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Originally Posted by 51highland  With what the SS did, its hard to imagine anything being worse, but? |
Not worse, just different. I get the impression that Moslems at the time were inclined to the timeless Leventine style pograms. Atrocity as a mass production industry seems to have been peculiarly Nazi. Others have surpassed their ultimate number of victims. I can't think of anyone who managed to do it in such a methodical way. On the other hand as Dennis Prager pointed out once, at least the Germans felt the need to have such things done far enough away that they could feel they had no connection. Which is not quite accurate-the Germans used the old method at times. But it has some truth to it. It is hard to think of which style seems more horrible; first I think one, then the other. But the first style is more common.
As for Moslems being anti-semite, well there are variations of anti-semitism and in the old usage the word meant not a aesthetic distaste for Jewish culture which might perhaps be pardonable-some like it some don't: I in fact do like Jewish culture but that is my affair. Nor a snobbery or bullying tendancy toward Jews which is far less pardonable. What it actually meant was an ideological dislike toward Jews. And that wasn't quite the same as what Moslems had. They claimed to be closer to metaphysical truth but everyone makes that claim one way or another including Jews; tolerance should be what you make of that fact not denial of it. They also had the snobbery I described; but that would be inevitable. The laws for Jews and Christians in Moslem countries(or Jews in Christian countries) bear some relation to the traditional Medieval law regarding foreign residents. One of the main differences is that Venetians for instance, could know that the Venetian fleet might be arrive if they were mistreated. This system is not necessarily unjust in the letter of the law(though it often was there too). But it made for friction and as I described, the Jews didn't have as many options for self-defense. When you think of it, it is suprising they did not think of building their own state sooner. However there was only two instances that come close to that, the Khazar Empire(which unfortunately has been used by anti-semites to claim that Jews really aren't Jews; which is an annoying association with a great civilization that deserves to be remembered better), and an pre-Zionist attempted settlement sponsored by an Ottoman bureaucrat.
The modern style Moslem Anti-semitism dates only from when Moslems started thinking of Jews as credible rivals. While there are hints of it in the Koran from what I have heard(I never read the Koran-most of what I know of Islam is from history), it is really a recent phenomenon. While intermittant atrocities against Jews did take place in Moslem countries(it is said to have been more common in Christiandom then Islamistan) but I wouldn't know), but actual Anti-semitism in the usage I gave is fairly recent. It was known at the time, but the Middle East controversy was pretty much a Middle Eastern issue and it is hard to believe that many Bosnians cared much. They were probably more anti-serb, or anti-croat or whatever then anti-semite. However they wouldn't have loved Jews and could easily have been made anti-semites in the nazi manner.
Which doesn't give a conclusion but does give information.