Some mind-boggling pseudo-historical nonsense going on in this thread.
@ATP's claim that Jews decided that "anti-Semitism" refers only to Jews is
bullshit. As in: the complete opposite of the truth! The phrase
antisemitische Vorurteile ("anti-Semitic prejudices") was first used in 1860, indeed referring in that instance to a predjudice against all Semitic peoples. True! It was used, however, by Moritz Steinschneider. Who was... a Jew! It was used once, in his response to the work of the French philosopher Ernest Renan, who had opined that all Semitic races were inferior to all Aryan races. Steinschneider noted that this was an anti-Semitic ("against all Semites") predjudice on Renan's part.
Thereafter, the term was not used again for 19 years.
In 1879, the word
Antisemitismus was used, and in this case by Wilhelm Marr. Now, Marr was not a Jew. In fact, Marr
hated Jews. He was unaware of Steinschneider's usage of the term, and he
specifically introduced
Antisemitismus as a more "scientific-sounding" alternative to the term
Judenhaß (literally "Jew-hatred"). Note that Marr
explicitly meant for the word to refer
only to Jews.
After this, the term took off. And it took off first in Jew-hating circles. The emerging
Völkish movement (a progenitor to the Nazis)
loved the word. They fancied themselves "scientific", and "racially enlightened". They didn't want to be associated with thuggish
Judenhaß. They were simply learned observers, whose insights led them to scientific and justified
Antisemitismus. Which meant: they were against Jews. They did not apply it to, say, Arabs. In fact, quite a lot of them were a bit in love with Islam, and considered
Jihad to be a noble example that Aryan warriors should emulate. As such, far from being "a hatred of all Semitic peoples",
Antisemitismus was
expressly an antipathy towards the Jews, which the self-styled "Aryans" felt they
shared with Muslims (including Arabs).
Over time, Marr's intent actually worked, and the term
Antisemitismus was universally adopted. And it meant, to all people, "hatred of Jews". That was what he had intended it to mean, and that is how it was understood.
Hilariously, a Jew had used it to mean something else first! But that was forgotten! but in any case, this totally disproves that Jews stole the term and changed its meaning. The reverse is true.
Ever since Marr, the word has meant what he intended it to mean. Jew-hatred, but with an attempt at a dignified veneer. The more recent, and very deliberate misapplication of "anti-Semitism" to refer to some "broader group" than just Jews is specifically a thing that originated in... yup, anti-Semitic circles. It's not some "historic usage" that the Jews altered. It's a deliberate attempt to change the word into something that can be used to attack Jews. And this usage first appeared in the 1980s! Nobody except Jew-haters use the word that way.
...Incidentally, it's funny that
@IndyFront complains about
@Abhorsen using "anti-Semitism" and not "antisemitism". Hilariously, the former is the traditional spelling in English, whereas the latter is an new alternative spelling... that is preferred by most Jewish advocacy groups. Because they consider it as more accurately reflecting the idea that the word
applies only to Jews, and not to all Semitic peoples.
