Anti-Zionism and the Homecoming of Critical Theory
Abdul Wahab al-Messiri's Critical Islam and the Encyclopedia of the Jews
Hussein Aboubakr Mansour
Feb 17
Abdul Wahab al-Messiri (1938–2008)
No Arab intellectual advanced the cause of antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and a critical post-Marxist Islam like the Egyptian “Islamic thinker” Abdul Wahab al-Messiri (1938–2008). His prolific career produced what is effectively the most sophisticated, theoretically rich, and densely analytical treatment of Judaism and Zionism in the Arabic language — inspired by an eclectic and thrilling application of Critical Theory, the sociology of knowledge, and a few other methods. For any Islamist or secular young Arab with strong intellectual inclinations, Messiri remains the authoritative intellectual on Jews and Zionism. That such a figure exists — that the most theoretically advanced Arab engagement with Jews and Judaism is simultaneously the most comprehensive antisemitic system ever produced in Arabic — demands an explanation that goes far beyond the man himself.
Of all the intellectual transmissions I like to trace — from Hegelian historicism through its successive deformations in Marxism, nationalism, Islamism and the various crises of secular modernity — in Islamic critical thought, Messiri represents the terminal station: the point at which the entire apparatus of post-war Western critical thought was reassembled, with extraordinary technical mastery, for the prosecution of the oldest hatred.
What follows is an intellectual biography and a diagnostic anatomy. The reader should attend not merely to what Messiri got wrong — which is nearly everything — but to the precision with which he got it wrong. For it is in the precision of the error that the nature of the original instrument is most clearly revealed.
Messiri’s most significant achievement was his eight-volume encyclopedic work, Jews, Judaism, and Zionism, a systematic critical deconstruction of everything Jewish that claimed to reveal its true and essential nature: Adorno’s instrumental reason — the will to dominate — relocated from its original home in Athens to Jerusalem. Where Critical Theory had located the origins of Western civilizational pathology in ancient Greek mythology and rationality, Messiri located it in its other half, in Judaism. Using literary critical methods, he argued that everything in Judaism and Zionism was fictitious, colonialist, imperialist, immanentist, and dehumanizing. After deconstructing and unmasking this inhumane Judaism, he contrasted it with an abstract, romantic, authentic Islam — the true unfolding human essence of freedom, resistance, and spirituality, an Islam identical to abstract and fluid humanism...
"........the most sophisticated, theoretically rich, and densely analytical treatment of Judaism and Zionism in the Arabic language — inspired by an eclectic and thrilling application of Critical Theory, the sociology of knowledge, and a few other methods." This is quite brilliant thinking.
Pretty sure it was in the early to mid 90s. They replaced it with a self-administrated questionaire, rather than an actual test. That way no one could fail.
No civil service exam opens the door for nepotism (of which DC has plenty), cronyism (of which DC has plenty) and ineptitude (of which DC has plenty).
Sunny, do you know this?
Anti-Zionism and the Homecoming of Critical Theory
Abdul Wahab al-Messiri's Critical Islam and the Encyclopedia of the Jews
Hussein Aboubakr Mansour
Feb 17
Abdul Wahab al-Messiri (1938–2008)
No Arab intellectual advanced the cause of antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and a critical post-Marxist Islam like the Egyptian “Islamic thinker” Abdul Wahab al-Messiri (1938–2008). His prolific career produced what is effectively the most sophisticated, theoretically rich, and densely analytical treatment of Judaism and Zionism in the Arabic language — inspired by an eclectic and thrilling application of Critical Theory, the sociology of knowledge, and a few other methods. For any Islamist or secular young Arab with strong intellectual inclinations, Messiri remains the authoritative intellectual on Jews and Zionism. That such a figure exists — that the most theoretically advanced Arab engagement with Jews and Judaism is simultaneously the most comprehensive antisemitic system ever produced in Arabic — demands an explanation that goes far beyond the man himself.
Of all the intellectual transmissions I like to trace — from Hegelian historicism through its successive deformations in Marxism, nationalism, Islamism and the various crises of secular modernity — in Islamic critical thought, Messiri represents the terminal station: the point at which the entire apparatus of post-war Western critical thought was reassembled, with extraordinary technical mastery, for the prosecution of the oldest hatred.
What follows is an intellectual biography and a diagnostic anatomy. The reader should attend not merely to what Messiri got wrong — which is nearly everything — but to the precision with which he got it wrong. For it is in the precision of the error that the nature of the original instrument is most clearly revealed.
Messiri’s most significant achievement was his eight-volume encyclopedic work, Jews, Judaism, and Zionism, a systematic critical deconstruction of everything Jewish that claimed to reveal its true and essential nature: Adorno’s instrumental reason — the will to dominate — relocated from its original home in Athens to Jerusalem. Where Critical Theory had located the origins of Western civilizational pathology in ancient Greek mythology and rationality, Messiri located it in its other half, in Judaism. Using literary critical methods, he argued that everything in Judaism and Zionism was fictitious, colonialist, imperialist, immanentist, and dehumanizing. After deconstructing and unmasking this inhumane Judaism, he contrasted it with an abstract, romantic, authentic Islam — the true unfolding human essence of freedom, resistance, and spirituality, an Islam identical to abstract and fluid humanism...
Would it be fair to consider "Islamic Thinking" to be an oxymoron?
No, by far not, this could be a lethal mistake.
"........the most sophisticated, theoretically rich, and densely analytical treatment of Judaism and Zionism in the Arabic language — inspired by an eclectic and thrilling application of Critical Theory, the sociology of knowledge, and a few other methods." This is quite brilliant thinking.
Never underestimate your enemy.
Especially Islamic thought process where it says it's okay to lie to non believers!
When did they discontinue the civil service exam?
Pretty sure it was in the early to mid 90s. They replaced it with a self-administrated questionaire, rather than an actual test. That way no one could fail.
Wow. I had no idea!