By ABRAHAM COOPER, HAROLD BRACKMAN 06/02/2016:
Wiesenthal Center officials will soon visit Berlin to raise an additional concern: what steps are being taken to deconstruct extreme anti-Jewish prejudices and anti-Israel animus which pervade Arab and Muslim societies and that many migrants are bringing to their new European homes? We already know that doing nothing is a prescription for disaster.
Successive French governments did virtually nothing as toxic anti-Semitism from young French Muslims escalated out-of-control. French leaders made no demands on Muslims to stop the hate before words escalated into hate crimes and terrorism. In the UK, the stench of anti-Semitism from politicians pandering to Muslim voters mars the once-respected Labour Party.
Authorities in Sweden’s third largest city of Malmo have never convicted anyone for hundreds of anti-Semitic hate crimes and threats emanating from the Muslim migrant community.
The lessons of Amsterdam’s iconic Anne Frank House have been forgotten as online hate, extremist imams and social apathy fuel the bigotry of young, disaffected Muslims. Everywhere in Europe looms the threat of repetitions of the terrorist murders of innocent Jews in Paris, Toulouse, Brussels and Copenhagen.
Despite these bloody warning signs, there is little to indicate that European leaders recognize that mainstreaming of newcomers must include programs to take on anti-Jewish hate. According to a Pew poll, over 90 percent of the population of the Muslim countries sometimes harbor anti-Semitic prejudices, as well as associated prejudices against women’s freedoms and gays.
Germany and the Jews stand as a category of their own. Chancellor Merkel, a proven friend of our people, never shirks from speaking about her nation’s historic responsibilities associated with the genocidal legacy of the Third Reich. Germany has worked hard to revitalize Jewish life; the Jewish population is now over 120,000 and synagogues and Jewish schools and cultural institutions dot the country.
The constitution has extended protections against prejudice and discrimination to Jews and other minorities.
