– fordi tiden kræver et MODSPIL

02. Feb 2007

'Muslims are now getting the same treatment Jews had a century ago'

 
Bemærk - der står ikke, at muslimerne behandles som jøderne "under nazismen" eller lignende, der står: "Som for et århundrede side", dvs. som tiden omkring år 1900.

Juristen Maleiha Malik trækker således i dagens Guardian paralleller til datidens forhold i netop Storbritannien:
Migrants fleeing persecution and poverty settled with their children in the East End of London. As believers in one God they were devoted to their holy book, which contained strict religious laws, harsh penalties and gender inequality. Some of them established separate religious courts. The men wore dark clothes and had long beards; some women covered their hair. A royal commission warned of the grave dangers of self-segregation. Politicians said different religious dress was a sign of separation. Some migrants were members of extremist political groups. Others actively organised to overthrow the established western political order. Campaigners against the migrants carefully framed their arguments as objections to "alien extremists" and not to a race or religion. A British cabinet minister said we were facing a clash about civilisation: this was about values; a battle between progress and "arrested development".
Lyder det som noget, vi har hørt før? Malik fortsætter:
All this happened a hundred years ago to Jewish migrants seeking asylum in Britain. The political movements with which they were closely associated were anarchism and later Bolshevism. As in the case of contemporary political violence, or even the radical Islamism supported by a minority of British Muslims, anarchism and Bolshevism only commanded minority support among the Jewish community. But shared countries of origin and a common ethnic and religious background were enough to create a racialised discourse whenever there were anarchist outrages in London in the early 20th century.
(...)
It was claimed that London was "seething" with violent aliens, and the British establishment was said to be "in a state of denial". East End Jews were said to be "alienated", not "integrated", and a "threat to our security" a long time before anyone dreamed up the phrase "Londonistan".
Måske frygtens og stereotypiens, fremmedhadets og racismens karakteristika altid er ens, og måske usunde generaliseringer og beskyldninger - som også den danske debat rummer så mange eksempler på - er ét af disse karakteristika. I hvert har vi også her på siden været inde på den tanke, at anti-islamisme eller "islam-skepsis" er den nye antisemitisme - de historiske paralleller mellem anti-islamismen og den traditionelle europæiske antisemitisme er mange og skræmmende, som også The Economist observerer i en længere artikel.

Malik konkluderer, med en opfordring til eftertanke, som vi også roligt kan tage til efterretning her i Danmark:
The neocons want us to treat domestic security like the war against fascism. This manipulation of Europe's memory of its struggle against nazism mirrors the propaganda of some Muslims - the July 7 bombers who, citing Iraq, insisted that they were martyrs in a holy war; and those who portray domestic anti-terrorism policy as a new western crusade against 1 billion Muslims.
(...)
As Ken Macdonald, director of public prosecutions, warned last week, if we want to safeguard our security we must abandon delusions that we are fighting wars, and deal with terrorism in the context of criminal justice. With more terror arrests inevitable, and the prospect of new anti-terrorism legislation any day, the need to grasp what is really going on could not be more urgent.
Link til Maliks indlæg i The Guardian.

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