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Well yes, anti-Semitism in the Muslim world is worthy of study. But Neil J. Kressel is not the person to take the lead. I have read the paper four times in the months I have had it, always ending with a very negative reaction. In struggling to fine one word to describe the paper I have decided on an unspectacular but, for me, generally telling adjective. It is disrespectful.
Muslim-Jewish antagonism in its political form is nuclear armed. Israel has had the bomb for over 46 years at least. Pakistan has had an “Islamic” bomb for 8-10 years. Most observers believe that Iran is determined to develop its own bomb. And there is plausible fear that Iran's initiative will inspire Saudi Arabia and Egypt to get nuclear weapons in response.
The situation is serious. To understand the genesis and underlying dynamics of Arab and Muslim expressed public hatred of Israel in particular and by extension Jews in general requires the most profound - and respectful - scholarship so that the enormity of the nuclear threat and ways to transform it can be discovered. The subject cries out for historical and psychological analysis in depth. Kressel's paper is extraordinarily shallow in its use of historical sources in Jewish-Muslim relations. And it is quite surprisingly for a professor of psychology almost completely devoid of depth psycho-political analysis.
To his credit, Kressel notes that references to Jews in the Koran as apes and swine come from some “arguably misunderstood” verses. The language of theses verses is harsh but the context for two of them is quite revealing. God is angry with Jews in a fishing village in Arabia who succumb to the temptation he tests them with of fishing on the Sabbath thus violating the Torah law. In fact, almost all the criticism of Jews and Christians in the Koran is for failure to follow God's guidance sent to them in the Torah and Gospels. After having sent these first two books to humankind, God reveals the Koran to the Prophet Muhammad as the final