Anti-Semitism Widespread among Young European Muslims; Hatred not Related to Israel
Anti-Semitism in the Muslim World has always been problematic. After all, a 2008 Pew Research Center study shows that almost 100 percent of people in the Arab countries surrounding Israel hold anti-Semitic views.
But what is even more problematic is how this anti-Semitism among Muslims has spread to the Western World, especially to children and teenagers.
Anti-Semitism is rapidly spreading and becoming mainstream among young Muslims in Europe, and this hatred has very little to do with Israel, Dr. Gunther Jikeli, an expert on European anti-Semitism, explains.
Jikeli, who received his doctorate at the Technical University of Berlin and sits as a fellow of the Kantor Center at Tel Aviv University, spoke at Hebrew University in Jerusalem on Dec. 17 about Muslim anti-Semitism and the reasons for why so many Muslims hate the Jewish people. He talked about multiple studies he conducted throughout Muslim communities in Europe.
The percentage of Muslims who hold negative views toward Jews is staggering, Jikeli pointed out. As of 2006, 47 percent of Muslims in the UK and 60 percent of Muslims in Spain hold anti-Semitic attitudes, and Jikeli expects this is number is now higher. Furthermore, 30 percent of anti-Semitic incidents in France and the UK come from Muslim communities.
Students in Europe who are Muslim also show high rates of anti-Semitism - much higher than students of other backgrounds. Jikeli and his research team interviewed a variety of students of multiple backgrounds in Europe and found that many students of Arab decent - almost all of whom are Muslim - hold more anti-Semitic views than others.
Jikeli asked the students how they feel about a variety of statements relating to the Jewish people. Forty percent of Arab students "totally agreed" that "Jews have too much influence in the world," while 26 percent of Arab students agreed that "In my religion, it is the Jews who drive the world to disaster."
One of the most troubling aspects of this anti-Semitism is the international community's unwillingness to confront the issue. Jikeli explained in his speech that many people, including politicians, are hesitant to talk about the issue, possibly because they think this trend in the Muslim World is not actually anti-Semitism; rather, it is criticism of Israel.
However, as Jikeli discovered through his research, hatred toward Israel is not the cause of this anti-Semitism. In fact, although it proves to be the reason for some Muslims' anti-Semitism, most Muslims who hate the Jewish people do so without referencing the Jewish state.
Jikeli interviewed more than 100 young Muslims in Berlin, London, and Paris to find the real reasons for this anti-Semitism. He found four main categories for anti-Jewish views among the Muslim community:
The first category he found is what he called "classical anti-Semitism," which means people who held negative views of Jews based on conspiracy theories and stereotypes. People who fall into this category believe that Jews control the world or that Jews are evil. One young interviewee in this category expressed his feelings toward the Jewish people by saying, "They (the Jews) are the ones who control everything, even Britain...it all belongs to them...they are the rich ones...they are the ones who are controlling the country and the world."
The second category Jikeli discussed is those who hold anti-Semitic attitudes with reference to their ethnic identity. These people believe that Islam requires them to hate the Jews. One interviewee in this category specifically noted that he does not hate the Jewish people because of Israel; rather, he hates the Jews because they are "condemned by God."
The third category he mentioned is anti-Semitism based on hatred toward Israel. Although this is only one of many categories, it deserves to be mentioned, as it proves to be one reason for this hatred. Jikeli talked about how some interviewees hate Israel, and they transfer this hate to the Jewish people as a whole. These interviewees falsely accuse Israel of committing war crimes and then blame all Jews. For example, one person said that "the Jews are just starting it. They kill small Muslim children, they do everything, they even rape small children, women, even grannies." Many in this category also believe all of Israel belongs to Muslims. "Palestine, it belonged to the Muslims and then through the Holocaust they (the Jews) came through," one interviewee said.
The final category Jikeli spoke about is Young Muslims who hate the Jewish people and give no reasons for their hate; they feel no obligation to justify their anti-Semitism. These interviewees have an ingrained understanding that the word "Jew" is negative and should only be used as an insult. "The damned Jews should be burnt because they are Jews nevertheless. Jews are, a Jew is a Jew anyway," one interviewee proclaimed.
The final category presents the greatest danger to Jews in Europe. People who give no reasoning for their hatred and view it as common sense to hate the Jews are more likely to turn violent; they can turn their words into actions very easily, Jikeli warns.
Many reasons exist for why so many Muslims in Europe hold anti-Semitic views. Hatred toward Israel is only one of many reasons, as most people interviewed had other motives for hating the Jewish people.
So what influenced these young Muslims' negative opinions of Jews? How did these interviewees form these anti-Semitic views? Jikeli explained what factors influence these teenagers the most:
Family and friends play the biggest role in forming these anti-Semitic opinions, Jikeli noted. Most of these teenagers grew up in anti-Semitic communities and have heard anti-Jewish messages from birth. Many of these interviewees, especially those who fell into the final category above and had no reason for their anti-Semitism, have been brainwashed to hate the Jews.
Anti-Semitic Arabic media outlets also influence anti-Jewish attitudes among Muslim youth. Although many teenagers cannot understand the anti-Semitic sermons given in Arabic, they understand the images that accompany the sermons and understand the overall messages, Jikeli explained in his speech. Islamist terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, run some of these media outlets and use them as a means to influence these teens.
Some imams in mosques throughout Europe also play a large role in influencing anti-Semitic ideas among young Muslims. People of the Muslim faith view imams as truthful and intelligent; so when children listen to an imam's sermon, they many times believe what they hear without questioning anything. Unfortunately, some imams preach anti-Semitic hate speech.
Many children hear anti-Semitic views in the schools as well. Some Muslim children grow up in schools with anti-Semitic teachers and are exposed to anti-Jewish rhetoric in the classroom, according to Jikeli.
Anti-Semitism in the Muslim community in Europe is multifaceted; hatred toward Israel is only one of many reasons. Most of Jikeli's survey respondents and interviewees described their anti-Semitism with reasons having nothing to do with the Jewish state. While some young Muslims view hating Jews as part of their religion, others use age-old anti-Semitic stereotypes, and some even provide no reasons at all for hating the Jewish people.
Muslim anti-Semitism is quickly becoming the norm in Europe, and the world must find a firm approach to deal with this problem. Jikeli mentioned that one solution could be to educate teachers about the issue and make sure all teachers address the issue in class. The problem with this, however, as Jikeli went on to explain, is that it would be nearly impossible to reach so many teachers across the continent. Furthermore, many teachers in the Muslim community's schools hold anti-Semitic views and will be unwilling to stop preaching anti-Jewish hatred.
Whatever the solution may be, Europe needs one; and it needs one soon. The problem only grows by the minute and it will no solve itself.
Anti-Semitism Widespread among Young European Muslims; Hatred not Related to Israel
Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Islamist antisemitism:
Raised on Hatred
EGYPTS newly elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was caught on tape about three years ago urging his followers to nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred for Jews and Zionists. Not long after, the then-leader of the Muslim Brotherhood described Zionists as bloodsuckers who attack the Palestinians, warmongers and descendants of apes and pigs.
These remarks are disgusting, but they are neither shocking nor new. As a child growing up in a Muslim family, I constantly heard my mother, other relatives and neighbors wish for the death of Jews, who were considered our darkest enemy. Our religious tutors and the preachers in our mosques set aside extra time to pray for the destruction of Jews.
For far too long the pervasive Middle Eastern qualification of Jews as murderers and bloodsuckers was dismissed in the West as extreme views expressed by radical fringe groups. But they are not. In truth, those Muslims who think of Jews as friends and fellow human beings with a right to their own state are a minority, and are under intense pressure to change their minds.
All over the Middle East, hatred for Jews and Zionists can be found in textbooks for children as young as three, complete with illustrations of Jews with monster-like qualities. Mainstream educational television programs are consistently anti-Semitic. In songs, books, newspaper articles and blogs, Jews are variously compared to pigs, donkeys, rats and cockroaches, and also to vampires and a host of other imaginary creatures.
Consider this infamous dialogue between a three-year-old and a television presenter, eight years before Morsis remarks.
Presenter: Do you like Jews?
Three-year-old: No.
Why dont you like them?
Jews are apes and pigs.
Who said this?
Our God.
Where did he say this?
In the Koran.
The presenter responds approvingly: No [parents] could wish for Allah to give them a more believing girl than she ... May Allah bless her, her father and mother.
This conversation was not caught on hidden camera or taped by propagandists. It was featured on a prominent program called Muslim Woman Magazine and broadcast by Iqraa, the popular Saudi-owned satellite channel.
It is a major step forward for a sitting U.S. administration and leading American newspapers to unequivocally condemn Morsis words. But condemnation is just the first move.
Here is an opportunity to acknowledge the breadth and depth of the attitude toward Jews in the Middle East, and how that affects the much desired but elusive peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
So many explanations have been offered for the failure of successive U.S. administrations to achieve that peace, but the answer is in Morsis words. Why would one make peace with bloodsuckers and descendants of apes and monkeys?
Millions of Muslims have been conditioned to regard Jews not only as the enemies of Palestine but as the enemies of all Muslims, of God and of all humanity. Arab leaders far more prominent and influential than Morsi have been tireless in educating or nursing generations to believe that Jews are the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the violators of pacts and agreements, the murderers of the prophets, and the offspring of apes and pigs. (These are the words of the Saudi sheik Abdul Rahman al-Sudais, imam at the Masjid al-Haram mosque in Mecca.)
In 2011, a Pew survey found that in Turkey, just 4 percent of those surveyed held a very favorable or somewhat favorable view of Jews; in Indonesia, 10 percent; in Pakistan 2 percent. In addition, 95 percent of Jordanians, 94 percent of Egyptians and 95 percent of Lebanese hold a very unfavorable view of Jews [pdf].
In recent decades Israeli and American administrations negotiated with unelected Arab despots, who played a double game. They honored the formal peace treaties by not conducting military attacks against Israel. But they condoned the Islamists dissemination of hatred against Israel, Zionism and Jews.
As the Islamists spread their influence through civil institutions, young people were nursed on hatred.
In the wake of the Arab Spring, as the people take a chance on democracy, they and their new leadership want to see their ideals turned into policy.
For too many of those who fought for their own liberation, one of those ideals is the end of peace with Israel. The United States must make clear to Morsi that this is not an option.
This is also a crucial opportunity for the regions secular movements, which must speak out against the clergys incitement of young minds to hatred. It is time for these secular movements to start a countereducation in tolerance.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a fellow at the Belfer Centers Future of Diplomacy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, and author of the books Infidel and Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/opinion/global/ayaan-hirsi-ali-morsis-comments-on-jews.html?_r=3&
