<<http://www.parapundit.com/archives/002026.html#002026>>
EU Agency Misconstrues Sources Of Attacks On Jews European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) says evil white males are the biggest source of anti-semitic attacks in Europe. Anti-Semitic violence is on the rise in several EU countries, including Britain, with �young white men� the main perpetrators, the EU�s anti-racism office said today. A report, released at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, cited Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany as among the EU countries where anti-Semitic incidents are the rise. The report found that during the first three months of last year Britain saw a 75% increase in incidents over the same period in 2002. The report said there were two cases of suspected arson and several attacks on Jewish cemeteries. The report by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia found that attacks on Jews were being mainly carried out by �young white men influenced by extreme right ideas.� Could this possibly be true? Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports that European Jewish Congress claims the EU is twisting the data to fit its ideological biases. "The largest group of the perpetrators of anti-Semitic activities appears to be young, disaffected white Europeans," said a summary released to the European Parliament . "A further source of anti-Semitism in some countries was young Muslims of North African or Asian extraction. "Traditionally, anti-Semitic groups on the extreme Right played a part in stirring opinion," it added. The headline findings contradict the body of the report. This says most of the 193 violent attacks on synagogues, Jewish schools, kosher shops, cemeteries and rabbis in France in 2002 - up from 32 in 2001 - were "ascribed to youth from neighbourhoods sensitive to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, principally of North African descent. "The percentage attributable to the extreme Right was only nine per cent in 2002," it said. That last sentence refers to attacks in France. But the text of the report is fairly supportive of the argument that most of the attacks in Europe as a whole are coming from Muslims. Since France is an outlier in terms of total number of attacks it represents a large fraction of all the attacks in Europe. Therefore it seems very unlikely that whites could be responsible for the bulk of the attacks in Europe as a whole given the small number attributable to whites in France. The European Lefties in the EU bureaucracy who wrote the repory summary are trying to pin all the blame on fascist white males while simultaneously trying to appeal to those poor downtrodden and oppressed Muslims. Reporters who didn't bother to carefully check the body of the report conveyed the misleading summary conclusion. How utterly predictable. The spin put on the report by the EU has made at least one European Muslim leader happy with the report. Amir Zaidan, Director of the Islamic Religious Studies Institute in Vienna, said �It is very important to have such reports produced. Muslims are just as much the victims of racism as Jews. It is in the interests of Muslims to have this evil eradicated. We suffer from it too.� Here is an EUMC press release on the report. (PDF format) The main report shows that there has been an increase in antisemitic incidents in five EU countries, (Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK). These incidents ranged from hate mail to arson. In some other countries there has been little evidence of increase in antisemitism. �These reports are a clear indication of the seriousness with which the European Union takes the subject of antisemitism and of our determination to tackle it�, said Beate Winkler, Director of the EUMC. Although it is not easy to generalise, the largest group of the perpetrators of antisemitic activities appears to be young, disaffected white Europeans. A further source of antisemitism in some countries was young Muslims of North African or Asian extraction. Traditionally antisemitic groups on the extreme right played a part in stirring opinion. There are several times more Muslims than Jews in France and, not coincidentally, Jews are on the receiving end of most attacks in France. Of the 313 racist, xenophobic or antisemitic incidents reported in 2002, 193 were directed at the Jewish communist. In Britain the rate of attacks against Jews is rising rapidly. ...and statistics for the first quarter of 2003 already show a 75% increase in incidents compared to the same quarter of 2002. On page 21 of the report (page 22 in the PDF reader) there is more detail on who are the perpetrators of violence against Jews. In some countries - e.g. France and Denmark - the NFPs conclude that there is indeed evidence of a shift away from extreme right perpetrators toward young Muslim males. In France the Human Rights Commission (CNCDH) nots that the percentage of antisemitic violence attributable to the extreme right was only 9% in 2002 (against 14% in 2001 and 68% in 1994). The CNCDH concludes that the revival of antsemitism can be attributed to the worsening of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, notably in the spring of 2002, correspondng with the Israeli army offensive in the West Bank and the return of suicide bombings in Israel. The report goes on to describe a shift toward Muslim perpetrators in Denmark but the report claims that in the Netherlands 80% of the perpetrators are white. Some countries do not systematically collect data on the race of perpetrators. It is worth noting that France has the highest percentage of of Muslims of any European country and it has the highest amount of violence against Jews.Also the trend is toward Muslim perps: The reports of the NFPs have not only shown that some countries have perceived an increase in antisemitic incidents during the last years, but that this increase was also to some extent accompanied by a change in the profiles of perpetrators reported to the data collecting bodies. Particularly in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK, it is no longer solely or predominately the extreme right that is named as alleged perpetrators of antisemitic incidents; a varying proportion of victims of hostility in these countries classified perpetrators to be "young Muslims", "people of North African origin", or "immigrants". The population of those countries total up to being more than half the population of the EU and account for the countries with the bulk of the Muslim population in the EU. Aside: While prowling around the EUMC website I came across a report with a revealing title: Future EU human rights agency must not detract from urgent fight against racism, says EUMC (PDF format). Think about that title. A fight for human rights can be in conflict with a fight against racism? How can that possibly be? Another report on the EUMC website is entitled "The fight against Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: Bringing Communities together" (PDF format). Looking through it the thought struck me that the EU has not written a report on the phobia that so many Muslims feel toward anyone who is not a Muslim. So there is no report on Islamic phobia toward European non-Muslim whites. Do not expect the EU to release a report on that topic any time soon. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
