups that did not show a significant rise in Islamophobia are all American minorities: only 55 percent of black Protestants said Islamic values were incompatible with American values (up only 4 points from 51 percent); and among Jews, and people who claim no religious identity, there was no rise at all, because statistically speaking a one point difference (to 42 percent from 41 percent) is within the surveys margin of error.

Mustafa Farooq, the executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, wrote (Edmonton Journal 5/9/19) “We also have to talk about the fact that the white-supremacist views of the gunman (who killed synagogue worshippers in Pittsburg and San Diego) involved both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. The gunman’s hate against Muslims and Jews are not simply two discrete conceptions — rather, in reading his text, his hatred against the two communities is interwoven. That’s important to think about that.

For it appears that white supremacy has returned out of the dead earth. Or had it ever gone away? White supremacists take to the streets in Edmonton on a weekly basis, chanting the “14 words” of neo-Nazi white supremacy. Elsewhere, groups like the Soldiers of Odin (founded by neo-Nazis in Europe) and others have equally Islamophobic and anti-immigrant sentiments.

The attack on one religious community is an attack on all communities. Islamophobia and anti-Semitism — and indeed all forms of hate — are two sides of the same coin: the dark coin of white supremacy. And the forces of white supremacy, as the 20th century so clearly shows us, are a threat to all Canadians who love peace and democratic values.

If there is any lesson to draw from the horrors that have taken place over the last few months, it is that solidarity between Muslims and Jews, and solidarity among all people who abhor white supremacy, has never been more important than it is today.

The Holocaust was the last and worst of many attempts to destroy the Jewish People. Most long time oppressed or massacred minority victims give up and disappeared. Jews have survived because of their very strong religious commitment to hope in general and the Messianic Age in particular.

One well known example is the hope of a 15 year old Jewish girl during the Holocaust: “It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness. I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again. In the meantime, I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the day will come when I shall be able to carry them out.” ~Anne Frank