Eurabia and the Recrudescence of Antisemitism

Daphne Anson
17 January '11

Recently, Berlin-based journalist Benjamin Weinthal, a Fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, observed, in an article entitled “Dangers of Ignoring the contrasts in Euro hatreds," which appeared in last week's Jewish Chronicle, that

‘It is now a commonplace in Europe to regard antisemitism and the more recent phenomenon, "Islamophobia", as much of a muchness. Yet there are important historical distinctions between the hatred of Jews and anti-Muslim prejudice. While European Muslims are without question subject to discrimination and violence, no reasonable observer could claim that they face the prospect of a Final Solution-style extermination plan....

Last month, Richard Herzinger, of the German daily Die Welt, neatly captured the wrongheadedness of Europe's new political conviction when he stated that "it is not 'Islamophobia' that is the antisemitism of the 21st century, but antisemitism."

Writing in Libération last November, the French philosopher Pascal Bruckner noted that the idea of Islamophobia originated in revolutionary Iran. In Bruckner's view, allegations of Islamophobia allow Islamic radicals to blunt criticism of extremist Islam and rationalise the rejection of secular Western values. In short, "Islamophobia" is a gagging order. But ... Bruckner and the few journalists and academics who question the rhetoric of Islamophobia are a minority.

(Read full "Eurabia and the Recrudescence of Antisemitism")

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