Shakespeare framed the theological and political enemy as Jew and Moor

Evidence

Beginning with the title, Shakespeare marked the distance between the two dimensions of the body politic, the two dimensions of the polis of Venice, and he did so under the figure of two enemies: the theological enemy and the political enemy, the merchant of Venice and the Moor of Venice. … The arbitrariness of the decision that separates between Moor and Jew, and historically between Muslim and Jew, between Arab and Jew, however, could not have failed to appear in Shakespeare’s own text. — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 555

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Supports the immodesty/complaints articles’ framing of how the religious Other is cast as both enemy categories: theological (merchant) and political (Moor).
• DEFINE: Defines the Jew as theological enemy and Muslim as political enemy, foregrounding the two-body structure.
• XREF: connects to: Shakespeare’s Moor and Jew characters encoded pre-modern racialized difference. — Nasar Meer, Racialization and Religion: Race,…, 27