Is Anti-Semitism or Islamophobia Growing in the United States?

 

We hear about the ever-increasing anti-Muslim hate crimes often in response to a terrorist act and with these claims the warning to avoid Islamophobia as if Islamic hatreds were growing out of control. Let us look at the reality on the comparison between anti-Islamic and anti-Semitic crimes starting in 2000 through 2014, the last year we could find comparable statistics, using FBI gathered statics below:

Year                                            Anti-Islamic Crimes                                 Anti-Semitic Crimes
2000                                                   28                                                                1109
2001                                                 481                                                                1043
2002                                                155                                                                   931
2003                                                149                                                                   927
2004                                                156                                                                   954
2005                                                128                                                                   848
2006                                                156                                                                   967
2007                                                115                                                                   969
2008                                                105                                                                 1013
2009                                                107                                                                   931
2010                                                160                                                                   887
2011                                                157                                                                   771
2012                                                130                                                                   674
2013                                                135                                                                   625
2014                                                154                                                                   609

 

As one might have expected, hate crimes against Muslims peaked in 2001 and settled back to a level which was significantly higher than the 2000 statistic but there was no significant rise after 2001 despite the incessant cries of Islamophobia which we hear after every Muslim atrocity such as the recent attacks in Israel, the United States, Europe and the others in Africa, Asia and the rest of the Middle East which we do not hear about. Yes, we know there is violence and fighting going on in Libya, Syria and Iraq, but we hear little about the fighting between the Islamic State and the Kurds as well as Turkey and the Kurds and the Christians who are still getting murdered wholesale in the Middle East, North Africa and all along the borders between Islam and the Christian world and between Islam and the Hindu and Buddhist worlds.

 

As also noted from the table of anti-Islamic and anti-Semitic crimes, it becomes quickly evident that if there were an actual problem between the two it would be anti-Semitism. The sad news is that anti-Semitism has been reported to be escalating, especially on college campuses where at some major universities the Jewish students are afraid to let their religion become known and would never consider wearing any religious items such as a Yarmulke or Star of David jewelry for fear of being assaulted. A report in Arutz Sheva titled Anti-Semitism jumps by more than 100% in New England obviously is some ominous news as if counting New Jersey and New York to New England, that small area, accounts for approximately half the Jewish population of the country. The particulars may not sound horrific but anyway one looks at the number of anti-Semitic incidents doubled from five per month to just over ten a month is worrisome in what it portends for the future. The Majority of the offences were registered from Massachusetts. Going back a few years and taking the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) figures, there was a 21% increase in anti-Semitic offences in 2014 over 2013 with the numbers rising from 751 to 912. What is troublesome to us is whose figures to believe, these from the ADL or the FBI reported a drop from 625 to 609. Who to believe is the problem, but for a solution one can believe that the ADL receives more reports from Jews who decide not to take out a police report as such can often be more problems for no arrest or other assistance as most often the report is taken and filed as many of the incidents are misdemeanor crimes though to the victim it probably feels a whole lot more serious. Still, unless one seeks to find information about anti-Semitism you are unlikely to know how much more prevalent it is in the United States as well as Europe, the Middle East and around the world.

 

 

Looking at recent activities on many college and university campuses, as stated above, the majority of it is anchored on Israel, which is the springboard for further anti-Semitic actions. Whenever there are activities such as Israel Apartheid Week events designed to misrepresent Israel making Israel out to be the haters and the Islamic world as the exemplary nations where Utopian tolerance and inter-religious tolerance exists, even a cursory review of reality proves this to be a fiction of the worst kind. In Israel the Arabs, both Muslim and Christian alike as well as Buddhists, Baha’I, Hindu, Yazidi and any other religion practiced in the world are accepted and protected with the same or more open acceptance as in the United States while throughout the Islamic world their nations persecute Christians as well as Buddhists, Baha’I, Hindu, Yazidi and any other religion practiced in the world. Even Muslims who are of a different sect or variety are persecuted by the majority Islamic variety such as is prevalent in places where Sunni and Shiite both reside in the same nation. This has been extremely evident in Iran, Syria and Iraq where the violence is often open and flagrant. Yet within the United States Islamophobia is a static and a far lesser problem than is anti-Semitism, but what about the future?

 

This is where things become more clouded and obscured because attempting to paint a picture of the future one cannot necessarily rely on the past, even the most recent past, but instead must rely on a sixth sense which is difficult to support with facts but let us give it a go. Islam is ascendant in the West and has been cutting out a niche, especially in Europe but also in the United States, where their communities are often segregated from the rest of the nation and are so by design. There is this move towards civilizational Jihad where they initially set aside areas where their numbers are prevalent and work towards clearing an area in major cities and also form small communities out in the countryside usually well away from the beaten path. These are intentional as once they have cleared an area they can impose Sharia or in the remote communities set up military training areas outside of the normal police and societal rules where Islam makes the rules. Many of these hubs of Islamic activity are represented on the map below depicting statistics gathered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. What is most distressing is that a number of these locations are already “No-Go” zones for law enforcement within the United States just as have existed in Europe for the past few decades. Within these miniature Islamic areas, one might equate them to the little Islamic homeland away from home forging their own little Middle East homeland in America. Many of these locations are financed directly by terrorist organizations and others by Islamic countries. Some of the terrorist influences include but are not limited to Hezballah (one of the most widespread and heavily financed terror groups in the world mostly financed by Iran), Muslim Brotherhood (includes CAIR and ISNA), Islamic State, Palestinian Liberation Organization (financed by the Palestinian Authority, Fatah, and largely responsible for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions BDS against Israel) and others. Two of the nations who are by far the largest are Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saudi Arabia builds Mosques, provides Imams, finances youth groups and spreads the Wahhabi form of Islamism and finances Middle East Chairs as well as providing professorships. Iran finances many Shiite Mosques and training areas and these interests just got a huge financial windfall as these areas are part of the Iranian government through the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) as the Iranian Military which was granted many billions of dollars resulting from the Iran Nuclear Deal and with a large interest under Hezballah control also financed by Iran through the IRGC and directly. The main influence which will have large effects in the future are the manipulations and influences being introduced and has been heavily financed on college and university campuses.

 

 

One of the main aims of the Islamic influences on campuses is to indoctrinate anti-Semitic strains of thought into the educational systems and onto college life. The Palestinian influence is seen with a heavy hand in these areas. They wrap their anti-Semitism in an anti-Israel agenda where they pound home the propaganda that Israel is a hate-filled and racist nation where only Jews are permitted rights and everybody else is at best victimized and at worst are the victims of genocidal campaigns to annihilate them. This is the line being proposed with their Israel Apartheid Week where the claim that Israeli Defense Forces are routinely implementing a genocidal campaign whose aim is to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians residing within the “occupied” areas. The evidence they provide are based on lies and they never explain or permit into the discussion the inconvenient fact that the Palestinian numbers have grown from 650,000 in 1948 to presumably over 5,000,000, if their numbers are to be believed, when they demand that Israel accept every last Palestinian to return to within Israel with full rights so they can destroy the Jewish State via the ballot box, something that would otherwise be impossible if Israel truly was an Apartheid State. There is never permitted any discussion about the three-quarters of a million Jews expelled from the Arab World in the Middle East and North Africa between 1948 through 1960 in an attempt to inundate Israel with Jewish refugees who had been stripped of any wealth. One has to wonder where these Jewish refugees are today and that is easy to tell, they are incorporated and a vital part of Israeli society because the Israelis welcomed their brothers and sisters and never for a moment considered placing them in refugee camps to utilize as propaganda against their former home nations within which many of their families had resided in these areas for close to two-thousand years. Israel would not degrade anybody in such a manner. Another small fact that is never permitted into the equation is that the Arabs who continued to reside within Israel after the seven Arab armies failed to destroy her in 1948-9 were also not thrown into refugee camps but fully intertwined into Israeli society, given full rights from day one, had full voting rights and voted in every election since 1948 including the very first Israeli elections, were allowed to work in any job, many as doctors and nurses, members of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset), are judges, lawyers and many own their own businesses just as any Israeli is permitted, be they Jewish, Christian, Muslim or any other religion.

 

The frightening effect the peddling of these lies on campus is that they also paint the Jews with the Israelis claiming there is no difference and that the Jews in the United States are Israeli agents and are attempting with great success to destroy the United States sacrificing America for Israel. When one listens to their rants, they use Israeli and Jew interchangeably making no differentiation despite the fact that the vast majority of American Jews have never visited Israel and all too many have no desire to visit Israel and do not even support Israel. There are numerous Jews who ally themselves with these anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic organizations supporting their fight against Israel. These are useful idiots in the truest sense of the word. They are used as foils to prove the openness of the Arabs and Muslims and as proof that Israel is every bit as evil as claimed as even these Jews fight against the monstrous crimes committed by Israel. The only problem is that these Arab and Muslim propagandists and community organizers are suffering from the world’s worst case of projection as their Arab and Muslim homelands are guilty of virtually every charge they accuse Israel of committing. There is a reason that these Arab and Muslim activists fight tooth and nail against having people visit Israel, simply because within a few hours of visiting Israel their entire lie-soaked presentations would collapse before the obvious evidence within Israel’s open society. Instead, when they arrange trips to see the reality in Israel, one is whisked off to the Palestinian Arab side where any Jew would be murdered on the spot unless they are with the group being indoctrinated, and they are treated to the greatest show that can be put on. The show includes lies that claim that the Jews believe themselves to be superior to others just as the Nazis had done and that the Jews are the modern Nazis. The entire propaganda served up about Israel equals Jews and Jews equals Israel and both are contemptable racist haters. The only defense we will attempt is to invite those desiring truth to visit Israel independently from any group and see reality uncolored by any preconceived notion or filtered through any lenses other than one’s own glasses or contact lenses should one wear them. Nothing else is required to prove the Israeli side of the discussion and Israel has nice beaches and believe it or not skiing in the winter with any good fortune. There are historic sights, the Dead Sea, the lowest place on Earth and what many claim are therapeutic benefits from swimming or just immersing in the salty waters of the Dead Sea. There are even Roman period ruins and those are some of the youngest sites. There is Akko, one of the oldest cities in the world and a once powerful port city with a crusader history as well as being the sole city to repel all attacks from Napoleon. There are religious sites from Islam and Christianity and even older sites from Judaism which predate both religions. For an idea on the age of Judaism one need only know that Buddhism and Confucianism, which predated Islam and Christianity by centuries, their founding teachers Confucius (551–479 BCE) and Gautama Buddha (558 – 491 BCE) both lived and taught during the Second Temple periods beginning as it lasted from 515 BCE until its destruction by the Romans in 70 CE. Judaism’s First Temple, or Solomon’s Temple, period was from its construction 970 BCE to 931 BCE until its destruction in 587 BCE. So, yes, there is quite a lot of history to be witnessed and a surprisingly open and vibrant society where everyone enjoys equality.

 

Those who wish to claim that Israel is not open and that the Jews are haters are selling the oldest of all anti-Semitic diatribes. Nazi Leader Adolph Hitler was far from the first anti-Semite claiming that the Jews were responsible for all the nation’s woes and were a threat to the continued government. Anti-Semitism very likely even predated Pharos though Pharos was the first to be credited with such falsehoods. The Jews of that era were to be known as the Israelites even before there was an Israel as the Torah was written with the promise that all the lands which Avraham could survey from the tall hilltop would eventually belong to his bloodline from generation to generation. The modern version of anti-Semites paint a picture of Israel as the greatest oppressor and hater of all outside of herself and then smear Jews in general using the presumably proven evils of Israel and claiming that all Jews are Israel and Israel is all Jews. This is circular reasoning, a form of reason considered to be false and the worst place to be should your side be caught in such a supportive argument in any debate. Unfortunately, the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Semites do not permit debate and will intimidate, shout down and use the campus codes and ban on Hate Speech to silence any pro-Israel argument. The ever-present threat of violence should any opposition be permitted against the anti-Israel-Zionist-Semites attempt to express their side almost always intimidates the University or College officials into closing off any counter arguments as hate speech thus silencing one side allowing the other to claim there is no opposition because the other side has no legitimate argument. Who’s practicing Apartheid techniques now?

 

The eventual desire of these anti-Israel-Zionist-Semites is to prove that the Jew is the real threat and that the Jew is the enemy of all good people and the Jew is the ruination of the nation and as such the Jews must be eradicated. All of their arguments are by their nature intrinsically anti-Semitic as they deny Israel the right to exist thus denying the Jews their own nation as every other peoples have with the exception of the Kurds who have been denied self-determination by Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Their attempt to define Israel as the sole nation to have ever committed any hate ignoring equal or more often worse such actions is again singling out the Jew amongst nations for special judgements. Setting a different bar by which to judge Israel and then only judging Israel is again anti-Semitism by selective judging of Israeli society. Singling Israel from all the nations on the planet and setting it aside for special considerations is another form of Israel victimization and when all counter arguments are summarily dismissed out of hand is refusing Israel a defense or defender and thus anti-Semitism. Finally, when supporting a Palestinian State, those supporting such always mean replacement of Israel with another Arab state and not two states side-by-side as is almost always claimed when these anti-Semites are put upon and this can be proven by their favorite chant, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine must be free.” Where is there any allowance for the Jewish State in that argument? The final nail in their coffins is their oft repeated chant straight from the streets of Tehran which demand, “Kill, kill Israel, kill, kill every Jew.” Another of their stock and trade is the chant, “Death to the Jews.” That last one need not be given any argument beyond the pointing to the quote and allowing it to stand for itself.

 

Beyond the Cusp