Özet:

The paper deals with "Christian Zionists", who have born out of Protestantism, conglomerate in the United States of America, provide a non-proportional support for Israel and who at the same time antagonize Islam. The movement’s quiddity, genesis, theology, activities, as well as anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic tendencies are elaborated. According to initial findings, Christian Zionism constitutes an anomaly from a number of perspectives. Most importantly, Jews and Christians symbolize two com-munities that have been violently antagonizing each other since centuries. Defenders of Christian Zionism believe in the eschatological scenario of "premillennial dispensationalism", a theology mainly in-troduced by the Anglo-Irish priest John Nelson Darby that divides world history before the establishment of the global Millennial Empire following the Second Coming into seven dispensations. This sce-nario determines the reason of being, purposes, friends and foes of the movement. While the Jewish role in it as frenemies is controversial and ambivalent, the role of Muslims as enemies is unequivocally unfavorable. This situation leads to the demonization of Muslims by Christian Zionist figures. Although being criticized by co-religionists in a number of areas including ethics, politics and theology, Christian Zionists occupy a significant position in world politics thanks to their alliance with imperial powers.  The paper aims to fill the scholarly gap caused by the scarcity of Turkish literature on Christian Zionism's quiddity, as well as its nexus with anti-Semitism and anti-Islamism. Summary: Contemporary anti-Islamism studies point to the influence of a group called "Christian Zionists" that is located within the theopolitical scene of the United States of America. The literature defines them as Christians who support Israel as the homeland of Jews. Through organizations such as Christians United for Israel (CUFI) they conduct efficient activities in support of Israel. Since the establishment of peace in the Middle East would mean a blockage for their apocalyptic scenario, they categorically reject any such attempt. Most of the anti-Islamic activities in the USA that have begun during the 19th century and gained momentum after 9/11 have been organized by figures related to Christian Zionism. Approximately 20 to 30 million Christians in the USA are estimated to share the ideology. Christian Zionists also recruited adherents in further places such as Britain, Scandinavia, Australia, South Africa and even South Korea and Honduras. Seeing from numerous perspectives, Christian Zionism constitutes an anomaly that is demarcated by the mutual hostility of Jews and Christians. While Jews desecrate the holyest figures of Christianity in their scriptures, Christians regard Jews as deiciders. However, most Christian Zionists are observed to be more royalist than the King when it comes to Israel-related issues. A researcher investigating the theological basis of Christian Zionism is surrounded by numerous concepts and actors such as eschatology, Armageddon battle, rapture, puritans, premillennialists, dispensationalists, fundamentalists, restorationists, evangelists, John Nelson Darby, and Cyrus I. Scofield. Darby, an Anglo-Irish theologian, is considered by most as the founder of Christian Zionism. Another significant figure for the movement is the author of the Scofield Reference Bible, Cyrus Ingerson Scofield. His publication led to the embracement of the ideology by millions. Christian Zionists believe in a particular theology called "premillennial dispensationalism". According to that, world history is linear and consists of seven dispensations. It is believed by them that humanity is currently in the sixth dispensation, just on the verge of the seventh. The apocalyptic scenario foreseen by premillennial dispensationalism includes elements such as the arrival of Antichrist, his establishment of the infernal trinity with the False Prophet and Satan, Muslims' alliance with them and their attack on Israel (the battle of Armageddon), Christ's Second Coming and his establishment of the Millennial Kingdom to bring peace to earth. Non-Zionist Christian theologians have been criticizing the theology of Christian Zionism based on issues such as regarding Jews as chosen people, lack of support in the New Testament, absence of the Armageddon battle in the sources of main Christian denominations, the Jewish character of the movement and Christian Zionism being an imperial theology. Because of these issues, some even straightforwardly denote it a heresy. Another point of criticism towards Christian Zionism focuses on its role as an imperial theology. Numerous thinkers claim that there are significant connections between Christian Zionism, the narrative of the Judeo-Christian West and imperialism. Figures who aim to explain the anomaly of Christian Zionism point to the blatant antisemitism in the movement. Accordingly, Christian Zionists support Israel at any cost in order to fulfill their apocalyptic scenario, which however foresees the rule of Jews by Antichrist and the concomitant death of most Jews following Christ's Second Coming. Parallel to that, it is observed that some Christian Zionists who regularly make pro-Israel declarations tend to anti-Semitic slurs from time to time. Therefore, it is argued that the theopolitical alliance between Christian Zionists and Jews is of pragmatic nature that will turn into a memory at some point. According to findings about anti-Islamism among Christian Zionists, 70% of them prove to be either indifferent to or hostile towards Arabs. Much of the demonization of Islam in the post 9/11 era has been realized by Christian Zionists such as Robertson, Graham, Lindsey, Vines, and Falwell. Again, the establishment of Israel in the year 1948 with all its consequences concerning Palestinians is seen by most Christian Zionists as the fulfillment of a sign of the end times. In the apocalyptic scenario of Christian Zionists, Muslims find a place for themselves only as Gog and Magog who fight for enemy forces. They are allies of the infernal Trinity that consists of Satan, Antichrist and the False Prophet. Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims constitute an impediment to the scenario. Once considered together, these findings illustrate why Christian Zionists approach Islam and Muslims in such negative terms. As seen above, the challenge comes from religious beliefs concerning real-world events and actors that are closed to rationalization and transformation and are utterly minecious in terms of their consequences. Christian Zionism is a phenomenon, where three religions interact and which therefore concern their adherents. Theological analysis reveals that the movement interprets the sacred scriptures of Christianity in favour of Israel, which is however not supported by non-Zionist Christian theologians. Backed by states such as the USA and Britain within their imperialist agenda, the movement introduces an apocalyptic scenario, according to which Muslims are on the side of evil forces. As allies of Satan, they will be defeated and destroyed by Christian forces. With their budgets of billions of dollars, tens of thousands of propagandist preachers, hateful activities such as burning copies of the urʿān and calling the Prophet Muhammad a terrorist, support to and encouragement of Jews for an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, incitation of Western states through lobbying activities to fight the Muslim neighbors of Israel, Christian Zionists pose one of the most serious challenges currently posed to Islam. The most significant and useful step to fight with the harmful consequences of this movement would be deepening research and informing the masses properly.