conflict & communication online, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2016
www.cco.regener-online.de
ISSN 1618-0747

 

 


Editorial

 

 

 

In fall 2015, at the peak of the refugee crisis, when the number of anti-immigrant crimes in Germany doubled (cf. Tab. 1) and the incidence of attacks on refugee accommodations literally exploded (cf. Tab. 2), the German chancellor was deserted by the major part of Europe and her own party, the chairman of her sister party demanded an upper limit for refugees, and in the end the Austrian chancellor also capitulated and closed the borders, Pegida (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident), AfD (Alternative for Germany), CSU (Christian Socialist Union) and FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) received unexpected support from representatives of Jewish organizations.

 

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Total

1665

1838

2027

2207

4183

Violent crimes

256

257

334

316

612

Persons injured

275

244

337

272

459

Propaganda crimes

342

407

391

391

783

Table 1: Anti-immigrant crimes 2011-2015 [1].
.

 

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Total

18

23

69

199

1005

Arson

No data

No data

No data

6

92

Table 2: Attacks on refugee housing 2011-2015 [2].

Oskar Deutsch [3], President of the Jewish Religious Community in Vienna, maintained that, “the hundreds of thousands who come from Syria or Afghanistan to Europe, …  [were] exposed for decades to an anti-Semitism which culminated in particular aggressiveness,” and as well the chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany (Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland), Josef Schuster [4], warned against intensified anti-Semitism emanating from Arab-background refugees and advocated setting upper limits on the admission of refugees [5].
A few months before, after attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris, Schuster had still responded moderately and spoken of the fact that a Jew was no less safe in Europe than, for example, in the USA or even in Israel [6]. And now this: General suspicion of Arabs or respectively Muslims and exclusion of people fleeing from Islamist terror in their home countries; exclusion of people in whom one could indeed also see, with Pinchas Goldschmidt, Chief Rabbi of Moscow and Chairman of the European Rabbis Conference, [7] “our allies against radical Islamism.”
There is in fact a danger that the mutual animosity between Jews and Arabs, who for an entire century have been fighting over a small piece of land in the Middle East, could spread in Germany and/or Austria. “Decades of the Israeli-Arab conflict have not only marked the image of Israel in the Islamic world, but also that of Judaism” [8] and conversely in Israel and the Jewish Diaspora, the image of Arabs and Muslims. On both sides there are already people who are fighting an ideological Middle East proxy war in Germany and/or Austria. This propaganda war is fought on the pro-Israeli side using means to blur public perceptions of the boundaries separating anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and criticism of Israeli Palestine policy, and to make the Jewish community afraid that it is always and everywhere surrounded by anti-Semites. This fear mongering is now bearing fruit.
However, “the Jews” do not exist any more than do “the Arabs, “the Islam” or “the Muslims”.  And – as the Israeli author David Grossmann [9] writes – the dividing line does not run “between Jews and Arabs …, but rather between all those who want to live in peace and those who ideologically and emotionally bank on violence.” And, if this holds in Israel/Palestine, then it holds no less in Germany and Austria. And then it is, as the German-Jewish historian Michael Brenner [8] has emphasized in Süddeutschen Zeitung, also within our power to develop a new model of Jewish-Muslim coexistence.
“That people in some predominantly Muslim countries are indoctrinated with anti-Semitic propaganda does not by a long shot mean that they take everything presented to them at face value” (Brenner) [8]. For all the worry “that images hostile to Israel could be carried to Germany and lead to anti-Semitism here, which would push the value system in a direction that none of us wants” (Schuster) [10], exclusion of migrants from Arab states not only means abandoning central Jewish and Christian values, but at the same time also sabotages the integration of refugees.
In view of the terrorist attacks in Paris in January and November 2015, it was intelligible to fear that "French circumstances" could occur with us as well. Islamist-related incidents must be seen in the framework of the traditions [11] and the social climate of the country, in which they have occurred, however. Where migrants face social hostility, it is not surprising if they feel marginalized and (some of them) develop hatred against the host society or develop communion with transnational Islamist organizations that draw to the global jihad.
Preventing this can only be achieved through the integration of migrants. Integration is, however, not something that can be done by or expected of “the refugees” alone. Integration is a reciprocal process to which the receiving society must make its contribution by accepting immigrants into its midst and not just tolerating or even excluding them.
“To successfully integrate them means not only to offer them a roof over their heads, to financially support them and give them prospects of work, but also to transmit the values of our society to them” (Brenner) [8]. This can only succeed if we ourselves credibly represent and live by these values. In order to integrate them, one must not only – as called for by Schuster [12] – make it clear “to the people who come to us” that “anti-Semitic behavior is not tolerated in Germany,” but one must also not accept without a word of protest when, e.g., the Jüdische Rundschau [13] casts aspersion on defenders of the right of asylum.
If one, to be sure, pays lip service to our society’s value system, but at the same time raises general suspicion against refugees and makes it all too clear to them that they are undesired here, one destroys their readiness to integrate: Who would want to integrate themselves into a society hostile to them? And, when Schuster demands a limitation of the immigration of Arab-background refugees, he also pours water over the mill of those who have already chosen “the Jews” as their enemies and hands them the “argument” that “the Jews” deny the right of asylum to Arabs and Muslims who seek refuge in Europe.
Inciting fear of Muslim immigrants is nothing new in Germany. The attempt to declare the Berlin borough of Neukölln a No-Go-Area for Jews [14] is only one example of this. But fear is a bad advisor, and if the chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany makes common cause with the demands of right-wing populist parties and the Pegida movement, he must not wonder if some Jews do not feel represented by him [15]. For luckily, it is not “the Jews” but only a small, nonetheless highly vociferous minority that incites fear of “the Muslims.” There are also the many who make an effort to live together peacefully, express understanding for the fates of people who come to us, and are ready to help: Rabbis who highlighted the biblical tradition of refugee aid in their sermons,  Jewish aid organizations like the Central Welfare Agency of Jews in Germany (Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland), refugees from the former Soviet Union who got in touch with their Jewish community in order to assist Syrian refugees who often speak Russian, etc. New volunteer groups formed spontaneously on the grassroots, and in the US the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society called upon the American President to let more Syrian refugees into the country [8].
To draw attention to these people is the reason why we are documenting in this issue of conflict & communication online the welcome flyer of the Jewish-Austrian volunteer group Shalom Alaikum Vienna and put a link on the article “Freundschaft gegen Hass” (Friendship against Hatred) from Wiener Zeitung, in which Alexia Weiss reviews the book “Reise nach Jerusalem” (Journey to Jerusalem), jointly authored by Vienna’s Community Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister and the Imam Ramazam Demir.
In addition, we put a link on a catalogue of questions and answers regarding Muslims and Islam that was put on the internet by the Austrian human rights organization SOS Mitmensch, and document the “Kasseler Schulderklärung” (Kassel Declaration of Guilt) with which the working group “Friedensauftrag und Militär” (Peace Mandate and Military) of the International Reconciliation Alliance/German Branch reacted to an open letter by over 120 Muslim scholars “to the fighters and supporters of the self-appointed ‘Islamic State’.”
For some this declaration of guilt might seem a bit naive, but there is no way around: Conflicts between the Jewish, Muslim and Christian worlds can only be overcome if civil society works against every sort of injustice that is, or has been committed in its name and/or in the name of its religious-cultural roots. This still holds even after the wave of terrorist attacks during the summer of this year, and there is an urgent need not to incite the spiral of violence even further and to refuse to follow the populist politicians who go to vote-catching from the right (Host Seehofer) to the leftmost political spectrum (Sarah Wagenknecht) by opposing the chancellor’s appeal “Wir schaffen das” (We can accomplish it).
In an atmosphere of fear and insecurity, extremism will always be the first to offer seductive explanations of the phenomena that leave others speechless. This speechlessness must be overcome. From political elites that run after opinion polls there is nothing to expect, but there are infinite opportunities for civic engagement, reinvention of politics, reshaping of democracy, and the establishment of an open society that issues a clear denial to any form of hatred and prejudice against religious and/or ethnic groups and regards the diversity of cultural influences as an enrichment. We only have to take them [16].

Berlin, October 2016

Wilhelm Kempf

Notes:
[1] The figures stated in Table 1 are based on the quarterly Parliamentary Survey of the Die Linke political party (cf. http://www.petrapau.de/18_bundestag/index_anfragen_rechts.htm; Download 6-8-16). The figures from the Bundestag are usually conservative. The figures later published by the BMI are usually about half as much higher.
[2] The figures given in Table 2 are based for 2011-2014 on the list published in Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von_Angriffen_auf_Fl%C3%BCchtlinge_und_Fl%C3%BCchtlingsunterk%C3%BCnfte_in_Deutschland; Download 6-13-16) and for 2014-1015 on a report of Der Spiegel of 1-28-16 (http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/fluechtlingsheime-bundeskriminalamt-zaehlt-mehr-als-1000-attacken-a-1074448.html; Download 6-13-16). According to a documentation of Die Tageszeitung of 9-29-15 (http://www.taz.de/!5235937/; Download 6-13-16) the number of acts of arson committed against refugee housing in 2015, at least 122, are clearly even higher than the figures given by the Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Criminal Police Office – Germany).
[3] Cf.  http://juedischerundschau.de/zuwanderung-und-antisemitismus-135910209/ (Download 6-5-16).
[4] Cf.  http://www.epochtimes.de/politik/deutschland/zentralrat-der-juden-fuerchtet-antisemitismus-durch-fluechtlinge-a1274897.html (Download 6-5-16).
[5] Cf.  http://www.shortnews.de/id/1179301/zentralrat-der-juden-fordert-obergrenze-fuer-fluechtlinge# (Download 6-6-16).
[6] Cf. http://www.taz.de/Juedisches-Leben-in-Europa/!154852/ (Download 2-28-15).
[7] Cf. http://kurier.at/politik/ausland/rabbi-pinchas-goldschmidt-muslime-sind-unsere-verbuendeten/202.140.088 (Download 6-5-16).
[8] Cf.  http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/debatte-bringen-die-fluechtlinge-mehr-antisemitismus-nach-deutschland-1.2655933 (Download 6-6-16).
[9] Cf.  http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/kultur/diverses/Erinnern-wir-uns-an-die-Zukunft/story/10216028 (Download 11-24-14)
[10] Cf. http://www.epochtimes.de/politik/deutschland/zentralrat-der-juden-fuerchtet-antisemitismus-durch-fluechtlinge-a1274897.html (Download 6-5-16).
[11] Cf. Kepel, G. (2009). Die Spirale des Terrors. Der Weg des Islamismus vom 11. September bis in unsere Vorstädte. München: Piper.
[12] Cf.  https://newsburger.de/antisemitismus-zentralrat-der-juden-beklagt-ein-abdriften-nach-rechts-92994.html (Download 6-5-16)
[13] Cf.  http://juedischerundschau.de/zuwanderung-und-antisemitismus-135910209/ (Download 6-5-16).
[14] Cf. http://www.morgenpost.de/bezirke/neukoelln/article121251303/Neukoelln-Besuch-kann-Rabbiner-Alter-die-Angst-nicht-nehmen.html (Download 2-28-14).
[15] However, if this is formulated as crudely as by the student of Jewish theology Armin Langer, founder of the activist group Salaam-Schalom that works for a peaceful togetherness of Jews and Muslims in Neukölln, then it is hardly helpful. Cf. http://www.taz.de/Kommentar-Fluechtlingsaufnahme/!5250325/ (Download 6-5-16).
[16] Cf. Glucksmann, R. (2015). Génération Gueule de Bois. Paris: Allary Éditions.

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