Bahar Davary, a University of San Diego professor, has encouraged her students to wear yellow Stars of David inscribed with the word “Muslim”, in a crude imitation of the Judensterne markers Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis.
Davary and her students mimicked the badge Jews were forced to wear, under penalty of death, “to raise awareness against Islamophobia.”
The protest is being condemned as a vile act of false equivalence tantamount to Holocaust denial.
The Nazis’ action of forcing Jews to wear markers has a long legacy throughout Europe and the Middle East. The earliest recorded example of special markings is said to have been introduced by Umayyad Caliph Umar II in the early 8th century. A genizah document from 1121 gives the following description of decrees issued in Baghdad:
Two yellow badges [are to be displayed], one on the headgear and one on the neck. Furthermore, each Jew must hang round his neck a piece of lead with the word Dhimmi on it […] The women have to wear one red and one black shoe and have a small bell on their necks or shoes.
The bells Jewish women were forced to wear are understood to have been intended to serve as a warning to others of a nearby Jew.
At least 100 students and faculty members at the University of San Diego have been seen sporting yellow stars, according to local reports on the protest.
In the United States of America, where the the University of San Diego is based, antisemitic hate crime makes up, by far, the biggest percentage of religiously biased crime, with 59% of attacks targeted at Jews. The second largest group of victims of such hate crimes are Muslims, at 14%, followed by ‘other’ at 12% and Catholics at 6%.