onsdag, oktober 18, 2006

Tysk kamp mot antisemitism

Den växande
islamistiska antisemitismen
i Europa har jag haft anledning skriva om
alltför ofta.
På senare tid bl a om:
-Norge (och här)
Den senaste sammanställningen
Därför är det med glädje
jag presenterar ett
exempel på ett lokalt
i Berlin:
"-When Aycan Demirel looks out his
office window onto the main street
of the Kreuzberg neighborhood,
center of the Turkish community in
Germany's capital, he is unimpressed by
the diverse human mosaic for which
"Little Istanbul" is famous.
Businesses along Oranienstrasse are
populated by young Germans eating
shwarma to the sounds of Turkish music,
but Demirel pointedly recalled the darker
side of the neighborhood experience.
"The residents here love to treat
this neighborhood as a model of
multiculturalism and tolerance,
but that image is fraudulent," he said.
"The Jews have no place in
this multiculturalism," Demirel said.
"If you wear a kippa or a Magen David,
there's a big chance you'll be cursed
at and even assaulted.
Anti-Semitism is rearing its head
in Germany, only now the
anti-Semites are young Muslims."
***
Aycan Demirel, 38, emigrated from Turkey
16 years ago. In today's Germany,
his decision to confront radical Islam
places him on the frontlines of
one of the stormiest social debates
the country has known.
According to Demirel, the recent
expressions of anger by radical Muslims in
Germany are just the tip of the iceberg
of what he terms the "culture of hate"
in Muslim communities.
Daily exposure to a "barrage of
anti-Semitic Islamist propaganda" led him
two years ago to found KIGA
whose local activists
- of German, Turkish, and Arab origin -
work with schools and youth centers to
fight anti-Semitism, primarily in Muslim communities.