Anti-Jewish and Anti-Muslim Attitudes Linked September 17, 2008
It’s like I keep saying time and time again.
People who have virulent issues with Muslims are, more often than not, harboring those same issues when it comes to Jews.
People who hate Muslims are just more likely to hate Jews — and vice-versa. The International Herald Tribune proves what I’ve been saying for a while now. In today’s article, “Anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim attitudes rise in Europe”, journalist Brian Knowlton shows how two of Europe’s prejudices are “rising in tandem”:
Anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim attitudes have been rising nearly in tandem in several European countries, apparently reflecting concerns over immigration, globalization and economic ills, according to a new international survey.
Anti-Jewish feelings were particularly strong in Spain, Poland and Russia - with negativity up significantly since 2006, according to the Pew Research Center’s polling. Anti-Muslim views were also strong in those three countries, as well as in Germany and France.
“There is a clear relationship between anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim attitudes,” said the report from Pew (PDF), released Wednesday. “Publics that view Jews unfavorably also tend to see Muslims in a negative light.”
The survey also gauged anti-Semitism in Muslim countries (”96 percent” of people have unfavorable views of Jews in Jordan), as well as support for terrorism and suicide bombing. Hamas has Regarding suicide bombing, for example, whereas 74% of respondents in Lebanon in 2002 said the tactic was “always or sometimes justified”, that number has “plummeted” to 32%.
In Spain, the number of people holding unfavorable views of Jews more than doubled in three years, from 21% in 2005 to 46% today. Over the same period, Spanish views of Muslims went from 37% to 52% unfavorable, including a brief period in 2006 when unfavorable opinion topped 60%.
In America, anti-Jewish sentiment is shared by 9% of the population. 23% of Americans view Muslims unfavorably.
The Pew Center notes some aspects of the link between anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim sentiments:
A notable parallel between anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish opinion in Western Europe is that both sentiments are most prevalent among the same groups of people. Older people and those with less education are more anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim than are younger people or those with more education. Looking at combined data from France, Germany and Spain - the three Western European countries where unfavorable opinions of Jews are most common - people ages 50 and older express more negative views of both Jews and Muslims than do those younger than 50. Similarly, Europeans who have not attended college are consistently more likely than those who have to hold unfavorable opinions of both groups.
There are some political parallels too. Anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish opinions are most prevalent among Europeans on the political right. For example, among respondents from France, Germany and Spain who place themselves on the political right, 56% express a negative view of Muslims, compared with 42% of those on the left and 45% of those in the center. Similarly, 34% of people on the political right have a negative opinion of Jews, compared with 28% of those on the left and 26% of centrists.
Jews and Muslims are in the same boat. Denying this makes the entire boat sink. We are both religious minorities, religious minorities who live on the edge of persecution far too often. Combatting anti-Semitism must go in tandem with combatting Islamophobia, otherwise, both communities will end up suffering from the prejudices — and almost undoubtedly pointing fingers in the wrong directions when trying to determine the cause of their plight.
The linked article has a clear bias against Muslims, nor does it reflect only the countries of Europe. While the several references of countries that favored Jews were listed; the only listings of Muslims were listed on the unfavorability of Muslims. This is actually ‘robbing the victimization’ off the backs of Muslims (not that Muslims want that title).
This is similar to the reporting on the black struggle and how in research, there is much comparison to the Jewish community. This is not to say that Jews have not struggled in the past. However, the strategy is to try and rest upon the sufferings of others, and eventually show how they were part of the struggle (veering away from any oppressive role, of course). This usually sets the stage for some sort of reparation for their part of the struggle while ignoring the overwhelming majority, when many times their struggle was more severe.
While mentioning several Muslim countries, there was still the negative reporting of Muslims or Islam, and absolutely nothing mentioned positive of Muslims. Of all the Islamic countries in the world, there was nothing positive to report about Muslims? It goes on to mention the association of Arab countries and the negative attitude toward Jews. It seems convenient to have left out Israel’s position.
This writing of the hodge-podge statistics attempts to steal any thunder that Muslims have in reporting the increasingly obvious violation of their human rights, and conveniently including their Jewish brethren.
It’s interesting to note that this poll did not include other religions and how they would compare to what people say. Is it safe to assume that there is no anti-Christian, anti-Hindu, anti-Buddhist, etc. bias? This poll had a psychological agenda from the onset. Since the numbers are already present. It might be useful to attempt to associate the ‘why’ with these numbers. Something tells me that the answers very different from the similarities attempted to be portrayed in this article. 5pillar.wordpress.com
A clear bias *against* Muslims? While I can definitely see how you would say that — opinions on “terrorism” were equated with the question “do you believe suicide bombing is justified” (this is so thinly veiled it’s see through) — I think the point of this article was to show just how much Islamophobia is becoming an issue in Europe.
When the majority of citizens of any country have “unfavorable opinions” about any group, it is time for the members of that group to examine their environments.
And when the increase in percentage of people who hate group A is linked to the percentage of people who hate group B, then members of group A and group B can stand to reason that the members of the majority group are hating them for either similar reasons, or are being driven by a similar emotional/social force.
I don’t see your “they say they were part of the struggle” comment’s source — in light of this article.
And, on the contrary, no “Muslim thunder” is being stolen with this article regarding reporting violations of rights, on the contrary, I think it unfortuantely shows that Europe is poised to hear a lot *more* of those violations, coming from both Jews and Muslims (maybe even in the same incidents?).
While I disagree with you…well said. It would take more research to obtain a more objective and factual point on my part. Stay tuned. I would like to continue this discussion with you on several fronts. In the meantime, back to work and reading…Peace.