Żyd i Arab/muzułmanin w europejskich geometriach tożsamości i różnicy
The Jew and the Arab/Muslim in Europe’s Geometries of Identity and Difference

Summary/Abstract: In the European (Christian/secular) imaginary, what are the integral – though sometimes contradictory and hidden – ties that connect Jews and Muslims or Arabs? To account for the constitution of any identity or community we must go beyond the standard analysis that focuses on how identity is formed in relation to what is other. Bobako argues that in the case of European (Christian/secular) communities and identities, a key element in the relation to ‘otherness’ is a conceptual and political juggling of various categories of ‘others,’ such as the figures of the ‘Jew’ and the ‘Muslim’ or ‘Arab’. She reconstructs the shifting configurations in which these figures have appeared throughout European history. These configurations have evolved, from the stage when ideas about Jews and Muslims or Arabs often contained different notions of their kinship and closeness, until the stage marked by a radical symbolic and political break between what is seen as Jewish and what is seen as Muslim or Arab. Bobako thus contributes to laying the groundwork for a better understanding of the mechanisms of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia as well as their mutual correlations.

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