Abstract
Michael Whine presents an overview of the participation of European Muslim organisations in Holocaust commemorations. The Holocaust is viewed by many Muslims, particularly Arabs, as a European tragedy which led to negative implications and suffering in the Arab world through the creation of the State of Israel. The Holocaust is therefore often related to the Nakba. Whine’s analysis focuses on Muslims’ participation in Holocaust commemoration on the Holocaust Memorial Day, local initiatives in schools and Jewish-Muslim dialogue and the reaction of Muslim students to Holocaust education in school. Whine acknowledges that Muslims played only a minor part as victims or perpetrators during the Holocaust, but he argues that the rejection of Holocaust commemoration as a form of Zionist propaganda adopts Islamist and Arab nationalist antisemitism. Whine presents a case study of the Muslim Council of Britain which illustrates this kind of reaction to the Holocaust Memorial Day. However, he discusses other smaller organisations, individual Muslims and approaches to education in the UK, France, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands in order to provide examples of a more constructive approach. Whine argues that Holocaust commemoration has become a defining aspect of European history and identity.
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Notes
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For example, the Dublin-based European Council for Fatwah and Research, the Brussels based Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe.
- 4.
Email to author, Archivio del Pregiudizio, Milan, 20 April 2010.
- 5.
For example, see interview with Sir Iqbal Sacranie, then MCB General Secretary, BBC Panorama, 21 August 2005.
- 6.
For example, MCB Executive members Afzal Kahn and Sheikh Abduljalil Sajid, among others, attended on several occasions.
- 7.
Correspondence with Jewish community leaders in France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, April–May 2010.
- 8.
Q&A with Anne-Marie Revcolevschi, President of the Aladdin Project, Projetaladin, 17 March 2010, http://www.projetaladin.org.
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- 11.
See Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, http://annefrank.org.uk; Anne Frank Trust, London, http://www.annefrank.org.uk; Holocaust Educational Trust, UK, http://www.het.org.uk.
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Whine, M. (2013). Participation of European Muslim Organisations in Holocaust Commemorations. In: Jikeli, G., Allouche-Benayoun, J. (eds) Perceptions of the Holocaust in Europe and Muslim Communities. Muslims in Global Societies Series, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5307-5_4
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