Germany
Islam researcher: Troubling alliances in anti-Semitism
A boy holds up a placard depicting a pro-Palestinian protester standing under a stamp that reads “Anti Semitism.” photo
© picture alliance / dpa
According to Susanne Schröter, ideological “overlaps between Islamist and right-wing circles” did not only exist in the past – they still exist today, warns the scientist.
The Islamic scholar Susanne Schröter fears that anti-Semitism in… Germany continues to grow. Three social groups prepared the ground for this, said the director of the Frankfurt Research Center for Global Islam at Frankfurt’s Goethe University: Muslim, left-wing and right-wing circles. “There are currently worrying alliance possibilities. I fear that permanent synergy effects are currently emerging. This is quite explosive for our society.”
All three groups are on the same side when it comes to interpreting the Middle East conflict. “There is religiously based anti-Semitism in Islam,” Schröter told the German Press Agency. This is quite obvious with Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Hamas also emerged. “The hatred of Jews and the goal of destroying Israel is its founding foundation.” But there is also widespread anti-Semitism in the Muslim communities in Germany. “I don’t think the majority of Muslims condemn Hamas’ attack on Israel,” said Schröter.
Even in academic left-wing circles there is “an explicitly pro-Palestinian focus and strong anti-Israeli voices,” said Schröter. This is based on a post-colonial theory, according to which Israel is seen as a “white perpetrator state”. “This false but powerful construction is directly linked to Islamist narratives.” This attitude is also compatible with right-wing narratives, said Schröter. There was already an alliance between the Muslim Brotherhood and the National Socialists in the 1930s. “They had a common goal: the extermination of the Jews.” To this day there are ideological “overlaps between Islamist and right-wing circles.”