In my life time, I have seen more bigotry against people of Jewish heritage than I have against any other group of people. The reasons for the intensity of this bigotry around the world has always puzzled me.
Perhaps the most courageous thing to do it to address it head on. Here goes my attempt. Below, a Buddhist Canadian Nazi leader, Brian, attacks Jews in an interview with the always authentic, honest and perceptive Armin Navabi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_V2-sNUo4w
Armin means protector of the Aryan peoples. I think Armin is a protector of all people, not just Aryans.
One aspect of this interview that might be troubling to Hindus and Buddhists is that it reminds them of how Hindus and Buddhists were blamed for Nazis and the Holocaust in the 1940s by post modernists, marxists, socialists and the global left. Nazism is the convergence of nationalism, socialism, autocracy and German Indology. German Indology is the study of Hinduism, Buddhism and Sanskrit derived linguistics.
Number 1, I don’t think Hitler understood German Indology and it is unfair to blame German Indologists for much of what Hitler did, including Hitler’s rabid anger at Jews, homosexuals, gypsies and Slavs. I believe that Hitler came up with these ideas on his own rather than from German Indology.
Number 2, I don’t think German Indologists understood Buddhist, Hinduism and Sanskrit scriptures very well and it is unfair to blame Buddhism and Hinduism for German Indology. This said, Germans had the right to visit South Asia in the 1800s, 1900s, learn from Buddhists and Hindus, interpret Hindu/Buddhist scriptures any way they chose, and formally convert to Buddhism and Hinduism–which many did.
Brian, the Canadian Buddhist Nazi, is a meditator and chaneler of subtle “heavens”. Another way of understanding this is that Brian practices transcending gross thoughts to experience more subtle thoughts, feelings and emotions by using parts of the subconscious and unconscious brain. This is a common practice by the Eastern faiths and use to be practiced by many Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s. The Nazis tried to in conjunction of modern science use consciousness, meditation, sound power and the technologies of visual machines (Yantras) to increase competence, capability, intelligence and power. This explains part of the conversation between Brian and Armin.
Brian frequently mentions how Hitler praised Iranians, Arabs, Palestinians and Indians. Brian also emphasizes how Hitler allied with Iranians, Arabs and Palestinians. How should this issue be handled? I think Iranians, Arabs and Palestinians need to be fully open and honest about the past and the large numbers of Iranians, Arabs and Palestinians who fought shoulder to shoulder alongside the Nazis in WW 2. And at the same time carefully analyze Hitler’s critique of Jews in great detail; sharing their nuanced thoughts on each aspect of Hitler’s critique.
Brian mentions that different groups have different statistically measurable life outcomes and different measured IQ. Jewish people have far higher life outcomes and IQ scores than other people, including other caucasian people. Doesn’t this suggest that Nazis should greatly admire and learn from Jewish people? Is it possible that everyone else, Nazis included, should carefully study what Jewish people do right (whether that is breathing, stretching, exercise, dance, art, music, song, poetry, study, contemplation, meditation, religion, networking, collaborating, team spirit, family) and adopt the best aspects of Jewish culture?
Brian says that Jewish people dominate global entertainment, global finance, global business, global culture. Number 1, Brian overstates the degree to which this is true. Number 2, isn’t Jewish success a great and good thing? For Jews and for everyone else? Don’t we have a single global consciousness and super-mind and benefit from the success of others? In economics the greatest driver of global material living standards is total factor productivity, or product development and process innovation. Therefore if Jews who live in Israel invent something, the whole world benefits from it. This is why the world should celebrate the success of Jews. The success of Jews derives from competence, capacity and intuition (or intelligence) rather than hierarchies of oppression, exploitation, imperialism, colonialism, hegemony.
Brian also claims that Jewish people use their power and abilities with negative intentions to harm others. I think it is exactly the opposite. Jewish people benefit from the rise and success of others much the way others benefit from the rise and success of Jews. This is why Jewish global citizens (our heroes) have lead NGOs, civil society, human rights, and development.
Brian also sides with the Khamenei regime against Israel and Jews. Brian completely misses the point. Shouldn’t the whole world side with the great and good Iranian people against Khamenei? Hasn’t the 26 century alliance between Persians and Jews been very good for the world? Shouldn’t we try to breathe new life into it? Can’t an Iran that is a close and trusted ally of the great and good Israeli and Jewish people do more to help the Palestinians? Iranians are justifiably very proud of their Aryan heritage. I applaud and welcome this. The Aryans are the traditional friends and allies of the Jewish people. There are many close similarities between the Jewish faith and Aryan faiths [Zorastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, atheistic Hinduism (Charvaka and Ajivika)] that might be a topic for a future article.
Brian also emphasizes how Hitler was pro Palestinian. Here is a possible response. Anne Franks reminded us everyone has at least some good in their heart. Lucifer, Al-Masih ad-Dajjal and Hitler included. Lucifer, Al-Masih ad-Dajjal and Hitler do bad things; but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t good in them and that they don’t also do good things. In practice the most evil beings that have ever existed are partly good and do a combination of good and bad things. In this spirit, sometimes Hitler also said things that happened to be true. They don’t stop being true because Hitler said and believed in them. Palestinian rights included.
Honestly I couldn’t understand much of Brian’s attack against Jews? Why does Brian think Jewish people don’t desire the welfare of non Jews? Can the many wise commentators on Brown Pundits explain this to me?
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Edit 1:
Anti Jewish sentiment is rampant inside the United States from the post modernists, identitarian hard right, and from fellow Abrahamics.
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Edit 2:
Watch from 14 minutes onward:
Part of global Jew hatred comes from the twisted mind of Johann Andreas Eisenmenger, who wrote Entdecktes Judenthum (Judaism Uhmasked) in 1700. Johann Andreas Eisenmenger portrayed himself as a potential convert to Judaism and spent 19 years studying the Talmud with Jewish scholars. Then he wrote an omnibus book trying to interpret many quotes from the Talmud with the worst possible interpretation. Johann Andreas Eisenmenger is one of many to allege that the Talmud is some sort of secret conspiracy to take over and harm the world.
I personally strongly disagree with this interpretation of the Talmud . I still remember the wonder I felt when I was brought by a Jewish orthodox friend into a seminary filled with giant Talmud Talmud books and scholars. I “LOVED IT”! I think there is much secret embedded wisdom in the Talmud that can improve physical health (Bahu Balam), mental health (Chitta Shuddhi), intelligence (Buddhi) and global total factor productivity (technology). I think the Talmud is filled with beauty, sweetness, poetry and sound power (called Naad power or Mantra power or Shabda power in Sanskrit). Sadly I don’t understand enough Aramaic and Hebrew to grasp it 🙁 In another post I might try to elucidate some of the similarities between the Talmud and eastern philosophy.
german indology can’t be understood without Schopenhauer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer#Indology
Excellent point about Schopenhauer Razib Khan. Look forward to learning more. Perhaps you could write an article about it 🙂
“Aryan faiths [Zorastrianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Jainism, atheistic Hinduism (Charvaka and Ajivika)] that might be a topic for a future article.”
Aryan faiths? You are ignoring that these so called Aryan faiths of South Asia are heavily infused with non-Aryan religious beliefs.
Anti-Jewish bigotry, like bigotry against people of any other religion, is wrong. One can argue though about whether there is currently more bigotry against Jews than against other groups. In the West, the enemy du jour seems to be Muslims– see Trump’s “Muslim bans” for example. In India, Muslims and Dalits face persecution. Indian Jews don’t seem to be having a particularly hard time. In the US, even relatively mild criticism of Israel (the so-called “Jewish State”) often gets one labeled an anti-semite.
Having prejudice against an individual because of their religion is unjustifiable–no matter whether that person is a Muslim in India, or a Jew in Europe. But I would be careful conflating Jews and Israelis. Iran (since you discussed it in your piece) has very strong feelings about Israel, seeing it as a colonial occupier of Arab land. Iranian Jews though aren’t doing particularly badly (at least one doesn’t hear of it). In many Muslim countries, Israel is seen as an Occupier of Arab/Muslim land. If the modern state of Israel didn’t exist, I doubt the citizens of most Muslim countries would be particularly anti-Jewish. Recall that the Ottoman Empire was one of the most tolerant places for Jews, when they were being expelled from Catholic Spain.
Kabir, I still see more anti Jewish bigotry in America and Europe than anti muslim or anti black bigotry; but my life experience is different than yours. Please share your observations.
Of course muslims also face bigotry, which I hope to write more about. In India twelvers, Ishaelis, Ahmedi, Sufis, liberal/reform/secular atheist muslims tend to ally with Hinduttva or BJP. They get hit from two sides. They are attacked by Islamists (and in some cases by well intentioned conservative Sunnis who are not Islamists) as traitors to Islam. They are also subject to anti muslim bigotry from non muslims too stupid to understand that good muslims are the best friends they have got.
Irshad Manji–who I think we both have great respect and admiration for–has been subject to anti muslim bigotry in America and Canada.
“In the US, even relatively mild criticism of Israel (the so-called “Jewish State”) often gets one labeled an anti-semite.” I think we should push through this Kabir. I have been attacked very harshly on blogs many times for this reason. Isn’t the way to deal with this through loving dialogue? By sharing the love and light that flows through us?
Iranian Jews suffered horribly after the fall of the Shah–who to this day remains a hero for Jews. Khomeini tried to end the 2600 year alliance between Persia and the Jewish people. But Khomeini also quietly begged Israel for help against Saddam, which Israel provided. Israel also helped Khomeini’s Shiite Lebanese allies 1979-1982. Khomeini then betrayed Israel by stabbing her in the back. This explains the extent of hurt feelings and betrayal Israelis feel toward Khamenei.
Most Iranians don’t like Palestinians and don’t want Palestinians to move to Iran. Similar to how Iraqis and Kurds view Palestinians. Not to justify this in any way.
Sadly if Israel didn’t exist, I think anti Jewish sentiment would still exist. 🙁
You are right about the Ottoman Turks being historic allies of Jews. That is part of the problem. Arabs and Palestinians often accused Jews of being Ottoman collaborators during the half millenia Ottoman occupation of Arabia. This is why many Arabs and Palestinians in particular went after Arab Jews after the fall of the Ottoman empire.
This also explains why so many Palestinians joined the Nazis in WWII. Of course many Palestinians didn’t join the Nazis and most Palestinians knew almost nothing about the Nazis.
Yes, my life experiences are different. Growing up in the US as a person from a Pakistani and a “Muslim” background, you could see the change after 9/11 (I was in high school at the time). Airport security has become a huge ordeal, especially if one is a man of “fighting age” who has spent time in Pakistan. Add to this the current administration’s animus towards Muslims and Trump’s campaign pledges to stop all Muslims from entering the US, and the atmosphere has really changed. Jews on the other hand are basically considered “white”. I grew up in a suburb of Washington, DC with a lot of rich Jewish kids. I really don’t think they were experiencing discrimination on the basis of their religion. In fact, Jewish holidays were official holidays off from school for everyone, even though the vast majority of students were gentiles. The Holocaust was also a huge part of the curriculum. We had to read “The Diary of Anne Frank” in Grade 7.
What exactly are “atheist Muslims”? If you don’ t believe in Allah and his Prophet (peace be upon him), you can’t really be called a Muslim. You are someone from a Muslim cultural background or someone who happened to be born in a Muslim family, but not a believing Muslim. I am not particularly fond of Irshad Manji either, who to me seems to hate Islam. Of course, she has the freedom to propagate her views, but she’s not going to make a lot of fans among the Muslim community.
“If Israel didn’t exist, anti-Jewish sentiment would still exist”–Perhaps to some extent, but I think it would be a lot less. In many countries, like Pakistan, people have never met a Jew. All they know about Jews is what Israelis are doing to their fellow-Muslims, the Palestinians (of course many Palestinians are Christian–but Pakistanis don’t necessarily know this). A lot of the anti-Jewish feeling in such countries has to do with people’s political feelings towards Israel.
The central thesis in Buddhism is arguably an ex nihilo philosophical innovation that owes zilch to Vedic corpus. I cannot imagine the Buddhist insistence on suffering (rather amelioration of suffering) as having any priors in Vedic Hinduism, indeed with any priors in any religious tradition. That was well and truly a moral worthy of Enlightenment and gautama buddha isn’t called enlightened for nothing.
Latter-day Hinduism, Sikhism etc are far more derivative of local BS traditions and tribal Vedic ritual (or its rejection) than Buddhism. I’m almost tempted to call Buddhism as thoroughly unIndian in spirit and truly universal. No wonder it remained India’s best religious export, i.e. until Gabey thought he’d have a word in private with an Arab dude conveniently camping out in a secluded mountain cave…
Why do you consider the central thesis in Buddhism ex nihilo? My understanding was that there were competing philosophies attempting to address suffering in the context of Samsara, which was initially expressed (albeit incompletely) in the Upanishads. I agree that out of the many philosophies from that period, there are those that rely on the Vedas and those that don’t (like Buddhism). So, maybe Gautama Buddha owes the Vedas zilch but don’t you think the concern he was addressing was a result of the wider intellectual culture that prevailed?
I think that is a conflation, and probably an intentional one by Hindus, of the idea of self-abnegation, which is indeed in older Vedic commentaries and also in Jainism, with the Buddhist thesis of moderation or middle way (madhyamika nikaya).
The Vedic Hindu philosophy (as in the Upanishads) was not really solving a well-posed problem at all. Their goal was to define a religion or conduct (Dharma) based on some objective ideal of Rta (cognate with Latin “rect”, English “right”. Cf. Hindi/Urdu “reet” or Kashmiri “rut”), which is a ill-defined cosmic moral standard. Some sort of universal law that nobody can pin down.
They tried to solve the problem of evil (why is their evil in the world?) by taking recourse to Reincarnation (Christianity solves this by the doctrine of Original Sin). An essential and eternal soul that traverses bodies. Hence, the idea of a physical world or “samsara” that is basically just transient and illusory (“maya”) whereas the soul is the real deal. And all moral calculus is judged against Rta and even gods are subject to this supreme moral law.
This is fundamentally different to how Buddhism is defined. Buddhism does not pose the problem in terms of defining a moral standard at all, but in terms of suffering as the common feature of all life. To the Buddha the problem is not how to conduct oneself in a morally correct manner judged against some ill-defined (or undefinable) standard, but how to reduce suffering. Note, not remove suffering (which is irremovable), but reduce its magnitude. Everything else is a corollary to that central thesis.
This is an exact analogue of the centrality (and ubiquity) of error and definition of knowledge as arising from incremental error correction. This philosophy lies at the heart of how Science is done, i.e. all theories are liable to be falsified (Popper’s criterion) and judged against each other in experiments based on magnitudes of error (systematic or white noise).
In other words, Buddha was a 6c BCE Fallibilist – the same movement that gave rise to 17c CE Enlightenment. A man truly ahead of his times in my opinion.
Respect of Jews for rest of the humanity is not well known. It is possible that the bigotry is not one sided.
hoipolloi, I have always been treated very well by Jews. I have noticed that Jews often treat Asians, minority muslims, reform muslims, liberal muslims with a lot of affection and respect.
Could you elaborate on what you mean?
Hi AnAn: I am glad you asked for elaboration. I was mainly reacting to your statement, “I have seen more bigotry against people of Jewish heritage than I have against any other group of people. The reasons for the intensity of this bigotry around the world has always puzzled me.”
Sometimes it may be a response to the attitude of the so called victims. The way Jews refer to the rest of the humanity somewhat derisively as gentiles across centuries is well known. If you want to go by anecdotal evidence, “Asians, minority muslims, reform muslims, liberal muslims” in turn treat Jews very well. So it is not the issue. Please note that Jews are a dominant global community. So the bigotry shown to them is different from the bigotry shown to down trodden, like blacks or dalits. I can say that some of my friends are from Jewish community. So I had a chance to gauge their outlook at close quarters.
Now Internet is a treasure trove of information both reliable and fake. I happen to read about the situation in Europe before WWII and the so called Jewish conspiracy to boycott and destroy Germany. Most of them written by Jews themselves. One has to be careful in interpreting these events.
To remedy the situation, may be Jews should start a massive public relations effort across the globe by establishing charities and foundations for the needy.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/feb/27/antisemitism-us-rises-anti-defamation-league?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+Collections+2017&utm_term=265681&subid=2826733&CMP=GT_US_collection
“Antisemitic incidents in the US surged 57% in 2017, the Anti-Defamation League said on Tuesday, the largest year-on-year increase since the Jewish civil rights group began collecting data in 1979.
Close to 2,000 cases of harassment, vandalism and physical assault were recorded, the highest number of antisemitic incidents since 1994, it said.
. . .
Incidents were reported in all 50 US states for the first time since 2010, with higher numbers reported in areas with large Jewish populations.
. . .
The ADL’s report said US schools and colleges were particularly affected, with antisemitic incidents nearly doubling since 2016, often including swastikas drawn on school facilities or Jewish students’ notebooks. Sometimes vandalism included phrases such as: “Hitler was not wrong” or “white power”.
There were 204 incidents on university campuses in 2017, compared with 108 in 2016. A separate ADL study released last month found a more than 250% increase in white supremacist activity, such as distributing neo-Nazi fliers, on college campuses in the current academic year.
Jewish graves or cemeteries were desecrated seven times in 2017, the group said, contributing to a sense that the American Jewish community was “under siege”.
“One bright spot in this was the response of members of the Muslim and Christian faiths, who raised thousands of dollars to help repair the damaged tombstones,” it said.
Jews and Muslims were the most targeted groups in the US for religious-motivated hate crimes in 2016, according to the FBI, accounting for 54% and 24% of offences respectively.”
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Is anti Jewish hatred among Americans rising close to multi-generational highs? I have always found anti Jewish to be one of America’s biggest challenges.
But mark my words; unless the crescendo of American anti-Jewish bigotry is reversed; they will come after Asian Americans next. That is a guarantee.
“But mark my words; unless the crescendo of American anti-Jewish bigotry is reversed; they will come after Asian Americans next. That is a guarantee.”
Interesting comment.. and I broadly agree. However, in the realm, admittedly narrow, of affirmative action in elite colleges, the system as it is set up today discriminates negatively towards Asian Americans while avoiding discrimination against Jewish Americans. This is perhaps not intentional, but a result of Asian Americans being considered, for the purpose of affirmative action, a distinct group while Jewish Americans are subsumed within the larger “White” group. Being a high achieving group, limits are placed on Asian American enrolment, but being a high achieving subset of a medium achieving “White” group, Jewish Americans escape onerous limits on enrollment. There is also memory of the Jewish quotas of yesteryear that deter such efforts today, while the same logic doesn’t apply to Asian Americans. My point here is only that anti-Asian bigotry might already be a significant separate force without the need the tailwind of normalized anti-semitism.
Rahul, has the time come for Asian Americans, Arab Americans and Latino Americans to ask to be considered “white” for all legal, affirmative action, business and secular purposes? This conversation needs to start in America now. The post modernists will fight this conversation tooth and nail and call lots of people Nazis, Fascists, bigots, racists, sectarian, male chauvinist, imperialist, hegemonic, oppressive and many other words I don’t know the meaning of. Has the time has come for “darkies” and “minorities” to risk the wrath, vengeance and revenge of the post modernists? This is a very scary thought.
I have zero issue with academics and the US census and DOJ tabulating granular data for legitimate purposes and am not talking about that.
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[…] the Brown Pundit Slapstik wrote, India swooned over Bibi during his visit to India. By contrast America is having a surge in anti Jewish sectarian bigotry. Pakistan use to be very pro Jewish too 1947 through the 1960s as per Tarek Fatah. Tarek Fatah in […]
https://samharris.org/podcasts/121-white-power/
I am a big fan of Sam Harris. This is 2 1/2 hours long and might be too long to watch. From the parts I heard . . . I was rattled to hear that every part of the caucasian ethnic nationalist movement (which the guest called white nationalist or white supremacist movement) and neo nazi movement around the world agrees on one thing:
Jews are by far enemy number 1. Far ahead of African Americans, muslims and everyone else.
I know this is true. But still to hear it expressed so strongly is rattling. Jews are also de facto hated by much of the global post modernist movement; although this is masked by sophistry. Jews are hated by Islamists.
The panelist Christian Picciolini emphasized how extreme muslim groups have reached out to the caucasian ethnic nationalists and neo nazis to offer them help to go after the Jews and how we are likely to see much more of this in the future. Many caucasian ethnic nationalists and neo nazis might be open to allying with Daesh and Al Qaeda against Jews.
[Another emphasis was that Putin has supported many of the caucasian ethnic nationalists and neo nazis in America and around the world in a major way. Putin also supports post modernists, extreme femnists, extreme elements who claim to be black lives matter, extreme leftists, marxists and extremists from every crazy place that can be imagined.]
The world as a whole has to find a way to douse anti Jewish hatred or we are all finished.
Asians are next. In the near future China will have more billionaires than America. In less than a generation India will have more billionaires than America. And then this whole ethnic nationalist neo nazi and post modernist web will converge on attacking Asians. To stop this we need to protect Jews now.
Jeremy Corbyn, who won about two thirds of the young UK voters in the last election is a very dangerous deeply anti Jewish and anti muslim bigot:
https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/maajid-nawaz/jeremy-corbyn-is-not-fit-for-office-anti-semitism/
Corbyn has a long history of backing Islamist Jihadis against good muslims (twelvers, sixers, fivers, Sufis, Kurds, Iraqis, Libyans, Palestinian Authority, Lebanese, Iranians, Afghans,Indian muslims, atheist muslims, liberal muslims)
He isn’t just anti muslim; he is also anti Jewish.
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