When anti-Israel sentiment shades into anti-Semitism

2014/02/15 Leave a comment

Interesting commentary on the links between anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism from a South African perspective by RW Johnson:

But the unfunny side of all this is when (perfectly acceptable) criticism of Israel is used to encourage entirely unacceptable anti-semitism. If we’re frank about it, this is always likely to happen in South Africa simply because our lines of ethnic and community cleavage have been so envenomed over such a long period. Given the sheer historical fact of anti-black, anti-white or anti-Indian feeling – and the fact that so many still believe that the expression of such feelings is legitimate – it is only a small extra step to get to anti-semitism.

So, whatever the “Boycott Israel” or “Israel Apartheid” lobbies say – and they have a right to exist and to their opinions – if they are honest they must admit that wherever they operate they leave a trail of anti-semitism in their wake. They may say that this is not their intent, but they cannot be unwitting that this is what happens.

This means that an ineluctable burden lies on all our Vice Chancellors and other university administrators. They just have to think about the history of academic institutions and intellectual life generally in this country to know how precious and indispensable the Jewish contribution has been. So that even if the prevention of anti-semitism wasn’t a sacred duty for intellectuals anywhere, we have our own particular South African reasons to say that this simply shall not pass.

Politicsweb – When anti-Israel sentiment shades into anti-Semitism – FEATURES.

Hussein Ibish writes on the BDS campaign, and the need to limit it to the occupied territories, both in fact and in rhetoric. He does not mention the overtones of  antisemitism of BDS when the language includes Israel itself:

There is no question that Palestinians are onto a very good thing here, if they handle it right. And the Israelis clearly have a problem, as acknowledged by all of their sensible leaders. But, ironically, the biggest threat to this sudden and significant piece of leverage is the strident BDS rhetoric that makes pro-peace actions against settlements that are based squarely in international law look like anti-Israel initiatives that don’t square with the goals of either peace or a two-state solution.

If the rhetoric of strident BDS activists can be brought into line with the reality of anti-settlement boycotts, Palestinians could well acquire a significant and desperately needed new tool of leverage with Israel. If not, while demagogues may not be able to stop the growing international anti-settlement sentiment, they can certainly continue to provide apologists for the occupation with vital rhetorical ammunition for counterattack, and space for conflation and confusion, that they would and should otherwise be denied.

Harmful rhetoric can break the momentum of anti-settlement boycott efforts

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Laïcité: Fatima Houda-Pepin dépose son projet de loi | Charte de la laïcité

2014/02/14 Leave a comment

More on the proposal of Fatima Houda-Pepin. In some ways, more sensible than the Values Charter (limited to officials in positions of authority à la Bouchard-Taylor), in others goes further in limiting requests for accommodation (e.g., school curricula). Most interestingly:

Fatima Houda-Pepin souhaite également la création d’un « centre de recherche-action sur les intégrismes religieux et leurs impacts sur la démocratie, les droits de la personne et les droits de la jeunesse.» Il aurait pour mandat « d’identifier et de documenter les manifestations d’intégrisme religieux basées sur l’instrumentalisation des religions ou sur un code d’ honneur ». Le premier ministre devrait déposer un rapport annuel contenant les résultats des travaux de ce centre et « recommander toute mesure législative ou réglementaire nécessaire à la mise en oeuvre du rapport ». Ce pourrait être « l’adoption de sanctions appropriées, telles que la révocation de l’enregistrement d’un organisme de bienfaisance aux termes de la Loi sur les impôts ».

It should be noted that Houda-Pepin has developed these proposals given some of her experience with Muslim fundamentalists in her own riding and elsewhere in Quebec.

Laïcité: Fatima Houda-Pepin dépose son projet de loi | Tommy Chouinard | Charte de la laïcité.

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Plus d’un tiers des Français approuve les idées du Front national | Le Devoir

2014/02/14 Leave a comment

Depressing reading but rise of extreme xenophobic right not exclusive to France in Europe. Another reminder of the failure of the French model of integration:

Mais le niveau d’adhésion n’a cessé toutefois de croître ces dernières années. Il était de 22% en 2011, lors de la prise de fonction de Marine Le Pen à la tête du parti fondé par son père, Jean-Marie Le Pen. Il a atteint 31% en 2012 et 32% en 2013.

Plus d’un tiers des Français approuve les idées du Front national | Le Devoir.

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Global Anti-Semitism and the Erosion of Shame | Abraham H. Foxman

2014/02/14 Leave a comment

Abe Foxman, of the Anti-Defamation League, on antisemitism, taking a broad interpretation. His point on the erosion of shame is valid, but is not limited to antisemitism as it widespread in the political, corporate, entertainment and other worlds. On Israel, he, like many commentators, do not distinguish between criticism of Israel per se and Israeli policies and practices in the occupied territories :

Anti-Semitism has characteristics like other forms of bigotry in terms of stereotyping, alienation from the other, and discrimination.

But what makes it different, and which goes a long way to explain anomalous things about anti-Semitism — how long it has lasted, how it pops up in different places, the concept of anti-Semitism without Jews, the contradictory accusations against Jews, etc. — is the core of the anti-Semitic idea: that Jews are not what they seem to be. The real Jew, according to the anti-Semite, is a hidden conspiratorialist, all-powerful and evil….

But other factors play a role and are increasingly worrisome. There is the erosion of shame about anti-Semitism as the Holocaust becomes more remote in time and as survivors pass away. The too-easy analogizing of every bad thing that happens today to the Holocaust, which the Anti-Defamation League condemns whenever it surfaces, is just one manifestation of the loss of impact on attitudes that the Holocaust formerly had.

Pictures of Auschwitz after the war did not lead to the disappearance of anti-Semitism. They did, however, constrain manifestations of Jew hatred. That loss of embarrassment over time reduces those constraints.

Additionally, the ongoing critique of the state of Israel is a powerful corrosive factor. Not every criticism of Israel is illegitimate, and surely not anti-Semitic. But when condemnations of the Jewish state are so clearly biased, when Israel is singled out for punitive treatment, even when some of those engaging in these activities may not be motivated by anti-Semitism, it opens up the Pandora’s Box of Jew hatred and makes it much more acceptable. We see this in the boycott and delegitimization movements against Israel, which lead to anti-Jewish activities, like isolating Jewish students on campus.

Global Anti-Semitism and the Erosion of Shame | Abraham H. Foxman.

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U of T student loses bid to avoid class with women because he’s shy | Toronto Star

2014/02/14 Leave a comment

For Valentine’s Day.

This is an easy one (but why such a student would pick a Women and Gender Studies course). How would UofT and others handle such a request if it was based on religious grounds is the more interesting question.

U of T student loses bid to avoid class with women because he’s shy | Toronto Star.

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With the Charter, Quebec risks closing its mind – The Globe and Mail

2014/02/13 Leave a comment

Louise Arbour in the Globe on the Quebec Values Charter:

In short, we are called upon to choose the kind of world in which we want to live. All this talk about secularism, the neutrality of the state, tolerance or the specificity of Quebec should not obscure the fact that this is not about affirming values, but it’s about promoting and implementing them.

We have avoided the pathologies of nationalisms that feed the far right and all other forms of extremism. Quebec society is modern, open to the world and until now inclusive. In that setting, the proposed charter of secularism is a siren song. It evokes images of a homogeneous Catho-secular society where “our” religious symbols are innocuous, since we have voided them of their purely religious content, but where the religious symbols of “others” are a perpetual menace to us all.

In reality Quebec has succeeded remarkably well in absorbing immigration into a tightly knit society. Fear is always a bad adviser. Rather, social cohesion comes from a generous and welcoming spirit that induces others to integrate. This is, in fact, what newcomers have always done.

With the Charter, Quebec risks closing its mind – The Globe and Mail.

On a (relatively) positive note, the Mayor of Quebec city manages to find a balance between tolerance and his discomfort with more fundamentalist Muslim women:

« Y’a des gens qui pourraient être tentés de blâmer ces femmes-là. Je voudrais dire à ceux qui pourraient être tentés de faire ça à Québec de ne pas le faire. De surtout avoir beaucoup de compassion pour ces femmes-là qui sont obligées de s’attriquer de cette façon-là à cause de préceptes religieux, à cause d’interprétations d’une religion qui, quant à moi, sont fausses. »

M. Labeaume a par ailleurs indiqué qu’il n’avait aucun problème à laisser ces femmes porter de tels maillots. « De toute façon, des nageurs professionnels ont à peu près le même », a-t-il dit.

Il n’a pas caché par ailleurs qu’il les plaignait beaucoup et espérait qu’elles « se révoltent un jour ».

Port du burkini: ​appel à la «compassion»

Fatima Houda-Pépin, excluded from the Liberal Party of Quebec caucus, tabled her own version of laicité, narrower that the proposed Charter coverage but including the creation of an organization to monitor religious fundamentalists. Needless to say, the PQ government is delighted with this, both on substantive and political terms:

Houda-Pepin revient hanter Couillard

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Barbara Kay: Huron College should open up its Islam course, or shut it down | National Post

2014/02/13 Leave a comment

More on the Huron College Islamic preaching course (Ontario university defends decision to kick non-Muslim out of course that teaches Islamic preaching | National Post).

If seminaries have an exemption from a faith test, does an individual course fall into that category? And if some of the courses on Christian preaching at Huron are open to students of other or no faith, why shouldn’t the one on Islamic preaching. And how do other universities with seminaries or theological colleges handle this?

Nobody, including Watson, has a problem with a course in public speaking about Islam being offered at a college if it is inclusive. He also has no problem with it being exclusive, but offered in a venue such as a mosque or a community centre or a seminary that is not tax-funded. It’s really quite a simple issue. Open up the course or shut it down.

On the other hand, it may be better to have training for Islamic preachers in Canada, rather than relying on imported Imams, less familiar and open to an openly diverse and multi faith society.

Barbara Kay: Huron College should open up its Islam course, or shut it down | National Post.

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UK – Islamic preachers: the pied pipers of sexual apartheid? – Telegraph

2014/02/12 1 Comment

More on the ongoing controversy, and ongoing activities, of fundamentalist preachers and the requirement for gender segregation at UK universities:

The speaker this time was Ustadh Alomgir Ali, a lecturer from Haddad’s Muslim Research and Development Foundation. His audience comprised men at the front and women – the majority of whom waited outside in the rain before the lecture began while the men gathered inside – at the back. Although there were no signs enforcing segregation, he spoke at length in favour of gender division and of a “crisis in society”, with the relationship between men and women in need of correction.

“In Islam, we have laid down certain prohibitions because it leads on to other sins,” he told his audience. “The first important point you must learn at university is lowering the gaze.”

His lecture concluded with some advice. “Brothers and sisters, the important thing is to learn etiquette of modesty, lowering your gaze, avoiding touching the opposite gender and avoiding unnecessary socialising with the opposite gender.”

Islamic preachers: the pied pipers of sexual apartheid? – Telegraph.

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Ontario university defends decision to kick non-Muslim out of course that teaches Islamic preaching | National Post

2014/02/11 Leave a comment

Interesting story about an accountant who wished to sign up for an Islamic preaching course to test whether a non-Muslim could apply but who is opposed to public universities providing such training:

James Turk, the executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, said his group opposes faith tests. The exception, however, is seminaries. It’s reasonable, Mr. Turk said, to require students who are training to be leaders within their religious communities to adhere to those beliefs.

Mr. Watson believes a course on how to preach is better suited for a mosque or community centre than it is for a publicly funded university. The student believes he should have the right to see what Ms. Mattson is teaching, particularly in light of what he believes is a growing strain of Islamic extremism in the community.

Ms. Mattson encouraged Mr. Watson to take one of her alternative courses on Islam and politics instead.

“I don’t know to what extent he has a genuine interest or to what extent he has an ideological commitment to a certain world view of Muslims,” she said. “There are people who have genuine concerns and there are ways for them to engage in discussions with Muslims, or with me, about these issues. I would think the Islam and politics class would have been much more suited to his interests.”

Ontario university defends decision to kick non-Muslim out of course that teaches Islamic preaching | National Post.

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Can Virtual “Racism” Evoke Empathy? | There’s an App for That

2014/02/10 Leave a comment

Interesting concept, poor execution.

The app creators seemingly hope to reach people who discriminate against others, and to encourage these users to change their ways — after virtually experiencing “racism.” This limits their target audience to conscientious racists. And if there are such self-aware racists, are they really so oblivious to what needs to change?

Perhaps this app could better achieve its goals if it chose a name that didn’t perpetrate misconceptions and stereotypes, and if it marketed itself as a resource for multicultural education programs, practical diversity trainings or even sensitivity workshops.

Imagine if the app were renamed to reflect reality: Being Different Is Normal — But It Ain’t Easy.

Can Virtual “Racism” Evoke Empathy? | Re/code.

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