The 64-page document, which maps out more than 100 executive branch actions, comes weeks before the inauguration of former President Donald Trump, who imposed a travel ban on people from some majority Muslim countries during his first term that Biden rescinded on his first day in office.

It mirrors a comprehensive strategy to fight antisemitism released by the White House in September 2023, and comes more than a year after death of six-year-old boy Wadea Al-Fayoume, stabbed by a man who targeted him and his mother because they were Palestinian-American.

In a foreword to the strategy, Biden called the attacks on the Chicago boy and his mother “heinous acts” and noted a spike in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate crimes, discrimination and bullying that he called wrong and unacceptable.

“Muslims and Arabs deserve to live with dignity and enjoy every right to the fullest extent along with all of their fellow Americans,” Biden wrote. “Policies that result in discrimination against entire communities are wrong and fail to keep us safe.”

The Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, called the strategy “too little, too late” and faulted the White House for not promising any changes to a federal watchlist and “no-fly” list that includes many Arab and Muslim Americans, and for failing to end the war in Gaza, which has been driving Islamophobia.

Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, predicted the incoming Trump administration would disown the strategy, but welcomed the White House’s expansion to include anti-Arab hate instead of focusing solely on acts directed against Muslims.

The Trump transition team had no immediate comment on the strategy or whether it would support it.

Trump, who won support from some Muslim voters angry about Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, has said he will ban entry to the U.S. of anyone who questions Israel’s right to exist and revoke visas of foreign students who are “antisemitic.”

Tensions between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups surged on some U.S. campuses after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, with human rights advocates warning of rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate.

Source: Reuters

The report is the result of two task forces charged with looking into the perceptions and feelings of Jewish, Israeli, Arab, and Palestinian students.

“The differences in perceptions of comfort and safety are rather stark depending on one’s own identities,” the report states in its findings. “Members of all affected communities perceived less openness to diversity of opinions compared to members of the broader campus community and expressed greater perceptions of discomfort and unsafety for those who share their identities compared to those who do not.”

The report states that students reported both Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on campus, including anti-Israel bias and a “perceived alienation and lack of support for Palestinian and Muslim communities.” Insults, intimidation, and a desire to hide their identities were reported all around.

“The intent of this joint submission is not to equate antisemitism and Islamophobia, but to acknowledge that this particular moment puts into sharp relief the need to examine both in a shared context, as the present conflicts shine light on issues that impact members of our campus community who have experienced pain, isolation, fear, and discrimination,” the report states.

According to UW’s report, during the 2023-24 academic year:

• About two-thirds of Palestinian students said they had experienced insults and intimidation over the previous year. About half to one-third of Muslim and Arab/Middle Eastern/North African (MENA) students reported the same.
• One-third of Jewish students and 70% of Israeli students said they experienced insults and intimidation.
• 72% of Arab or MENA, 80% of Muslim students, and 78% of Palestinian students in the focus groups said they were unwelcome because of their identities.
• 60% of Jewish students and 92% of Israeli students in the focus groups said they were unwelcome because of their identities.
• 69% of Arab/MENA students, 74% of Muslim students, and 77% of Palestinian students reported a desire to hide their identity at least once (38% of Arab/MENA students, 40% of Muslim students, and 50% of Palestinian students said this happened frequently).
• 65% of Jewish students and 95% is Israeli students said they needed to hide their identities at least once (42% of Jewish students, 81% of Israeli students said this happened frequently).

Read the full 143-page report here.

In March 2024, UW President Ana Mari Cauce ordered the formation of the two task forces — one for gauging Islamophobia on campus, and the other for Anti-Semitism. Those task forces conducted a series of surveys with focus groups in May 2024 to develop the report released Tuesday. During that time, there were multiple protests and a pro-Palestine encampment on the UW campus.

“We recognize the importance of preserving public free speech; however, the encampment and campus protests, at times, were perceived to go beyond these lines of argument and advocacy to call, implicitly or even explicitly, for violence,” the report states.

“Many survey or focus group participants were distressed by the perceived alienation and lack of support provided for Palestinian and Muslim members of our community. In voicing concerns related to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, they sought visibility for their cause and for the UW to provide a place where these local and global concerns could be focused on, feeling at times that their message and concerns were not adequately heard nor addressed.”

No information from these focus groups was looked into or confirmed for accuracy. UW says that the purpose of the task forces was more for “gathering feedback and gaining an understanding of the campus climate.”

Source: KUOW 

Malik will consult with Muslim leaders and experts to frame a national response against growing anti-Islamic sentiment.

Albanese noted that selecting an appropriate candidate for the role of special envoy against Islamophobia proved more challenging than the selection process for the anti-Semitism envoy.

Malik has worked for nearly ten years in the NSW Premier’s Department, advocating for policies aimed at countering anti-Islamic sentiment.

His experience will guide him as he consults with Muslim leaders and experts on religious discrimination to shape his approach.

“Fighting against hate in Australia is more important today than it has ever been,” Malik said.

“I don’t intend to use this role to advocate that one form of hatred is more important than another: both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are unacceptable.”

He emphasized the role individuals can play in creating inclusive communities.

“Each of us can play a part in ensuring that violence and hatred have no place in our communities. We do this by valuing the bonds between us, calling out discrimination, and being allies to those who experience it,” he added.

However, the decision to create special envoy roles addressing Islamophobia and anti-Semitism has sparked debate. Nasser Mashni, President of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, expressed concerns that these roles may exacerbate community tensions. He argued that prioritizing the experiences of certain racialized groups could marginalize others.

“Anti-Palestinian racism is not about religion, but colonialism and the systemic oppression of Palestinians, whose lands have been stolen and illegally occupied,” Mashni said.

Malik’s three-year term will begin in mid-October, reporting directly to the prime minister and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke.

The government has invested $90 million in addressing the ongoing impacts of the Middle Eastern conflict on Australian communities.

Source: About Islam

he US anti-Semitism envoy has triggered a backlash over remarks she made about the pager attacks in Lebanon last week, which have been blamed on Israel.

At a recent event held by the Israeli-American Council, a moderator commented that “after October 7, there was a feeling around the world that Israel was weaker”.

In response, US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt said: “Do you want a beeper?”

The moderator later said: “I have a few.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has demanded that the Biden administration fire Lipstadt, calling her remarks “dangerous”.

“Special Envoy Lipstadt’s callous remarks are not only disgusting, but also dangerous,” CAIR Government Affairs Department Director Robert McCaw said in a statement.

“At a time when our nation’s government claims it is working to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Lebanon, her flippant celebration of state-sponsored terrorism undermines diplomatic efforts to prevent a broader war in the region,” he said.

He said joking about the loss of innocent lives, especially children, is a disgrace and should have no place in US foreign policy discussions.

“It sends a message to the world that the US government condones or even celebrates the slaughter of Arab and Muslim civilians. This is not just immoral, it’s irresponsible,” he said.

McCaw said the Biden-Harris administration must immediately fire Lipstadt “and make clear that the United States does not support or celebrate state violence and terrorism against vulnerable populations”.

Lipstadt was confirmed by the US Senate on March 30, 2022 as the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, with the rank of ambassador, according to the State Department.

At least 37 people were killed and over 3,000 others injured in explosions of pager and radio devices across Lebanon on September 17 and 18. While the Lebanese government and Hezbollah have blamed Israel for the explosions, Tel Aviv has not denied or confirmed its involvement.

Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, which has killed over 41,400 people, mostly women and children, following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7 last year.

But more than two months on, the promised Islamophobia equivalent hasn’t been appointed, leading to concern within some influential parts of the Islamic community.

The Australian National Imams Council’s Bilal Rauf has labelled the delay “very disappointing and concerning” and has called for urgent action.

“I think it needs to occur this month, in the matter of a week or two,” he said.

“Any longer than that, it almost does become farcical, and one begins to question: ‘what’s the point?’.”

As the weeks without an Islamophobia envoy roll on, he said there’s a growing sense of scepticism and disappointment within parts of the community.

“We’re hearing of wonderful progress being made and steps being taken by the anti-Semitism [envoy] engaging with different departments and organisations, and yet nothing has happened in the space of Islamophobia,” Mr Rauf said.

“Some of the questions that we are getting on the ground are: Is this legitimate? Is there a real intent, or is this just a show?”

Candidates speak out

Chief executive of the Islamic College of Brisbane, Ali Kadri, said he was approached by the government in relation to the Islamophobia envoy position “about a month” ago.

He decided against taking the full-time role due to his current responsibilities, but said he had a candid conversation with Multicultural Affairs Minister Tony Burke.

“He asked me for my opinion and my opinion was, and it still remains, that this can’t be seen as some bureaucratic government role,” he said.

“If anyone who takes that position does not engage at the grassroots with the wider community and within Muslim community, then that position will not be effective in countering Islamophobia.”

Mr Kadri expressed disappointment that the appointment process had taken so long and said it should be finalised “as soon as possible”, but added that finding the right candidate would not be easy for the federal government.

“The anti-Semitism envoy was appointed quite quickly and swiftly,” he said. “The Muslim community is a lot more complex.”

Western Sydney general practitioner Jamal Rifi put his name forward for the role and met with government representatives, but pulled out of the running due to a change in circumstances.

Dr Rifi isn’t confident one person will be able to win the support of Australia’s large and diverse Muslim community but he’s pleased the position is being created.

“The impact is not going to come from the envoy himself or herself. It’s going to come from the community,” he said.

“But the envoy will have a role to play, providing facts and statistics, so the community and the government can respond in their own specific way.”

With the issues of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism highlighted in the wake of the conflict in Gaza, Dr Rifi said it was right for there to be allocated positions to counter their rise.

“It’s proper for the government to quantify it, study it, analyse it, and find ways to combat it, because [we] will be a better nation for doing so.”

‘Soon’, ‘shortly’, ‘imminent’ — but when?

In early July, the Albanese government said the appointment of the Islamophobia envoy would be announced “shortly”.

Since then variations of that word have been used to signal an announcement was imminent, but no specific time frame has been set.

Meanwhile, the anti-Semitism envoy’s work is underway. On Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Segal appeared before a Senate committee to call for a judicial inquiry into anti-Semitism at Australian universities.

She told the inquiry that anti-Semitism was “embedded” in campuses and that it was her view that this was not fully understood by management.

“They do not appreciate the extent of the difficulty, they don’t appreciate the extent of the embedded anti-Semitism,” she said.

Mr Rauf said the appointment of an Islamophobia envoy needed to be prioritised by the government.

“It is absolutely critical and urgent that steps are taken very soon to appoint someone, in circumstances where this was announced months ago, and the anti-Semitism envoy is well underway and established and already doing things,” he said.

When asked if a shortlist had been finalised and when an appointment would be made, a spokesperson for Tony Burke said “consultation on the appointment continues”.

“The rise of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism is of grave concern to this government,” the statement read.

Source: ABC News

Arab Americans, many (though not all) of whom have historically aligned themselves with the Democratic Party, were relieved for another reason. To them, Biden has been the single-biggest cheerleader of Israel’s punishing and relentless assault on Gaza, which has over nearly 10 months claimed the lives of at least 39,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-led Gaza Health Ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the U.S. and the U.N. While the president has shown deep empathy with Israelis since Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed some 1,200 people, he has struggled to convey the same level of sympathy towards Palestinians—and, at one point, even cast doubt on the extent of the Palestinian death toll in Gaza.

“I don’t think he was as balanced as he could have been, and that was really hurtful to a lot of people,” says Jasmine El-Gamal, an Arab American and former Middle East adviser at the Pentagon.

While many Arab Americans might have anticipated this from Trump, who’s made no secret of his disdain for Palestinians (he notably used their identity as a slur against Biden during their debate last month), El-Gamal says they expected more from the purported “empath-in-chief.” Biden’s failure to treat rising anti-Semitism and rising anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia with an equal sense of urgency left many feeling particularly deflated. “They’re similar threats, and they should be addressed with similar urgency, and I don’t think that was the impression that was coming out of the Biden administration,” El-Gamal says, noting that it made her and others feel “deprioritized as a human being because of your identity.”

That feeling had a tangible impact: Within the first month of the war, Arab American support for Biden and the Democratic Party dropped to the lowest levels ever recorded. Michigan, a critical battleground state that boasts one of the largest Arab American populations in the country, appeared all but lost.

With Biden out of the race, the prevailing question now is: Can Harris win them back? So far, there seems to be a guarded optimism. Several Arab American activists and analysts who spoke with TIME say that their community is still waiting to see what changes, if any, the presumed Democratic nominee will pledge to bring to U.S.’s policy on Gaza should she win in November. Most all of them recognize that Harris has the potential to have a better relationship with Arab Americans than her predecessor—a relatively low bar that shouldn’t be too difficult for Harris to clear. But they don’t want her to take their support for granted, either.

“There’s a sense of hope,” James Zogby, the founder and president of the Arab American Institute, tells TIME of Biden’s decision to end his reelection bid. His organization’s latest nationwide poll of Arab Americans, conducted in May, found that an overwhelming majority (79%) have an unfavorable view of the president. Although AAI doesn’t yet have polling on views towards Harris, Zogby says that she has largely been seen as more empathetic. “She’s reached out to the community and individuals in different ways to let them know of her concern and her staff have been responsive,” he says, “which is far different than the White House.”

For those who couldn’t countenance a vote for Biden but regard Trump as a threat to the country, the vice president’s candidacy offers a much-needed reprieve. Despite the deep animosity towards Biden, Zogby says AAI’s polling has shown that the Democrats could win back much of support they lost among Arab American voters—many of whom joined the “uncommitted” campaign in a bid to pressure Biden to change tack on Gaza—if there’s a meaningful policy shift.

In the aforementioned poll, 60% of those surveyed said they’d be more likely to vote for Biden in November if he were to demand an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian aid into Gaza or if he were to suspend diplomatic support and arms shipments to Israel until they implement a ceasefire and withdraw forces from Gaza. While Biden has unveiled a proposal to end the war that would involve a six-week ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from populated areas of Gaza, he has been less willing to withhold military aid to Israel, save for only the largest of munitions.

While Harris hasn’t articulated any major policy deviations from Biden when it comes to Gaza—like the president, she has repeatedly pledged support for Israel’s security and self-defense—she hasn’t been seen as driving the administration’s policies on this issue either. Instead, she has offered Americans a rhetorically different approach. In March, she became the first senior administration official to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. She was also quicker than Biden to sound the alarm about the humanitarian catastrophe in the besieged enclave, where scores of Palestinians have been forced to live in inhumane, famine-like conditions, and explicitly laid blame on the Israeli government for its part in creating the crisis.

Unlike Biden, whose longtime devolution to the Jewish state has earned him the reputation of being perhaps most pro-Israel American president in history, Harris has long been regarded as being more evenly empathetic when it comes to Israelis and Palestinians. Hala Rharrit, a former American diplomat and Arabic language spokesperson in the U.S. government who resigned earlier this year in protest of the Biden administration’s Gaza policy, tells TIME that the State Department often relied on her speeches when communicating to the Arab world for this reason.

Some Arab Americans are hopeful that this record could make Harris uniquely suited to mending the divide within the Democratic Party as a result of the war on Gaza. “I think she’s the only one who can unite us,” says Sami Khalidi, the president of the Dearborn Democratic Club and a former 2020 Biden delegate who is due to reprise his role at the upcoming Democratic convention in Chicago. He notes that while Arab Americans in his community still want to wait and see who Harris might pick as her running mate, “they favor her over Trump.”

Not all Arab Americans share this view. Indeed, many will be of the belief that Harris’s record, as Biden’s vice president, is inextricable from current U.S. policy. “There’s a genuine and really deep-seated anger and hurt that the Arab American community and the Palestinian American community, in particular, has felt,” Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a U.S. policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian think tank and policy network, tells TIME, noting that while these communities may be able to engage with Harris in the way they were unable to with Biden, “There’s still going to be a lot of Palestinian Americans and progressive Americans who are like, ‘That’s it, I’ve had enough of the establishment Democratic Party,’ and this kind of ties into a deeper resentment around electoral politics.” Some “uncommitted” delegates have already signaled that they will withhold their endorsement unless Harris commits to big policy shifts, such as ending military aid to Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington offers an early test of how Harris will approach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should she win the presidency. Many Arab Americans and progressive Democrats perturbed by Israel’s conduct in Gaza were cheered by Harris’s decision not to preside over Netanyahu’s speech to Congress—a scheduling conflict, her team said, that many nonetheless regarded as a clear snub. But perhaps the clearest sign of her strategy will be revealed following her meeting with the Israeli premier later today, in which she will reportedly tell him that “it is time for the war to end.”

“I don’t think anyone expects her to drastically announce a shift from Biden, especially when she is running [for the presidential nomination],” Matt Duss, the executive vice president of the Center for International Policy and a former chief foreign policy advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders, tells TIME. “But I think there are things she can say that will indicate a different path.” One option championed by several of Democratic lawmakers is to consistently apply U.S. laws to future military aid to Israel, which prohibits American tax dollars from going to foreign military units suspected of committing human rights violations.

“I’m optimistic, but I’m waiting,” says Tariq Habash, a Palestinian American who earlier this year became the second political appointee to resign over the Biden administration’s Gaza policy. He and others tell TIME that while they are realistic about what is possible when it comes to U.S. policy in the Middle East, they also believe that there is leeway for change. “It is past time for talking points,” Habash says. “You also have to back it up with action.” If Harris does, he says, maybe Arab Americans will too.

Source: Time Magazine

In a statement, it said the IZH had acted as a direct representative of Iran’s Shi’ite Muslim Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and sought to bring about an Islamic revolution in Germany to impose theocratic rule.

The IZH was not available for comment by phone on Wednesday morning, and its website was not accessible to the public.

Iran’s foreign ministry said it had summoned the German ambassador in Tehran on Wednesday in protest at the ban.

“Unfortunately what happened in Germany is an example of Islamophobia and is in opposition to the teachings of the Abrahamic faiths,” it said on X, referencing Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The ministry said the ban violated freedom of expression and promoted violence and extremism.

Asked about the summoning of the ambassador, a German foreign ministry source said that it was up to the Iranian side to take concrete steps towards improving ties between the two countries that have been downgraded in recent years.

The German interior ministry said 53 of the IZH’s premises had been searched early on Wednesday in eight German states by investigators acting on a court order.

In addition to the Hamburg-based IZH, which includes one of the oldest mosques in Germany known for its turquoise exterior, subsidiaries in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin were also banned, with four Shi’ite mosques to be closed, said the ministry.

The interior ministry said evidence from an earlier search of 55 properties conducted in November provided the basis for Wednesday’s ban of the IZH, known in German as Islamisches Zentrum Hamburg.

“Today, we banned the Islamisches Zentrum Hamburg, which promotes an Islamist-extremist, totalitarian ideology in Germany,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.

“This Islamist ideology is opposed to human dignity, women’s rights, an independent judiciary and our democratic government.”

She said she wanted to make clear “this ban absolutely does not apply to the peaceful practice of the Shi’ite religion”.

A 2020 report on Islamic life in Germany said there were about 5.5 million Muslims in Germany’s 83 million population.

The interior ministry also accused the IZH of promoting antisemitism and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is also banned in Germany and classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union.

Source: Reuters

– Increasing pressure on supporters of Palestinian cause is an ‘attempt to silence legitimate criticism … and get us to stop scrutinizing the actions of the Israeli state,’ says Brendan Ciaran Browne of Trinity College Dublin.

The growing pressure on pro-Palestine academics and students in the UK is part of a “wider witch hunt against Muslims” by Zionists, according to a leading British academic.

“There is a dramatic increase in pressure on academics and students in universities,” David Miller, a researcher and writer on Zionism, Islamophobia and propaganda, told Anadolu.

“This is a campaign by the Zionists to remove especially Muslims from public life … This is an attempt to drive Muslims out of public life because Muslims are much more likely to raise the question of Palestine.”

Miller also emphasized that academic censorship is “a global issue” that is not just limited to the UK.

“In particular we see what the Zionists want to do with academia in Palestine, where every single university in Gaza has been destroyed, razed to the ground … and they have selectively assassinated significant numbers of staff, including the people in charge of these universities,” he said.

According to the Scholars Against the War on Palestine (SAWP), a collective of academics from around the world, Israel has bombed all 11 of Gaza’s universities since last October, while also damaging or destroying nearly 390 schools.

Israeli attacks have also killed at least 333 educators and academics, with more than 700 others injured, SAWP data shows.

“We see what the Zionists want to do and we see that is the context for all of the attacks they’ve been making over many years in the West, and in of course, the UK,” said Miller.

Miller narrated how he was personally affected as the University of Bristol sacked him in 2021 for “some comments … about Zionist organizations.”

He challenged the decision and a tribunal ruled in February this year that the professor was wrongfully dismissed.

“So, this is a live issue, which is having a deeper effect in the UK, in terms of people’s jobs lost, students expelled, visas denied,” he said.

The situation has worsened since last October and there have been “tons of complaints” against doctors, lawyers and other professionals, he said.

“We need to see this not just in the context of ideas about censorship, but indeed in terms of a witch hunt against Muslims in public life, and a witch hunt against anyone who will talk about Palestinian rights,” Miller stressed.

“It will only get worse until and unless our society learns that you have to fight back against this kind of thing.”

‘Attempt to silence legitimate criticism’

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since a Hamas attack last Oct. 7 despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

It has killed more than 36,700 Palestinians in Gaza and injured over 83,500 others, most of them women and children, and stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

All of this, along with the mounting censorship and pressure, has made any work for Palestine and Palestinian liberation more important than ever before, according to Brendan Ciaran Browne, an assistant professor at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland’s oldest university.

“Lots of people are being attacked for their work on Palestine, lots of people are being smeared, and there are attempts to silence people for pointing out what has clearly been demonstrated to be a case of genocide against Palestinian people.”

Pro-Palestine voices have always been met with accusations of antisemitism for criticizing the state of Israel, he said.

“The conflation of the two is deeply problematic and we have seen in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, a rapid increase in the attempt to link the two together,” said Browne.

This is all, he asserted, part of an “attempt to silence legitimate criticism.”

“It’s an attempt to try and get us to stop scrutinizing the actions of the Israeli state, which as the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and lots of nation states around the world have clearly highlighted, is acting in a way that is contrary to international law,” he said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Here, the Verfassungsschutz follows a widespread trend in recent German public debates to perceive anti-Semitic attitudes as ‘imported’ from Muslim countries.

In order to address this danger, the report is intended as a guideline for all those dealing with Muslim immigrants and their families. “Particularly people who have professional contact with Muslim individuals with a migration background and/or refugees need to be prepared for the possible presence of an anti-Semitic mindset.”

This claim is backed up by figures from the Anti-Defamation League that profess to showcase ‘assent to anti-Semitic statements’ among a select group of Middle Eastern and North African countries.

Source: euro-islam.info

Two weeks ago, another trial was opened in Paris against the essayist Pascal Bruckner, “guilty” of having attacked “the collaborators of the Charlie Hebdo killers.”  The Collective Against Islamophobia, the leading organization behind many of these “causes,” has now brought Bensoussan to trial for some of his sentences during a radio broadcast.

“Today, we are witnessing [the emergence of] a different people in the midst of the French nation, who are effecting a reneging on a certain number of democratic values to which we adhere,” read the first quote flagged. The second quote cited read: “This visceral anti-Semitism proven by the Fondapol survey by Dominique Reynié last year cannot remain under a cover of silence.”

“Besides, along with the animosity toward the French nation, there will be no integration as long as we will not be rid of this ancestral anti-Semitism that is kept secret (…) as an Algerian sociologist, Smain Laacher, very bravely said in a film that will be aired on France 3, ‘it’s disgraceful to keep this taboo in place, knowing that in Arab families in France and beyond everybody knows but will not say that anti-Semitism is transmitted with mother’s milk’,” the quote went on.

Bensoussan is the editorial director of the Memorial de la Shoah and one of the greatest scholars of anti-Semitism in France. The Movement against Racism and for Friendship among Peoples, which has already tried Oriana Fallaci, condemned Bensoussan: “It is outrageous and heinous that Bensoussan, editorial director of the Memorial, used racist words in a public service”.  The Libération newspaper also called for punishing the respected and acclaimed historian: “Funded by the state, the Memorial has to publicly distance itself from the statements of its editorial director.”

“Silence is the goal of this new thought police” reads one appeal in favor of Bensoussan and signed by Elisabeth Badinter, Bernard-Henri Lévy and the Grand Rabbi of France Haïm Korsia. Then there is the appeal of Jacques Tarnero (filmmaker) and Yves Ternon (physician and historian): “Bensoussan’s trial is part of an intimidation strategy of the critical expression that uses the weapons of democracy. This cultural terrorism completes the terrorism that kills.” In this and other trials you can read the retreat and defeat of the West. How about blaming the Islamic terrorists for punishing what they call Europe’s “blasphemy”?

Source: Israel National News