Why do Jihadists want to exterminate the Jews?

Answer 1

Definition of Jihadism
First, let us formulate a definition of what Jihadists are so we can proceed to talking about the same issue. Islamism is the political belief that Shari'a (Islamic Law as codified by Islamic Jurists called Faqihs) should be implemented as the national law in all places, but especially in places with a Muslim-majority. (Note that this is different from Islam, which is a religion - making arguments about the nature of God and how man should worship Him.) A Jihadist is an Islamist who specifically believes that the method of implementing the Shari'a is through violence and warfare against those governments (and their civilians) that do not implement it. ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) is probably the most notable Jihadist organization, but there are numerous others like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban, Al-Shabaab, the al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda, etc.

Jihadist Desire to Exterminate Jews
While it is notable that Jihadists wish to exterminate ALL who do not agree with their beliefs, including more Moderate Muslims, never mind Non-Muslims, there is a specific fascination and hatred of the Jews in Jihadist circles which is unique and unbridled compared to their hatred of everyone else and this difference is worth both noting and explaining.

1) Anti-Semitism: There are six major reasons that people and countries harbor Anti-Semitic views and often these exist in contradictions (i.e. one group will hate them for one side of this reason and another group at a different place and time will hate them for the exact opposite reason): (1) Perceptions of Jewish Economic Power, (2) Perceptions of Jewish Ethnocentrism/Chosen-ness, (3) Religious motivations for Jew-hatred (both in Christianity and Islam), (4) Otherness, (5) Genetic/Racial Inferiority, and (6) Perceptions of Disloyalty. It is worth noting that the seventh most common reason, Ease of Scapegoating, only makes sense if at least one of the other six is in play, otherwise we could simply scapegoat the unicyclists for the world's ills. These issues and views are not unique to Jihadist Muslims but embraced, quite openly by Jihadists.

1A) Jewish Economic Power: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews control the banks. Of course, this is not true as most banks are not chaired or owned or controlled by Jews; many banks operate independently or are controlled by Non-Jews. For example the Big Four US Banks are all run by Non-Jews: Jaime Dimon (JP Morgan Chase), Chad Holliday (Bank of America), Michael O'Neill (Citigroup), and John Stumpf (Wells Fargo).

1B) Jewish Chosen-ness: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews believe themselves to be a superior ethnicity in the vein of the ubermensch or "White Pride". This is contrary to the Jewish understanding is that the Jewish people were charged with a distinct mission/task that the rest of the world was not assigned and this is to elevate the spiritual character of the world. The Anti-Semites then argue that because Jews believe themselves superior to Non-Jews that Jews take advantage of Non-Jews and feel no remorse for it.

1C) Religious Anti-Semitism: While Christianity and Islam are not inherently Anti-Semitism, their doctrines are easily to meld to an Anti-Semitic world vision and historically have been melded in such ways. Islam has several Anti-Semitic thrusts. In addition to the crucifixion of Jesus the Messiah (which is not deicide in Islam since Jesus is not God in Islamic theology and because Jesus eluded the attempt to crucify him), Muslims have made the argument that Jews are the killers of the Prophets plural, even though Jesus was the only one of the 35 prophets in the Qur'an who Jews attempted to kill (per Islamic teachings). Additionally, Muhammad and the early Muslims had negative political and military relationships with Arabian Jews which led to Anti-Semitism having a greater prominence in the early Islamic tradition.

1D) Otherness: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews are somehow different from other people and are, therefore, incapable of properly assimilating into the dominant culture. The argument went that their culture and beliefs were too odd for civil society and the Jews needed to be removed due to this customs incongruence. In the Islamic World, since Jewish Emancipation came hand-in-hand with Imperialism, the Jews who assimilated were deemed to be imperialist infiltrators.

1E) Racial Inferiority: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews are somehow genetically inferior or lesser than other humans. Interestingly, in Arab and African-American communities who practice this form of Anti-Semitism by arguing that Jews are a European offshoot of Khazaria and not as racially developed as Semites or Africans.

1F) Disloyalty: The common Anti-Semitic canard here is that Jews harbor more loyalty to each other (or, since 1948 to Israel) than to their fellow countrymen. Military defeats have been framed on Jews, such as the Ottoman defeat in the Egyptian-Ottoman War in 1831-1833, even though Jews did not even fight in this war. The evidence, however, is to the contrary. In nearly every case where Jews have been permitted to join the militaries of their host countries, they have enlisted in excess of their percentage. Throughout the Middle Ages, Jews were more loyal to the sovereign, especially since the sovereign would protect the Jews from rabid Anti-Semitic hordes of peasants.

2) Islamism: Islamism wants to create a government that falls within their stringent and puritanical view of Islamic moral standards. In the Islamist conception, only Muslims should be in power in the State and any non-Muslim minorities should have a secondary role if they should have one at all, whereas Jews are too "uppity" in having created a state where they are in the dominant position. Second, Israel is situated in territory which used to be governed by Muslims for nearly 1300 years (with a century-long break under the Crusader States). As a result, Israel is considered a usurpation of historical Islamic authority whereas European countries (for example) never had Islamic authority before. Islamists have talked about reintroducing the jizya tax, a symbol of humiliation for Non-Muslims in both the Gaza Strip and in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). At present, since no Jews live in either area, the primarily target of these laws would be Christians, but they do intend to subject the Jews to at least the jizya, if not outright execution and genocide, if they had the chance.

3) Islamic Supremacism: Jihadism calls for a continued conquest of Non-Islamic Countries to be ruled by Muslims and to become part of a worldwide Islamic Empire. These groups believe in using violence to as well as politics to overpower and frighten Non-Muslims into accepting their school of thinking. As a Jews are Non-Muslims, they are naturally inferior to Muslims in the Jihadist conception.

4) Qur'anic Injunctions: Of course, different Muslims interpret the Qur'an differently, but there are certainly Qur'anic verses that can be read by those seeking to be intolerant, like Jihadists, of good grounds to do so. Q: 3:19 claims that the only religion that is acceptable to God is Islam. Q: 3:110 claims that Muslims are the best people in all history. Q: 8:55 claims that those who disbelieve are the worst of animals. Q: 9:29 argues for the repression and inequality of Jews and Christians before Muslims. -- There are numerous other verses that promote the view that intolerance and inequality between Muslims and Non-Muslims is Divinely Supported, creating difficulty in rejecting it. Additionally, the Qur'an has numerous verses that are specifically Anti-Semitic such as the famous "monkeys and pigs" verse, Q: 5:60.

5) Community Reinforcement: The Muslim Community generally has internal reinforcement of the notions that the Jews are eternal enemies of Muslims, are descended from apes and pigs, kill Muslims for enjoyment, and many other forms of commonplace Anti-Semitic rhetoric. There are numerous rallies where Muslims declare their unending support to the eradication of the Jewish people and will occasionally praise Hitler's "achievements" in this regard. There are some center-line Muslims (in addition to more liberal Muslims) who oppose this like Yusuf Hamza and Tariq Ramadan, but polls among Muslim communities show deeply-ingrained Anti-Semitic attitudes and a lack of knowledge about actual Jewish customs, beliefs, and history. Jihadists capitalize upon this to create a degree of legitimacy for their Anti-Semitism.

6) Systemic "Religionism": In the US South in the 1980s, segregation was no longer legal, but the imprint of segregation was still felt in the south. Miscegenation between Blacks and Whites was not really accepted and Whites generally had a negative attitude toward Blacks, even though they were legally equal. This is called Systemic Racism. It is is much the same situation in most Islamic Countries, but with religion instead of race. Historically, Jews, Christians, Sikhs, and Hindus under Islamic governments were second-class citizens and so the transition to making them truly equal partners suffers from this history. Conversely, very few Muslims (prior to the last 50 years) lived in minority-Muslim countries, preventing the development of an Islam without Systemic Religionism. Jihadists argue that this Religious Discrimination is desirable and should be reimplemented.

7) Israel's Existence: Jihadists believe explicitly that Jews do not have the right to self-governance since they are considered to be wicked people cursed by God. As a result, the existence of a country where Jews do govern themselves (and even some Muslims) is a grievance of theirs.

8) Palestinian Indigenous Rights: The indigenous Palestinians and their descendants are aggrieved that people from abroad would come to the land that their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents had lived on and worked for as long as they could remember and buy that land from the Ottomans without consulting them. Moreover, these people had a particular agenda to establish a state on the land they called their own. Understandably, the Palestinians, and those who support them, are opposed to the Zionist project and the Jews who realized it for these emotional and political considerations. Additionally, the Israeli Military Occupation of the West Bank Territories and the Blockade of Gaza represents a true legal and humanitarian crisis for Supporters of an Independent Palestine and the Palestinian People. To many in the world community, the Palestinians must have the right to go back to their homes (although it is doubtful that the Arabs would have permitted that right to the Jews should the Arabs have been victorious in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9).

9) Fifth Column: Jews, especially, but also Christians and Hindus are seen by Jihadists as fifth columns in Islamic countries supporting foreign powers. Jews are usually accused of being "Zionists", a term which is never properly defined, and supporting Israel. Christians are usually seen as supporting the West against the Islamic countries. Hindus are often seen as spies from India against Pakistan. This makes these minorities untrustworthy to the Jihadists even when they clearly disavow any association with the country/ies to which they supposedly have allegiance instead of the Islamic State.

10) Facelessness: Most people around the world, and especially in the Islamic World, have never met a Jew and only see Jews through the media portrayals of Israeli military actions or Jewish politicians in Western countries. As a result, "the Jews" are a people upon whom any claim of impropriety can be laid without a counterfactual relationship to see a Jew's humanity.