Hence my mention of “conventional current”. The direction of electric current flow within a circuit was arbitrarily defined as being from positive to negative, and all the literature on electricity was written based on this convention. By the time it was discovered that electric current actually consisted of electrons travelling from negative to positive, the convention was so strongly established that it could not be changed without re-writing millions of books.

Similarly, if the meaning of “anti-Semitism” was changed from “anti-Jewish racism” to “anti-Arab racism”, millions of books would have to be re-written.

I was only kidding.

“IIRC this is a common viewpoint among Salafis…”

I have never heard a salafi say this. I just thought it was too funny. Shias are funny.

Well, commonly used terms for hatred, particularly those ending in “phobia”, are very often inaccurate anyway. Anti-Semitism was invented to refer to Jew-hatred but is equally valid to refer to Arab-hatred; Islamophobia (and indeed “homophobia”) are often hates rather than fears.

The word “anti-Semitism” was invented in Germany, with the meaning of “anti-Jewish racism”. It didn’t matter that worldwide most Semites are Arabs, as most Semites in Germany were Jews.

IIRC this is a common viewpoint among Salafis, but I don’t understand this argument. Shi’ism did not become principally associated with Iran until the Safavid dynasty, over 800 years after the Sunni/Shi’a split.

Before then, the main Shi’a state was the Fatimid Caliphate centred in Egypt - an area which was badly oppressed by the Persians in its pre-Islamic history, and would therefore likely have had little sympathy for Zoroastrianism…

Shiaism is a Zoraostrain conspiracy against Islam.

Shamil: most likely, because I didn’t see it before logging off to go to Kingston this afternoon. George Carty has his comments auto-posted because he has a TypeKey. (The same is true of my comments - if I didn’t, I’d have to moderate my own comments.) If you got one (they are free), the same would be true of your posts.

Partly but in Ahmadinejad’s case I think it’s just a matter of attention seeking.

By the way Yusuf why wasn’t my other post posted?

For the same reason why “conventional current” flows from positive to negative, even though the electrons actually flow from negative to positive. The word “anti-Semitism” was invented in Germany, with the meaning of “anti-Jewish racism”. It didn’t matter that worldwide most Semites are Arabs, as most Semites in Germany were Jews.