An Imperial Entanglement: Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and Colonialism (original) (raw)

2018, The American Historical Review

Arendt argued that the rise of empires "would have necessitated the invention of racism" had it not already existed. Almost thirty years later, in Orientalism, Edward Said described his subject as the "strange, secret sharer of Western anti-Semitism" and its "Islamic branch." 1 For all the attention that both books have received, scholars of anti-Semitism have largely ignored the point where Arendt's and Said's remarks converge: the complex historical relationship between anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim racism, referred to here as Islamophobia, and the manner in which colonialism has proven crucial to their interwoven development. 2 Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and colonialism have rarely been treated in concert by scholars, especially historians. 3 I would like to thank Maud Mandel for inviting me to Brown University in 2013 to deliver a lecture on the topic of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and colonialism, which led me to begin considering systematically many of the issues explored here. I benefited greatly from feedback at that lecture, as well as from discussion at a symposium on the topic where I participated: "Muslims and Jews: Challenging the Dynamics of Hate," Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, October 5-7, 2014. Comments by colleagues on previous drafts have done much to sharpen and clarify my thinking. I would particularly like to thank James Renton, Maud Mandel, Gil Anidjar, Sharon Vance, the anonymous readers for the AHR and the journal's editor, and most of all, the indefatigable Jonathan Judaken, whose careful and incisive comments on numerous aspects and versions of the essay improved it greatly. I alone am responsible for any errors that remain.