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Friday 23 March 2012

The Pernicious Rise of Antisemitism

As one can pick up from the media and even some conversations here, Antisemitism is on the rise in France. A recent poll on this site  pointed out the stereotypical criticizes of the Jewish community in France. Some of the comments regarding the poll, which is a new one, on the ADL website here and below, March, 2012, indicate that:

 Nearly one third of the Europeans surveyed held "pernicious anti-Semitic beliefs," the Anti-Defamation League said. Five thousand telephone interviews were conducted across Europe for the poll, 500 in each country surveyed.
Though the killings at the Jewish school have focused attention on attitudes against Jews in France, the new poll indicated that such beliefs are markedly more common in Hungary, Poland and Spain than in France.
Anti-Semitism "infects many Europeans at a much higher level than we see here in the United States," said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the league, which is based in New York City. "In Hungary, Spain and Poland the numbers for anti-Semitic attitudes are literally off the charts.”
For instance, 14% of French people surveyed said they agreed that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus Christ; 38% of Hungarian respondents and 46% of Polish people surveyed said the same. While 45% of French people surveyed said Jews were more loyal to Israel, 72% of Spainards interviewed said so.
http://frontpagemag.com/2009/12/08/the-persistence-of-islamic-anti-semitism-by-robert-spencer/ 
The most common reason for such prejudice is ignorance and the passing down in families of such biases. I am surprised at the level of the commonly held prejudices, including ancient arguments. On the Anti-Defamation League site, more details may be found. I think the Western Catholics need to pay attention to such a rise in Antisemitism, as seen in the poll, that the traditionally Catholic countries have fallen into a habit of hatred. Of course, many of those people polled most likely have no religious practices or beliefs, and are completely secularized. The problems spinning off from hatred of the Jews include an over-sensitivity and an ignoring of the intolerance of the Islamic religion towards the Jews. If one has not read the Koran, do so. It is all in the book.