AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): A Muslim researcher specializing in Islamophobia has warned that the policies of Israel and the manner in which Western governments support them have contributed to growing insecurity for both Jews and Muslims, drawing a comparison between the social and political consequences of violent ideological movements.
According to the researcher, just as ISIS undermined the security of Muslims in the West by appropriating Islam as a violent political identity, Israel has presented itself as the representative of Judaism and Jews worldwide, reducing a diverse religious community to a political and violent project. This process, the researcher argues, symbolically links Jews to acts of violence carried out in the name of the Israeli state.
The analysis contends that the stark contrast in Western responses to ISIS and to Israel reveals a racial and political hierarchy of accountability. While ISIS violence was unequivocally condemned as “terrorism,” Israeli violence, even when involving the mass killing of civilians, is frequently justified or normalized under the rubric of “self-defense.”
The researcher adds that Muslims in recent years have repeatedly been pressured to condemn acts of violence they did not commit, whereas no comparable expectation exists for Zionist groups to denounce the actions of Israel. At the same time, opposition to Israeli policies is increasingly labeled as “antisemitism.”
In this view, the concept of “new antisemitism” has effectively become part of the machinery of Islamophobia, used to frame protests against the war in Gaza, expressions of support for Palestine, and even Palestinian identity symbols as forms of extremism or hate speech.
Referring to recent developments in Australia, including heightened pressure following large pro-Palestinian demonstrations, the researcher notes that this approach has led to increased surveillance, political repression, and a new wave of threats and attacks against Muslim communities.
The analysis concludes that redefining antisemitism not only fails to prevent hatred but, by shielding a state from accountability, simultaneously reproduces Islamophobia and antisemitism and perpetuates violence against Muslims and Palestinians.
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