Islamism Against Zionism: Muslim Identity and the Middle East Conflict
As the 1920s progressed, the terms "Zionism" and "Zionist" began to filter into Islamist usage. The two most influential antisemitic authors of the pre-1948 period came from the pan-Turkish movement. There was Nihal Atsiz, who propagated the racist theories of Nazism [4]. And there was Cevat Revat Atilhan, who adopted an Islamist orientation. In their writings, both men used the term "Zionist" as a synonym for "Jew", always presented as an enemy.
The reflections of Atilhan underline the inherent antisemitism within Turkish Islamism, something that deepened in the immediate period following Israel's creation. According to Rifat N. Bali, a Turkish-Jewish historian, one-third of the articles in the Islamist magazine Sebil-ür Re?ad in 1948 concerned Zionism and Judaism [5].
“Within this clash of identities, of “oppressed” against “oppressor”, of those who are integrated and accepted against those who are not, it is perfectly acceptable to attack Jews as Jews”
Among Arab nationalists and Islamists alike, it was the pervasiveness of these ideas which were, to a great extent, behind the refusal to acknowledge the true facts of the Holocaust. As a result, a decisive second stage in the construction of Zionism's meaning was inaugurated. Negative attitudes towards the Holocaust - at best, haughty and ambiguous, at worst, involving outright denial - encouraged the introduction of comparisons of Nazism and Zionism on the international political scene, in order to marry western objections to Nazism with anti-Zionist imperatives. On 4th December 1961, Ahmed Shuqairy, the first leader of of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), declared: "Zionism is worse than Fascism, uglier than Nazism, more hateful than imperialism and more dangerous than imperialism. Zionism is a combination of all such characteristics." [6] Such sentiments were eventually repeated by Islamists outside the Arab world, from Turkey to Pakistan.
These associations were absorbed into popular imagery so that they eventually became commonplace. Looking back at key events related to the Middle East over the last forty years, each one provided a basis for making the association between Zionism and Nazism and for reviving antisemitic conspiracy theories. The Six Day War of June 1967, the Lebanon War of 1982 and the first and second Palestinian intifadas provided ample opportunities for making the Nazi analogy. As for "Jewish power" conspiracy theories, these were always in circulation, reaching a peak following the atrocities of 11th September, 2001.
Antisemitism in the Age of anti-Imperialism
During the 1960s, what can be called the anti-imperialist interpretation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, casting Zionists as colonists and Palestinians as oppressed colonizers, grew in influence in both western and Middle Eastern circles. But this did not obscure the distinctive Islamist perspective. Rather than speaking the language of anti-colonialism, Islamist anti-Zionism remained firm that the battle was one which pitted Muslims against Jews.
Looked at more closely, there were, in the Turkish arena, two key themes common to Islamist discourse elsewhere: the rejection of western influence and culture and the standardization of anti-Jewish rhetoric and polemics [7]. Necmettin Erbakan (who eventually served as Turkey's Prime Minister between 1996 and 1997) was the author of the original Milli Görü? (National Vision) document In an interview granted to the newspaper Milliyet in 1969, he stated: "There are three directions in the world: communism, Zionism or nationalism and respect for the sacred things of each nation. We are obliged to choose the third path." [8] Launching his first political party in 1970, Milli Nizam Partisi (Party of National Order), [9] he announced that party membership would be refused to "Jews and freemasons".
