A Genealogy of Evil: Anti-Semitism from Nazism to Islamic Jihad

Description

Based on extensive scrutiny of primary sources from Nazi and Jihadist ideologues, David Patterson argues that Jihadist anti-Semitism stems from Nazi ideology. This book challenges the idea that Jihadist anti-Semitism has medieval roots, identifying its distinctively modern characteristics and tracing interconnections that link the Nazis to the Muslim Brotherhood to the PLO, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, the Sudan, the Iranian Islamic Republic, and other groups with an anti-Semitic worldview. Based on his close reading of numerous Jihadist texts, Patterson critiques their antisemitic teachings and affirms the importance of Jewish teaching, concluding that humanity needs the very Jewish teaching and testimony that the Jihadists advocate destroying.

David Patterson is Hillel Feinberg Chair in Holocaust Studies at the University of Texas, Dallas. He has also taught at the University of Memphis, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Oregon. He is the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Sounding the Depths of the Soul (2009), Jewish-Christian Dialogue: Drawing Honey from the Rock (with Alan L. Berger, 2008), and Overcoming Alienation: A Kabbalistic Reflection on the Five Levels of the Soul (2008). His writings have also appeared in many journals and anthologies on philosophy, literature, Judaism, the Holocaust and education.

'In A Genealogy of Evil, David Patterson examines the texts of key contributors to the twentieth-century Islamist tradition, including Abdul Al'a Maududi, Haj Amin al-Husseini, Hassan al-Banna, and Sayyid Qutb, as well their successors in recent decades, and probes the influence, confluence, and parallels between their views and National Socialism. He offers readers an effective synthesis of the growing historical and social science writing about Islamism while adding a distinctive interpretation rooted in his understanding of theology. His discussions of martyrdom and attitudes toward death provide important conceptual clarification about similarities as well as differences between Nazism and Islamic Jihadism. Much research remains to be done on these issues. Patterson's work should serve as an important source in present and future debates and discussions.' Jeffrey Herf, University of Maryland, College Park 'Patterson's extensive inquiry into the origins and spread of Islamic jihad ought to be wide[ly] read ... [He] ought to be congratulated for his thorough research and well-written narrative.' The Jerusalem Post