In a letter to the editor, university professor emeritus Dr Bruno W. Reimann from the Institute of Sociology at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen sharply criticises his colleagues who ignore or deny the problem of Islamic anti-Semitism in Germany.
Here is the wording of the letter to the editor:
The phenomenon of the new, Islamic anti-Semitism makes it clear what cultural ‘gain’ the migrant immigration of non-Europeans is associated with. Society is regressing.
In the “nationwide comparative inventory of anti-Semitism in schools” by Salzborn and Kurth, there are either no references to the problem of religious, specifically: Islamic anti-Semitism, or it does not seem worth mentioning to the researchers. Whoever is to blame for this deficiency, it is impossible to pass over so succinctly a problem that is a pressing problem for schools. There is everyday anti-Semitism in the schools. The word “Jew” has become a “common swear word” (A. Schenk) in German schoolyards; a schoolgirl is insulted because she “does not believe in Allah”; an 18-year-old schoolgirl with Arab roots said: “Hitler was a good man, because he killed the Jews”.The Minister of Education, Karliczek, noted “increasing religiously motivated discrimination and acts of violence in schools”.It is a religious anti-Semitism that is firmly rooted in the cultures, the mentalities, the socialisations of the migrants from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Muslim Africa. As early as 2008, Thomas Schmidinger noted that “old European anti-Semitism is being carried back to Europe in its Islamised form.”Well-intentioned educational programmes are no solution. In contrast to the ‘old’ anti-Semitism on the right-wing political spectrum, the new religious anti-Semitism leads to the centre of society, into which migrants are being pushed by various programmes to promote integration. This is linked to a resurgence of religion. Christianity, which has become weak, is confronted with an emotionally driven Islam. Public debates make this strikingly clear: Is pork allowed in canteens? Are teachers allowed to wear headscarves? Should a Muslim holiday be introduced in Germany? And much more! With all this, modern Western culture is falling behind the level of secularisation it has achieved, the marginalisation of religion. In this way, cultural rationality gains are put at risk. Addressing this, as well as the partial Islamisation of this society in general, has become taboo, also because of the “fear of providing a platform for the right-wing” (Ahmad Mansour).