Hatred, Lies, and Violence in the World of Islam

360 Pages·2014·2.74 MB·English

by  Raphael Israeli

Copyright © 2014 by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New
Jersey.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
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National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2013042981
ISBN: 978-1-4128-5400-9
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Israeli, Raphael, author.
Hatred, lies and violence in the world of Islam / by Raphael Israeli.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4128-5400-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Antisemitism—Arab
countries. 2. Zionism—Foreign public opinion. 3. Jews—Foreign public
opinion. 4. Israel—Foreign public opinion. 5. Public opinion—Arab
Countries. 6. Arab-Israeli confl ict—Infl uence. I. Title.
DS146.A67I57 2014
305.892’401767—dc23
2013042981
Ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellant
(Wherever they sow desolation, they call it peace)
Tacitus, Historia

Contents
Foreword ix
Introduction: Th e Nature of Lies: Hoaxes, Wishful Th inking,
Envy, Denial, Self-Righteousness, and Conspiracy Th eories 1
1 Lies Generated by Hatred: Political and
Religious Sources 19
2 Truth-Bending Propensities of Politics and
Political Ideologies 99
3 A Sample of Manufactured Libel against the Jews
in the Arab and Muslim Media 115
4 Th e Distribution of Lies and Hatred: Mosques,
Education, the Media, Internet, Poetry, and
Folk Songs 191
5 Distribution of Libel, in Defense of Lies 203
6 Th e Palestinians as the Arab Prototype of Lie
Manufacturing 227
7 Iran: Th e Extremist Shiite Example 273
8 Turkey: Th e Non-Arab Muslims Entering the Fray 299
Conclusion: Are Hatred and Lie Propagation Reversible?:
Summary Refl ections 325
Bibliography 333
Analytical Index 339

Foreword
Ayn Rand has made in her great classic novels, Th e Fountainhead
and A tlas Shrugged , the seminal distinction between “creators,” who are
the prime movers and the doers, on whose instincts, stamina, diligence,
determination, rebelliousness, and restlessness rests the progress of
society and humanity (such as Roark, Rearden, and Dagny); and the
“second-handers” who feed on them and hate them for that (such as
Toohey, Jim Taggart, and most others). Even on the international arena
prime movers among countries, such as America in the world, or Israel
in the Middle East, attract most of the international scorn for their
success, which constantly reminds the others of their own impotence.
Th us, the second-handers face two options: either to elevate themselves
to the level of the doers by emulating them, befriending them, and col-
laborating with them in recognition of their achievements, or to battle
against them, to demean them, demonize them, boycott them, destroy
them, and delegitimize them, so as to remove from their horizon the
successful counter-example of their own failures, and put an end to
their own “humiliation.” Exactly as Rand’s masterful narratives follow
this pattern of behavior and action on both sides of the divide, so on
the international arena, one can detect similar molds of conduct, which
lead the doers and movers to do, innovate, and move forward, while
the second-handers watch with envy and sink themselves in hatred,
in lie manufacturing, in violence, and in rationalizations to try in vain
to salvage their self-respect and self-image.
Since the execution of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in 2005, it
seemed that the persistent image of a latter-day Saladin, the Muslim
hero who can challenge the Christian world and defeat it, had been
removed from popular imagery in the Arab and Muslim world, for it
seemed that there was no other candidate worthy to inherit his mantle
after the thirty-year long era of Saddam’s mythical and charismatic
leadership had revolved. Before him, it was legendary Gamal Abdel
Nasser, who ruled Egypt from 1952 until his death in 1970, and was
ix