Tuesday, July 12, 2005

But is it good for the Jews?

Ha'aretz reports:
The status of the French Jewish community has declined in recent years in direct proportion to the rise in status of the Muslim community, the JPPPI report maintains.
The authors say the outbreak of the 2001 intifada accelerated a process by which Islam was absolved by the media and political elites, while the Jewish community was stigmatized for supporting Israel. This process, begun under former president Francois Mitterrand in the 1980s, is ascribed to post-colonial guilt. Criticism of Islam became politically incorrect and was redirected at Jews, who were accused of tribalism.
The story of British and French Muslims are not exactly the same; the Muslims are not from the same places, and in some ways Muslims have integrated much better into British society than into French. But I think you can expect a similar process here to be accelerated in the long-term aftermath of the bombing. I don't think the Jews are being accused of 'tribalism,' but again, with lack of any real political power, our interests, which are very often different to Muslim interests (eg. over Israel) become less relevant to those in power.

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