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Antisemitism at the Heart of Islamist Extremism

Antisemitism at the Heart of Islamist Extremism

Updated on February 27, 2026
Table of contents

Overview #

This eye-opening booklet traces how antisemitism became a central pillar of radical Islamist ideology. From Nazi alliances with Arab leaders in WWII to the rhetoric of groups like Hamas and Iran’s regime, it reveals how religious hatred is weaponized against Jews and how this ideology continues to block peace and fuel terror.

Footnotes 

  • 1. Bassam Tibi. "The Islamist Venture of the Politicization of Islam to an Ideology of Islamism: A Critique of the Dominating Narrative in Western Islamic Studies." Soundings: An Interdisciplinary
    Journal 96, no. 4 (2013): 431-49. doi:10.5325/soundings.96.4.0431.
    2. Ibid.
    3. Bassam Tibi, “From Sayyid Qutb To Hamas: The Middle East Conflict and the Islamization of Antisemitism,” The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism, Working Paper #5, (Yale University Press 2012).
    4. Ibid.
    5. Bernard Lewis, Semites and Antisemites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice, (W. W. Norton & Co., 1999): 126.
    6. Matthias Küntzel, “Islamic Antisemitism: Its Genesis, Meaning, and Effects,” Antisemitism Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Fall 2018): 235-253.
    7. Pas. Kairo, “Nach dem Panarabischen Kongreß von Bloudan,” Völkischer Beobachter (September 19, 1937) cited in Matthias Küntzel, “Islamic Antisemitism: Its Genesis,” (2018): 235-253.
    8. Memo from British Consul in Damascus Colonel Gilbert MacKereth, September 14, 1937, cited in Elie Kedourie, “The Bludan Congress on Palestine, September 1937,” Middle Eastern Studies 17:1
    (1981): 107-125.
    9. Jeffrey Herf, “Haj Amin al-Husseini, The Nazis, and The Holocaust: The Origins, Nature, and Aftereffects of Collaboration,” Jewish Political
    10. Studies Review 26: 3 and 4 (2016): 15.
    11. Yehoshafat Harkabi, Arab Attitudes to Israel, (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1972): 269.
    12. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hadith
    13. Küntzel, op. cit. (2018): 246.
    14. Bassam Tibi, “From Sayyid Qutb To Hamas,” (2012), 19.
    15. The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas),
    https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp
    16. Alexander Gruber, “Erdogans Erlösungsantisemitismus: Kein Baum wird die Juden schützen,” MENA-WATCH (December 15, 2017), accessed May 3, 2018, https://www.mena-watch.com/mena-
    analysen -beitraege/erdogans-erloesungsantisemitismus-kein-baum-wird-die -juden-schuetzen/, cited in Küntzel, op. cit. (2018): 235.
    17. “Antisemitic Hadith: ‘The Prophecy Of The Rock And The Tree,’” The Middle East Media Research Institute, Special Dispatch No. 7587, July 25, 2018 https://www.memri.org/reports/antisemitic- hadith-prophecy-rock-and-tree-%E2%80%93-memri-clips-and-reports
    18. Translated from the German version of “Islam-Judentum. Aufruf des Großmufti an die Islamische Welt im Jahre 1937,” in Mohamed Sabry, Islam-Judentum-Bolschewismus (Berlin: Junker & Dünnhaupt, 1938), 22– 32, cited in Küntzel, op. cit. (2018): 239.
    19. Ibid.
    20. See Jeffrey Herf, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009),
    and Klaus-Michael Mallmann, Martin Cüppers, Nazi Palestine: The Plans for the Extermination of the Jews in Palestine, (New York: Enigma Books, 2010).
    21. Ibid.
    22. Mallmann and Cüppers, (2010): 91.
    23. Wolfgang G. Schwanitz, “Amin al-Husaini and the Holocaust. What Did the Grand Mufti Know?,” World Politics Review, May 8, 2008, https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/2082/amin-al-
    husaini-and-the-holocaust-what-did-the-grand-mufti-know
    24. Mallmann and Cüppers, (2010): 88-101.25. Abd al-Karim al-Umar, editor, Memoirs of the Grand Mufti, (Damascus, 1999), cited in Schwanitz, op. cit.
    26. Ibid.
    27. Deutsches Generalkonsulat, Panarabischer Kongress in Bludan, BNA GFM 33/611, Serial 1525, cited in Küntzel (2018): 244.
    28. George Lepre, Himmler's Bosnian Division: The Waffen-SS Handschar Division 1943-1945, (Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 1997)
    29. Mallmann and Cüppers, op. cit. (2010): 200-202. See also, Mitja Velikonja, Religious Separation and Political Intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina (College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press,
    2003).
    30. Herf, op. cit. (2009): 244.
    31. Zvi Elpeleg, The Grand Mufti: Haj Amin al-Hussaini, Founder of the Palestinian National Movement, (UK: Routledge 1993)
    32. Küntzel, op. cit., (2014): 47
    33. Al Arabiya English, “Analysis: The Nazi roots of Muslim Brotherhood,” June 27, 2018, https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2018/06/27/ANALYSIS-The-Nazi-roots-of-Muslim-Brotherhood.html
    34. Küntzel, op. cit., (2014): 26
    35. Al Arabiyah English, op. cit.
    36. Küntzel, op. cit. (2014): 26.
    37. Bassam Tibi, “Islamischer Fundamentalismus, moderne Wissenschaft und Technologie,” Frankfurt
    am Main, Germany, Suhrkamp (1992): 87.
    38. Are Knudsen, "Crescent and Sword: The Hamas Enigma." Third World Quarterly 26, no. 8 (2005): 1373-388.
    39. Aref Ali Nayed, "The Radical Qur'ānic Hermeneutics of Sayyid Quṭb," Islamic Studies 31, no. 3 (1992): 355-63.
    40. Matthias Küntzel, Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11, (New York: Telos Publishing, 2007): 7-8.
    41. Ziad Abu-Amr, "Hamas: A Historical and Political Background." Journal of Palestine Studies 22, no. 4
    (1993): 5-19. doi:10.2307/2538077.
    42. Ronald L. Nettler, Past Trials and Present Tribulations: A Muslim Fundamentalist’s View of the Jews (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1987): 72-87 in Küntzel, Jihad and Jew-Hatred, op. cit., (2007): 83-84 op.
    cit. pp. 72-87.
    43. Ibid.
    44. Bernard Lewis, Islam: The Religion and the People,( FT Press, 2009): 53, 145–50.
    45. Daniel Byman, “Iran, Terrorism, and Weapons of Mass Destruction,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 31:3, 169-181, DOI: 10.1080/10576100701878424
    46. Melissa G. Dalton, “Iranian Backed Militias: Destabilizing the Middle East,” Center for Strategic and
    International Studies, October 4, 2017.
    47. Matthew Levitt, “Iranian and Hezbollah Operations in South America: Then and Now,” Prism, Vol 5, No. 4, Center for Complex Operations, National Defense University.
    48. Michael Bachner, “Iran said increasing Hamas funding to $30m per month, wants intel on Israel,” Times of Israel, August 5, 2019, https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-agrees-to-increase-hamas-
    funding-to-30-million-per-month-report/
    49. “Iranian expert to ‘Raya’: Iran provided Hamas with more than two billion dollars and 100-150 million Jihad annually,” Raya, February 8, 2014, https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=ar&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.raya.ps%2Fnew
    s%2F850572.html

    50. The Muslim 500, https://www.themuslim500.com/profiles/yusuf-al-qaradawi/
    51. “Yusuf Al-Qaradawi on the historic 'punishment' for Jewish people,” Arab News YouTube channel, video of sermon delivered on January 30, 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my8x-7qZ0UI
    (emphasis added).
    52. “Yusuf Al-Qaradawi tells BBC Newsnight that Islam justifies suicide bombings,” BBC TWO's Newsnight, July 7, 2004,
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2004/07_july/07/newsnight.shtml
    53. Dov Lieber, “The cleric who legitimized suicide attacks against Israel has reversed his ruling. Hamas isn’t listening,” Times of Israel, January 10, 2017, https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-cleric-who-
    legitimized-suicide-attacks-against-israel-has-reversed-his-ruling-hamas-isnt-listening/
    54. “Holocaust Denial,” Southern Poverty Law Center, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting hate/extremist-files/ideology/holocaust-denial
    55. Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, “Why Iran takes issue with the Holocaust,” BBC, October 9, 2013,
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-24442723
    56. “Leader’s Speech to Members of Assembly of Experts,” March 8, 2012,
    http://english.khamenei.ir/news/1601/Leader-s-Speech-to-Members-of-Assembly-of-Experts
    57. “What did Ayatollah Khamenei tell Roger Garaudy about Jews?,” June 13, 2016,
    http://english.khamenei.ir/news/3911/What-did-Ayatollah-Khamenei-tell-Roger-Garaudy-about-
    Jews
    58. Ibid.
    59. Ibid.
    60. Muhammad Maqdsi, "Charter of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) of Palestine." Journal of
    Palestine Studies 22, no. 4 (1993): 122-34. doi:10.2307/2538093.
    61. Al Aqsa-TV (Hamas/Gaza), April 8, 2011, translation by MEMRI, https://www.memri.org/tv/former-
    hamas-minister-culture-atallah-abu-al-subh-jews-are-most-despicable-and-contemptible
    62. Fathi Hammad, speech, July 12, 2018, translated by MEMRI, https://www.memri.org/tv/hamas-
    political-bureau-member-fathi-hammad-at-gaza-rallies-cleanse-palestine-of-filth-cancer-of-the-
    jews/transcript.
    63. Bassam Tibi, Islam Between Culture and Politics, (UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).
    64. Bassam Tibi, "The Islamist Venture… " op. cit. (2013): 431-49.
    65. Bassam Tibi, “From Sayyid Qutb To Hamas,” (2012), 21.

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