2 Friday; August 15, 1975

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Purely Commentary

Prof. Littell's Factual Analysis of Islam's Views and
Their Serious Effects on Israel and World Jewry . . .
Plight of Syrian Jews, Demand for Their Right to Emigrate

Claims to Semitism and Arab Anti-Semites •

A defensive mechanism for Arabs who discriminate against all Jews, not Israel alone,
is the claim that they, too, are Semites.
That's how the Arab propagandists have been covering up facts while conducting the
anti-Semitic campaigns.

In the process, they have charged that Jews in Israel are the discriminators against
all religions other than the Jewish. - Nothing could be further from the truth.
Prof. Franklin Littell of Temple University, an eminent Christian theologian, has
been especially emphatic in 'his rejection of the Arab resort to the Semitic claim as a
defense for Muslim Jew-baiting. Here is what he had to say as a leader in the Christians
Concerned for Israel in an article in his CCI Notebook entitled "Muslim Anti-Semitism:"

One of the Big Lies of Arab League
propaganda, faithfully promoted by, fellow
travelers in such circles as American oil
companies and mission boards, is this: an-
ti-Semitism is a Christian malaise un-
known to Muslims.
As a matter of fact, the evidence of
Muslim anti-Seinitism (hatred of Jews) is
overwhelming. Whatever the case may be
with the Christian Bible (and the pros and
cons of ascribing anti-Semitism to the
Christian canon are today hotly 'debated).
the denigration of the Jews in the Koran is
clear: according to Muslim scripture, the
Jews are the enemies of Allah, they have
always been disobedient, they lie against
Allah, they practice unrighteousness, they
insinuate corruption into society, they are
damned by Allah, they killed the prophets
of Allah, they will receive the punishment
of hell-fire.
Moreover, when early Christian speak-
ers and writers used harsh language about
their own -people, they were Jews speaking
to Jews. When Mohammed spoke that way
about "the Jews" he was in precisely the
same stance as a Chrysostom or an Augus-
tine: he was an out-grouper, and his words
carried a bitter ethnic overtone.
Across the centuries there have been
periods when Jews enjoyed a relative
peace and prosperity under tolerating rul-
ers of Islam, just as they sometimes did un-
der tolerating rulers of Christendom. And
there have been successful "court Jews" in
both areas. But in properly functioning Is-
lam neither Jews nor Christians have ever
been anything but second-class subjects —
any more than Jews and Muslims in the old
state-church Christendom were ever any-
thing but second-class subjects.

In the modern period, 700,000 Jewish
refugees have fled to Israel from Arab gov-
ernment repression and persecution. That
this persecution has been ideological/racist
and official, and not the product of mere
popular prejudice, is also amply docu-
mented. The propaganda line of the Arab
League is to the effect that their govern-
ments are "anti-Zionist" but not anti-Sem-
itic. In fact, however, a virulent anti-Semi-
tism is widespread in Islam — from the
Holy War ideology to the publication and
distribution of anti-Semitic pamphlets and

books by the official government printing
presses of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, etc.

A most popular item, printed in runs
of hundreds of thousands annually, is the
famous anti-Semitic tract, "The Protocols
of the Elders of Zion," which was forged
long before the state of Israel was set up.
In connection with the Arab League's
blackmail of firms employing Jews and/or
trading with Israel, the propagandists have
attempted to deny any anti-Semitic bent.
In fact, however, the hatred of the Jews is
carried to the point of economic pressure
against individuals and groups that have no
relationship whatever to Israel's survival.
Even in recruiting technicians to assist in
modernizing the technology of Arab
League countries Jews are discriminated
against. The Army Engineers, along with
firms like Raytheon, Lockheed, Northrop
Aviation, etc., have agreed to discriminate
against Jews.

According to a current report, negotia-
tions between MassaChusetts Institute of
Technology and Saudi Arabia for extensive
technical assistance in planning'a program
to meet the latter's water requirements
have broken down over the unwillingness of
Saudi Arabia to pledge non-discrimination
against Jewish technicians.
Needless to say, such Jewish techni-
cians would not be "Zionists" contributing
to Israel's economy by their work for MIT/
Saudi Arabia. Needless to say — except to
those who have swallowed the propaganda
'of the Arab League offices and some
"Christian" agencies that pass the lies
along — the problem is a vicious anti-Semi-
tism as endemic in Islam as it is in Chris-
tendom.
It is not the responsibility of "Chris-
tians Concerned for Israel" to attempt a re-
form of Muslim ideology. Someday Muslim
thinkers will catch up with modern critical
methods of thought as well as with modern
technology, and a renaissance and refor-
mation will come in Islam. Hopefully, an
acceptance of religious pluralism and ap-
preciation of religious liberty will be one of
the benefits. In the meantime, it is our re-
sponsibility to nail the falsehoods about
the status of the Jews in Islam, frequently
passed on by "Christian" offices in Beirut
and New York City.

The pity is that the anti-Semitic canards must constantly be exposed and the Arab
falsehoods defied. Fortunately, those in the ranks of Christians Concerned for Israel and
similar movements—few as their adherents unfortunately are—are among the guard-
ians of Israel who dare not sleep or slumber.

Explanatory Routines
From the White House

Anger is not unusual in the. White
House. In the days of Harry S. Truman it
occurred frequently. He once registered an-
noyance with Zionist importuning for the
cause of national security for Jews. It blew
over rapidly and his friendship for Israel was
more than legendary.
The new occupant of the White House
reportedly was angered not by American
Jewish intercessions but by the Israelis. The
result was an attempt at "reassessment"
which continues to be viewed by many as far
from pragmatic. Since criticism of a Presi-
dent and his Secretary of State is always in
order, the reassessing process continues, in
this commentary at least, to be viewed as
unwise.
Regrettably, the need for explanations
and exonerations by White House-staff have
been all too numerous of late.
Example: How come a PLO representa-
tive was able to grasp President Ford's hand
for a handshake in Bucharest, of all places?
The President said it was insignificant. Oc-
currence and explanation are both deplora-
ble.
Another example, of an occurrence on
the same notorious overseas trip: Ron Nes-
sen said it was wrong to interpret President
Ford's statement regarding the Middle East
as a concurrence with Marshall Tito. The
quoted statement was labelled "a mistran-
slation."
Nessen 'claimed the translation should
have stated that the Tito-Ford views "were
quite identical in that" both agreed the Mid-
dle East situation was very dangerous.
All explanations are graciously and
gratefully accepted, but they can not elimi-,
nate regrets.
Diplomacy and statesmanship, how
painful are your stings!

PLO in Romania?

The PLO-Ford handshake poses another
question: The White House claimed the PLO
man in Bucharest was with the diplomatic
corps that greeted the President. Is it possi-
ble that Romania, the friendliest-to-Israel
Communist country, is giving accreditation
to the terrorists?

Sadat's Love for the U. S.

President Ford may have good reason
for his emphasis on "flexibility" as a major
Israeli responsibility — as an added measure
of even-handedness he also speaks of Egyp-
tian flexibility. Perhaps it would be well for
him to go deeper into Sadatian thinking,
especially the Sadat views on love for Amer-
ica.
Is he aware of and can he ignore the fol-
lowing dispatch by one of the world's most
responsible news agencies:

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt, Aug. 6
(Reuters) — President Anwar el-
Sadat said today that he had full
confidence in Secretary of State Kis-.
singer, who is seeking to bring about
a Middle East peace settlement.

By Philip
Slomovitz

"The face of America used to be
very ugly, but Dr. Kissinger's hon-
est work has restored the confidence
of those like us who had lost all con-
fidence in America," Mr. Sadat told
reporters. He added:
"He is a man of honesty and sin-
cerity. He is a man who never broke
his word to me. He is a trustworthy
• man in whom I can believe."
However, Mr. Sadat avoided
direct answer when asked if he be-
lieved that the Kissinger efforts
would lead to an Egyptian agree-
ment with Israel.

There is no begrudging the love for Kis-
singer, but tongue-in-cheek diplomacy can
stand testing.
In all fairness to even-handedness: let it
also be based on total truth and on complete
accounting of the views of Israel's enemies.
And the attitude towards the United States
must not be ignored. El Sadat and crew seem
to have no scruples when they choose to ma-
lign this country.

New Syrian Restrictions
Continued need for action in defense of
the 4,500 Jews who still reside in Syria (3,000
in Damascus, 1,200 in Aleppo, 300 in Qam-
ishly) is indicated in the series of restrictions
revealed anew by the American Jewish Con-
gress. They are:
• A total ban on all Jewish emigration,
even for the purpose of uniting families in
the U.S., Canada and other places far re-
moved from the Arab-Israel conflict.
• The requirement that Jews obtain
special permission from the secret police to
travel more than three miles from their
homes.
• Nightly curfews and periodic roll
calls.
• • The requirement that Jews carry spe-
cial identity cards with "Musawi" (of the
faith of Moses) printed boldly in red. The
bankbooks of Jews, their drivers licenses
and even their health insurance cards are
similarly marked in red.
• Discrimination against Jewish em-
ployment in government offices, public
bodies or banks and arbitrary dismissal
from jobs or revocation of licenses to conduct
foreign trade.
-
• Sharp restrictions against Jews seek-
ing to operate automobiles or to have tele-
phones installed in their homes (except for
doctors and a handful of privileged mer-
chants).
• Severe discrimination in admission to
Syrian universities; only a handful of Jewish
young people are allowed to enter during the
past several years.
While the plight of the 4,500 Syrian
Jews is the concern of all Jews and of hu-
manitarians who show an interest in pre-
venting persecutions wherever they may be
practiced, the 25,000 relatives of the 4,500,
who have escaped the tyranny and now live
in the United States are especially exercising
their right of appeal to the United States and
the United Nations to intercede in behalf of
the sufferers. The major appeal is to assure
the right of Syrian Jews to emigrate and find
haven elsewhere. Their appeal must not fall
on deaf ears.

The History of Black-Jewish Relations in the United States

It was not until the 20th
Century that United States
Jews played a substantial
role in the struggle to pro-
tect the civil liberties of all
U.S. citizens. In part, this
was clearly to protect their
own rights, but it was also a
defense of the values of de-
mocracy and liberalism, ac-
cording to the Encyclopae-
dia Judaica.
Up to the 1954 U.S. Su-
preme Court school desegre-
gation decisions, white, and
specifically Jewish, leader-
ship played an important

part in defending and help-
ing the blacks.

Jewish commitment to
the anti-Washington wing
of the NAACP, which
fought for immediate full,
legal equality, is exempli-
fied in the work of Joel E.
Spingarn and his brother,
Arnold B. Spingarn, presi-
dents respectively, of the
NAACP (1930-30; 1940-66).
Louis Marshall and Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise were also
prominent among the
early leaders.

Soon after the 1954 Su-

preme Court decisions, the
objectives of the blacks in
the U.S. altered signifi-
cantly and the demand for
equality became more ac-
tively an effort to obtain
social, economic and politi-
cal equality.

This new thrust, says the
Judaica, became particu-
larly significant for the
Jewish community when, in
the early 1960s, black stu-
dents began a highly active
rights- movement. This
movement gathered to it

many young Jewish college
students. During thi
s period
Jewish student activism
spread from involvement in
Southern action to the
Northern Ghettos.

the legitimation of latent
racism emerged as a new
phenomenon. Black anti-
Semitism, which has .his-
tdric Christian roots:began
to grow.

While some Jews shared
The U.S. urban crisis of
the prejudices of other
white Americans, it was evi- the 1960s inextricably in-
dent through 1954 that volved the relationship of
there was a strong Jewish blacks with Jews. Jewish
commitment to legal equal- attitudes toward the
ity. With the black demand blacks changed percepti-
for immediate integration bly as a result of civil dis-
-5 'in. the large cities which --fo- -orders and the increase in
violent contacts between
cused on the public schools,

blacks and Jews, as well
as the publicity given to
black anti-Semitism.

Jewish legal involvement
in the cause for civil rights
and civil liberties was par-
ticularly marked during the
1960s. Jewish lawyers par-
ticipated heavily in helping
the civil rights movement
handle its huge case load,
later giving way to many
black lawyers who had
-themselves- been. among the
student demonstrators.

