"Jew, Jew, Jew"

On Wednesday I blogged that the BBC were not reporting one aspect of the sexual assault of CBS reporter Lara Logan in Cairo; that her attackers were screaming, “Jew! Jew!” during the assault. And the day before, Logan had told Esquire.com that Egyptian soldiers hassling her and her crew had accused them of “being Israeli spies.”

Andrew Boston reminds us that Egyptians have form in this regard:

'The horrific fate of Ms. Logan—as a woman in misogynistic Egypt she fared worse, and was raped—reminded me of a plaintive letter published in the Egyptian newspaper Akhir Sa’a during 1948 by a “light-skinned” Egyptian Muslim man.

It would seem that most people in Egypt are unaware of the fact that among Egyptian Muslims there are some who have white skin. Every time I board a tram I see people pointing at me saying, “Jew, Jew!” I have been beaten more than once because of this. For that reason I humbly beg that my picture (enclosed) be published with an explanation that I am not Jewish and that my name is Adham Mustafa Galeb.'

Do read the rest of Andrew Boston's article for an explanation as to why many Muslims in Egypt (and beyond) hate Jews. It's nothing to do with the State of Israel or the Palestinians, it's to do with Islam - here's an extract:

'the murderous persecutions of al-Hakim during the early 11^th century, one of which was timed for Passover in 1012; Jews in Alexandria and Cairo being pogromed and plundered in 1047, 1168, 1265, and 1324; and Sultan Baybars in the 13^th century blaming Jews for starting a plague, and subjecting them to extortion, massacre, and expulsion.
Five hundred years later, the great scholar of Arabic E. W. Lane reported after nearly a decade of residence in both Cairo and Luxor (through 1835), on the difference between the attitude of Egyptian Muslims toward Jews and Christians, highlighting the influence of Koran 5:82:
They [the Jews] are held in the utmost contempt and abhorrence by the Muslims in general, and they are said to bear a more inveterate hatred than any other people to the Muslims and the Muslim religion. It is said, in the Koran [quoting 5:82] “Thou shalt surely find the most violent all men to those who have believed to be the Jews…”
Lane further notes,
It is a common saying among the Muslims in this country, “Such one hates me with the hate of the Jews.” We cannot wonder, then, that the Jews are detested far more than are the Christians. Not long ago, they used often to be jostled in the streets of Cairo, and sometimes beaten for merely passing on the right hand of a Muslim. At present, they are less oppressed: but still they scarcely ever dare to utter a word of abuse when reviled or beaten unjustly by the meanest Arab or Turk; for many a Jew has been put to death upon a false and malicious accusation of uttering disrespectful words against the Koran or the Prophet. It is common to hear an Arab abuse his jaded ass, and, after applying to him various opprobrious epithets, end by calling the beast a Jew.'

So whilst the BBC blame Israel for any anti-Semitism, the truth is somewhat at variance with that narrative.