Turkey – like much of the world – is dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. Sadly, the number of cases and casualties continues rising. Yet many anti-Semites in the country are busy on social media, demonstrating their pathological hatred for Jews, otherwise known as Judeopathy.
The Turkish news website Avlaremoz, which covers Jewish-related incidents, is monitoring related posts on Twitter.
When Turkey officially confirmed the first case of Covid-19 on March 11, many Turkish Twitter users shared anti-Jewish social media posts targeting Jews and Israel. These posts accused them of creating and spreading the virus for political and economic gain. Some of the Twitter posts included:
- “The virus is in Turkey. Okay. It is almost all around the world. But why is it not in and around Israel? It is certain that they [Israel] also have the cure but let’s see when the Jew will bring it out.”
- “The company that will find the medicine will be the richest company of the world. It is no coincidence that it will definitely be a Jewish company.”
- “People are flocking to cleaning products whose owners are Jewish. People are waiting for a medication whose owner is also Jewish. No Jew has caught the virus yet. May you drown in the perceptions [you’re falsely creating]. Allah is great.”
One user claimed that “ahl as-sunnah,” or the adherents of Sunni Islam, will not be affected by the virus. This user also said that the reason why Saudi Arabia and Iran have Covid-19 cases is “because they are Jews who think they are Muslim.” Another user urged that as a precaution against the disease, “people should not watch Fox TV and other Jewish TV channels.”
On March 11, the Turkish website of the Sputnik news channel reported that scientists at the Ness Ziona Institute for Biological Research in Israel was to announce that their work on the coronavirus vaccine was nearly completed.
Many anti-Semites in Turkey again spread hateful, anti-Jewish conspiracies on social media. This included comments such as “it’s Israel that has created the poison so they should have its antidote.”
Some claimed that Israel invented the virus to later come up with a vaccine, which it already had in store, to achieve some hidden agenda such as “making nations grateful to Israel and seizing Jerusalem” or “taking hold of people.” They asserted that “Jews are not to be trusted” and “if it is Israel, it is hard to look for innocence.”
They also presented their opinions about what they believed to be the possible contents of the vaccine — such as chemicals “to change our genetics” and “infertility drugs” — that they thought Israel would prepare to damage others. Other Twitter posts included:
- “F.ck Israel. Israel and Jewish dogs are the biggest virus on the humanity.”
- “It’s possible that they will not give the vaccine [to the world] because they think they’re the superior race.”
- “Now we know who have turned the virus into a weapon. They’re about to announce they have the cure.”
- “They [Israel] produce all kinds of seeds with GMO [genetically modified organisms] and poisonous agricultural pesticides. If the news is true, I think the vaccine was produced a long time ago. They’ve only waited for the world to panic even more so that they could advertise the vaccine better to sell it with a much higher price.”
And when the Covid-19-related deaths or cases in Israel were reported, some Turkish Twitter users celebrated the news and called for even more casualties. One user referred to Israelis as “creatures who are under the guise of humans.” Another one claimed that governments created and spread the virus. This user said that governments already have its “serum” and asked: “Why are Jewish dogs not affected by it?”
Other posts included:
- “The Israeli minister of health and his wife have caught the coronavirus. May other Jews be next. Until some of the elites of the world die, I will not believe this virus was not created in a laboratory.”
- “The head of Israeli Mossad, Israeli chief of general staff and even Netanyahu are all under quarantine due to the coronavirus. May Allah make them even worse.”
- “May they croak. I hope the whole of Israel catches the coronavirus.”
- “Israeli dogs are the biggest virus in the world.”
- “Can’t it be that those who carried out the so-called Jewish genocide to occupy Jerusalem came up with the coronavirus to occupy the East [Eastern Turkey]?”
- “They’ll pretend to be innocent. All filths are caused by them anyway. I’m sure there’s a cure and nothing bad will happen to them.”
So in all cases — including Israelis catching the coronavirus and trying to find a cure for it — Jews were targeted with hateful epithets and referred to as the cause of the pandemic.
This type of anti-Semitism appears completely pathological or as an extreme case of Judeopathy. Professor Alan Dershowitz explains this phenomenon in his book Chutzpah:
“The label ‘anti-Semite,’ invented by anti-Semites as a proud epithet, is an inherently neutral term,” he writes. “It simply means those who are against Jews. It does not necessarily connote the sickness and evil inherent in such bigotry. The term ‘Judeopath’ would seem far more fitting. It suggests a pathological hatred of Jews and clearly puts the onus on those who hate rather than on those who are hated. No one would be proud of being labeled Judeopathic, as some claim pride in the label anti-Semitic.”
Such intense bigotry against Jewish people is widespread in Turkey and other Muslim societies.
In his book The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History, Dr. Andrew Bostom provides many examples of antisemitic motifs in Muslim documents reaching back to the beginnings of Islam, demonstrating that Jew-hatred is sanctioned by Islamic scriptures.
Here is one of the egregious verses in the Koran:
Koran 2:65: “We [Allah] said to them [the Jews], ‘You will be transformed into despised apes.’ So We used them as a warning to their people and to the following generations, as well as a lesson for the Allah-fearing.”
Sadly, these hateful teachings have been systematically turned into deeds. Islam has been violently demonstrating Jew-hatred since the 7th century. Hence Arabia, where Islam emerged, is Judenrein and has been for 1400 years, notes Dr. Bill Warner, the founding President of the Center for the Study of Political Islam (CSPI).
The Islamic scriptures appear to have for centuries greatly shaped the views and actions of many Muslims concerning Jewish people.
Then what to do? Despite all accusations of “racism” or “Islamophobia,” those who truly care about human rights should speak out more against this violent hatred targeting Jewish people, as in 2015, journalist Miriam Raftery called on “people of good faith everywhere to commit … to break the apathy and silence and to stand up and speak out against history’s oldest hate wherever it rears its ugly head.”
This is what needs to be done on an individual level. But much more wide-scale steps should be taken on a collective level.
Dr. Bostom presents a revolutionary idea in the preface of his groundbreaking book:
“There is no cause, at present, for any optimism that Islam’s major religious teaching centers will soon begin a desperately needed process to remove canonical Islamic Antisemitism from the minbar [mosques]. However, we must still hope—against hope—that non-Muslim religious and civic leaders, notably Jews, will overcome their timorous, stifling cultural relativism, and demand such a momentous Islamic initiative.”
Until this happens and maybe even after that, we will continue hearing the most vile and hateful comments by radical Muslims on social media wishing death on Jewish people and seeing them act on their wish when they could.
Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist and political analyst formerly based in Ankara.
mortimer says
Islam is culture that relies mainly on aural communication, because Muslims try to emulate a prophet whom they assume was illiterate. Mohammed was certainly semi-literate as are very many Muslims today. They do not trust any book but the Koran. Muslims idolize the Koran making it an eternal partner of Allah … a gold idol in paradise.
mortimer says
Because the Koran is an eternal idol in Islamic paradise, and because the Koran is highly anti-Semitic, Muslims are required to idolize anti-Semitism.
Statistical Jew Hatred in Koran and Hadiths
– The grand total of Jew Hatred in KORAN = 10,242 words / 152,006 total words = 6.7% Jew hatred
– Total number of Jew Hatred VERSES in Koran: 123 verses Jew hatred
– 17% of Medinan Koran is Jew hatred
– 1% of Meccan Koran is Jew hatred
– 8.9% of hadiths are Jew hatred
– 12% of Sira is Jew hatred
– 9.3% of Islamic Trilogy is Jew hatred
– 7% of Mein Kampf is Jew hatred by comparison
– Koran of Mecca filled with Jewish stories plagiarized and distorted.
– Jews of Medina did not validate Mohammed’s prophecy, so he then exterminated the Jews of Medina, stole their property and enslaved their women and children.
– Mohammed entered the Jewish town of Yathrib with his people as refugees, then changed its name to Medina (‘capital city’), but within a few years there were no Jews left in Medina.
– Mohammed provides in Medina the perfect example of Jew hatred that Muslims should follow
– The Koran and Mohammed make anti-Semitism very Islamic.
GreekEmpress says
Today is the day marking the recognition of the Armenian genocide. I don’t have as much Armenian ancestry as I do Greek, but we will be observing the day quietly at home. I had one Armenian ancestor that was murdered by the Turks, and my Greek ancestors fought the Turks for centuries.
The Turks persecuted and murdered Armenians,
Greeks, Assyrians, and other Christians. If given the chance, I believe they’d do it again.
gravenimage says
Yes, GreekEmpress–*all* Christians were targets for genocide–Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Levantines.
jimjfox says
No need! Turkey is 99.8% islamic…
gravenimage says
Turkey: Judeopathy raises its ugly head again
…………………
So no Jews have caught the virus, but all Jews have it and will die praise Allah.
Good grief.
And I guess Gentiles–or at least Muslims–are incapable of making cleaning supplies. How sad an admission is this?
Loki says
Those muzzies should be very careful.
The Jews might decide to use their Jew-jitsu against them.
Do I have too much time on my hands or what?
Lets get back to work.
commonsense says
Still laughing as I write this!
The Truth says
“Judeophobia” sounds a little better.
Linde Barrera says
Writer/reporter Uzay Bulut is saying (without using the words) is that Turkish Twitter users have not been taught critical thinking. Any virus does not have the ability to prefer one type of human host to another. And all viruses are predatory upon whomever their hosts are. What kind of dumb-ass science teachers are in Turkey? What kind government would allow teaching science in this way? Of course I know the answer; a Muslim majority country. ?
Chistopher Watson says
I’ve almost regarded hatred of the Jews by Arabs as very simply a matter of ‘we need an enemy to unite the people, so we’ll pick on the Jews’. Of course they hate anybody who isn’t an Arab but the Jews are particularly hated. Mo could have picked on…say the Welsh or the Samoans but he hadn’t heard of those. So he picked on the Jews. After all they were non-aggressive, there weren’t many of them, they were highly intelligent and they lived close by. Let’s face it, everybody hates intelligent people. Also the Catholics in Rome hated them too – they killed Jesus. Catholic theology tells us that. But the New Testament also tells us that the Romans couldn’t silence Jesus or the Jews; they probably were not too fond of Him for that either.Therefore the Jews were hated by the two most powerful empires around at the time.
The Truth says
Catholics killed Jesus? My understanding is that the Romans weren’t Catholics at the time Jesus was crucified. Happy to be corrected.
gravenimage says
This is true, The Truth.
jimjfox says
Did Pilate do the bidding of the Jewish elders?
This is not Judeophobic, just factual. IF Jesus actually existed…
The Hittite King says
In Turkey, as in most Islamic countries, Jews are scapegoats. However, the difference between Turkey and other Islamic countries is that it is a so-called democratic country. When we look at the political parties in Turkey, we see a lot of anti-Semitism in these parties. Nationalists and Islamists are already hostile to Jews and Israel. The so-called liberal parties are not really liberal, but they are parties that look out for the interests of Muslims. The leftists, on the other hand, are hostile to Israel, the only Jewish state and the only democratic country in the Middle East. In short, being Jewish in Turkey is like living in hell…
gravenimage says
Grimly true.