Richard Herzinger has pointed out in a commentary in the German daily newspaper Die Welt entitled “Europa lässt sich von den Judenhassern täuschen“ (“Europe allows itself to be deceived by anti-Semites”) that in Europe one correctly reacts very nervously to anti-Semitic words and acts. However, strangely enough, there is gentle concealment about growing anti-Semitism among Muslims. Christians are not only called to denounce violence against people who believe differently. Rather, they are also called to denounce threats brought by members of one religion upon members of another religion. For this reason, I have reproduced excerpts of this excellent commentary (with permission, February 22, 2011):
“There are reports from the Netherlands, where Jews who – for instance because they wear a yarmulke – are recognized as such and in the metropolis of Amsterdam rarely dare to go out on the street and in part no longer hold Jewish worship services in a synagogue. Rather, they hold worship services in less conspicuous private homes in order to avoid the attacks of Arab and Turkish youth. Yet this has not made its way onto the front page of any German newspaper nor has it been a leading story on television news. . . .
Anti-Semitism is imported from Islamic countries of origin
Im Malmö in Sweden everyday persecution had already reached such proportions in the spring of last year that the large part of Jewish residents had either fled the city or were seriously determined to move away or emigrate. Similar situations are known to be the case in Denmark and Norway, where there was a startling television report about a ‘notorious denunciation of Jews,’ above all in schools, which ranges ‘from jokes all the way to death threats.’ These attacks are predominantly conducted by young immigrants from Muslim countries who have imported anti-semitism from their countries of origin. This is all fueled by ongoing hate propaganda about wiping out Israel, which alleged crimes are straightforwardly identified with ‘the Jews.’ . . .
Young Muslims are venting their violent fantasies against hated ‘Zionism’ on the Jewish citizens of European countries, and they are strengthened by Arab, Turkish, and Iranian propaganda, satellite transmissions, and via local Islamist propagandists. ‘Traditional’ right-wing anti-Semitism, which is present in all of Europe as a kind of sediment and yet socially frowned upon by its immediate proximity to National Socialism, has in the process found unexpected growth. . . .
The indifference with which these encroachments is accepted is all the more confounding, as it is explained away as ‘social conflict’ or even taken with a certain understanding. In any event, Malmö‘s social democratic mayor believed he had to give Swedish Jewish communities the advice that they have to distance themselves from Israeli policies towards Palestinians – that could weaken the ire of anti-Semitic perpetrators of violence. . . .
The demonization of Israel as the sole guilty party in the Near East conflict has at precisely this point been customary for many years up to the highest political levels. But even as it became known that teachers in Norwegian schools have forgone lessons which address the Holocaust out of fear of the aggression of Muslim students, Norway’s Education Minister categorically denied that there was any connection between a ‘critique of Israel’ and anti-Semitism. In the process, it must have come to the attention of every responsible European politician that the ritual denunciation of Israel has become a gateway to acclimatizing to an anti-Semitism aimed at the destruction of the Jews. Already once, in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, there was an anti-Semitism that was growing stronger as if under a burning glass, and it was based on anti-modern, anti-democratic, and anti-emancipatory resentments which finally drove Europe into self-destruction. . . .
‘Islamophobia’ is not today’s anti-Semitism:
Now that enmity towards Jews has changed its color a little but not its murderous substance, allegedly refined Europe has, in contrast, shown itself frighteningly little prepared for defense. Instead, academic specters enjoy making illustrious comparisons between anti-Semitism and ‘Islamophobia.‘ And they suggest that when it comes to the latter, we are dealing with the anti-Semitism of the present. Besides the justified fear of radical Islamic aggression in Europe, there are also certainly alarming, xenophobic, and racist emotions against Muslims as there are against Sinti and Roma and black Africans. However, anti-Semitism goes far beyond this type of aversion against ‘the other.’ It is a projection of a conspiracy theory about secret manipulators who are made responsible for all of the misfortune in the world – and it is not decreasing even though there are just 14 million Jews left on the planet. As an antithesis to the entry into the modern age which once emanated from Europe, this continues to gnaw on the center of European Enlightenment identity. It is not ‘Islamophobia’ that is the anti-Semitism of the 21st century; rather, it is – anti-Semitism.”
Read the entire German commentary at welt.de.
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