{"id":771,"date":"2016-04-14T10:06:29","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T10:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/epwgas.wpengine.com\/?p=771"},"modified":"2016-10-18T10:47:10","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T10:47:10","slug":"the-far-right-is-rising-and-anti-semitism-is-back-in-europe-how-short-is-our-collective-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ep-wgas.eu\/2016\/04\/14\/the-far-right-is-rising-and-anti-semitism-is-back-in-europe-how-short-is-our-collective-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"The far Right is rising and anti-Semitism is back in Europe. How short is our collective memory?"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Moshe KANTOR\/ 14 April 2016<\/p>\n
Charles Dickens famously wrote that \u201cit was the best of times, it was the worst of times\u201d. In the past week we have seen the worrying results of research into Muslim opinions conducted by ICM\/Channel 4, together with Sir Trevor Philips<\/a>. We are witnessing on a daily basis the exposure of the anti-Semitism corroding the British Labour Party<\/a>. We are still digesting recent far-Right political gains across Europe.<\/p>\n For many Jews and believers in Western liberal values living in Britain and across Europe today, the\u00a0opening line from A\u00a0Tale of Two Cities<\/em> seems more apt than ever.<\/p>\n We therefore have to ask ourselves some difficult questions. What, if anything, connects the different faces of intolerance that we are seeing in Europe today and what can we do about it?<\/p>\n Living in the developed world in the 21st century is a golden time for civilisation. We have more rights and freedoms than ever before;\u00a0technology has improved almost every aspect of our lives and our standards of living are at an all time high. In addition, Jews and other minorities living in cities across the UK and Europe have never before had the religious freedoms, business opportunities and political equality we enjoy today.<\/p>\n And yet\u2026<\/p>\n And yet, there is a disease rotting away at the very fabric of our society. This disease has many forms \u2013 it can come from right wing neo-Nazis, the Left-wing liberal intelligentsia or from Islamic fundamentalists . It is sometimes obvious and blatant. At other times it is quiet and subtle. The symptoms are intolerance, prejudice and hatred. \u00a0More often than not, as the ICM\/Channel 4 poll has shown,<\/a> the hatred is aimed at\u00a0Jews. But, as the same research and others also shows, all members of society who believe in freedom, tolerance and Western liberal values are at risk of an existential challenge to our way of life.<\/p>\n We are today living in a world where, according to ICM\/Channel 4, half of Muslims surveyed want homosexuality banned. \u00a0When a third of British Muslims believe \u201cJews have too much power in the UK\u201d and a quarter believe Jews are responsible for the world\u2019s current wars.<\/p>\n