Supremacism

Supremacism is the belief that a certain group of people are superior to, and should have authority over, all others.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The presumed superior group can be defined by age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, language, social class, ideology, nationality, culture, generation, or any other human characteristic.

National

Indian supremacism

In Asia, Indians in Ancient India considered all foreigners barbarians. The Muslim scholar Al-Biruni wrote that the Indians called foreigners impure.<ref name="The First Spring p.313">The First Spring: The Golden Age of India by Abraham Eraly p. 313</ref> A few centuries later, Dubois observes that "Hindus look upon Europeans as barbarians totally ignorant of all principles of honour and good breeding... In the eyes of a Hindu, a Pariah (outcaste) and a European are on the same level."<ref name="The First Spring p.313"/> The Chinese also considered the Europeans repulsive, ghost-like creatures, and they even considered them devils. Chinese writers also referred to foreigners as barbarians.<ref>The Haunting Past: Politics, Economics and Race in Caribbean Life by Alvin O. Thompson p. 210</ref>

Racial

White supremacism

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}Template:See also Centuries of European colonialism in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania were justified by Eurocentric attitudes as well as sometimes by white supremacist attitudes.<ref>Takashi Fujitani, Geoffrey Miles White, Lisa Yoneyama, Perilous memories: the Asia-Pacific War(s), p. 303, 2001.</ref>

During the 19th century, "The White Man's Burden", the phrase which refers to the thought that whites have the obligation to make the societies of the other peoples more 'civilized', was widely used to justify colonial policies as a noble enterprise.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal: Notes that Rudyard Kipling's new poem, "The White Man's Burden", "is regarded as the strongest argument yet published in favor of expansion."</ref> Historian Thomas Carlyle, best known for his historical account of the French Revolution, The French Revolution: A History, argued that western policies were justified on the grounds that they provided the greatest benefit to "inferior" native peoples.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, even at the time of its publication in 1849, Carlyle's main work on the subject, the Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question, was poorly received by his contemporaries.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

According to William Nicholls, religious antisemitism can be distinguished from racial antisemitism which is based on racial or ethnic grounds. "The dividing line was the possibility of effective conversion ... a Jew ceased to be a Jew upon baptism." However, with racial antisemitism, "Now the assimilated Jew was still a Jew, even after baptism ... . From the Enlightenment onward, it is no longer possible to draw clear lines of distinction between religious and racial forms of hostility towards Jews... Once Jews have been emancipated and secular thinking makes its appearance, without leaving behind the old Christian hostility towards Jews, the new term antisemitism becomes almost unavoidable, even before explicitly racist doctrines appear."<ref>Nichols, William: Christian Antisemitism, A History of Hate (1993) p. 314.</ref>

One of the first typologies which was used to classify various human races was invented by Georges Vacher de Lapouge (1854–1936), a theoretician of eugenics, who published L'Aryen et son rôle social (1899 – "The Aryan and his social role") in 1899. In his book, he divides humanity into various, hierarchical races, starting with the highest race which is the "Aryan white race, dolichocephalic", and ending with the lowest race which is the "brachycephalic", "mediocre and inert" race, that race is best represented by Southern European, Catholic peasants".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Between these, Vacher de Lapouge identified the "Homo europaeus" (Teutonic, Protestant, etc.), the "Homo alpinus" (Auvergnat, Turkish, etc.), and finally the "Homo mediterraneus" (Neapolitan, Andalus, etc.) Jews were brachycephalic just like the Aryans were, according to Lapouge; but he considered them dangerous for this exact reason; they were the only group, he thought, which was threatening to displace the Aryan aristocracy.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Georges Vacher de Lapouge became one of the leading inspirations of Nazi antisemitism and Nazi racist ideology.<ref>See Pierre-André Taguieff, La couleur et le sang – Doctrines racistes à la française ("Colour and Blood – Racist doctrines à la française"), Paris, Mille et une nuits, 2002, 203 pages, and La Force du préjugé – Essai sur le racisme et ses doubles, Tel Gallimard, La Découverte, 1987, 644 pages</ref>

United States

White Americans who participated in the Atlantic slave trade believed and Justified their economic exploitation of African Americans by creating a scientific theory of white superiority and black inferiority.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Thomas Jefferson, who was a believer of scientific racism and enslaver of over 600 African Americans (regarded as property under the Articles of Confederation),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> wrote that blacks were "inferior to the whites in the endowments of body and mind."<ref>Paul Finkelman (November 12, 2012). "The Monster of Monticello". The New York Times. Retrieved January 8, 2022.</ref>

A justification for the conquest of American Indian tribes emanated from their dehumanized perception as the "merciless Indian savages", as described in the United States Declaration of Independence.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Before the outbreak of the American Civil War, the Confederate States of America was founded with a constitution that contained clauses which restricted the government's ability to limit or interfere with the institution of "negro" slavery.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}: "No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed."</ref> In the 1861 Cornerstone Speech, Confederate vice president, Alexander Stephens declared that one of the Confederacy's foundational tenets was White Supremacy over African American slaves.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}: "Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition."</ref> Following the war, a hate group, known as the Ku Klux Klan, was founded in the American South, after the end of the American Civil War. Its purpose has been to maintain White, Protestant supremacy in the US after the Reconstruction period, which it did so through violence and intimidation.<ref>Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877, Perennial (HarperCollins), 1989, pp. 425–426.</ref>

The Anti-Defamation League<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (ADL) and Southern Poverty Law Center<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> condemn writings about "Jewish Supremacism" by Holocaust-denier, former Grand Wizard of the KKK, and conspiracy theorist David Duke as antisemitic – in particular, his book Jewish Supremacism: My Awakening to the Jewish Question.<ref>Duke, David. Jewish Supremacism: My Awakening to the Jewish Question. Aware Journalism, 2007.</ref> Kevin B. MacDonald, known for his theory of Judaism as a "group evolutionary strategy", has also been accused of being "antisemitic" and a "white supremacist" in his writings on the subject by the ADL<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and his own university psychology department.<ref name="senate">Template:Cite news</ref>

Nazi Germany

From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany, under the rule of Adolf Hitler, promoted the belief in the existence of a superior, Aryan Herrenvolk, or master race. The state's propaganda advocated the belief that Germanic peoples, whom they called "Aryans", were a master race or a Herrenvolk whose members were superior to the Jews, Slavs, and Romani people, so-called "gypsies". Arthur de Gobineau, a French racial theorist and aristocrat, blamed the fall of the ancien régime in France on racial intermixing, which he believed had destroyed the purity of the Nordic race. Gobineau's theories, which attracted a large and strong following in Germany, emphasized the belief in the existence of an irreconcilable polarity between Aryan and Jewish cultures.<ref>Blamires, Cyprian; Jackson, Paul. World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia: Volume 1. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, Inc, 2006. p. 62.</ref>

Black supremacism

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Cornel West, an African-American philosopher, writes that black supremacist religious views arose in America as a part of black Muslim theology in response to white supremacy.<ref>Cornel West, Race Matters, Beacon Press, 1993, p. 99: "The basic aim of black Muslim theologyTemplate:Sndwith its distinct black supremacist account of the origins of white peopleTemplate:Sndwas to counter white supremacy."</ref>

Arab supremacism

In Africa, black Southern Sudanese allege that they are being subjected to a racist form of Arab supremacy, which they equate with the historic white supremacism of South Africa's apartheid.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The alleged genocide and ethnic cleansing in the ongoing War in Darfur has been described as an example of Arab racism.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> For example, in their analysis of the sources of the conflict, Julie Flint and Alex de Waal say that Colonel Gaddafi, the leader of Libya, sponsored "Arab supremacism" across the Sahara during the 1970s. Gaddafi supported the "Islamic Legion" and the Sudanese opposition "National Front, including the Muslim Brothers and the Ansar, the Umma Party's military wing." Gaddafi tried to use such forces to annex Chad from 1979 to 1981. Gaddafi supported the Sudanese government's war in the South during the early 1980s, and in return, he was allowed to use the Darfur region as a "back door to Chad". As a result, the first signs of an "Arab racist political platform" appeared in Darfur in the early 1980s.<ref>Flint and de Waal, Darfur: A New History of a Long War, rev. ed. (London and New York: Zed Books, 2008), pp. 47–49.</ref>

Religious

Christianity

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Academics Carol Lansing and Edward D. English argue that Christian supremacism was a motivation for the Crusades in the Holy Land, as well as a motivation for crusades against Muslims and pagans throughout Europe.<ref>Carol Lansing; Edward D. English, A companion to the medieval world, Vol. 7, John Wiley and Sons, 2009, p. 457, Template:ISBN</ref> The blood libel is a widespread European conspiracy theory which led to centuries of pogroms and massacres of European Jewish minorities because it alleged that Jews required the pure blood of a Christian child in order to make matzah for Passover. Thomas of Cantimpré writes of the blood curse which the Jews put upon themselves and all of their generations at the court of Pontius Pilate where Jesus was sentenced to death: "A very learned Jew, who in our day has been converted to the (Christian) faith, informs us that one enjoying the reputation of a prophet among them, toward the close of his life, made the following prediction: 'Be assured that relief from this secret ailment, to which you are exposed, can only be obtained through Christian blood ("solo sanguine Christiano")."<ref>Albert Ehrman, "The Origins of the Ritual Murder Accusation and Blood Libel", Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Spring 1976): 86</ref> The Atlantic slave trade has also been partially attributed to Christian supremacism.<ref>Mary E. Hunt, Diann L. Neu, New Feminist Christianity: Many Voices, Many Views, SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2010, p. 122, Template:ISBN</ref> The Ku Klux Klan has been described as a white supremacist Christian organization, as are many other white supremacist groups, such as the Posse Comitatus and the Christian Identity and Positive Christianity movements.<ref>R. Scott Appleby, The ambivalence of the sacred: religion, violence, and reconciliation, Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict series, Rowman & Littlefield, 2000, p. 103, Template:ISBN</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Islam

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Academics Khaled Abou El Fadl, Ian Lague, and Joshua Cone note that, while the Quran and other Islamic scriptures express tolerant beliefs, such as Al-Baqara 256 "there is no compulsion in religion",<ref name="qref|2|256">Template:Qref</ref> there have also been numerous instances of Muslim or Islamic supremacism.<ref>Joshua Cohen, Ian Lague, Khaled Abou El Fadl, The place of tolerance in Islam, Beacon Press, 2002, p. 23, Template:ISBN</ref> Examples of how supremacists have interpreted Islam include the history of slavery in the Muslim world, Caliphate,<ref name="c737">Template:Cite journal</ref> Ottoman Empire, the early-20th-century pan-Islamism promoted by Abdul Hamid II,<ref>Gareth Jenkins, Political Islam in Turkey: running west, heading east?, Macmillan, 2008, p. 59, Template:ISBN</ref> the jizya and supremacy of Sharia law, such as rules of marriage in Muslim countries being imposed on non-Muslims.<ref>Malise Ruthven, Islam: a very short introduction, Oxford University Press, 1997, Macmillan, 2008 p. 117, Template:ISBN</ref>

While non-violent proselytism of Islam (Dawah) is not Islamic supremacism, forced conversion to Islam is Islamic supremacism.<ref name="p824">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Death penalty for apostasy in Islam is a sign of Islamic supremacism.<ref name="g263">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Numerous massacres and ethnic cleansing of Jews, Christians and non-Muslims<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> occurred in some Muslim-majority countries including in Morocco, Libya, and Algeria, where eventually Jews were forced to live in ghettos.<ref>Roumani, Maurice. The Case of the Jews from Arab Countries: A Neglected Issue, 1977, pp. 26–27.</ref> Decrees ordering the destruction of synagogues were enacted during the Middle Ages in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> At certain times in Yemen, Morocco, and Baghdad, Jews were forced to convert to Islam or face the Islamic death penalty.<ref>Bat Ye'or, The Dhimmi, 1985, p. 61</ref> While there were antisemitic incidents before the 20th century, antisemitism increased after the Arab–Israeli conflict. Following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the Palestinian exodus, the creation of the State of Israel and Israeli victories during the wars of 1956 and 1967 were a severe humiliation to Israel's opponentsTemplate:Sndprimarily Egypt, Syria, and Iraq.<ref>Lewis (1986), p. 204.Template:Full citation needed</ref> However, by the mid-1970s the vast majority of Jews had left Muslim-majority countries, moving primarily to Israel, France, and the United States.<ref name="Shenhav">Template:Cite book</ref> The reasons for the Jewish exodus are varied and disputed.<ref name="Shenhav"/>

Judaism

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Ilan Pappé, an expatriate Israeli historian, writes that the First Aliyah to Israel "established a society based on Jewish supremacy" within "settlement-cooperatives" that were Jewish owned and operated.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Joseph Massad, a professor of Arab studies, holds that "Jewish supremacism" has always been a "dominating principle" in religious and secular Zionism.<ref>David Hirsch, Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism: Cosmopolitan Reflections Template:Webarchive, The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism Working Paper Series; discussion of Joseph Massad's "The Ends of Zionism: Racism and the Palestinian Struggle", Interventions, Vol. 5, No. 3, 440–451, 2003.</ref><ref>According to Joseph Massad's "Response to the Ad Hoc Grievance Committee Report" Template:Webarchive on his Columbia University web site during a 2002 rally he said "Israeli Jews will continue to feel threatened if they persist in supporting Jewish supremacy." Massad says others have misquoted him as saying Israel was a "Jewish supremacist and racist state." See for example David Horowitz, The professors: the 101 most dangerous academics in America, Regnery Publishing, 271, 2006</ref>

Since the 1990s,<ref name="Feldman2017">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Feldman2018">Template:Cite journal</ref> Orthodox Jewish rabbis from Israel, most notably those affiliated to Chabad-Lubavitch and religious Zionist organizations,<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Ilany">Template:Cite news</ref> including The Temple Institute,<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Ilany"/> have set up a modern Noahide movement. These Noahide organizations, led by religious Zionist and Orthodox rabbis, are aimed at non-Jews in order to convince them to commit to follow the Noahide laws.<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Ilany"/> However, these religious Zionist and Orthodox rabbis that guide the modern Noahide movement, who are often affiliated with the Third Temple movement,<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Ilany"/> expound a racist and supremacist ideology which consists in the belief that the Jewish people are God's chosen people and racially superior to non-Jews,<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Ilany"/> and mentor Noahides because they believe that the Messianic era will begin with the rebuilding of the Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to re-institute the Jewish priesthood along with the practice of ritual sacrifices, and the establishment of a Jewish theocracy in Israel, supported by communities of Noahides.<ref name="Feldman2017"/><ref name="Feldman2018"/><ref name="Ilany"/> David Novak, professor of Jewish theology and ethics at the University of Toronto, has denounced the modern Noahide movement by stating that "If Jews are telling Gentiles what to do, it’s a form of imperialism".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2002, Joseph Massad said that Israel imposes a "Jewish supremacist system of discrimination" on Palestinian citizens of Israel, and that this has been normalized within the discourse on how to end the conflict, with various parties arguing that "it is pragmatic for Palestinians to accept to live in a Jewish supremacist state as third class citizens".<ref name=Ozajs>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In the aftermath of the 2022 Israeli legislative election, the winning right-wing coalition included an alliance known as Religious Zionist Party, which was described by Jewish-American columnist David E. Rosenberg as a political party "driven by Jewish supremacy and anti-Arab racism".<ref name="Rosenberg 2022">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Sexual

Male supremacism

Template:Further Feminist scholars<ref name="Graham 2017">Template:Cite book</ref> argue that in patriarchy, male supremacism is upheld through a variety of cultural, political, religious, sexual, and interpersonal systems and relations.<ref name="Graham 2017"/><ref>Peggy Reeves Sanday, Female power and male dominance: on the origins of sexual inequality, Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 6–8, 113–114, 174, 182. Template:ISBN</ref> Since the 19th century there have been a number of feminist movements opposed to male supremacism, usually aimed at achieving equal legal rights and protections for women in all cultural, political and interpersonal relations.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Cornell>Template:Cite book</ref>

See also

• Chauvinism
• Colonialism
• Rule according to higher law
• Legislative supremacy
• Judicial supremacy