Antisemitism and Islamophobia are inseparable histories that always taint each other

Evidence

The all-too-familiar quips about the ‘Semitic’ character of Arabs or Muslims gain much of their illuminating pertinence here and should remind us that the subjects of antisemitism—that is, the antisemitic subjects—have long posited themselves in opposition to both Jews and Arabs, Jews and Muslims. … The formula is after all only too simple: Orientalism is antisemitism—which is to say that there is no document of one that is not at the same time a document of the other. And just as an antisemitic document is never free of Islamophobia, so Islamophobia always taints the manner in which antisemitism is transmitted from one owner to another, from one war to another. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1225

Categorization

• XREF: Builds on Edward Said’s Orientalism and the shared-roots thesis the book’s opening chapters develop; connects to the ‘shared story’ framing in the book’s title.