“Where do I belong” is the motto of an event for Jewish young people from all over Europe, held this week in Frankfurt by B’nai B’rith. Many prominent politicians promised to attend. There was plenty of material for discussion-due, for example, to the presence of Orientalist Hans-Peter Raddatz, who was to lecture on anti-Israeli and anti-American tendencies in politics. At first glance, that seemed promising, since representatives of his discipline don’t tend to be known for their affection for Israel.
In his most recent book, Allah and the Jews, Raddatz describes the renaissance of anti-Semitism in the Islamic world. In contrast to the commonly-held view that the hatred of Jews from Morocco to Indonesia is a European import, he shows convincingly that it has been virulent since the time of Mohammed. But a more careful look at Raddatz and his books raises some questions. For one thing, the inflationary use of Nazi comparisons is irritating, as is the highly unfriendly labeling of homosexuality as a “non-productive sexual form.” For another, the basic tone is downright obsessive: behind the immigration of Muslims to Europe, Raddatz suspects a master plan by EU bureaucrats. This is remarkable: even as he denounces the conspiracy theories of many Muslims who see alien forces at work behind every grievance, Raddatz happily constructs his own conspiracies. A high point is his justification of the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Muslims from early modern Spain: “The Iberian deportation in this concentrated form was necessary only because those ‘responsible’ at the time acted too late. Today, any measure benefiting the population is prevented entirely, because it is considered ‘populist,’ if not ‘racist.’” In his 2002 book From Allah to Terror, he writes, “America, under the leadership of the Rockefeller family,” and “Europe, under the leadership of the Rothschild family,” organized the “promotion, installation, and financing of Lenin and Hitler.” And behind everything were the Freemasons-a classic among the conspiracy theories.
Raddatz also has something to say about dealing with the past: “From a serious start in dealing with guilt, a universal template has emerged of misuse of the Shoah, with which all areas of public life, in religion, politics, education, and media, appropriate German guilt as an instrument of indoctrination. Just as National Socialist Germans developed mass murder into an industry of extermination, the ‘democratic’ Germans built guilt into an industry of totalitarian remembrance” (From God to Allah?). No wonder the extreme right-wing tract Junge Frieheit has regularly published texts by Raddatz. At the same time, Raddatz seeks a presence at Jewish events. “Where do I belong?”-this question can be posed for Raddatz. Especially at a B’nai B’rith forum.
Translated by Belinda Cooper, 2008
