Antisemitism is an extremely old human scourge. Unfortunately in this case, however, “old” by no means equals “dead”, even though it can mean “politically incorrect”. As it turns out, this revolting sentiment is very much alive and kicking in the world today. New data from the Anti-defamation League reveal, in chilling numbers, how bad the situation actually is. In an unprecedented survey covering 86% of the entire world population, they have gauged negative attitudes toward the Jews, and the results aren’t pretty. In total, 1.09 billion people in the surveyed nations are estimated to harbor antisemitic views; and 35% have never heard about the Holocaust. Worse, only 33% of the surveyed population believe the Holocaust is a reality as described by history; 32% believe it is either a myth or grossly exaggerated.
As for where in the world the problem is at its worst, well, I wouldn’t need the survey to answer the question.
A whopping 65% of people in the Middle East and North Africa believe it is probably true that “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars”! Adolf Hitler must be smiling in his grave.
Concerning the role of religion, well, that doesn’t come as a surprise either.
While I personally would certainly be happier to see the “no religion” group having the lowest numbers either (even though the difference between no religion, Hinduism and Buddhism is rather minor), the antisemitism among the followers of “the religion of peace” is undeniably the greatest. It is important to underscore that religion is not the only factor here; among the inhabitants of Middle East and North Africa, who are overwhelmingly Muslim, Christians are pretty antisemitic as well.
And yet, despite this, guess in regions where there are both Muslim majority and Non-Muslim majority countries (those being the so called “moderate” Muslim nations, because supposedly Islamic extremism is limited to small areas in the Middle East), which ones are most antisemitic?
If there is a silver lining in the data, it is that overall, young people are less antisemitic than their elders, and hence antisemitism can be expected to decrease in the future. However, this effect is influenced heavily by religion: among the nonreligious it is robust; among Hindus, it is fairly strong; among Christians it is modest, and among Muslims, next to nonexistent.
My personal conclusion: having a less antisemitic world needs less religion, and specifically, less Islam.
