Why is it not being called what it is? Why the pretense that this is something far less specific than it is? Why are people not identifying those responsible? Over the past few months we’ve been hearing a lot about the increase of anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States. Although it’s been far worse recently, the rise in anti-Jewish sentiment is hardly a new development, particularly in some notable parts of Europe. Cities like Paris, Antwerp, and Malmo, Sweden have been notorious for increasing incidents of vandalism and violence against Jews for quite some time now. If you hear the reports, it clearly sounds like the Jewish people are becoming increasingly unwelcome in the European community. There’s a catch though. It’s not the overall European community primarily guilty of this expression of hatred. From all accounts most of the hatred is coming from within the Muslim community.
A few weeks ago I wrote an article in which I renounced my status as a Liberal.(CLICK TO READ) This issue is one of the reasons I’ve done so. I have friends and acquaintances that still do call themselves liberal who are not squeamish when it comes to identifying the root source of the danger to the Jewish people, but there are many within the liberal community who would turn around and call this article the epitome of Islamophobia. Those are the ones I know longer align myself with. Call it what you like, but it’s no phobia. A phobia is something irrational. I don’t hate a person because they’re Muslim. But I do hate a person who hates me, those like me, and anyone else who doesn’t think like them. That’s not irrational, that’s logical. Interactions I’ve had in the past with Muslims who wanted an equal relationship have proven that I indeed do not have some automatic dislike because of what religion they were born into. That goes against everything I believe in. But that also doesn’t prevent me from identifying the sad truth, and that is that an overwhelming percentage of anti-Jewish sentiment in the world today comes from within the Muslim population.
Although the BDS Movement has non-Muslim followers and participants due to its excellent and cynical marketing, it’s a group formed by a Palestinian. Anti-Jewish demonstrations and violence against Jews in Paris consist primarily of Algerian Muslims. Anti-Jewish behavior in Holland comes primarily from Moroccan Muslims. One third of the population of Malmo is Muslim. Is it a coincidence this small and once cute city in Sweden that I visited with my parents and sister in 1976 is a powder keg of anti-Semitism?
Although there is an element within the so-called liberal elite behind some of the anti-Israel activities on college campuses in the U.S., I have no doubt you would find that at the very least a significant number of those active against Israel in these institutes of higher learning are Muslim.
Here’s the point people conveniently miss. No one is happy about this. We want to hear the Muslims within these cities and institutions take a stand against hatred. But where are they? Where is their voice? These people would be my friends. They would be my partners in moving towards a better world, and in return it would be easy and enjoyable for me to respect and support them in whatever life they might choose to live, be it Muslim or something else. But that element within the Muslim community is silent, most likely out of fear, and therefore missing the opportunity to alter the perception that all Muslims feel that way. You see, if I was guilty of Islamophobia, I might say all Muslims feel this way. But I don’t. At the same time I am not willing to deny the basic truth, and that is that if you took the Muslims out of the equation, we most likely wouldn’t even be talking about anti-Semitism today.
It’s time we accepted the truth. It will catch up with us whether we do or not. The funny thing about reality is that it doesn’t go away just because you ignore it. If anything, when the reality is that one large group of people is out to get you, if you ignore it, it only gets worse.
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