What is anti semitism and is there an equivalent for Muslims.?

Answer 1

A "Semite" is a member of any of the peoples who speak or spoke a Semitic language, including in particular the Jews and Arabs.

Answer 2

In every other part of the world, anti-semitism is just a general mistrust of Jews because of some past social problems they blame Jews for. But for Arabs, it's totally different. First, it's because of the historic fights that divided them due mainly to the religious belief that one "son of Abraham" is holier than the other, and Muslims believe they came from one, Jews from the other. They fought endlessly. The Jews were cast away, and the Muslims began believing they were the better for it. Secondly, after a while, Israel was formed. This wasn't a big deal, except for the fact that Muslims felt displaced, so some fighting began. But the fighting erupted when Israel kept some land even though the UN told them not to. That's when things became crazy. Third, it's been just a Hatfield/McCoy mentality since then, fueled by the neighboring Muslim states who are using the hatred for their own gain. A sad commentary, and a little academic, but this is the shorthand version, of course.

Answer 3

There are some very good answers here - Mariana seems to be the Best, but I like Lost&Confused and Science101 insights too. So I am not going to compete or repeat what she or others have already said.

I do want to point out there are some pretty gross errors from some others though.

Reality Riot says "Both Muslims and Jews are Semites, so anti-semitism should apply to both."

This is not true. This would be like saying all Christians were Semites which is patently not true. Only Jewish converts, Maltese (who are descended from Phoenicians from Lebanon who mixed with the Aboriginal Maltese), and Arab Christians (Assyrian (Iraqi), Maronite (Lebanese) and Palestinian), and Ethiopian Christians who speak Semitic languages like Amharic are Semitic Christians. And before any smart alec asks me about the Copts (Egyptian Christians) - I consider them Hamitic (descendants of Ham) - because they are the descendants of the Ancient Egyptians speaking the modern day version of Ancient Egyptian as well as Arabic.

The same goes for Muslims. Only Arab and Eritrean Muslims are Semites. Iranian, and most Afghan and Pakistani Muslims are Indo-European or Aryan; Malay and Indonesian Muslims are from the same ethnic and linguistic group as Christian Filipinos; African Muslims are Bantu or Sudanese; Turkish and Central Asian Muslims such as Kazakh, Kirghiz, Tatars and Uzbek belong to the Turkic ethnic and linguistic group with a close relation to Buddhist Mongolians and Koreans.

So you see not all Muslims are Semitic at all.

Answer 4

A Semite is a person from the middle east. but anti-semitism has come to mean the dislike of Jews anywhere in the world.

At this point, any one who is against Zionism is called anti-Semitic for political reasons,

Muslims have, through most of their history , been friendly and generous to the Jews, Except for the last 100 years, since the onset of the Jewish takeover of Arab land. Hatred for the Jews in Arab/Muslim communities has grown extensively because of Zionist aggression. But, if Israel would cease and desist, the hatred will eventually disappear.

Answer 5

The term Semitic refers not only Jews but Arabs as well. The word Semetic is derived from the word meaning descending from Shem, one of Noahs three sons. According to the Bible both the Jews and the Arabs form part of the language group who are descendants of Shem. However, not all Arabs are Muslim although many are. There are non-Semitic Muslims as well (due to them not being Arab). The term Semitic does not excursively pertain to Jews and was only adopted in the late 19th century as a misnomer meaning only Jews. The term also refers to the language grouping of the Jews and Arabs - both of whom speak what is to be considered Semitic languages, they are Semitic because their language shares a common Semitic root.

So anti-Semitic behaviour would be prejudice against all Semitic nations - not only the Jews.

Answer 6

Anti-Semitism is normally the term used when prejudice against the Jewish nation whether religious, ethnic, or as a racial group, can range from individual hatred to institutionalized, violent persecution.

Semitic (from the Biblical name "Shem") was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin.
The term Semite was proposed at first to refer to the languages related to the Hebrew by Ludwig Schlözer

semitism is mostly used for Jews because the Jews are not based on religion alone mostly because they try to dis-way conversion unlike their counterparts, so they have a direct root to Shem himself, and last according to the Jews them selves Judaism is NOT a religion but a way of life

as for muslims, because of people converting (willingly or not) to this faith finding a direct line is very rare, so using the term Anti-semitism for Muslims is like using the tern anti Jewish for Cristian's

Answer 7

Semitic is the term for a group of languages around the middle east. The term does not just apply to Jew's.
Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Assyrian, Akkadian, Hebrew, Maltese, Syriac, Tigrinya are examples of semitic languages. Arabic is their too.

Answer 8

Most Muslims are Semitic.

The descendants of a ancient man named Shem are Semitic. Over thousands of years and numerous translations the "h" sound was dropped from the spelling.

So theoretically the Mideast is one big happy family

Answer 9

anti-semitism is considered anti-Jewish. Guess Muslims don't learn that as if you look at the M.E. the leaders are against Jews. Christians AREN'T anti-Muslim hate to tell you.

Answer 10

Anti-Semitism (alternatively spelled antisemitism) is hostility toward or prejudice against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group, which can range from individual hatred to institutionalized, violent persecution. The highly explicit ideology of Adolf Hitler's Nazism was the most extreme example of this phenomenon, leading to a genocide of the European Jewry. Anti-Semitism takes different forms:

Religious anti-Semitism, or anti-Judaism. Before the 19th century, most anti-Semitism was primarily religious in nature, based on Christian or Islamic interactions with and interpretations of Judaism. Since Judaism was generally the largest minority religion in Christian Europe, Jews were often the primary targets of religiously-motivated violence and persecution from Christian and, to a lesser degree, Islamic rulers. Unlike anti-Semitism in general, this form of prejudice is directed at the religion itself, and so generally does not affect those of Jewish ancestry who have converted to another religion, although the case of Conversos in Spain was a notable exception. Laws banning Jewish religious practices may be rooted in religious anti-Semitism, as were the expulsions of Jews that happened throughout the Middle Ages.
Racial anti-Semitism. With its origins in the early and popularly misunderstood evolutionary ideas of race that started during the Enlightenment, racial anti-Semitism became the dominant form of anti-Semitism from the late 19th century through today. Racial anti-Semitism replaced the hatred of Judaism as a religion with the idea that the Jews themselves were a racially distinct group, regardless of their religious practice, and that they were inferior or worthy of animosity. With the rise of racial anti-Semitism, conspiracy theories about Jewish plots in which Jews were somehow acting in concert to dominate the world became a popular form of anti-Semitic expression. It should be noted, however, that Arabs are a semitic people too.
New anti-Semitism. Many analysts and Jewish groups believe there is a distinctly new form of late 20th century anti-Semitism, called the New anti-Semitism, which is associated with the Left, rather than the Right, borrowing language and concepts from anti-Zionism.[1] [2] [3] [4] Some of these analysts identify anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, arguing that anti-Zionism "advocates denial of the right to self-determination of the Jewish people."[5]