Muslim Heroes of the Holocaust - YouTube
In the above clip, author and Middle East policy expert Robert Satloff discusses several stories in which North African Muslims helped Jews hide from and escape persecution by the Nazis during the Second World War. It's not well-known in the West that some North African countries, especially Morocco, have large Jewish populations due to the fact that they had to flee Christian persecution in Europe—especially Spain during the Reconquista. Unfortunately for them, Adolf Hitler decided to invade North Africa, thus extending his plan to exterminate the Jews (i.e. The Holocaust) across the Mediterranean.
The excerpt above seems to be taken from a lecture that Satloff, executive director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, gave regarding his new book, Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands. For those interested in learning more about this gifted historian and his ground-breaking book, NPR has an excerpt that can be found here.
This information is worthy of much wider recognition, so please spread the word...
Labels: Anti-Semitism, Books, English Grammar, History - Muslim, Holocaust
posted by @ 9:57 PM
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4 Comments:
"Holocaust" means "burnt offering" in Greek. Is it necessary to use this term? What's wrong with the simple word "genocide"?
Because in contemporary usage, the word "Holocaust" (with an uppercase "H") has come to refer specifically to the attempt of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich to exterminate European Jewry (as well as close to three million non-Jews—a significant fact that, unfortunately, often goes unmentioned). In contrast, the word "genocide" is a more generic word which refers to: "the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group." Thus while it would certainly be correct to say that what the Nazis did to the Jews was "genocide," referring to it as the "Holocaust" has become very widely accepted as well.
While you're correct that "'Holocaust' means 'burnt offering' in Greek," I'll point out that I was speaking English, not Greek, which recognizes several correct definitions of the word in question. Indeed, my employment of the word "Holocaust" was fully in the context of 21st century English usage—a language that is very much usage based. Thus in spite of its etymological origins, a word can take on new and varied meaning over time—and this is certainly what has happened with the word "Holocaust" (the uppercase "H" being significant). This point can be proven by simply referring to a dictionary, which shows that the word "holocaust" has several acceptable definitions. In my posting above, I chose to use one of these accepted meanings, but you seem to be advocating that we restrict usage of this word to only one of them. Unfortunately, a reality check seems to be in order here, since the common usage of "holocaust" seems to have left you and your proposal behind...
As to whether it is "necessary to use this term," well it certainly isn't "necessary" since I, as the benevolent dictator of the Mere Islam blog, have the right to employ words as I see fit...although I certainly make an effort to adhere to the well-known and agreed upon standards of English grammar and usage. In this regard, using "Holocaust" was most probably a more succinct way of letting my readers know what I was referring to (and indeed you did!), thus it was superior in this context to the use of the word "genocide". This is unless, of course, one finds the word "Holocaust" offensive. However, based on what I've seen and read, the surviving victims of the attempted Nazi genocide of all European Jews do not take offense to the word "Holocaust," but only those who have been duped by half-baked "Holocaust Denial" propaganda seem to be the ones who are perturbed by it...but God knows best.
As salamu alaykum,
Reality check indeed. But whose reality? What if I question the uniqueness of the "Holocaust"? Then am I not free to use the unloaded word "genocide"?
Words shape our thoughts. Yes I do possess several dictionaries, and I am not playing the fool. I genuinely believe that though words can distort in meaning over time, their original essence remains.
"...But only those who have been duped by half-baked "Holocaust Denial" propaganda seem to be the ones who are perturbed by it". I am sorry for your prejudices. How sad that one Muslim cannot communicate in a healthy and calm manner with a fellow Muslim. But rather feels the need for mindless prejudice and insult.
Salaams,
While I'm happy to see any discussion that contributes to a more nuanced understanding of modern Muslim/Jewish relations than that which prevails today in the MSM, I'm a little leery of this book because of its author's hardline pro-Israeli politics (he was very biased against Arab/Muslim concerns when he was on the US Congressional Committee on Religious Freedom) and the way it seems to me that it frames these cases as the exception that make the rule (i.e., of Muslim anti-Semitism) and the way it leaves unchallenged a host of simplistic and unjustified assumptions that implicitly assume that Muslim/Jewish frictions occur in the same historical and cultural context as German anti-Semitism, which is utter hogwash. It's like comparing white racism and black racism. Neither are morally right, but each have radically different contexts and consequences in the real world. For these reasons, while I haven't read this work, I strongly suspect that it "damns with faint praise". Am I off base?
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