Egyptian Scholar Dr. Yahya Ismail: Jews' Suffering at the Hands of the Nazis Highlights the Tolerance of the Islamic East

Egyptian scholar Dr. Yahya Mohammad Abdallah Ismail said in a recent TV interview that there was a dichotomy between "the Islamic East, which was very tolerant, and the European West, which, for its own reasons, abhorred the Jews." Saying that "the Jews were treated [by Nazism] the same as other nations," Dr. Abdallah, former Dean of Hebrew Language and Literature at Mansoura University, added that although in many European regions, the Jews suffered greatly, "this makes us Muslims confident that we are tolerant and do not infringe upon the rights of others." Dr. Abdallah was speaking on Egypt's Channel 2 on December 2, 2016.

Yahya Mohammad Abdallah: In order to get rid of the European Jews... There was very close cooperation between Nazism and Zionism, in an attempt to resolve the Jewish question in Europe. To get rid of those... They had control within Europe. The Nuremberg Laws, which were written in 1935, as far as I recall - before... or rather, during the Third Reich and the Nazi rule - stated very clearly: "If the Jews had their own country, there would not be a Jewish problem in Europe now." there would not be a Jewish problem in Europe now." So there was a dichotomy: the Islamic East, which was very tolerant, and the European West, which, for its own reasons, abhorred the Jews, but, nevertheless, struck an imperialistic coalition of interests with them later.

Interviewer: With regard to the notion of suffering and persecution - did the West persecute only the Jews, or maybe the idea of the Jews being targeted... To this day, global Zionism greatly benefits from the spreading of this notion. Nazism, as an ideology and political thought, did not target only the Jews, but also the Germans themselves - people who suffered from diseases, and so on... Their goal was to elevate the Aryan race rather than to target the Jews. This goes back to WWI and the role that the Jews played in destroying Germany, but what I'm saying is that Nazism did not target just the Jews per se. It targeted all the weak people, like the Gypsies, the homosexuals... It wasn't specifically the Jews.

Yahya Mohammad Abdallah: The Jews were treated the same as other nations...

Interviewer: Some European nations...

Yahya Mohammad Abdallah: Yes, of course. What you are saying is very true. But we do not deny that in many European regions, the Jews suffered greatly. This makes us Muslims confident that we are tolerant, and do not infringe upon the rights of others.

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