Anti-Semites on Zionism: From Indifference to Obsession
This article compares European and Middle Eastern anti-Semitism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From the 1870s through the 1930s, in parallel fashion anti-Semitism became a mobilizing, all-embracing ideology in Europe, while the Arab world witnessed an eruption of anticolonial and nationalist sentiment, often directed against the Zionist project. Arab anti-Semitism featured the irrational and fantastic qualities of its European counterpart, but it took form against the reality of the Zionist project. The article draws a distinction between the realms of systemic intolerance, aggravated by socio-economic crisis, and political strife, driven by discrete events and policies. Its main sources are fin-de-siècle European anti-Semites' writings on Zionism, which are shown to be fundamentally different from the anti-Zionist rhetoric emanating from the Middle East at that time.
Muhammad Qutb’s Islamist Thought: A Missing Link between Sayyid Qutb and al-Qaeda?
Although both Sayyid Qutb and Muhammad Qutb are Islamist thinkers, most researchers do not recognize the importance of Muhammad Qutb’s Islamism. However, through the analysis of Muhammad Qutb’s writing and his life, this paper posits that both Qutb brothers are important Islamist thinkers. In terms of Islamism, this paper assumes that after Muhammad Qutb was influenced by Sayyid Qutb, Muhammad Qutb influenced al-Qaeda; namely, Muhammad Qutb played a mediating role between Sayyid Qutb and al-Qaeda in the intellectual history of Islamism. Thus, this paper argues that while Sayyid Qutb played an important role in constructing al-Qaeda intellectually, his younger brother Muhammad Qutb also played a significant role in building al-Qaeda because, as a teacher, he educated both bin Laden and Safar al-Hawali. In addition, as an activist there is a possibility that he personally helped Abdullah Azzam, the other teacher of bin Laden. Furthermore, as an Islamist thinker, Muhammad Qutb’s perspective of the world in which the US confronts Islam, as well as his denunciation of modern Western ideologies such as democracy and secularism, influenced al-Qaeda, and his long-term reworking of Sayyid Qutb’s Islamism prevented it from becoming obsolete and thus preserved its appeal to an audience that includes al-Qaeda.
Women in the Resistance and in the Holocaust: The Voices of Eyewitnesses
.,."Two major sections deal with the Resistance and with concentration camp life; a shorter final section concerns re-entry into normal life by the survivors...." Library Journal