Russell Berman discusses Anti-Semitism and Jihad: On the Ideology of Terrorism
Bio
Russell A. Berman
Russell A. Berman is the Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, and is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Berman specializes in the study of German literary history and cultural politics. He is a member of both the Department of German Studies and the Department of Comparative Literature at Stanford. From 1992 through 2000 he served as director of the Stanford Overseas Studies Program. He is currently chair of the Department of Comparative Literature.
He is the author of numerous articles and books including Enlightenment or Empire: Colonial Discourse in German Culture (1998) and The Rise of the Modern German Novel: Crisis and Charisma (1986), both of which won the Outstanding Book Award of the German Studies Association (in 1987 and 2000, respectively). Hoover press published his book Anti-Americanism in Europe: A Cultural Problem (2004). His other books include Cultural Studies of Modern Germany: Representation and Nationhood (1993), Modern Culture and Critical Theory: Art, Politics and the Legacy of the Frankfurt School (1989), and Between Fontane and Tucholsky: Literary Criticism and the Public Sphere in Wilhelmine Germany (1983). He has published numerous articles in Hoover Digest, most recently "The Psychology of Appeasement," (Summer, 2004).
Berman has received many honors and awards including a Mellon Faculty Fellowship at Harvard University (1982–83), an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (1988–89), and the Bundesverdienstkreuz of the Federal Republic of Germany (1997).
Berman received his B.A. in 1972 from Harvard and his doctorate from Washington University in 1979.
It's ironic that Prof. Berman omits any reference to one country in the "Arab or Muslim" world in 1930s through 60s -- Pahlavi Monarchy -1924-1979 -whose policy was pro-Israel and was fighting muslim brotherhood.
Berman provides 3 accounts for emergence of radical Jew Hatred in and around ideology of Al Quaida and terrorist organizatons/rhetoric of Ahmadinejad
1. argument that anti-semitism is simply hard wired into Islam; its a fundamental part of Islam; Al Quaida gets it right
2. not Islam but Islamism --the politicized Islam that dominates the terrorist subculture which emerged with muslim brotherhood in 1930s; not about Koran but an extremist interpretation of Islam plugged into various political agenda; and a variant of it is influence of European Totalitarian movements on Isalmism.
3. this is not anti-semitism, but it is a policy dispute, anti-Zionism;
he disagrees with #1 and finds #3 the policy dispute least interesting that its anti-zionism but its interesting because its the position of 911 report which dwells on ... He feels that there is a significant antisemitims built into the culture.
I believe all three are important explanations for anti-semitism. Furthermore, anti-semitism is a smoke screen for exploitation of oil in middle east by Israel and Europeans.
anti-semitic is a front. to protect the truth from being exposed. israel AIPAC will continue to provoke war until the international community puts a brake on the killings in israel.