"In a sad display, we are even witnessing the recycling of many hackneyed cliches and insults

that a century or two ago were directed against Jews now being directed against Muslims. In particular, in some of the same ways in which Jews were questioned regarding their "loyalties" to Europe as well as to Judaism, many now view Muslims with great suspicion and question their loyalties as citizens. Muslims have become the target of a new version of anti-Semitism. One of the most bitter and ironic aspects of this new anti-Semitism is that at least some of these attacks are being led by largely secular Jews whose ultimate concern is the preservation of the current status of the state of Israel, with all its profoundly problematic policies toward the native Palestinian population there. [8] One small though influential example would be that of the largely discredited neoconservative movement, which provided the ideological support for much of the foreign policy of the George W. Bush regime. Much of the neoconservative ideology involved the simultaneous advocacy of a muscular defense of Israel and the demonization of Islam. It boggles the mind that many of the children and grandchildren of Jews who themselves were the targets of anti-Semitism could now be directly engaged in spreading a variation of the same poison of anti-Semitism against other members of the human family, especially other children of Abraham. One of the conclusion that one can reach is that often the prejudice against Islam is not the actual disease. It is the symptom of a deeper malaise - prejudice and racism.

-Memories of Muhammad: Why the Prophet Matters by Omid Safi, pgs. 5-6