Yaakov Menken

Originally published in the Daily Wire.

Stereotyping is always wrong, but there is no epidemic of Americans attacking Muslims as Muslims.

Last week, I was honored to be appointed by President Donald Trump to serve on the Advisory Board of Religious Leaders for the newly established U.S. Religious Liberty Commission.

The commission is tasked with an issue I’ve thought a lot about in my capacity as a Jewish leader: I believe that all Americans have the freedom to worship as they choose, and think it’s crucial we protect religious freedom for all — including Muslim Americans who love this country and support its values.

I am proud to call many of them my friends, and I viscerally deplore any bigotry directed against them. But pretending that “Islamophobia” is a widespread national crisis is a dangerous lie that protects the wrong people and only fuels hatred.

“Islamophobia” may sound like a civil rights concern. But in practice, that term is wielded as a dangerous and repressive weapon. While peaceful Muslim citizens deserve protection from discrimination, Islamist pressure groups and progressive elites cry “Islamophobia” to blur moral lines, suppress condemnation of terrorism, and discount the reality of antisemitism in America and the West.

There is simply no parallel to the plague of antisemitism in human history. But while Jews are orders of magnitude more likely to find themselves targeted than members of any other minority group in America, the same advocates for “tolerance” who demeaned “all lives matter” as a racist slogan typically feel compelled, after every performative condemnation of antisemitic harassment and violence, to append “Islamophobia, and all forms of hate.”

In reality, bias against Muslims as Muslims is no more common than bias against other minority faiths. There is no major effort or large-scale advertising campaign to combat discrimination against Hindus, Sikhs, or Buddhists — even though each of those communities faces prejudice. It is not widespread or socially acceptable to display animus against people of a particular faith or ethnicity — except Jews.

What, then, is “Islamophobia?” It is most frequently not an aversion to Islam or peaceful Muslims, but a perfectly rational fear of radical Islamism, its desire for dominance, and its support for terrorism. To call that fear a “phobia” inverts the hater and the victim.

Consider Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) claim that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was started to combat anti-Muslim bias after September 11.

The facts are starkly different. Not only was CAIR founded seven years prior, but a French think tank identified over 48,000 Islamist terror attacks in less than half a century, causing over 210,000 deaths.

That’s not a minor footnote in history: it is the defining threat of the modern age. And while most Muslims are not extremists, a troubling percentage of them support radical ideas and justify attacks upon American and Western civilians. Studies consistently show that Muslims in the West are several times more likely than the general public to hold antisemitic views.

Furthermore, the most prominent Muslim advocacy organizations in America, including CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America, and American Muslims for Palestine, are not merely apologists for terror. CAIR and the Islamic Society of North America owe their existence to members of the Muslim Brotherhood; both organizations were unindicted co-conspiratorswho aided the Holy Land Foundation in providing funding for Hamas terrorism.

CAIR’s Executive Director declared that he was “happy” to see the massacre of Jews in Israel on October 7, 2023, which he called“self-defense.” And American Muslims for Palestine, a group closely tied to the antisemitic Students for Justice in Palestine and its discriminatory and often-violent activities on college campuses, is currently under investigation by a Senate committee for its own ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Despite this, we are told that criticizing radical Islamic terrorism or calling out antisemitism within the Muslim community is itself a form of “Islamophobia.” This is exemplified by CAIR itself, which in 2024 depicted antisemitic violence against Jews on campus as a “movement opposing the Gaza genocide,” and claimed that university administrators who halted the harassment and vandalism were “a primary perpetrator of anti-Muslim racism.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center labels as “Islamophobic” such organizations as Brigitte Gabriel’s ACT for America, the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and Jihad Watch. It once also included Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, an Evangelical Christian Zionist cause, among those groups.

None of these organizations opposes Islam; only the radical Islamic theology, which is one of the leading drivers of hateful violence today. Condemning them is not tolerance, but gaslighting.

After a wave of antisemitic protests, harassment, and vandalism on its campus, Harvard formed a Presidential Task Force on Combating Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab, and Anti-Palestinian Bias. The university started from the premise that these students and faculty were victims, not perpetrators, although it couldn’t identify a unifying explanation for why they were targeted.

In actuality, the one characteristic that all of the purported victims shared in common was quite obvious: antisemitism.

This is why the term “Islamophobia” is so dangerous. It isn’t employed to protect innocent Muslims, but guilty ideologies. It shifts the blame, silences critics, and gives cover to those who cheer as Jews and other “infidels” are slaughtered.

Radical Islamists and their allies cannot be granted leave to rewrite reality. There is no moral equivalence between a Jewish student targeted for wearing a yarmulke and a keffiyeh-clad Muslim activist condemned for cheering Hamas. Stereotyping is always wrong, but there is no epidemic of Americans attacking Muslims as Muslims. There is, instead, a well-funded, well-organized campaign to shield Jew-hatred by claiming that those combating radical Islamic antisemitism are motivated by “Islamophobia.”

This moment demands moral clarity. Not all hate is the same, and not all ideas deserve protection. It’s time to stop pretending that bigotry against Muslims is the crisis, when that false charge is being used to defend and enable radical Islamism, antisemitism, and those who endanger Western civilization.

Photo Credit: Copyright Montecruz Foto. CC BY-SA 3.0.

by Rabbi Yaakov Menken and Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld in Daily Caller.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has a new book out, titled “Antisemitism in America: A Warning.” He describes therein how bigotry against Jews is growing on both political sides, and writes that he felt a change in his responsibility as a Jewish American leader after the antisemitic Hamas pogrom of Oct. 7.

In his words, he “had to act.” But when it came time to introduce his book to the public, he abruptly postponed his publicity tour due to “security concerns.” This illustrates not only the prominence in America of the antisemitism he decries, but his failure to confront it with courage.

Throughout his career Sen. Schumer has claimed to be a guardian of Jewish interests, but his public statements and actions have frequently conveyed a very different message. This was especially on display during the last year—after the same Oct. 7 attacks that he claims motivated him to do more.

As Israel worked frantically to rescue hostages and neutralize the Hamas terror organization in March of last year, Schumer attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the Senate floor, calling for elections and new leadership in Israel.

Even fellow Democrats criticized his remarks, while Republicans asserted correctly that they caused “enormous damage.” To label the Israeli leader an “obstacle to peace” while facing a genocidal threat was akin to blaming Jews for failing to appease the Nazis, while hinting that Israel was losing American support certainly gave bloodthirsty Hamas fighters a morale boost.

A recent House Republican Staff report from the Committee on Education and the Workforce revealed that Schumer responded with a similarly stunning lack of concern to the surge of antisemitic protests and violence at Columbia University. He advised Columbia’s former president, Minouche Shafik, to “keep heads down,” because their “political problems are really only among Republicans.” This, from a self-proclaimed guardian of the Jewish community.

Earlier this year, Schumer blocked efforts to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its prejudiced and lawless arrest warrants against Israeli officials. The ICC has a pattern of transgressing its own authority to harm American and allied interests, but Schumer claimed the sanctions bill was “poorly drafted” and would have “many unintended consequences.” On the contrary, those consequences were designed to deter even the most woke of American companies and foreign governments from working with the ICC or complying with its anti-Israel and anti-American rulings.

Despite all of the foregoing, Schumer has stepped forward this year to be a key Senate sponsor of the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which defines when anti-Israel or “anti-Zionist” language ventures into antisemitism.

This act will help ensure the safety of Jewish students on campus, and prevent universities from sliding further into bigotry and hate. But when he led the Senate as Majority Leader last year, Schumer failed to bring this same bill to the floor despite assuring Jewish audiences that he would.

Did Schumer genuinely have a change of heart about the bill’s importance? Or, alternatively, did he bury it as Majority Leader in order to hide the sharp divide within his caucus, but now, knowing that the bill will be introduced and will surely pass, is finally voting his conscience, especially as his book goes on sale? Sadly, it seems far more likely that for Schumer, protection of the Jewish community took a back seat to political expediency.

Sen. Schumer must now demonstrate that he has genuinely had a change of heart, and that he will oppose antisemitism and other forms of hatred even when it requires moral courage to do so. Instead of castigating Netanyahu, he could begin by repudiating the terror-supporting Democrats in both houses and call for them to be expelled from the caucus he leads.

George Washington recalled the biblical prophet, Micah, when he envisioned an America in which “every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

It is imperative that leaders of both parties share that vision; if Sen. Schumer cannot clearly and emphatically provide that leadership for Senate Democrats, it is time for him to not merely flee from protesters, but to turn over the leadership to a Senator who can face them down.

Rabbi Yaakov Menken is Executive Vice President and Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is President of the Coalition for Jewish Values.

Photo Credit: Sen. Chuck Schumer by Senate Democrats, with CC BY 2.0 license on Flickr.

Originally published in JNS

Provoking outrage from the United Nations, human-rights organizations and Arab governments, Israel is blocking further aid to Gaza. It comes as the first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has ended and Hamas refuses to agree to a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire extension. But even without this valid reason, and despite the condemnations, Israel has adopted the morally correct approach.

For more than a year, the Biden administration’s insistence that Israel provide support to its mortal enemies prolonged the conflict, trapped Palestinian civilians in a war zone, and condemned innocent hostages to months of torture, abuse and death.

There is a saying in the Midrash: “Those who are compassionate to the cruel will ultimately be cruel to the compassionate.”

The billions of dollars that have flowed into Gaza over the past two decades under the guise of humanitarian aid enabled the governing genocidal junta to solidify its control, arm for war and indoctrinate the Arab populace to seek death and destruction. Hamas then carried out the worst pogrom against Jews since the Holocaust and has broadcast its intent to repeat its atrocities if allowed to survive. The requirement that Israel sustain the same terrorists it must eliminate only further demonstrates the truth of this aphorism.

Days after Oct. 7, 2023, I predicted and dismissed the disingenuous calls for “restraint” that would hound Israel in the aftermath of the slaughter. This did not reflect a lack of concern for the costs of war; it was born of a commitment to human rights and an opposition to antisemitic double standards. As I wrote then, world leaders and members of Congress don’t call for restraint when people are fighting totalitarian regimes or terrorists, unless the victims are Jews.

In late October 2023, amid closed border crossings into Gaza, Biden administration officials predicted a humanitarian crisis, saying that fuel supplies were expected to last “a couple of days.” They did not mention at that early date that Hamas was considering trading hostages for that fuel. Rafael Hayun, an analyst and civilian hacker who monitors Hamas communications, went further in a recent interview with Ami Magazine. He claimed that had the siege lasted longer, “we would have had everything,” with Hamas fighters flying a white flag and turning over Yahya Sinwar, architect of the Oct. 7 murderous assault, to Israel.

Even as Israel worked to provide Gazan hospitals with fuel, the Biden administration forced Israel to surrender its critical bargaining chips and supply Hamas with all the fuel it needed, plus enough food and other aid to stock every pantry in Gaza. This is why—after months of cries from the United Nations and others of “impending famine”—healthy, well-fed Hamas fighters and supporters were dancing and cheering as they paraded the coffins of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, babies they kidnapped and slaughters had slaughtered. The only emaciated victims in sight were the surviving hostages they had deliberately starved.

None of these lies were incidental, they are key to the strategies of Hamas and its Iranian, Qatari and European allies throughout the conflict. For nearly two decades Hamas built tunnels under civilian buildings and stored weapons in mosques, schools and shelters. They set up a data center beneath and borrowed connectivity from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) headquarters. Palestinian Authority officials noted that Hamas was maximizing civilian casualties for PR reasons, while world outlets unanimously blamed Israel for Hamas Health Ministry death counts so inflated and unrealistic as to be statistically impossible. Despite the cries of “genocide,” Israel remains the only party in the conflict working to save civilians from harm, and it has succeeded to an unprecedented degree.

It is also worth considering how innocent Gazan civilians truly are. During the Nazi era, civilians in every country under Hitler’s control—including Germany, Poland, France, Holland, Austria and Hungary—saved Jews from harm at great personal risk. Since Oct. 7, Israel has broadcast Arabic-language announcements on radio, television, social media and in print, promising security and a generous financial reward to anyone helping rescue a hostage. Not one Gazan has responded. Instead, they participated in the kidnappings, rapes, imprisonment, humiliation, torture of hostages and desecration of their bodies.

Where are the decent, innocent Gazans? Sadly, they are dead. Hamas has long since murdered anyone identified as gay or as a supporter of the Palestinian Authority, as well as anyone who opposed their iron-fisted and antisemitic agenda.

The withholding of aid has always been, and remains, a just and moral course of action. Hamas must release the hostages, abandon its explicitly genocidal mission and permanently disband. Aid should only come afterward to support the de-Nazification and rebuilding of Gaza. Until then, blame for all of the suffering in both Israel and the Strip must be placed firmly at the feet of the terrorists and their supporters around the world.

Photo Credit: Israel Foreign Ministry video on X/Twitter.