Two major post-war political parties, the Poujadists in the 1950s and the National Front since the 1980s, have expressed radical anti-Semitic views. Softer anti-Semitic views have been circulating at times among Gaullists and other conservatives (especially after 1967), the Communists, the Far Left, the Greens, the socialists.

It is a sad fact that traditional Muslim culture, both at the popular and scholarly level, is deeply contemptuous of Judaism and the Jews. It is another sad fact that contemporary Muslim culture -- either strictly religious or semi-secular -- is permeated not just by anti-Jewish prejudice but radical anti-Semitism as well.

The fact that an important, democratic nation in Western Europe is so quickly and so thoroughly undermined by anti-Semitism should also be matter of concern for other European or Western nations.

Muslim immigrants come from countries where radical anti-Semitism is nurtured by religious education, political discourse, the educational curriculum and the media. Once in France, they keep in touch with their countries culture and biases in many ways. Until the draft was abolished in France, immigrant Muslim young men were tacitly allowed to serve in their original countries armies rather than in the French army. Most of the Muslim religious leaders are provided by, and on the payroll of, foreign Muslim governments or brotherhoods connected to them. Most Muslim families are connected to Arab television networks.

The same considerations apply, to a large extent, to the French citizens of the Muslim faith, who are the brothers and sisters, or the sons and daughters, of the immigrants.

French Muslims thus live in a cultural enclave and are well-equipped to dismiss those parts of the dominant French culture that do not fit their own culture. This is especially true of the politically correct rejection of radical anti-Semitism.

The more numerous, powerful and influential the Muslims are becoming in France, the more devastating is the impact of their particular culture on the global French culture. Muslim imperviousness to the politically correct rejection of radical anti-Semitism is helping non-Muslim radical anti-Semites to voice their views more confidently.

As a rule, the more committed to Islam and Arab culture they are, the more anti-Semitic French Muslims tend to be. Conversely, the less committed they are, the more likely they are to reject anti-Semitism. This translates into ethnic lines. French Muslims of Arab descent are usually religious Muslims and unreconstructed anti-Semites. French Muslims of Berber descent (especially the Kabyle community) are usually more secular and more prepared to reject radical anti-Semitism and engage in good relations with Jews. Militant Berbers or Kabyles tend to be frankly friendly with Jews and to entertain positive views about Israel.

What is to be done?

First and foremost, the present anti-Semitic crisis in France should be addressed by the citizens of France.

Quite naturally, the present situation should elicit appropriate reaction from the French Jewish community and Jewish communities in the rest of the world.

The fact that an important, democratic nation in Western Europe is so quickly and so thoroughly undermined by anti-Semitism should also be matter of concern for other European or Western nations.

Some practical recommendations:

Information or analysis on anti-Semitism in France should be widely disseminated.

Both the French government and French society at large should be reminded that anti-Semitism is not to be tolerated or minimized and must be suppressed.

The European Union should be reminded about these matters as well.

Special attention should be devoted in this respect to fields pertaining to education, science, culture, religion, publishing, and the media.

Special attention should be devoted in this respect to the Muslim groups or individuals that resist anti-Semitism within their own communities.  

Michel Gurfinkiel is foreign affairs editor of the French newsweekly Valeurs Actuelles. This article is a publication of the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute in Paris.

Outpost               - 6 -               November 2003