Your question is a rather unfair assessment of the overall consensus on antisemitism in the Middle East. Judaism is an widely accepted Abrahamic religion in Islam, for the precise reason that it came before Muhammad who is the "last prophet of God" according to Islam. You cannot simply look at the tensions between Israel and the Arab world as a simple case of religious/ethnic discrimination. The reason why the Arab world "hates" Israel is simply the Palestinian issue, and it just so happened that the Israelis are Jewish. Much of the rhetoric that sprouted up in the post-1948 Arab-Israeli War was the Israelis/Zionists/Americans had no right to take over Palestinian land. A very common misconception of Jews in the Middle East is that they have always been mistreated by Muslims, which is not always the case! Rather, the Ottoman Millet system ensures each religion have their own independence and is not oppressed by the other. Since my area of expertise is Iran, let's focus on post-1979 Iran-Israel/Jewish relations which just so happens to emphasize their anti-Israeli stance rather than antisemitic stance.

 

The Islamic Republic of Iran firmly established it self as a theocracy under the Sharia law in March of 1979. A major controversy of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s intent to persecute Iranian Jews is still a widely debated topic. Khomeini’s distaste for religious minorities especially the Jews can be seen in his Islamic Government. On the first page, Khomeini wrote:

From the very beginning, the historical movement of Islam has had to contend with the Jews, for it was they who first established anti-Islamic propaganda and engaged in various stratagems, and as you can see, this activity continues down to the present. Later they were joined by other groups, who were in certain respects, more satanic than they. These new groups began their imperialist penetration of the Muslim countries about three hundred years ago, and they regarded it as necessary to work for the extirpation of Islam in order to attain their ultimate goals.

What the religious minorities’ ultimate goal, according to Khomeini, was to alienate the people from Islam and into Christianity and other “unclean” beliefs. These radical preachings from Khomeini signified the contempt against non-Muslim religions, and a fear "religious cleansing" spread throughout the religious communities. While Jews experienced almost total cultural and religious autonomy, and economic progress under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, they felt the Islamic Revolution would reverse the freedom they had.

Jews outside of Iran expressed concern about Khomeini’s rhetoric and feared the possibility of mass genocide. On the one hand, Islamic clerics, who now obtained political power, had inherited almost half a century of westernization in Iran under the two Pahlavi Shahs. On the other hand, the Islamic Republic was led by a saintly figure, Ayatollah Khomeini who criticized the west and those western-implemented institutions that corrupted the Shah. During Khomeini’s exile in France, he also exposed himself to the revolutionary and nationalist rhetoric around the world. The communist revolutions in Russia and China became part of the exposure for Khomeini. Reza Afshari, a prominent scholar on human rights violations in Iran, argued the experiences of those communist revolutions changed Khomeini as he became “a bipolar man, a cross between a [Shiite] Imam and an Iranian Lenin. Khomeini and his comrade-in-revolution, clerics such as Ayatollah Muhammad Husayn Bihishti [Khomeini’s chosen second-in-command], moved closer to the Leninist expectancy that humans will overcome any temporal obstacle and history."

Despite Khomeini’s goals of eliminating non-Muslim groups, the Iranian Constitution still retained the provisions of the 1906 Constitution regarding non-Muslims that granted them the freedom of worship and parliamentary representation (four reserved seats for RRMs in the Majlis: two deputies for Christians, and one each for Jews and Zoroastrians). Article 13 of the Constitution reads, “Zoroastrians, Jewish, and Christian Iranians are the only recognized religious minorities who are legally free in the practice of their religious ceremonies, on matters of personal status and religious education”. Recognized religious minorities still have their seats today.

Khomeini, who stood as an iconic symbol of the Islamic Revolution, remained in a powerful position to dictate the transition of the state into an Islamic theocracy, which could have given him the power to change the 1906 Constitution. Religious and ethnic minorities, although a nuisance for Khomeini – such as the sporadic clashes between Kurds and the Revolutionary Guards – were not a threat to undermining Khomeini’s State and the velayat e-faqih.^1 The paradox here was that Khomeini’s distaste for religious minorities as expressed in his Islamic Government did not fall through as the realities of ruling a state did not require such action. Despite Khomeini's radical rhetoric on Jews, Jews were not a threat to the velayat e-faqih. Only those who represented a threat to the state, such as the Lenin-Marxist groups or anti-Islamic parties, tasted Khomeini’s verbal vermin and followed by deadly bullets.

For Iranian Jews, Jewish freedom to worship was not substantially restricted and even Jewish religious holidays were given wide coverage on radio and television – much more than under the Shah.^2 On the contrary to the assumptions of most foreign observers, Iranian Jews were encouraged to pray. In 1987, some two dozen synagogues were still active in Tehran alone and more people visited the synagogues than in the days of the Shah. One might attribute the rise of Jewish attendance in synagogues to the changes in Iranian society as the Islamic government is not actively or visibly disrupting Jewish religious gatherings.

Jews, as perceived by Khomeini and other prominent Islamic clerics, were only a threat to the state through the influence of “Zionists” and “the Israeli government”. In the Tehran Friday Prayer congregation in 1979, two individuals in the Assembly of Experts, Ayatollah Mahmud Taleqani and Ayatollah Montazeri neither expressed or encouraged negative feelings towards non-Muslims. Ayatollah Taleqani, whose illness and death dealt a crippling blow to the more progressive Islamic forces, made only one reference to non-Muslims. Referring to Jews as “brothers”, Taleqani warned, “This Zionist danger is not directed only at the world of Islam and Christianity, but it also directed at you [the Jewish Community].”^3 He continued that Jerusalem belonged to all religions not to a select group and that truly devout and progressive Jews should dissociate themselves from the “bloodthirsty” Zionists and their agents.^4 After Ayatollah Taleqani’s death, Ayatollah Montazeri took over the Friday Sermons while continuing the chair the Assembly of Experts. Jews were the only non-Muslim minority to appear multiple times in his sermons and always in the context of Zionists, Israel, and American domination. While Israel was “the illegitimate child of imperialism”, Montazeri was careful to not disparage Iranian Jews. He clarified through his insults at Israel that, “Do not be mistaken if I said Jew, we do not oppose all Jews. Do not assume the Jewish problem [was being raised]; the problem was ‘Zionism’”.^5 This illustrated that the upper echelons of the Islamic Republic were careful in specifically framing who their enemies are, rather than generalizing all Jews as the enemy of the state. Of course, the line between being a “Zionist” and a Jew became murky over the years as the accusation of being a “Zionist” was used an excuse for the regime to purge those deemed necessary.

 

Endnotes:

1. The velayat e-faqih is a radical idea created by Ayatollah Khomeini that proposed clerics and religious authorities assume power in a theocracy because only they have the knowledge and wisdom to follow the Sharia. Naturally, this would fit into Khomeini’s narrative that only he is suitable to become the Supreme Leader.

2. Keep in mind, all of these public religious gatherings were closely monitored and utilized by the Islamic state for propaganda purposes.

3. Kayhan. 17 Mordad 1358 [8 August 1979]. Pp 9.

4. Ibid.

5. Eliz Sanasarian. Religious Minorities in Iran. Cambridge University Press. 2000. Pp 60.

 

Sources:

• Ruhollah Khomeini. Islam and Revolution: Writings and Declaration of Imam Khomeini. Translated by Hamid Algar. Berkeley.

• Shaul Bakhash. The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution. New York. 1986.

• Abdolkarim Lahiji. Political Pluralism in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Paris. 2000.

• Reza Afshari. Discourse and Practice of Human Rights Violations of Iranian Baha’is in the Islamic Republic of Iran. This article is part of a book, The Baha’is in Iran, Socio-historical Study” edited by Dominic Parviz Brookshaw and Seena B. Fazel.

• David Menashri. The Jews of Iran: Between the Shah and Khomeini. In Sander L. Gilman and Steven T. Katz (eds) Anti-Semitism in Times of Crisis. New York & London: New York University Press. 1991.

Edit: Formatting issues.

I would argue that there is, in fact, a basis for antisemitism in quran, which was cultivated and propagated by muslim theologists throughout centuries - whether that was the prophet's intention or not. While NikoC7 is absolutely right in saying jews were not at all times mistreated everywhere under islamic rule, one must be asolutely clear about the fact that historically, antisemitic legislation and violent acts against jews were prevalent in islamic societies. Antisemitic legislation from the beginning, violence as early as the 9th century BC.

It would be asolutely correct to state that such legislation, as in some places being forced to wear specific insignia to show their faith, not being allowed to hold office, ride a horse, bear arms or be a witness in a trial concerning a muslim (which, in fact, meant being defenseless in court) and the occasional pogrome was significantly more tame than the persecution of jews under christian rule at most times in most places. But it would not change the fact that such legislation is, per se, antisemitic, and medieval islamic society was no jew-friendly utopia.

It is also correct to say that unter the Fatimids and Abbassids, as well as in the Ottoman empire, Jews were under significantly less scrutiny than Christians, partially even on almost amicable terms with the rulers. Yet, antisemitism did not just die out in that time.

Just to give the most famous examples of antisemitic outbreaks long before the proclamation of the state of Israel:

In Fez, 1033, Pogrome that left 6000 Jews dead, the women captured.

In Granada, 1066, the jewish Vezir got slaughtered, alongside him 4000 jewish souls for good measure, which marked the first major pogrome on european soil.

In Yemen in 1679, all Jews were asked to either converse to Islam or be expelled. Since most refused, the were forcefully resettled to a place called Mawza, a march many did not survive, and live under conditions that killed off many more. When after a year, the king allowed the Jews to return, their houses and fields had been confiscated, and the had to build themselves a new 'ghetto' outside Sana'a, since the Muslim population did not want them to 'defile' their living quarters.

In 1839, over 40 Jews were killed, the rest forced to converse to Islam in Mashhad, Persia.

And even in the Ottoman empire, that is thought to be so tolerant, the so called Damascus Affair in 1840 had the Jews of the city accused, tortured and found guilty of blood libel, after which a nonstop series of pogromes in the arabian world spun off, that peaked in the pogrome called Farhud over 100 years later in 1941, which left, depending on different sources, between 180 and 750 Jews dead.

It is argued by some scholars that this extreme antisemitism was imported by contact with the west (whose raging antisemitism at that time we don't even have to talk about). That may very well be true. It still clearly shows that hatred against Jews was there long before Israel.

And, as my last point, before i get to the verses in quran that were and still are used to justify violence and hatred against jews - saying the Arab-Israel war was strictly antizionistic, not antisemitic, is ridiculed by the Pogrome of Tripoli in 1948 as well as the Expulsion of the Jews from the neighbouring countries of Israel, which is clearly not because they were Zionists, but out of revenge against not Israel, but the Jews as a whole.

Now, the quran speaks both in positive and negative ways about the Jews, although the latter remarks are more. I'll just list some that can be (and are) interpreted as antisemitic.

For example Sura 5:64.

The Jews say: Allah's hand is tied up! - Nay! Their own hands will be tied up and they will be cursed for what they utter. Both of His hands are free; However, He spends as He pleases. The fact is that the revelations that have come to you from Allah will surely make many of them increase in their wickedness and unbelief. We have stirred among them enmity and hatred till the Day of Resurrection. Every time they kindle the fire of war, Allah extinguishes it. Now they are striving to spread mischief in the land. Allah does not love those who do mischief.

While it is absolutely possible that Mohammad meant one specific jewish group, as suggested by some scholars, one can not be certain. Yet, it states that Jews spread mischief and start wars.

Furthermore, 5:82:

Thou wilt surely find that, of all people, the most hostile to those who believe [in this divine writ] are the Jews as well as those who are bent on ascribing divinity to aught beside God[...]

and, with the specific order not to make friends with jews- 5:57

O ye who believe! Choose not for friends such of those who received the Scripture before you, and of the disbelievers, as make a jest and sport of your religion. But keep your duty to Allah if ye are true believers.

Also, there would be 9:29

Fight those people of the Book (Jews and Christians) who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day, do not refrain from what has been prohibited by Allah and His Rasool and do not embrace the religion of truth (Al-Islam), until they pay Jizya (protection tax) with their own hands and feel themselves subdued.

It is important to note that these are translated quotes, taken out of context, and interpreted as seen fit. Which is where the problem starts - that is what is has been and continues being done to incite against jews, whether that was Mohammad's intention or not.

Combined with the tafsir (comment) by Ibn Katir, one of the most highly regarded exegesis scholars of his time in the 14th century, in which he, regarding the highly problematic surah 9:5 ("kill the unbelievers, wherever you meet them[...]"), states "These verses allow the fighting of unbelievers, exept for if they accept Islam and his rule and obligations", violence and hatred against Jews seems like an obligation. Add to that the widespread belief in the so called 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' (1903) in the arabic world, which is an antisemitic fake that implies a jewish world conspiracy, and there you have it.

To clarify again- I am not stating this is the 'correct' interpretation of quran, I'm merely quoting passages used to incite hatred against jews! Many islamic scholars have taken clear positions against antisemitism and delivered other interpretations of those lines, promoting Islam as a religion of peace.

Sources:

M. Perry, F. Schweitzer, Antisemitism: myth and hate from Antiquity to the present, New York, 2002

A. Chouraqui, Between East and West: A History of the Jews of North Africa, London, 2002

A. Chouraqui, The Jews: A History, London, 2016

M. Arena, B. Arrigo, The Terrorist Identity: Explaining the Terrorist Threat, New York, 2006

B. Lewis, The Jews of Islam, Princeton, 1984

W. Laqueur, The Changing Face of Antisemitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, Oxford, 2006

Edit: I have a tendency to misspell 'whether'. And 'mistreated'