Muslim/Jewish Anti-Semitism in Sweden

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

One Holocaust survivor, who gives lectures at schools all over the country about his experiences during the Shoah, tells of Arab and Muslim pupils who stay away from his talks, sometimes at their parents' request. Pupils, he says, who do attend rarely express hostility, but those who do are exclusively "of Middle Eastern origin." After his lectures he asks for the listeners' evaluations, and once a pupil from an Iraqi family wrote:

That, which happened in the Second World War I think it was a good thing of Hitler to treat the Jews that way because I hate Jews. After the war they tried to get a country because they didn't have a country and so they took a part of Palestine and they created little Israel because Hitler threw them out of every country and that thing today the lecture by the survivor was only crap. The film was bad and I think what Hitler did to the Jews served them right and I don't care what you the survivor talked about and I wish that the Palestinian people kill all the Jews. Jews are the most disgusting people in the world and the biggest cowards and because of what happened today I wasn't going to come to school because an ugly Jew comes to school.14
Other lecturers and teachers have similar experiences, with pupils expressing their hatred of Jews in the same kind of terms. They rarely make any distinction among Jews, Israelis, or Zionists, and have very clear opinions about Jewish behavior or characteristics despite having had little or no interaction with Jews.

Teachers tend to point to the home environment as explaining these pupils' attitudes. In the segregated suburbs, immigrants live isolated from Swedish society, culture, and values while staying in touch with the discourse of their countries of origin. Hence, Iraqi, Lebanese, and Palestinian pupils tend to be more anti-Semitic than those from Bosnia or Turkey, for example.15



The Internet
Like others of the ilk, Arab and Muslim anti-Semites long since discovered the advantages of the Internet. There are a number of Muslim anti-Semitic websites in Swedish, the best known of which is that of Radio Islam. Already as a radio station in the 1980s, it broadcast Nazi-like anti-Semitism.16 The content could have been taken from Der Stürmer or Mein Kampf, with the Jews accused of being sexually perverted, brazen, and greedy, committing ritual murders, having great influence over the media, and organizing a world conspiracy aimed at enslaving all other peoples.17

Ahmed Rami, the man behind Radio Islam, was convicted of hate crimes because of the anti-Semitic content of his broadcasts, in 1989 and again in a court of appeals. Nevertheless, influential journalists and politicians supported him and even denied or exculpated his anti- Semitism.18 Jan Bergman, professor of theology at Uppsala University, testified in Rami's defense and claimed, among other things, that for Jews it was indeed a religious duty to kill Gentiles.19

Although Radio Islam has Sweden's most aggressively and systematically anti-Semitic Muslim website, it is not the only one. Other sites run by Swedish Muslims on themes such as Islam, Arab and Muslim culture, and Middle Eastern politics disseminate anti-Semitism. While they do so less relentlessly than Radio Islam, the content of their anti- Semitism is little different.20

The idea that Jews all behave in a certain way and have specific character traits is common on these sites. Jews are portrayed as cruel and bloodthirsty, greedy and cheap, power-hungry and arrogant, cowardly and duplicitous. They are also regularly accused of sexual perversion. On one site, which describes "Jewish capital" as controlling pedophilia and child pornography, Jews are charged with sexual misconduct and racism toward Gentiles:

If a Jew attacks a woman's honor, it doesn't matter. This is not his fault, since a non-Jewish woman is no more than an animal and with animals there is no need for a marriage contract. Between Jews he is not allowed to act that way. The Jews are allowed to rape non-Jewish women....No Jewish woman may complain if her husband commits adultery with a non-Jewish woman.21
Both biblical and modern instances are adduced, from distorted accounts of King David to propaganda stories about the Israel Defense Forces. For example, Joseph becoming viceroy of Egypt is cited as an example of Jews' striving for political and economic control in their countries of residence, with Joseph being compared to Mussolini.22

These sites present Judaism as a perverted or evil religion. An article called "The Truth behind Muslim-Jewish Animosity" calls on Muslims to hate Jews: "We hate them for the sake of our Lord, we hate them for Allah's sake because they slandered Allah and slandered and killed His Prophets." Later, it describes the Talmud as teaching that Gentiles are pigs, their souls worth less in God's eyes than those of animals, and that Jews must fight Muslims. "The Jews" are also accused of "criminal behavior against the House of Allah," that is, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, by trying to destroy it and dig tunnels to undermine it.23

A classic anti-Semitic theme found on some Swedish Muslim websites is that of a Jewish world conspiracy. It is blamed for virtually all problems, from poverty, drug trade, and prostitution to every present day war and the 11 September attack. From this viewpoint, the fact that a public person is Jewish is proof of his or her membership in the conspiracy.

Several Swedish institutions, such as Uppsala University, the Swedish Bar Association, and Amnesty International, are said to be in the conspiracy's hands. Some of these websites, including Islamiskaforum and Radio Islam, have also published the "Jew List." Originating in Nazi circles, it contains the names of Swedes who are accused of belonging to the Swedish branch of the Jewish conspiracy. The editor of a large Swedish newspaper is called a "propaganda producer, Jewish whore who chose to work her way up through the Social Democratic Party." A former governor is described as a "typical thief, a Jew." A cabinet minister is dubbed a "Jewish midget...Sweden's Jewish trade minister." A well-known journalist is referred to as a "Jewish charlatan, a propagandist with a Polish-Jewish background."24 The list contains hundreds more names.



Anti-Semitic Attacks
It is impossible to fully assess how common anti-Semitic sentiments are among Arabs and Muslims in Sweden. One indication may be the number of anti-Semitic attacks and other crimes with anti- Semitic motives that occur in the country. Because of the relatively large number of such acts that go unreported and the method of registration used by the police, the frequency of these events cannot be ascertained.25 It is clear, however, that they increased sharply in 2000 after the breakdown of the Oslo process and the renewal of the intifada.

The most common form of anti-Semitic crime is harassment in the street by Arab and Muslim youths who identify passersby as Jewish. Such verbal or physical attacks are especially common during Jewish holidays, when more Jews than usual are visible close to synagogues and community centers. For instance, three men identified as Arabs walked by the Great Synagogue in Stockholm on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, 2002, and shouted, "I'll kill you, Zionists!" A young man was attacked on his way home from synagogue in Malmö by a group of Arab youths on Yom Kippur, 2004. In a slightly different incident in 2002, a Muslim taxi driver refused to drive two elderly women to the synagogue in Stockholm and forced them out of his car when he identified them as Jewish.26

The largest anti-Semitic incident over the past five years took place in Stockholm on 18 April 2002, when a rally against anti- Semitism and Islamophobia organized by the Liberal Youth Movement was stormed. Some sixty individuals, mostly of Middle Eastern background, physically attacked participants, destroyed signs, and shouted epithets like "Jewish swine!" and "Allahu Akbar!" Many of those in the rally, including some Holocaust survivors, suffered injury and shock before the police intervened after fifteen to twenty minutes. Similar attacks have taken place in Malmö and Göteborg.27



What Can Be Done?
The Arab and Muslim communities in Sweden are large and heterogeneous. Not all their members are anti-Semites, and only a small handful attack Jews. Still, the anti-Semitism is real and Jews in Sweden feel threatened, few daring to wear a kippa or Magen David pendant in public.

To deal with the situation, the Swedish government and society at large must first cease their denial and acknowledge that it exists. Secondly, there must be a will to tackle it. Among those who acknowledge this anti-Semitism, not all perceive it as a problem, or at least not as one that can be confronted. Jan Samuelsson, professor of the history of religions, says Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism in Sweden is "understandable, reasonable, and justified."28 Although he is an exception, many others are willing to exculpate the phenomenon as regrettable but inevitable as long as Israel occupies Palestinian territory.

Such tolerance for intolerance is a recipe for catastrophe and in the end may have grave consequences not only for Swedish Jewry. To cease making excuses for the phenomenon and realize that it is part of a global trend is the first step in battling it. This must, however, be part of a broader strategy of counteracting segregation in the suburbs of Sweden's larger cities. Socially, culturally, and economically integrating the Arab and Muslim immigrants is something from which everyone, not only the Jews, would benefit.

[Rasputin]

Notes
1. There are only a few works dealing with anti-Semitism on the Swedish Left. See, e.g., Per Ahlmark, Vänstern och tyranniet - Det galna kvartsseklet (Stockholm: Timbro, 1994) (Swedish); Henrik Bachner, Återkomsten - Antisemitism i Sverige efter 1945 (Stockholm: Natur och Kultur, 1999) (Swedish).

2. Jan Guillou, "Okupationen är omöjlig att försvara," Aftonbladet, 15 April 2002, p. 10 (Swedish). Guillou is not the only Aftonbladet columnist to hold this view. See, e.g., Johanne Hildebrandt, "Trötta generaliseringar spär bara på misstron," Aftonbladet, 26 October 2003, p. 56 (Swedish); Mats K. G. Johansson, "Hela arabvärlden demoniseras," Svenska Dagbladet, 25 February 2004, p. 56 (Swedish).

3. Bernard Lewis, Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1986), p. 16.

4. Ibid., p. 49. See also Moshe Zimmermann, Wilhelm Marr: The Patriarch of Antisemitism (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986).

5. Helen Fein, "Dimensions of Antisemitism: Attitudes, Collective Accusations, and Actions," in Helen Fein, ed., The Persisting Question: Sociological Perspectives and Social Contexts of Modern Antisemitism, Current Research on Antisemitism, Vol. 1 (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1987).

6. Raphael Israeli, "Anti-Jewish Attitudes in the Arabic Media, 1975-1981," in Robert S.Wistrich, ed., From Anti-Zionism to Anti-Semitism in the Contemporary World (Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire and London: Macmillan, 1990), p. 102.

7. Robert S.Wistrich, Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred (New York: Pantheon Books, 1991), p. 206.

8. Lewis, Semites and Anti-Semites, p. 121; Wistrich, Antisemitism, p. 196.

9. Wistrich, Antisemitism, p. 224.

10. Lewis, Semites and Anti-Semites, p. 196.

11. See, e.g., Arnon Groiss, The West, Christians and Jews in Saudi Arabian Schoolbooks (New York and Jerusalem: Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, 2003); Daniel J. Wakin, "Anti-Semitic 'Elders of Zion' Gets New Life on Egypt TV," New York Times, 26 October 2002; Fouad Ajami, "What the Muslim World Is Watching," New York Times Magazine, 18 November 2001.

12. Mikael Tossavainen, "Det förnekade hatet - Antisemitism bland araber och muslimer i Sverige," Svenska Kommittén Mot Antisemitism, Stockholm, 2003, p. 22 (Swedish).

13. Jackie Jakubowski, "'Judarna kommer att brinna i helvetet,' förklarar en elev. Det fick han lära sig i en Koran-skola," Judisk Krönika, No. 2, 2001 (Swedish).

14. The letter is quoted in Tossavainen, "Det förnekade hatet," p. 24. The peculiarities in the grammar and orthography reflect the Swedish original. The translation from Swedish is this author's.

15. Tossavainen, "Det förnekade hatet," p. 26.

16. Ahlmark, Vänstern och tyranniet, p. 85.

17. Ibid., p. 100.

18. See, e.g., Dennis Zachrisson, FiB-Kulturfront, No. 16, 1988 (Swedish); Claes- Adam Wachtmeister, Expressen, 26 September 1990 (Swedish); Sven öste, Dagens Nyheter, 23 September 1990 (Swedish).

19. Ahlmark, Vänstern och tyranniet, p. 249.

20. Many of these websites have changed their addresses after their anti-Semitic content was analyzed in Tossavainen, "Det förnekade hatet."

21. See www.islamiskaforum.com. The translation from Swedish is this author's.

22. "Abûl-A'lâ al-Mawdûdî kritiserar Allâhs profeter," at www.darulhadith.com (Swedish).

23. "The Truth behind Muslim-Jewish Animosity," www.islamiskaforum.com (Swedish). The translation from Swedish is this author's.

24. See, e.g., www.islamiskaforum.com.

25. See the annual report by the Secret Police (SÄPO), "Brottslighet kopplad till rikets säkerhet 2002," Stockholm, 2003, pp. 30, 82 (Swedish).

26. For more examples, see Tossavainen, "Det förnekade hatet," p. 36.

27. See, e.g., Per Svensson, "Det brinner på Mö llevångstorget," Judisk Krö nika, No. 2, 2001, p. 30 (Swedish); Eva Hermelius, "Farligt med kippa på stan," ibid., p. 35 (Swedish).

28. Jan Samuelsson, "'Muslimers hat mot judar är befogat,'" Dagens Nyheter, 25 October 2003 (Swedish).