Antisemitism in the Middle East

October 7 and Islam

What does it mean when Hamas calls its attacks on Israel a “religious war”? And what do the countless cries of “Allahu Akbar” during the October 7 massacre signify?

University of Haifa, July 7, 2026

The religious dimension of October 7

Statement on the occasion of a discussion on Islamist antisemitism organized by the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism at King’s College London on November 3, 2025

London, November 3, 2025

Propaganda for the educated

About the book “Hamas – The Quest for Power” by Hamas experts Beverley Milton-Edwards and Stephen Farrell

Hamburg, October 30, 2025

Hunting Jews: The radicalization of antisemitism since October 7

Lecture from March 31, 2025 on the occasion of the Contemporary Antisemitism Conference in London

London, March 31 2025

October 7th and the Shoah

Are there lines of continuity linking the anti-Jewish terror of the Nazis with that of Hamas?

Indiana University, Institute For The Study Of Contemporary Antisemitism: Research Paper 2024-5, November 2024

The Denial of Continuity: October 7 and the Shoah

The months following the massacre have revealed the failure of previous Western Holocaust education, which has never wanted to know anything about the after-effects of Nazi ideology in the Muslim world.

Hamburg, August 7, 2024

Broadcasting as a weapon: The Persian-language Nazi propaganda and its consequences

I delivered this speech on June 4, 2023 on the occasion of the Klangteppich V – Festival for Music of the Iranian Diaspora in Berlin

Hamburg, 04.07.2023

The 1948 Arab war against Israel: An aftershock of World War II?

An introduction to some discoveries and arguments of my new book: “Nazis, Islamic Antisemitism and the Middle East: The 1948 Arab War against Israel and the Aftershocks of World War II”.

FATHOM, JUNE 2023

The Lasting Impact of Nazi Germany’s antisemitic propaganda in the Middle East 1945–1948

Contribution to the conference “Lessons and Legacies XVI – The Holocaust: Rethinking Paradigms in Research and Representation” on November 12–15, 2022 in Ottawa

Ottawa, November 13, 2022

9/11 and the Globalization of Antisemitism

Keynote speech on the occasion of the opening conference of the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (LCSCA) on September 13, 2022 in London

London, September 13, 2022

80 Years Later the Echo of the Wannsee Conference Still Exists

My contribution to a Webinar on the subject “80 Years Since Wannsee: An Alarm for Other Genocides?”

Paris, London, Berlin, Hamburg, January 20, 2022

Contemporary Antisemitism Among Muslims

Presentation on the occasion of “The 14th Tel Aviv University Seminar on Contemporary Antisemitism” in Ein-Gedi (Israel), November 25–27, 2019

Hamburg, 5. Januar 2020

Tehran’s War against Israel in a changing Middle East

The decades-old taboo against Israelis meeting with Arab leaders had been broken. More and more Arab countries are willing to accept Israel as an ally in the defense against Iran

Indiana University, Bloomington, U.S.A., March 26, 2019

Islamic Antisemitism: How It Originated and Spread

About the meaning of the booklet “Islam and Jewry” and the Bludan Congress of September 1937

Hamburg, July 3, 2018

How to challenge Islamic Antisemitism?

Islamic antisemitism is a major foreign policy issue: Only governments can stop the flow of hate messages by denouncing and punishing state- and non-state actors.[1]

Hamburg, March 2, 2018

Nasser’s Antisemitic War Against Israel

It was not Israel or Zionism that provoked the 1967 war but the latent anti-Zionism and antisemitism in the Arab world and the fact that Nasser was gripped by the same destructive sentiments that he whipped up in the masses.

FATHOM, BICOM’s quarterly online journal, March 15, 2017

Global Jihad, Islamic Radicalism, and the Challenge to Europe

Keynote speech, delivered at the seminar “Global Jihad, Islamic Radicalism, the the Challenge to Europe”, organized by the Stockholm Free World Forum (Frivärld) and the Institute for Security & Development Policy on May 25, 2016, at Timbro, Stockholm

Hamburg, 18. März 2017

The Aftershock of the Nazi War against the Jews, 1947/1948

Could This War Against Israel Have Been Prevented?

JEWISH POLITICAL STUDIES REVIEW, (2016), Vol. 26, No. 3–4

Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East

BY BARRY RUBIN & WOLFGANG G. SCHWANITZ, reviewed

Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, 04 Feb 2015.

The Continuing Nazi Influence on Arab Attitudes

Interview with political scientist, Dr. Matthias Küntzel: “Nazi influence upon the Middle East is nevertheless almost systematically overlooked by Middle East and Islam scholars.” By Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld and

Israel National News, November 10, 2013

The Roots of Antisemitism in the Middle East: New Debates

While scholars agree that in no other part of the world is antisemitism as widespread as in the Middle East, the unanimity vanishes when it comes to explaining the causes of this antisemitism

Indiana University Press, summer 2013

Joie de vivre and love of death – From the Arab Spring to the Gaza War

Statement to the rally “Hamburg for Israel. Stop Hamas terror!”

Hamburg, November 26, 2012

Judith Butler and the new anti-Jewish discourse

Speech at the rally against the award of the Adorno Prize to Judith Butler in front of St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt/M. (Germany) on 11 September 2012

Frankfurt/Main, 11 September 2012

The Wannsee Legacy: Lessons for Genocide Prevention

Henry Jackson Society Event in the House of Commons, London, January 19, 2012

Blogger Maikel Nabil’s Hunger Strike

While Egypt’s transitional government allows hatred towards Israel to run rampant in order to distract from its own failures, Maikal Nabil is among the blogger rebels advocating for friendship with Israel

Deutschlandradio Kultur, September 20, 2011

In the Straightjacket of Anti-Zionism

A critical review of Gilbert Achcar’s “The Arabs and the Holocaust”. By Colin Meade and

Engage Homepage (UK), September 24, 2011

Matthias Küntzel was presented with the ADL Human Rights Award

The Anti-Defamation League’s statement and the acceptance speech

Palm Beach, FL, February 11, 2011

New Coalition Raises The Alarm Against Globalized Antisemitism

Last week the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism was founded in London

Hamburg, February 22, 2009

Anti-Semitic Hate Speech in the Name of Islam

Antisemitic messages from satellite channels like the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa are helping to bring a message of hate and intolerance to Europe. The effects of such hate preaching can already be felt in Germany.

Spiegel-SPECIAL, 2/2008, April 2008

Islamist terrorism and antisemitism: The mission against modernity

This paper was presented in March 2008 at Stanford University, at the University of California in Santa Cruz, in Los Angeles, in Irvine, at the University of Buffalo, at the Cooper Union in New York and at different conferences in D.C. and New York.

U.S.A., March 2008

Nazi-Germany and the Antisemitism in the Muslim World

Presentation at The Global Forum For Combating Antisemitism at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem

Jerusalem, February 24, 2008

Interview with FrontPage Magazine

About Jihad and Jew-Hatred, Islamism and Islam

FrontPageMagazine.com, February 21, 2008

Judeophobia and the Denial of the Holocaust in Iran

Posen Paper in Contemporary Antisemitism No. 8 of The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (SICSA)

Hebrew University of Jeruslam, 2007

Why We Cannot Criticize Israel that Way

A response to Alfred Grosser

Internationale Politik – Global Edition, Summer issue 2/2007, Vol. 8

National Socialism and Anti-Semitism in the Arab World

Jewish Political Studies Review, Spring 2005

Antisemitism in the Middle East: Abbas and Hamas

How can a group determined to destroy Israel be a partner in the peace process?

SPME, February 2005

The Roots of Delusion

Many believe that there is a correlation between Islamic antisemitism and Israel’s policies. Are they right?

February 2005

Islamic Antisemitism And Its Nazi Roots

April 2003