He's got ya, Fred. This is correct. I've read this several times in books about the origins of Hitler's Anti-Semitism. Prior to the 19th Century, there was no such term. It was something, like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that suddenly just appeared out of thin air.
The fact that Anwar Sadat said this is interesting, but really just shows his lack of understanding of how this particular term arose. It's just like today, when I talk to people here in Washington about the Confederacy. Everyone seems to think that the typical stars and bars "battle flag" WAS the flag of the Confederate States of America. This isn't true. It shows a lack of understanding of the facts.
Just check out the Websters.com definition of the word:
an·ti-Sem·ite (nt-smt, nt-) n.
One who discriminates against or who is hostile toward or prejudiced against Jews.
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anti-Se·mitic (-s-mtk) adj.
Prior to the late 19th Century, the Islamic Arabs were called “Muhammadeans”, but that’s an obsolete term today.
Terms like “Semitic”, “Aryan”, etc., came from the mid-19th Century studies of linguistics. “Aryans” were people who spoke languages of “Aryan” origin. “Semites” spoke Semitic languages. That’s why the Shaw of Iran called himself “King of the Aryans”. Linguist experts in the 19th Century claimed that most European languages came originally from the region of Persia.
Read Darwin and Huxley books to learn more about this.
The term “anti-Semitic” no longer refers to just Jews. This change came about during the 20th Century, gradually, as Arabs began to become more important in world politics.
Go read Mark Twain’s “Innocents Abroad”, circa 1869, to see who owned Palestine back then.
The fact that Anwar Sadat said this is interesting, but really just shows his lack of understanding of how this particular term arose.
It doesn’t matter how the term “arose”. What matters is what it means now. We still don’t speak Chaucer English, do we?
It's just like today, when I talk to people here in Washington about the Confederacy. Everyone seems to think that the typical stars and bars "battle flag" WAS the flag of the Confederate States of America. This isn't true. It shows a lack of understanding of the facts.
As I said, times change.
[definition] One who discriminates against or who is hostile toward or prejudiced against Jews.
Obsolete definition. Arabs are Semites too.