Egyptian Historian: The Muslim Brotherhood Bears Much of the Responsibility for the Fleeing of the Jews from Egypt

January 14, 2013 11:16 am 0 comments

screen shot of Khaled Fahmi. Photo: MEMRI TV

An Egyptian historian has placed much of the blame for the flight of Egyptian Jews in the first half of the 20th century on the Muslim Brotherhood.

In an interview posted by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) that first aired on Al-Nahar TV, Khaled Fahmi states that “the Muslim Brotherhood bears much of the responsibility for the fleeing of the Jews from Egypt.”

During the 1930s and 1940s thousand of Jews fled Egypt. During World War II Haj Amin Al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, lived in exile in the country. While there he allied himself with Hitler and appropriated funds from the Nazis to the Muslim Brotherhood in order to print antisemitic propaganda. In 1945 a pogrom took place in Cairo’s Jewish quarter that left ten people dead and 350 wounded. After the establishment of the State of Israel thousands more Egyptian Jews were forced out of Egypt due to ongoing tensions between the two countries.

The full transcript of Khaled Fahmi’s comments is posted below (provided by MEMRI):

Khaled Fahmi: The Muslim Brotherhood bears much of the responsibility for the fleeing of the Jews from Egypt. All the writings of the Muslim Brotherhood… If you grab a copy of their Al-Nazir newspaper [from the late 1930s], the editor-in-chief of which was Salah Al-Ashmawi, you will see that there were many anti-Jewish articles – articles that did not distinguish between Zionism and the Jews. An article published in 1938 accused the Jews, among many other things… The article was titled “The Danger of the Jews to the Islamic and Christian world.” It accused the Jews of being the cause of British colonialism in India. It claimed that the real colonialists in India were the Jews, not the British.

Interviewer: This was in 1938…

Khaled Fahmi: Yes. There were many statements to this effect. The conflict in Palestine also left its mark on Egypt. There were big skirmishes in 1945. The Jewish synagogue in the Mosky neighborhood was burned down, grenades were thrown, grenades were thrown, and people died.

A video of the statements is posted below:

Leave a Reply

Please note: comments may be published in the Algemeiner print edition.


More...

  • Personalities Sports NBA Finals a Time to Remember Legendary Jewish Coach Red Auerbach

    NBA Finals a Time to Remember Legendary Jewish Coach Red Auerbach

    JNS.org - At the start of each nationally televised game of the 2013 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat, ABChas aired a film-clip montage of basketball’s great players and coaches—a montage that includes Jewish coach Arnold “Red” Auerbach, the mastermind behind nine championship teams for the Boston Celtics. Red was one of four children of Marie and Hyman Auerbach. Hyman was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who left Belarus when he was 13. The couple owned a deli and [...]

    Read more →
  • Arts and Culture Jewish History The Marx Brothers and Jewish Identity

    The Marx Brothers and Jewish Identity

    JNS.org - The sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany and France, the Marx Brothers became zany masters of stage and screen who continue to captivate audiences. But in addition to providing comic relief, their films captured the drama of the entry of their marginalized religion into the U.S. Wayne Koestenbaum, author of the 2012 book The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, explains that the Marx Brothers’ Jewishness as a family “was evident, marked, thoroughly legible.” “Within a family already marked as Jewish within [...]

    Read more →
  • Arts and Culture Jewish Identity SuperJew

    SuperJew

    For my shekels, the question of whether the comic book character Superman, is Jewish or not shouldn’t even be questioned. Born and named Kal-El by his father Jor-El, “El” is one of the ancient names for God used throughout the bible and found in great prophets such as Samue-el, Dani-el and angels Micha-el and Gavri-el and of course, Isra-el. As Simcha Weinstein in his entertaining book, “Up, Up And Oy Vey” points out, “Kal” is the root of several Hebrew [...]

    Read more →
  • Israel Sports Formula 1 Road Show Thrills Jerusalem

    Formula 1 Road Show Thrills Jerusalem

    JNS.org – Some 100,000 people attended Israel’s first-ever Formula 1 Road Show in Jerusalem on Thursday and Friday. For several hours, the controversies that normally characterize Jerusalem were put aside, and a diverse mosaic of Israelis watched up close as the motor-sport stars temporarily conquered the city. “It was an amazing experience, the most fast and furious thing I have seen,” spectator Masada Porat told Israel Hayom. “It was a rare, extreme event that explodes in your face.” Spectator Irena [...]

    Read more →
  • Book Reviews Jewish Identity Klara’s Journey Casts Jews in Fast-Paced Adventure Through Russian History

    Klara’s Journey Casts Jews in Fast-Paced Adventure Through Russian History

    JNS.org – “If you’re sick, move away. Have some consideration for others,” a red army soldier scolds a slow-moving old man selling train tickets. “No, fires back the old man, proud, haughty, not realizing it’s a new country, a Bolshevik country where force heads the list instead of civility,” reads the following line in Ben G. Frank’s new novel, Klara’s Journey, released June 1. Reminiscent of Boris Pasternak’s Dr. Zhivago—whose backdrop is also a train ride across the Russian frontier during the [...]

    Read more →
  • Personalities Theater Nora Ephron, Famed Jewish Screenwriter, Remembered Through Tribeca Film Festival Prize

    Nora Ephron, Famed Jewish Screenwriter, Remembered Through Tribeca Film Festival Prize

    JNS.org – For filmmaker Meera Menon, no honor could have been more fitting than winning the inaugural award named after famed Jewish screenwriter and novelist Nora Ephron, the woman whose work inspired her. At the recent 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, Menon was named the first recipient of the $25,000 Nora Ephron Prize, given to a writer or director whose work embodies that of the late Ephron, who wrote the scripts for a number of hit films, including “When Harry Met [...]

    Read more →
  • Book Reviews Personalities Book Review: ‘Jewish Jordan’ Memoir an Important Guide for Players and Coaches

    Book Review: ‘Jewish Jordan’ Memoir an Important Guide for Players and Coaches

    JNS.org – Despite his friends’ and family’s doubts that a young Orthodox Jewish athlete could ever play college or professional basketball without compromising his religious values, between 1999 and 2009 the “Jewish Jordan” defied conventional wisdom and found his place on the court. In his new memoir, Jewish Jordan’s Triple Threat, Tamir Goodman describes his triumphs and disappointments in life, crediting his practice of Judaism for shaping his identity as an athlete and his understanding of basketball as a team sport. [...]

    Read more →
  • Blogs Sports Omri Casspi, ‘Jewish Jordan’ Partner on Basketball Camps to Inspire Youths On and Off the Court

    Omri Casspi, ‘Jewish Jordan’ Partner on Basketball Camps to Inspire Youths On and Off the Court

    Tamir Goodman (left) and NBA forward Omri Casspi—pictured on the court of the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls—together run basketball camps that seek to inspire youths on and off the court. Photo: Courtesy Tamir Goodman. JNS.org – Before last year, basketball camps for Jewish youths never had an instructor quite like Omri Casspi, a forward for the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Cleveland Cavaliers and the first Israeli-born player in NBA history. Casspi is a de facto ambassador for [...]

    Read more →
Sign up now to receive our regular news briefs.