Special Information
Bulletin

Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
at the Center for Special Studies (C.S.S)
January 2005

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion still a hit on the Egyptian book market: Two new versions of The Protocols, published in Egypt in 2003, are offered for sale in Cairo’s bookstores and, in our assessment, are marketed throughout the Arab and Muslim world **

 
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and their Biblical and Talmudic Origins

 

General characteristics

Among all the Arab states, it is Egypt that stands out in the massive extent of anti-Semitic publications that appear in the media, whether printed or electronic, governmental or oppositionist. The phenomenon prevails in blatant violation of the peace treaty, according to which Egypt has to prevent this kind of incitement.
The volume of anti-Semitic publications has been steadily on the rise since the outbreak of the violent confrontation between Israel and the Palestinians (September 2000), with venomous attacks against Israel and its leaders sometimes being accompanied by unmistakable anti-Semitic overtones targeted against the Jewish people rather than the state of Israel alone.
Prominent among the anti-Semitic publications targeted against the Jewish people is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Since 1951, Egypt has seen several editions of The Protocols (at times accompanied by “scientific” commentaries) that have gained enormous popularity with the Egyptian public and with reader audiences all across the Arab and Muslim world.

Two new versions of The Protocols, published in 2003, are currently available in Cairo’s bookstores1: One is a new original adaptation of The Protocols; the other is the tenth edition of a popular version that was first published in 1976. Descriptions of the two books follow:

1. The two books discussed in the present document were purchased at respectable bookstores in Cairo in September 2004.
  A new original adaptation of The Protocols titled The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and their Biblical and Talmudic Origins. This first edition was co-written by Dr. Ahmad Hijazi al-Saqa (professor of Comparative Religion at Al-Azhar University) and Hisham Khadr (a journalist for the Qatari periodical Al-Sharq). The foreword for the book was written by Ali Jum’ah (Mufti of Egypt and professor of the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University). The writers’ academic credentials and their affiliation with Al-Azhar University, as well as the foreword by the Mufti, lend this version of The Protocols an air of religious and academic credibility (Appendix A).
  The Jewish Menace, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion : the tenth edition of this version of The Protocols was published in 2003, the first edition having been published in 1976 (translation by Muhammad Khalifa al-Tunisi; foreword by Professor Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad). This is a popular version of The Protocols, widely spread in Egypt and marketed throughout the Arab and Muslim world (copies of the book were found and cited in the Palestinian Authority administered territories) (Appendix B).
These two visually appealing editions were published a year after the publication of the July 2002 edition of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion by the large and esteemed publishing house of the government weekly Akhbar el-Yom. The multitude of new editions of The Protocols published in Egypt as well as their ever-increasing technical quality might be an indication of growing demand for this blatantly anti-Semitic product and, possibly, of the existence of parties responsible for the funding of the new editions and for their technical improvement.
It should be stressed that the anti-Semitic publications massively published in Egypt, including The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, are exported from Egypt all across the Arab and Muslim world, gaining much attention outside of Egypt as well. In this fashion, these publications, originating in Egypt, fan anti-Semitism and hatred against the Jewish people in Middle Eastern countries as well as in Muslim communities worldwide. In the case at hand, the author is a professor from Al-Azhar University, a respectable and reputable institution exerting far-reaching influence over matters of Islamic law all across the Muslim-Sunni world. Furthermore, the writer of the foreword is, as already stated, the Mufti of Egypt and a professor at Al-Azhar University. All this contributes to a more efficient assimilation of The Protocols’ messages of hatred.
The Egyptian government is capable of exercising strict censorship over allegedly academic publications by lecturers from Al-Azhar University, supported by the establishment (it goes to great lengths, for example, to censor publications perceived as offensive to Islamic religion). In practice, however, the Egyptian government continues to allow the publication and spread of anti-Semitic publications, including The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Even recently, an article titled “Plain Israeli extortion” that was published in the Egyptian periodical Al-Ahram al-Masaai (January 25, 2005), affiliated with the Egyptian establishment and known for its extremist anti-Israeli views, lashed out at the UN special session marking 60 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp (see Appendix C).

 

Appendix A (1)


The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and their Biblical and Talmudic Origins

A new original adaptation of The Protocols


Translation of the book’s back cover

Thus speaks the Torah2: “When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God” (Deut. 20, 10-18). [Based] on these teachings, the rabbis wrote The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in order to destroy the world. And indeed, the following was delivered by Allah, may he be exalted, as stated [in the Quran]: “Among the followers of the Book there are some such that if you entrust one [of them] with a heap of wealth, he shall pay it back to you; and among them there are some such that if you entrust one [of them] with a dinar he shall not pay it back to you except so long as you remain firm in demanding it; this is because they say: There is not upon us in the matter of the unlearned people any way [to reproach]; and they tell a lie against Allah while they know” (Chapter 3, House of ‘Imran, 75). The following was also written about them in the New Testament: The Messiah [Jesus Christ] revealed that they used to kill the prophets who lived among them. It can be inferred, therefore, that if that is the way they treat their own kind, at least some of them would do the same to the world’s nations, for it is said: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killer of prophets and stoner of those sent to her as apostles, how many times I wished to gather your children, as the hen gathers its chicks under its wings, but you did not want it. Behold, your house will be left for you in ruins!”

2. In the original: “Shari’at al-Tawrah”, i.e. the Jewish religious law of the Torah. Later, the author claims that The Protocols are a consummation of the law of the Torah.
 

Dr. Ahmad Hijazi al-Saqa

[Professor of Comparative Religion at Al-Azhar University]3

 3. The author makes use of his expertise as a professor of Comparative Religion and uses both Islamic and Christian sources to prove the alleged authenticity of The Protocols (which, as is well known, are a collection of shameless anti-Semitic fabrications).

 

Appendix A (1)

Back cover text of The Protocols—original



 

Appendix A (2)

 

Translation

 
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and their Biblical and Talmudic Origins

Authors: Dr. Ahmad Hijazi al-Saqa; Hisham Khadr

First edition: 2003

S/N: 2003/3584

All printing rights reserved

Publisher: Maktabat al-Nafidha

Giza : 2 Al-Shahid Ahmed Hamdi (al-Thalathini) – Faisal St., Tel.: 7233935

 

Appendix A (2)

 

Original


 

Appendix A (3)

Translation


The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and their Biblical and Talmudic Origins
Dr. Ahmad Hijazi al-Saqa Hisham Khadr

Professor of Comparative at Al-Azhar University

Journalist of the Qatari newspaper Al-Sharqal-Awsat

Foreword: Dr. Ali Jum’ah

Professor of the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University

Publisher: Maktabat al-Nafidha

 

Appendix A (3)

Original


 

Appendix A (4)

 

Foreword to The Protocols (p. 8 in the book): The connection between classic anti-Semitism (as expressed in The Protocols) and Islamic-rooted anti-Semitism

In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful

Thus spoke Allah, may he be exalted [in the Quran]: “And remember when We made a covenant with the children of Israel: You shall not serve any but Allah and [you shall do] good to [your] parents, and to the near of kin and to the orphans and the needy, and you shall speak to men good words and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate [i.e., zakat]. Then you turned back except a few of you and [now too] you turn aside. And when We made a covenant with you: You shall not shed your blood and you shall not turn your people out of your cities; then you gave a promise while you witnessed. Yet you it is who slay your people and turn a party from among you out of their homes, backing each other up against them unlawfully and exceeding the limits; and if they should come to you, as captives you would ransom them—while their very turning out was unlawful for you. Do you then believe in a part of the Book and disbelieve in the other? What then is the reward of such among you as do this but disgrace in the life of this world, and on the day of resurrection they shall be sent back to the most grievous chastisement, and Allah is not at all heedless of what you do. These are they who buy the life of this world for the hereafter, so their chastisement shall not be lightened nor shall they be helped” (Chapter 2, The Cow, 83-86).

 

Appendix A (5)

 

Referring the Arab reader to a French version of The Protocols featuring a monstrous illustration of an ugly Jew in the form of a spider that dominates the world


The cover of the French version, with a caption on the top saying “The Jewish Menace”, and a caption on the bottom saying “The Complete Edition of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion”


Appendix A (6)

Fragments from the book’s introduction (pp. 7-14), written by Professor Ali Jum’ah (Professor of the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University):
  “If there are any disagreements over the book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion regarding the Jewish wise men—whether they wrote it themselves or is it only attributed to them—the plausible conclusion [is that] they [did] write it. [This conclusion] relies on the fact that its [the book’s] contents coincides perfectly with the contents of the Torah, which was written with their own hands, i.e.: “That the nations and the peoples to them are as unclean dogs” (p. 7).
 

“When in days of yore the Sons of Israel believed in Allah, Allah stood by their side: he rescued them from the house of the Pharaoh, provided them with the manna and the quail, carved for them twelve springs from the rock in Sinai, brought about their victory over their enemies and delivered them to a land flowing with milk and honey. But when [the Sons of Israel] defied the commandments of their god, he turned them into monkeys, pigs and devil-worshippers” (p. 8). 4

4. The depiction of Jews as monkeys and pigs is common in Islamic-rooted anti-Semitism.
  “Residents of the world, these are the Jews, be sure to notice: they are a people cursed by Allah, their maker. They help the corruptors corrupt the land and the wicked spread wickedness in the world” (p. 13).
Part One: “The Biblical and Talmudic Origins of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (pp. 15-80):
 

“Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?” (New Testament, p. 21)5.

5. The depiction of Jews as snakes originates in classic Christian-rooted anti-Semitism and it is common in Arab and Muslim anti-Semitic publications.
  “The Jews refused to join the religion of this prophet [Muhammad], the religion of Islam, and therefore they deserved to be cursed by Allah, may he be exalted—and that is to be banned from his mercy. And when they were banned, they came to resemble the devil and his children as a result of that curse” (p. 32).
  “The Jews knew from the Torah that a prophet from the seed of Ishmael would come, that he would strip them of their ownership and their prophecy, and that he would hold mastery over the world. Therefore, they twisted the Torah so as to make it theirs alone and said: “We have no duty to the Gentiles” (Quran, Chapter 3, House of ‘Imran, 75). They allowed themselves to extract usury from the gentiles, fornicate with their wives and kill them for no reason. They wrote in the Torah that Allah, may he be exalted, is their god [and theirs alone] and not a god of all the nations of the land” (p. 42).


Appendix A (7)
Ali Jum’ah, the Mufti of Egypt and a professor at Al-Azhar University, is the author of the foreword for The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and their Biblical and Talmudic Origins. His foreword lends an air of dignity and religious authority to The Protocols in Egypt and across the Muslim world .
 
SheikhDr. Ali Jum’ah, the Mufti of Egypt and Professor of the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University, wrote the foreword for the new edition of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion that was published in 2003 (The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and their Biblical and Talmudic Origins.
 

Ali Jum’ah, born in 1952, was appointed the Mufti of Egypt on September 28, 2003. He is known for his unusual and militant religious rulings, such as the approval of suicide bombing attacks6 he gave immediately after his appointment as the Mufti of Egypt. Following the recent announcement made by opposition figure Sa’adawi of her intent to run for presidency, Jum’ah declared that according to Islamic law, she was not allowed to hold such a high position.

6. In an interview granted to Al-Hayat ( September 30, 2003), Ali Jum’ah claimed that “acts of suicide [istishhad] are legitimate means for defending the religion, the land, the soul, the goal and the money”. In a discussion held over the Internet, Ali Jum’ah stated that those who opposed the “Zionist enemy” by acts of suicide were shahids (martyrs) according to Islamic religious law, for those acts are carried out in self defense (www.shabablek.com).
 
Ali Jum’ah is therefore a senior figure, renowned in Egypt as well as throughout the Sunni Muslim world. In his capacity as the Mufti of Egypt and a professor at Al-Azhar University—an institution known and respected by Muslims worldwide—he provides The Protocols with Islamic legal validity and a great deal of dignity and authority.
It should be mentioned that Ali Jum’ah’s foreword for The Protocols drips with intense hatred for the Jewish people. It rules unequivocally that it was the Jews who composed The Protocols. It claims that the Jewish people are “monkeys”, “pigs”, “devil-worshippers”, “a people cursed by Allah”, and the source of corruption and evil in the entire world. Such anti-Semitic expressions are spread and assimilated among wide reader audiences of Muslims in Egypt and all across the Sunni Muslim world.
 


The opening part of Dr. Ali Jum’ah’s foreword for The Protocols (p. 7 )

Appendix A (8)

um’ah—translation

[From the website of the Mafhoum organization, the Arab Decision project7. The information is up to date for September 29, 2003].

7. www.arabdecision.org
 
Sheikh Dr. Ali Jum’ah

[Year of birth:] Born in 1952

City of birth: Beni Suweif, Egypt

The Fatwah [i.e., Islamic religious ruling] Institute: The Grand Mufti of Egypt

Fatwah Committee: Member of the Fatwah Committee

Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs: Member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs

Education

1973—B.A., Department of Trade, University of Ein Shams ( Egypt)

1979—Graduate of the Faculty of Islamic and Arab studies— Al-Azhar University ( Egypt)

1985—Graduate (M.A.) in Jurisprudence and Constitution— Al-Azhar University ( Egypt)

1988—Ph.D., Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, Al-Azhar University ( Egypt)

Previous positions:

2003—Member of the Al-Azhar Fatwah Committee ( Egypt)

2003—Head of the Department of Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University ( Egypt)

Current position

2000-2003—Lecturer at the Faculty of Islamic and Arab Studies ( Egypt)

2003—Member of the Islamic Law Committee at the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs ( Egypt)

2003—The Mufti of Egyptian [religious] courts ( Egypt)

 

Sheikh Dr. Ali Jum’ah—original



Appendix B

 

The Jewish Menace—The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: Tenth edition of a popular version of The Protocols

 

 

Appendix B (1)

 

Translation

Translation: Muhammad Khalifa al-Tunisi

Foreword: Professor Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad

Publisher: Maktabat Dar al-Turath, Cairo, Egypt, tenth edition, 2003

All printing rights reserved to the publisher

Tenth edition

1424 H—2003

Maktabat Dar al-Turath— 22 Al-Gumhuriyyah St., Cairo, Egypt, Tel.: 3914223

 

Appendix B (1)

 

Original

 

 

Appendix B (2)

 

Translation

 

The Jewish Menace—The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Muhammad Khalifa al-Tunisi

A first reliable, complete Arabic translation with an analytical foreword [containing] over a hundred pages

The book and the translation were evaluated by the great Professor Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad

Maktabat Dar al-Turath

Cairo

 

Appendix B (2)

Original

 

 

Appendix B (3)

 

Appendix B (4)

 

Notes to the Arabic translation—translation

Dear reader: Protect this copy [from any harm], for the Jews have used to fight against this book whenever it appeared in some place or in some language, and attempted to collect its copies at all costs and burn them. This, so that the world would not discover their devilish plots, written in here against it, plots that are laid bare in this book for all to see.
For the Arabic translation, we have assembled all the footnotes except for five minor footnotes, which we have translated and noted “From the English original” at the end of each one.
Everything in parentheses is our own addition.
The words “gentile” and also “gentiles” occur many times in this book, and they refer to any human being or anything that is “not Jewish”.

 

Notes to the Arabic translation—original

 

Appendix C

 

Editorial published in Al-Ahram al-Masaai ( January 25, 2005) under the title “Plain Israeli extortion”

At the time Israel commits the worst of racist crimes against the Palestinian people—crimes of killing, arrest, destruction of homes and lands and assassination of resistance activists—it continues to make use of the Nazi Holocaust, recently marked in a historical session of the UN on January 25, 2005, to blackmail the world. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticized the world for not being able to prevent other crimes of extermination, such as the crimes perpetrated in Cambodia, Rwanda and former Yugoslavia, and called upon the international community to honor the victims of the Nazi concentration camps and protect all the weak and threatened groups, in the present and in the future. We agree with Annan’s call, but we also call for the creation of an international protection umbrella that will not be limited to Jews alone but will rather include all groups given to persecution and racist policy. First and foremost among those groups are the Palestinian people, who face all the possible kinds of crimes of war and extermination, under the open eyes of the international community without anyone raising a finger, save for the passing of several laws against the Israeli conduct, none of which were legally binding.
The Israeli Foreign Minister warned against what he termed “the return of anti-Semitism”. We say that this warning does not reflect an actual problem as much as it reflects a method of action used by Israel in order to blackmail the world and gain financial and moral support to cover the crimes of racism in the conquered territories.

We ask the following: What is anti-Semitism compared to what the Israeli army is doing, equipped with the latest American weapons, for bombing living neighborhoods? What is anti-Semitism compared to the racist separation fence justly denounced by the international court in Hague that demanded the international community to take immediate action for its removal? What is anti-Semitism compared to the assassinations of the leaders of the Palestinian people, such as Sheikh Yassin, Rantisi, Khalil al-Wazir and Yahya Ayyash?8 Using deceptive propaganda, Israel has been successful in bringing the Bush administration to approve a law in 2004 ordering to monitor expressions of anti-Semitism worldwide. This is a law designed to restrict the liberties in the world, assisting Israel to continue its aggressive policy and violate decisions made by international institutions.

8. Three out of the four “leaders of the Palestinian people” mentioned by the author of the article were leaders of Hamas, deemed a terrorist organization both by the US and by the European community. Mentioned among the Hamas leaders is Yahya Ayyash, also known as “the Engineer”, who stood at the top of the Hamas operative wing which, in the years 1994-1996 (when the Oslo accords were underway), stood behind murderous terrorist attacks in Israeli cities and was responsible for the deaths and injuries of hundreds of Israeli civilians.
The unfortunate thing is that the UN embraces the Israeli view without even considering the suffering of the Palestinian people under the Israeli occupation, suffering not less terrible than the suffering experienced by the Jews at the hands of the Nazis. The reference to that event must be used as an opportunity to open the case of the violations perpetrated against the Palestinians, for the Palestinian people are a people who bear the burden of the various crimes perpetrated by the soldiers of the occupation. It is not conceivable that the UN and the US should only protect the Jewish minority and turn a blind eye to the crimes of racism in Palestine and in Iraq by the soldiers of the occupation. We wonder: What does the UN do faced with crimes against Muslim and Arab minorities across the globe, particularly in the US after September 11?
It is clear that the continuation of the discriminatory policy by the American administration or by the UN is not going to prevent these crimes from happening again. All the while, Israel continues to claim rights for itself, using the pretext of the massacres of the Holocaust, and takes away these very same rights from others.

** For an update see our Bulletin entitled: "The Grand Mufti of Egypt in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion – a 'fictitious book' that 'has no truth in it.' In his article the Grand Mufti categorically denies having written the Foreword to the 2003 edition of The Protocols , which was attributed to him and which he claims not to have written" (May 16, 2007). He writes that he had a legal warning sent to the publisher demanding that the Foreword attributed to him be removed.
       
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