ABSTRACT
The classic blood libel in Christendom used to follow the set pattern: eve of Passover, the kidnapping of a Christian boy by the Jews and his murder, and his blood used for the matza. That story, which proved once and again spurious and libelous when in modern Europe the authorities cared to investigate and to quell pogroms against the Jewish communities, was picked up and developed in the Arab and Muslim world so as to acquire ever more fantastic and imaginary ramifications. Blood libel has become such a commonplace affair in the Arab and Islamic world, that without a blink of the eye it has been repeated throughout those lands, or in lands, like Israel, which do not prize incitement and libel over free speech. Another common anti-Jewish charge is that the Jews, as part of their penchant for persecuting prophets and rebelling against them, conspired to assassinate the Prophet Muhammad.
