In a talk he gave at the Foreign Policy Institute in Stockholm, answering a question about contemporary Arab anti-semitism, this "eminent academic" said:Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu is a Turkish academic, diplomat and currently the Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the second largest intergovernmental organisation after the United Nations. He is also an eminent intellectual, author, editor of academic journals and advocate of intercultural dialogue.
Muslims by definition can not be anti-Semites. We see Moses as a prophet, like Jesus. Arabs are also Semites too.Here we see İhsanoğlu goig even beyond the insipid argument that "Arabs are semites" - something that is worthy of a Helen Thomas, not an intellectual - to the bizarre idea that Muslims altogether cannot be anti-semitic!
By definition!
Obviously, academic İhsanoğlu cannot be bothered to look up the actual definition of anti-semitism.
Luckily, the Swedish columnist, Erik Helmerson, who noticed this, slams him, although not quite as much as he deserves:
Of course the Secretary General of the OIC is fully aware of the antisemitism currently rampant in school books, the media and political rhetoric in so many parts of the Arab world. For example, when Egyptian President Morsi speaks of "Zionists" as descendants of apes and pigs his statement is part of a recurring anti-Jewish discourse, as well as the recurring approaches to deny or trivialize the Holocaust.
That Morsi tried to explain away his three-year-old vitriol as being directed not against Jews but rather Israeli policy shows a different trend in today's Middle East, allowing anti-Semitic attacks anytime and excusing them with Israel's treatment of Palestinians. The same excuse has been used in attacks against Jews throughout the world, for example in Malmö.
Few forums are as useful as the OIC to combat the anti-Semitism that plagues parts of the Muslim community. It is bad if the Secretary does not take responsibility.
(h/t Mats Skogkär)
UPDATE: İhsanoğlu also believed the false rumor that an Israeli police officer kicked a Koran, and he condemned it.