Quote by Christopher Hitchens
I think I have a very good idea why it is that anti-Semitism is so tenacious and so protean and so enduring. Christianity and Islam, theistic though they may claim to be, are both based on the fetishizing of human primates: Jesus in one case and Mohammed in the other. Neither of these figures can be called exactly historical but both have one thing in common even in their quasi-mythical dimension. Both of them were first encountered by the Jews. And the Jews, ravenous as they were for any sign of the long-sought Messiah, were not taken in by either of these two pretenders, or not in large numbers or not for long.If you meet a devout Christian or a believing Muslim, you are meeting someone who would give everything he owned for a personal, face-to-face meeting with the blessed founder or prophet. But in the visage of the Jew, such ardent believers encounter the very figure who have such a precious moment, and who spurned the opportunity and turned shrugging aside. Do you imagine for a microsecond that such a vile, churlish transgression will ever be ? I myself certainly hope that it will not. The Jews have seen through Jesus and Mohammed. In retrospect, many of them have also seen through the mythical, primitive, and cruel figures of Abraham and Moses. Nearer to our own time, in the bitter combats over the work of Marx and Freud and Einstein, Jewish participants and protagonists have not been the least noticeable. May this always be the case, whenever any human primate sets up, or is set up by others, as a Messiah.
Summary
This quote suggests that anti-Semitism persists because Christianity and Islam, despite claiming theistic foundations, idolize human leaders such as Jesus and Mohammed. However, the Jews, who were first encountered by these figures, did not believe in their messianic claims. The quote argues that devout followers of these religions, who yearn for a personal encounter with their respective founders, might resent the fact that the Jews rejected them. The Jews, on the other hand, are portrayed as critically thinking individuals who have seen through religious myths and have made significant contributions in various fields. The quote expresses hope that this intelligent skepticism towards messianic figures will continue to be a characteristic of Jews in the future.
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