Mediating the past through the present and the present through the past: The symbiotic relationship of american christian zionists' outsider and insider enemies

This article examines what is described as a symbiotic relationship between individuals and groups that make up "outsider" and "insider" enemies within a conservative strand of American Christian Zionism. It argues that a particular construction of Islam and Muslims as inherently violent is given a timeless quality through a particular reading of the sibling rivalry between Isaac and Ishmael in the Hebrew Bible, a reading which simultaneously unites Christians and Jews as heirs to God's covenantal promises. It argues that this description of "outsider" enemies produces a particular kind of knowledge which is used to define and criticize what are termed "insider" enemies. As with Christian Zionists' outsider enemies, these insider enemies are also given a timeless quality through a Christian Zionist reading of the Passion narrative and history of early Christianity that places them in a position of instruments of Satan, and a danger to the state.