German expert warns: Islamist and European antisemitism now dangerously intertwined

“As a German, I wanted to learn how Auschwitz could have happened. This brought me to researching the topic of antisemitism about 30 years ago,” Dr. Matthias Küntzel told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview. Küntzel is a German political scientist and veteran scholar with expertise in antisemitism.

But then, over two decades ago, something happened. “9/11 came, and already on 9/12 I started to read books about the history of Islamism and the Muslim Brotherhood, looking to know why this terrorist attack had happened,” Küntzel added.

“Following extensive research and reading, I then came to a realization, which was surprising for me, that a major drive for the attack was antisemitism. For the attackers, New York was a ‘Jewish city,’ and they wanted to cause as much damage to ‘Jewish property’ as possible.”

This turn of events inspired Küntzel to immerse himself in the study of Islamist antisemitism. “[I] discovered during research that Nazi Germany played a role in spreading antisemitism in the Middle East; [there are] archives about the connection between Islamists and Nazi Germany.”

However, despite his in-depth research on this critical subject, Küntzel quickly learned that he was bound to remain quite lonely on his journey as one of the lone voices who researches and publishes studies revolving around Islamist antisemitism.

“Most researchers in Germany don’t want to touch this topic at all, and so it remained a special niche for me. This is due to several reasons. Some are afraid of being labeled as ‘Islamophobes’ because they dare to say a critical word about Islam or Muslims. I too am against racism – I research antisemitism! – but the topic is too important to leave it alone.”

Küntzel described how others in the German intellectual field seek to blame Israel for the prevalence of antisemitism in the Arab world. “This does not make sense, as studies show that this antisemitism against Israel and the Zionists developed in the 1930s, a whole decade before the establishment of the state of Israel. But this notion is not welcomed by too many intellectuals,” he added.

What exactly is Islamic antisemitism?

Küntzel makes a distinction between anti-Judaism, which he deems an ancient phenomenon based on religious polemics, and antisemitism, which is a modern concept coined in 1879 by Friedrich Marr. “In other words, anti-Judaism deems all Jews to be evil, but antisemitism views all evil to be Jewish,” he stressed.

“The Quran itself is not antisemitic. It has some anti-Jewish statements, and some verses speak in their favor, but those sayings against the Jews have more of a religious, polemic aura to them than those modern tropes,” he continued.

“The known status of Dhimmitude, in which Jews and other minorities under Islamic rule are supposed to be ‘sheltered’ but also degraded and harshly discriminated against, can also not be viewed as antisemitic in and of itself.

Nowadays, Islamist and European antisemitism are well mixed. For instance, Hamas leader Fathi Hamad was quoted saying, “We must attack every Jew on planet earth,” calling to slaughter and kill them and tear them into pieces ‘with Allah’s help.’ This is not Dhimmitude, and not at all what the Quran says. This was learned directly from Nazi antisemitism, which called to kill every Jew on planet earth – not to shelter and degrade them as Dhimmis.”

According to Küntzel, Nazi Germany and its ideology had a strong influence over the Arab and Islamic world. “That Jews don’t deserve the dhimmi status but that they must be killed to save the world is a new concept in Islam, a’redemptive antisemitism’ as Saul Friedländer coined it. The Nazis believed that Jews are responsible for every evil in the world thus must be killed to rid the world of all evil. Nowadays many Islamists say the same, that Jews must be killed in order to save Islam from destruction,” he added.

“This is a kind of paranoid thinking, brought into Islamic thought by Sayyid Qutb,” Küntzel continued, referring to the man regarded as the founding father of Salafi Jihadism and a direct disciple of the Muslim Brotherhood founder, Hassan Al-Banna.

“Qutb popularized this kind of thinking within the Muslim Brotherhood around 1951, but it can also be found before him in a 1937 pamphlet titled Judaism and Islam, which pictures Jews as fighting to destroy Islam, calling to fight and kill them before they have a chance to destroy Islam. So again, this is a parallel between European and Islamic antisemitism.”

According to Küntzel, the aforementioned pamphlet was published anonymously in August 1937 as an attempt to drown the Peel Commission’s first suggestion of a two-state solution.

“This was the first compromise plan for the Middle East, supported by some Arab leaders such as Emir Abdullah and favored by the Zionist leadership. However, the Palestinian mufti Hajj Amin Al-Husseini fought against it with all his might, and he was supported by the Nazis, who also sought to prevent a small Jewish state or ‘Jewish Vatican’ as they called it.”

Küntzel argued that the Nazis’ influence led to the eradication of the balance between moderate and radical forces in Islamic circles. “The 1937 pamphlet was probably the first time in which the myth of ’Jewish power’ typical of European antisemitism was mixed with an Islamic myth of Jews plotting to kill Mohammed – and all in an attempt to prevent a Jewish state.”

Hamas and the October 7 connection

When asked about Hamas’s antisemitic rhetoric, Küntzel stressed that the terrorist organization, which views itself as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, uses a similar rhetoric to that described earlier.

“In the Hamas charter, you can see an old hadith (oral Islamic tradition) referring to a battle of the end of times in which Muslims fight against the Jews. The Jews are described as fleeing behind trees and stones, which will then expose them to the Muslims so that they can kill them. Its cruel hadith, which paints Jews as weak and cowardly,” he explained.

“But in the same charter, European antisemitic discourse accusing Jews of standing behind every revolution and evil in the world is also present. This double picture of both weak and all powerful Jews is certainly self-contradictory. But this is how antisemitism always is.”

For Küntzel, the same ideology drove the October 7 massacre. “The mixture of these two types of antisemitism exploded together on October 7. The horrible videos of October 7 feature many of the perpetrators shouting ‘Allahu akbar,’ meaning that they believe that what they committed was not their own wish but a command from God himself. In other words, if you criticize this deed, you criticize God, which is not allowed.”

Küntzel also highlighted another worrying phenomenon. “I have heard some in the Islamist milieu who are now saying openly and loudly that there ‘has to be another holocaust,’” he added.

“One older example for holocaust appraisal was Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the most important and popular leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, who died in 2021,” he recalled.

“Qaradawi told his millions of viewers on Al Jazeera that in every generation Allah imposes upon the Jews people to punish them for their ‘corruption.’ Qaradawi claimed that the last of those was Hitler, who ‘put them in their place,’ and expressed hope that ‘the next time it will be at the hands of the believers,’ meaning Muslims. Obviously, nobody protested these comments.”

Regarding the phenomenon of October 7 denial, Küntzel highlighted: “Antisemitism was always based on lies. Nowadays they even claim that the October 7 brutality never happened despite being recorded and distributed online. There are also lies claiming that Jerusalem was never a Jewish city, that there was no temple in Jerusalem, and many other lies going around only to justify attacks on Jews.”

In this context, Küntzel stressed the importance of addressing Holocaust denial as well. “Holocaust denial is probably the most aggressive type of antisemitism possible. It not only kills the memory of those victims and essentially kills them a second time, but it also pushes the belief that Jews are so powerful all over the world that they’re able to manipulate media, academia, and art to proliferate the ‘lie of the holocaust.’

The current situation

Regarding the current state of antisemitism in Germany, Küntzel warned: “Germany’s problem is not necessarily with open hatred for Jews, but rather with indirect hate. Some talk about ‘globalists’ or Soros or the Rothschilds, and everyone knows what they mean.”

He continued, “In addition, young people are moving more and more to a right-wing, radical direction. Only this week a new study came out that showed how half of Germans wanted to move past the Holocaust, and a quarter believed that Jews have too much power and sow discord in German society.”

According to Küntzel, academia plays an ambivalent role in the state of antisemitism in modern Germany. “For years the Center for Antisemitism Studies in Berlin has been educating about antisemitism and its dangers, but as of lately it has been focusing on downplaying Islamist antisemitism, combating the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, and exonerating extreme criticism of Israel from antisemitic motives, he said.”

“There are new players in the academic field, but they have yet to achieve the institutional power of the Berlin Center,” he added.

Küntzel urged the establishment of a center for the research of Islamist antisemitism. “Such a center does not exist anywhere in the world, and this must change. Perhaps Israel should make the first step in this context.”

When asked if he sees any reason for optimism, Küntzel said, “I must admit that I was surprised by the Abraham Accords. They displayed that change is possible. The main thing here was that this wasn’t a ‘cold peace’ like in Egypt and Jordan, but it was also shared by many people. Also, there were examples that school curricula were changed a little, moving towards a path with less antisemitism.

“These were important changes, and we did not see massive protests or violence such as in the past, when Sadat was killed for the peace he signed with Israel, or when Cairo was isolated in the 1970s for this reason. This was an amazing change that made me a bit optimistic and made me think that perhaps antisemitism in the Muslim world is not as entrenched as it is in the Christian world.”

Küntzel saw October 7 as a response to peace efforts. “Surely, October 7 attempted to destroy this normalization, and they succeeded in a way but not entirely, as the Abraham Accords were not thrown away or canceled.” 

“We must strengthen the moderate Muslims who fight against Islamic antisemitism who see this problem and want to change the antisemitic interpretations of their religion, and we must amplify these voices and empower them to act in an organized effort,” he concluded.

Küntzel's most recent book, "Nazis, Islamic Antisemitism and the Middle East. The 1948 Arab War against Israel and the Aftershocks of World War II", was published in 2024 by Routledge.