An Imperial Entanglement: Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and Colonialism

Abstract

This article probes the historical relationship between anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and colonialism. Scholars have typically employed two frameworks in writing about anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: treating the Muslims of contemporary Europe as “the new Jews,” and regarding anti-Semitism and Islamophobia as coterminous hatreds within broader Orientalist systems of exclusion. These approaches both miss the mark: anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, defined substantially by the colonial context, constitute an entangled history of Othering. French North Africa, particularly Algeria, offers a suggestive starting point for writing this history. The article examines closely three fragments of entangled history: sections of Edouard Drumont’s 1886 bestseller La France juive; a memo from the French resident-general of Tunisia during World War I; and the manifesto of a pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic French Muslim. In each instance, we see how a document ostensibly focused on Jews is also deeply concerned with Muslims and the two groups’ interrelationship. These fragments point up the necessity of placing the historical position of Jews and Muslims—as well as that of other marginalized groups—within a single analytical frame.

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