A new explanation of antisemitism: Jew hatred as a civilisational phenomenon

Abstract

This article connects antisemitism to the borrowed monotheism of Christianity and Islam and the psychological dynamics of envy and inferiority complex vis-à-vis the Jews this borrowing of God produces among intellectual leaders of the two derivative monotheistic communities. Through tropes created by these leaders, antisemitism deeply affects the consciousness of the general population in these communities. Understanding antisemitism as a phenomenon characteristic of the monotheistic (‘Western’) civilisation, allows one to explain both its ubiquity across many societies and historical periods constituting this civilisation and the absence of native antisemitic traditions in China and India.