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Rising tides of Islamophobia & Antisemitism across Europe and US

Submitted to Program Units
1: Interreligious and Interfaith Studies Unit and Religion in Europe Unit

Carol Ferrara, Emerson College, Presiding

Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

Antisemitism and Islamophobia have been rising dramatically across Europe and North America. While there are distinct underlying social structures, political dynamics, and cultural phenomena that have fueled the emergence and evolution of antisemitism and Islamophobia, especially from country to country, they are often intertwined in certain ways and echoed across contexts. In light of these troubling trends, this panel will explore the complex roots and interreligious intertwinings of antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe and North America. The papers offer reflection on these concepts from a range of perspectives, including: Du Bois' exploration of race, religion, Zionism and Antisemitism in the US; gender the transnational roots of Islamophobia in Protestantism in Britain and the US; and the oft-overlooked relationship between 20th century Jewish and Catholic revival in Europe. In the discussion portion, special attention will be drawn to how global events affect the rise of and relationship between antisemitism and Islamophobia and/or interreligious relations in contemporary or historical contexts.

Papers

  • Nevia Selmon, Harvard Divinity School

    Double Consciousness and Divine Chosenness Examined: Du Bois' Exploration of Race, Religion, Zionism, and Antisemitism to Uncover Notions of Jewish Power and Equality in America

    Abstract

    Double Consciousness and Divine Chosenness Examined: This paper delves into W.E.B. Du Bois' exploration of race, religion, Zionism, and antisemitism within the American context, uncovering notions of Jewish power and equality. Du Bois' nuanced stance on these topics reveals an intricate interplay of personal experiences, philosophical reflections, and societal contexts within the United States. Through an analysis of his views on antisemitism and Zionism, alongside contemporary scholarship, this study elucidates the complexities of Jewish identity and the racialization of Jews in America. By comparing Du Bois' approach with other theorists' perspectives and engaging with modern Jewish studies, the analysis exposes enduring stereotypes and the intertwined dynamics of antisemitism and Zionism within American society. Ultimately, Du Bois' intellectual legacy sheds light on the intersections of race, religion, and identity, significantly contributing to our understanding of race relations and the "Jewish Question" within the American landscape in the 21st century.

  • Deanna Womack, Emory University

    Gender and the Transnational Roots of Protestant Islamophobia

    Abstract

    Islamophobia is on the rise, along with anti-Semitism, in Europe and North America today. To combat such bigotry, we need a better historical conception of the ways prejudices become imbedded in religious and cultural thought patterns. This paper focuses on gender in Anglo-Protestant discourses about Islam as a key to understanding the deep roots of anti-Muslim sentiment. I show how images of violent Muslim men migrated from continental Europe to Britain during the Reformation, I explore how the Orientalist discourse of the veil influenced British and early American thought about Muslim women’s oppression during the Enlightenment, and I document how nineteenth and early twentieth-century Anglo-Protestant missionaries employed tropes about abused Muslim women. Recognizing the endurance of these negative gender discourses even with the growth of interfaith and Christian-Muslim initiatives after the mid-twentieth century, I ask how the lessons of history might assist us in confronting American and British Islamophobia today.

  • Silvana Kandel, Humboldt University

    The Jewish Roots of the Catholic Renovation: Vatican II Beyond Nostra Aetate

    Abstract

    In this paper, I set out to challenge the assumptions of unrelatedness between twenty-century Jewish and Catholic renewal. Echoes of various aspects of the Jewish renewal of the interwar period can be found in the writings of many central figures of the later Catholic renewal, who encountered these ideas through direct reading of the Jewish thinkers or through the mediation of major theological figures, and some of those echoes even made their way to the conciliar documents.

    In fact, I claim that there is a vast network of subterranean intellectual connections that extends the links between the Second Vatican Council and Judaism far beyond the Nostra Aetate Declaration to which it is usually reduced. My paper will uncover some of these unknown sides of the European movement of Catholic renovation before and throughout the Vatican Council.

Responding
Ehsan Sheikholharam, University of North Carolina At Chapel Hill
Audiovisual Requirements

Resources

LCD Projector and Screen

Full Papers Available

No
Program Unit Options

Session Length

90 Minutes
Schedule Info

Saturday, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM

Tags

Islamophobia
Protestants
missions
interfaith
interreligious
# women and gender
Islam
Christian-Muslim relations

Session Identifier

A23-420