27/08/2021
21401 times read
27/08/2021
21401 times read
A while ago, I wrote on the subject of racism, and how there are countries that try to limit its negative effects in society by imposing severe penalties on those who abuse others on racist grounds, especially the minorities.
I highlighted that most groups affected by racism are minorities such as Shiites, in Sunni societies, and Sunnis in Shiite societies, in addition to Alawites, Armenians, Assyrians, Bahais, Berbers, Copts, Ismailis, Kurds, Sahrawis, Turkmen, Yazidis and Nubians, for example and not limited to, add to these the followers of various Christian denominations in our countries, the gays and the others.
The article was well received by many, but the European/Iraqi friend ‘Hisham Al-Malak’ was offended by my failure to address the bad, racist, and historically abhorrent treatment that the Jewish minority have been subjected to in Islamic countries and perhaps Iraq in particular, and they are among its oldest residents.
He added he does not wish to enter into the history of the Jews since the dawn of Islam in Madinah, but rather he will move to history in the Arab states that used to belong to the Ottoman High Gate, including Iraq where it was customary for the rulers of the Sultanate to look for the sons of the well-to-do and wealthy Jewish families, to restrict their freedoms and not to release them until ransom was paid, and one of those kidnapped was a son of the chief rabbi in Iraq.
These actions caused a large number of the rich Jews to emigrate to India and other countries, where they have become one of the world’s largest and most wealthy businessmen.
With the beginning of the spread of Nazi ideas among the public in Iraq in the 1930s and 1940s, public opinion or the mob against the Jews increased, and the British Embassy played a big role in directing anger against the Jews to remove objections to its colonial presence, accusing the Jews of full control over trade and other activities.
Mr. Al-Malak goes on to say many were sad when the law was issued to revoke the Iraqi citizenship of the Jews who lived in Iraq, as it was considered the ugliest and harshest law imaginable against an original part and an essential component of the Iraqi people, and the law constituted at the time a hateful racist extremism.
He added the law to revoke the citizenship of Iraqi Jews was drafted, according to him, at the British Embassy with the participation of Saleh Jabr, who had previously served as prime minister more than once during the royal era.
Mr. Al-Malak ends his message by saying that the Jews of several Arab countries have suffered a lot, and he does not want to talk much about the matters that are known and their painful history is known, and had it not been for this racism against them, they would not have left their countries of origin which they have long loved, where they found a decent life, and this forced them to to emigrate to Israel as the next step, so we lost them as citizens and as actors.
Let us not forget in this hurry to add that the Arabs of Israel, despite all kinds of bad racist treatment with them, may prefer to stay and work in Israel than to migrate to any other Arab country, and the reason may be due to their belief that Israel’s racist hell may be more merciful than ‘A racist paradise’ in many sister countries.
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By Ahmad alsarraf