Anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim sentiment in major Western countries

[_Jumper_]

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=206

We've seen scores of stories denouncing Europe as anti-Semitic. The right-wing has been trying to smear Europe, especially France, as anti-Semitic and even the US government has joined the effort. Yet, we have heard nothing--absolutely nothing--from the US media and government regarding anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe, which is far greater than anti-Semitism.





Can we now finally put to rest the canard that France, the UK, Germany, and Russia are pro-Palestinian because they are anti-Semitic? If anything, the data shows that the USA is the one who is making I/P policy based on religious bigotry...

[PsychoDad]

1. A lot of the "Anti-Semitism" in europe....

Does cut both ways. I say "anti-semitism" because the europians in the poll, like Americans, probably associate muslim with arab...another semetic race. Probably because both groups, Muslim and Jewish have members who stand out from the culture de jour, and are seen as not wanting to conform... or being anti-whateverculture they are in.

Those are some very interesting numbers. No big suprises, the German christian unfavorablity rate is interesting. It does seem that Europe is pretty equally devided on the I/P question.

[_Jumper_]

2. True

But the level of bigotry against Jews doesn't even come close to the level of bigtory against Muslims, with the arguable exception of in the UK, where Muslims are hated by 9% more people. Even there Jews have a net positive rating that is 18% higher than Muslims.

Europe is divided on I/P. Why isn't the US? That is the $64,000 question in the Muslim world.

The Muslim world certainly isn't divided on I/P. Until the USA realizes that its I/P policy is the #1 reason it is hated by Muslims, the War on Terrorism will never be won.

[mobuto]

3. But you forgot the real $64,000 question

Ok, so maybe anti-Semitism is overblown in Europe. But you seem to miss a rather glaring point these polls are showing - that whatever it is, it sure as hell isn't in the Islamic World. 92% of Moroccans have a negative opinion of Jews. Not of Israel. Jews. Somehow that's excusable. Or at least understandable. Except I don't understand.

What has Judaism ever done to hurt Morocco? Nothing.

You look at America, all that many Americans know about Islam is that 19 Muslims flew planes into American buildings and killed 3000 Americans. If anywhere, its in America that anti-Muslim bigotry would be expected - though obviously it wouldn't be appropriate. Yet even those ignorant Americans favor Islam more than they disfavor it, and do so by a wide margin. Americans have a reason - maybe not a rational reason but a reason - to dislike "Islam" because that's all they know of it, and yet they don't.

Now you're going to tell me that Moroccans are pissed off over the Israel/Palestine question and I understand that. But I don't understand the dichotomy. Why do 92% of Moroccans hate Jews because of what they think some Jews are doing to some Muslims 2400 miles away, when only 32% of Americans hate Muslims despite the fact that some Muslims are killing Americans right here at home? That's a 60 point discrepancy. Where does it come from?

[PsychoDad]

4. Why do 92% of Moroccans hate Jews

Although it was unfavorable, not hate... there is a big difference in my mind. I thought it was a damn good question. I wondered what could be the cause of this, so I started looking around and found this...

Early in the morning of Friday, April 9, 1948, commandos of the Irgun, headed by Menachem Begin, and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin, a village with about 750 Palestinian residents. It was several weeks before the end of the British Mandate. The village lay outside of the area that the United Nations recommended be included in a future Jewish State. Deir Yassin had a peaceful reputation and was even said by a Jewish newspaper to have driven out some Arab militants. But it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and one plan, kept secret until years afterward, called for it to be destroyed and the residents evacuated to make way for a small airfield that would supply the beleaguered Jewish residents of Jerusalem.

By noon over 100 people, half of them women and children, had been systematically murdered. Four commandos died at the hands of resisting Palestinians using old Mausers and muskets. Twenty-five male villagers were loaded into trucks, paraded through the Zakhron Yosef quarter in Jerusalem, and then taken to a stone quarry along the road between Givat Shaul and Deir Yassin and shot to death. The remaining residents were driven to Arab East Jerusalem.

In response to the massacre in Deir Yassin Morrocians rioted in Oujda and Djerada, killing 44 Jews and wounded scores more. 50,000 others fled in terror.

"Most of the Moroccans did not even know that a large majority of the Moroccan Jews were against the tactics used by Israel. Just take the case of activist Abraham Serfaty or fiction writer Edmond El Maleh. They are both Moroccan Jews who are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause."

So some of the roots for Moroccan dislike of Jews may have their roots in the actions of the state of Israel, as far back as 1948

But I also found this...

Before his death in 1999, King Hassan tried to protect the Jewish population, and at present Morocco has one of the most tolerant environments for Jews in the Arab world. Moroccan Jewish emigres, even those with Israeli citizenship, freely visit friends and relatives in Morocco. Moroccan Jews have held leading positions in the business community and government. The major Jewish organization representing the community is the Conseil des Communautes Israelites in Casablanca. Its functions include external relations, general communal affairs, communal heritage, finance, maintenance of holy places, youth activities, and cultural and religious life.

Morocco is perhaps Israel's closest friend in the Arab world. King Hassan often tried to be a behind-the-scenes catalyst in the Arab-Israeli peace process. In July 1986, he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres in an effort to stimulate progress. Two months later, Hassan met with a delegation of Jews of Moroccan origin, including an Israeli Knesset member. In 1993, after signing the agreement with the PLO, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin paid a formal visit to Morocco.

In May 1999, King Hassan organized the first meeting of the World Union of Moroccan Jews, in Marrakech.

In April and May 2000, the Moroccan government sponsored a series of events and lectures promoting respect among religions.7 Andre Azoulay, royal counselor and a leading Jewish citizen, spoke about the need for interfaith respect and dialog. In October 2000, two Moroccan youths tried to vandalize a Tangiers synagogue. King Mohamed VI publicly declared in a televised speech on November 6, 2000, that the government would not tolerate mistreatment of Morocco’s Jews. The youths were subsequently sentenced to one year in prison.

Source: http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/anti-semitism/morocjews.html

Sources for more info..
http://www.deiryassin.org/mas.html
http://www.ariga.com/peacewatch/dy/
http://www.g21.net/euro14.htm

[_Jumper_]

6. Thanks for the link to US-Israel.org

I read about the treatment of Jews in key Arab countries and was shocked. They are light years behind the US in tolerance. Tolerance of Jews, and to a lesser extent, Christians, is an alien idea there. :(

Mauritania is probably Israel's best friend in the Arab world. I believe that it votes with Israel, the US, and Marshall Islands in the UN.

[Aidoneus]

8. That's not necessarily true

Tolerance of Jews, and to a lesser extent, Christians, is an alien idea there.

Look in the Qu'ran, then compare. Islam is the only that says anything of the others besides "if it ain't in our line, kill it". It's not perfect, and could use a bit of revision to reflect what is called ijtihad in Islamic societies, but it is worth pointing out anyway.

While not wholly created in modern times, the sources of the problems are easily traceable. The image of "Jews" comes from the bulldozers that destroy Rafah, the country that invaded and occupied all of Palestine and regularly launched invasions against every one of its neighbors; that of "Christians" being the forces that invaded and occupied every Muslim country in the world, now launching a third series of crusades. I don't think it's right, but such it is.

[_Jumper_]

9. You are correct

It was a bad choice of words. My point was that it is almost non-existent in major Arab states.

Islam did introduce the concept of religious tolerance to the Middle East and was a great advancement in that area at the time. However, based on today's standards it is not very tolerant. That isn't an insult to Islam in particular but it shows that ancient religions simply cannont keep pace with the changes that occur over time. There is no religion for all times and all cultures, in my view.

What you say about those images is true but the problem sorely needs to be corrected via teaching of tolerance by the state, which will lead to tolerance in the culture. Religious imperialism cuts both ways. Islam dominated Christians for centuries and persecuted them. The situation was far worse for a small, stateless group like the Jews. The West discovered progressive principles such as equal rights for all and became religious tolerant while the Arab world has not yet. Hopefully, that will change soon.

[varun]

14. Why do 80% Pakistanis view Jews unfavorably?

What have the Jews done to Pakistan?

[_Jumper_]

15. Read post #5

n/t

[varun]

16. If your premise is true..

...that povery is the major factor in this anti-semitism ( in Morocco and Pakistan),

I'd like to see the data on Saudi Arabia (quite rich), and Indonesia (fairly poor).

[Darranar]

17. Saudi Arabia is not "rich"...

it simply has a number of very rich people, most of them related to the ruling house.

[varun]

18. The GNP of Saudi Arabia...

...is more than $7000 (compared to $400+ for Pakistan).

Maybe wealth is not evenly distributed in Saudi Arabia.

So what about Kuwait and UAE? (GNP > $14000)

[Darranar]

19. It isn't...

and it is rather similar in Kuwait.

I don't know much about the UAE, but I would guess that it isn't very different.

[_Jumper_]

5. Response

<Ok, so maybe anti-Semitism is overblown in Europe.">

That wasn't my point. It is a problem in some European countries, such as Germany and Russia. It is potentially a major problem in Russia, where some demagogic politicians are scapegoating Jews for its economic woes. My point was that the far greater anti-Muslim sentiment was swept under the rug by the US media.

<Americans have a reason - maybe not a rational reason but a reason - to dislike "Islam" because that's all they know of it, and yet they don't.>

Use that same reasoning regarding anti-Jewish sentiment in Morocco. All they know of Jews is Israel, a de facto rogue state and arguably colonial state. 99.9% of them have probably never met a Jew.

<Why do 92% of Moroccans hate Jews because of what they think some Jews are doing to some Muslims 2400 miles away, when only 32% of Americans hate Muslims despite the fact that some Muslims are killing Americans right here at home? That's a 60 point discrepancy. Where does it come from?>

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

The USA is the wealthiest country in the world; Morocco is a dirt-poor country. There is a correlation between poverty and bigotry. The key things are education and access to information via the media. The average Moroccan doesn't have a TV, doesn't read a newspaper, doesn't follow the news, dropped out of grade school, and is barely literate. All he or she knows about Jews is from what he or she heard about Jews from a few people, probably at the mosque. If he or she heard a half a dozen of people in the course of their life tell of Israeli atrocities and make Israel out to be a mini-Evil Empire, and that person has not been taught tolerance by a strong education system and media, one would expect that person to acquire an unfavorable opinion of Jews. That doesn't make it right--it isn't--but that is what causes it. Another major thing is contact. How many people in Morocco have ever been in the same room with a Jew, let alone known a Jew? They are forming their opinion of them solely based on word-of-mouth, and as we know, much of that is absurd nonsense such as "Protocals of the Elder of Zion." On top of that, you have Wahhabism being exported throughout the Muslim world by Saudi Arabia. Poor mosques and institutions will take any cash they get and this allows the Saudi's to preach hatred under the guise of helping fund religious institutions as a humanitarian endeavor. It is tragic but this is the situation throughout the Muslim world.

The poll results suggest that poverty plays a role. German anti-Semitism is high due to its history. However, Russian anti-Semitism is proportionately far greater than anti-Semitism in the US, UK, and France. This is probably a result of poverty. Also, Turks have a net negative 22% rating of Jews. That is far better than the net negative 77% rating of Jews in Pakistan and net negative rating of 86% in Morocco. Turkey is substantially more economically developed than the other two, which explains a lot of the difference.

I make a distinction between Russia and the other countries in the poll. It is poor but has a better education system and media system than most poor countries. Hence, its results were mixed. The Muslim number was inflated by the fact that 1/7 of Russians are Muslim and contact reduces prejudice.

Western countries have a strong education system and media. These two things are the primary shapers of opinions of people. In the US, we are taught tolerance from first grade and that message is constantly reinforced by the media. The US is also the diverse nation on Earth. Given its wealth and demographics, the US should be the most tolerant nation on Earth. The vast majority of Americans have met people that are Muslim. When the average American thinks of a Muslim, he or she probably thinks of a doctor or convenience store owner; when the average Moroccan thinks of a Jew, he or she almost certainly thinks of Ariel Sharon or another Israeli prime minister.

I do agree with you about the irrationality of many Muslims hating Israel and Jews due to the I/P conflict. It doesn't effect 99.9% of them. A substantial number of them make $1 a day yet they are angry at Israel, not their leaders who are responsible for their extreme poverty. Poverty explains most of the bigotry discrepancy but not all of it. The $64,000 question in the US is what additional thing makes Muslims, especially Arabs, more intense in their hatred of the US and Jews. I don't know the answer to that. Perhaps it is a result of Islam's early history as an imperial religion that conquered many nations. Buddhists and Taoists don't have that history, hence, less glorfication of warfare and violence.

I don't believe that it comes from Islam per se. From what I have seen of second generation American Muslims, their views are virtually identical to everyone else, with the exception that they might be a bit more socially conservative (i.e. more likely to oppose gay marriage). The first generation is very anti-Semitic. What is the difference? The environment they grew up in. Contact with Jews is also a large factor. There are indeed exceptions and obviously second or third generation American Muslims are more likely to be anti-Semitic than the typical Christian American but the gap is not large. Jews need not fear Muslim immigration leading to increased anti-Semitism in the West. As long as tolerance is taught, the vast majority--I'm talking about at least 80%--will not be anti-Semitic. Also, after the I/P conflict is settled this anti-Semitism in the Muslim world will initially become latent. With the attendant end of anti-Semitic propaganda campaigns, anti-Semitism will eventually recede to levels that you see in other countries with the same economic development.

[PsychoDad]

10. I think you are right...

Much of the problem lies with education and economic prosperity. As these Improve, so will tolerance.

I differ in that I think Islam is the answer, not the cause. The teaching of hate and intolerance in the madrassa is not Islam, nor does the current persicutrion of jews and christians have any place in Islam. It is not Islam that must change, but the understanding of it. The teaching of it has become warped over the centuries to further political goals, not spiritual ones. This is what must change. Islamic education MUST be based upon sound knowledge of history and the real teachings of the prophet- that Islam should be a thing of softness and inclusion, not intolerance.

Please consider this historical perspective from the Joan B. Kroc Institute, Notre Dame:
http://www.nd.edu/~krocinst/colloquy/issue2/feature_afsaruddin.html

With the historical insight and interpretive rigor, one can discover common ground between the modern Western ideal of democratic pluralism and the praxis of various premodern Muslim societies. Long before the first tem amendments to the United States Constitution were formulated, medieval Muslim jurists developed what may be called an Islamic bill of rights meant to ensure state protection of individual life, religion, intellect, property, and personal dignity. Non-Muslims such as Jews and Christians (later Zoroastrians and others as well) also had specific rights in the Muslim community. Above all, they had the right to practice their religion upon payment of a poll-tax to the Islamic state (from which priests, other clerics, and the poor were exempt) and were consequently freed from serving in the military. The Qu'ran after all counsels, "There is no compulsion in religion." Within roughly twenty years after the Prophet's death, Islam lay claim to the former fomains of Byzantine and Persian empires in Persia, Syria-Palestine, Iraq, and Egypt.

It is important to point out that territorial expansion did not mean forcible conversion of the conquered peoples. The populations of Egypt and the Fertile Crescent, for example, remained largely Christian for about two centuries after the early Islamic conquests. Individual Christians and Jews sometimes obtained high positions in Muslim administrations throughout the medieval period. Syriac-speaking Christians were employed by their Muslim patrons in eighth and ninth century Baghdad to translate Greek manuscripts into Arabic; their inclusion in the intel-lectual life of medieval Islam helped preserve the wisdom of the ancient world. Centuries later, Jews fleeing from the "excesses" of the Spanish Reconquista would find refuge in Muslim Ottoman lands and establish thriving communities there. Clearly, the Qur'an's injunction to show tolerance towards people of other, particularly Abrahamic, faiths was frequently heeded by those who revered it as sacred scripture.

To deny these lived realities of the Islamic past, which point to what we would term in today's jargon a respect for pluralism and religious diversity, is to practice a kind of intellectual violence against Islam. Islamic militant radicals who insist that the Qur'an calls for relentless warfare against nonMuslims without just cause or provocation merely to propagate Islam and certain Western opinion-makers who unthinkingly accept and report their rhetoric as authentically Islamic are both doing history a great disservice. Radical Islamist fringe groups with their desperate cult of martyrdom are overreacting to current political contingencies and not obeying any scriptural imperative. It is worthy of note that the Qur'an does not even have a word for martyr; the word "shahid," now commonly understood to mean "a martyr," refers only to an eyewitness or a legal witness in Qur'anic usage. Only in later extra-Qur'anic tradition, as a result of extraneous influence, did the term "shahid" come to mean bearing witness for the faith, particularly by lay-ing down one's life, much like the Greek-derived English word "martyr."

[_Jumper_]

7. Check out this article about Moroccan Jews

http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=13880&intcategoryid=2

<When Elmaleh, who keeps kosher, goes to the homes of Muslim friends, they prepare vegetarian meals for him — and think nothing of it.

“To find that in an Arab country,” Elmaleh said in a recent interview, “is amazing.”>


<Elmaleh said he rarely encounters problems because of his ethnicity, except among less-educated Moroccans who are enraged by televised images of Israeli-Palestinian violence and who scorn all Jews as Zionists.>


<“After the bombings I was afraid. But when I saw how many letters I got from Muslims, how many visits of condolence” — and then the huge Casablanca rally — “we don’t feel so isolated,” Berdugo said.>

[PsychoDad]

11. Very interesting and informative article.

Thank you Jumper for sharing it :)

[Resistance]

12. interesting report

thanks for posting it.

[_Jumper_]

13. Anytime Psychodad, Resistance

n/t

[Offshore Bush]

20. 9% of Moroccans have an unfavorable opinion of Muslims?

Isn't, like, 98% of Morocco Muslim? :wtf:

[Darranar]

21. Yes, that is strange...

According to the CIA World Factbook, Morocco is 98.7% Muslim.

[PsychoDad]

26. I think that ....

Is also a large reason as to why the Jewish and Christian unfavorability ratings are so high.

When I am asked, "what do I think of x racial/religious group", a wide range of thoughts and faces come to mind. Faces of frinnds, personalities, media reports and yes, stereotypes. I am fortumnate enough to have a wide range of personal experances with people and thus have a wide range of examples on which to base an opinion. i think all of us are like that..

The problem in this case may be that not everyone in morocco or other arab countries, has had the advantage of personally meeting and knowing Jews and Christians on a day to day basis, much less as neighbors and fellow members of the community.

This only leaves the stereotypes to judge from, and we all know what those stereotypes are like...

On edit:
But Jumper al5ready pointed that out...lol

[Offshore Bush]

27. I'm talking about Moroccans' view of Muslims.

They have plenty advantages to personally meet Muslims over there. Each (+98%) meets one every day in the mirror. Talk about self-loathing.

[PsychoDad]

28. Oh, well, yeah...

lol.

That's why I was wondering what the margin of error was. Maybe the question was misunderstood, or as you say 1 out of 10 of them dislike what/who they are..It is an interesting statistic... They may even be muslims who are unhappy with current muslim practices in morroco..?

[_Jumper_]

22. Look at the numbers for Christians in the US and Europe

There is a small number of people who oppose all religions.;)

[Offshore Bush]

23. Christianity in the US and Europe

isn't equivalent to Islam in Morocco. I doubt that roughly one out of 10 Moroccans is against all religions.

[_Jumper_]

24. You learn something every day

The poll speaks for itself.:)

[PsychoDad]

25. LOL Makes me wonder...

What the margin of error is.