Muslim Statistics (Antisemitism)

This page contains statistics concerning antisemitism. For general statistics covering prejudice and persecution of other beliefs, see Crime & Prejudice, Persecution and Terrorism. For statistics on sexual minorities, see Homosexuals.

Worldwide

Anti-Semitic incidents around the world have more than doubled in 2009 over the previous year, and most violent attacks in Western Europe come from people of Arab or Muslim heritage.

Anti-Semitic incidents around the world more than doubled in 2009 over the previous year, posting their worst year since monitoring began two decades ago, according to a new survey.
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In Europe, Britain and France led with the number of incidents, according to the report. There were 374 violent incidents against Jews recorded in Britain in 2009, compared to 112 in 2008, according to the institute. France saw 195 attacks in 2009 compared to 50 the previous year. Britain and France have the highest Jewish populations in Europe, as well as the largest Muslim populations.

Only 78 incidents of anti-Semitic violence were recorded in 1989, the year that the institute began recording such incidents. In 2009, some 41 of the incidents were armed assaults directed at Jews because of their religion; 34 incidents were arson, according to the report.

April 2010

A major annual study of worldwide anti-Semitic incidents points to a dramatic rise in anti-Semitism in 2009, with particularly steep jumps in Western Europe and Canada.
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The year in the wake of Operation Cast Lead was the worst since monitoring of anti-Semitic manifestations began, in terms of both major anti-Semitic violence and the hostile atmosphere generated worldwide by the mass demonstrations and verbal and visual expressions against Israel and the Jews," the report said.

The report, considered an important bellwether of anti-Jewish sentiment worldwide, was released ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day in cooperation with the European Jewish Congress (EJC).

Among its most dramatic findings was a 102 percent increase in anti-Jewish violence worldwide, from 559 incidents in 2008 to 1,129 in 2009.

In addition, there were "many more hundreds of threats, insults, graffiti signs and slogans and demonstrations featuring virulently anti-Semitic content... sometimes resulting in violence," according to the report.

A significant part of this increase took place in the UK, where violence jumped from 112 incidents in 2008 to 374 last year; in France, where the jump was from 50 to 195, and in Canada, where incidents soared from 13 to 138.

The US, which ordinarily enjoys a very low rate of anti-Jewish violence compared to the size of its Jewish community, nonetheless saw a modest rise, from 98 to 116 incidents.

In some countries, these figures are only the latest spike in a continuing trend. The British Jewish community's monitoring system counted a three-fold increase in anti-Semitic occurrences since 1999, while Canada counted a five-fold increase since 2000.

Most violent attacks in Western Europe came from people of Arab or Muslim heritage, the report found.
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In 2009, however, “white” attacks [in the UK] dropped to 48% and “Asian” or “Arab” attacks jumped to 43%.

During the month of January 2009, in the midst of Operation Cast Lead, “Asian” and “Arab” attackers accounted for fully 54% of incidents, although the Muslim community numbers just 4% of the general population.

April 2010

Muslim Nations

According to the Pew Global Attitudes Project released on August 14, 2005, high percentages of the populations of six Muslim-majority countries have negative views of Jews. To a questionnaire asking respondents to give their views of members of various religions along a spectrum from "very favorable" to "very unfavorable", 60% of Turks, 74% of Pakistanis, 76% of Indonesians, 88% of Moroccans, 99% of Lebanese Muslims and 100% of Jordanians checked either "somewhat unfavorable" or "very unfavorable" for Jews.

September 2010

[According to the Pew Global Attitudes Project released on July 21, 2011] In four of the six largely Christian nations included in the study, most say they have a positive opinion of Muslims
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Also, solid majorities in Western countries have a favorable opinion of Jews.
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Muslim views toward Christians vary considerably across countries.
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Ratings for Jews are uniformly low in the predominantly Muslim nations surveyed -- in all seven of these nations, less than 10% have a positive opinion of Jews. Indeed, outside of Indonesia, less than 5% offer a positive opinion.

Among Israel's minority Muslim community, however, views are divided: 48% express a positive opinion of Jews, while 49% offer a negative opinion.

Europe

[Levels of native European out-group hostility] are dwarfed by the levels of out-group hostility among European Muslims. Almost 60 per cent reject homosexuals as friends and 45 per cent think that Jews cannot be trusted.

December 2013

Belgium

The Flemish-language newspaper De Morgen (link only in Flemish) has a major article about a survey of Muslim students in Brussels high schools. The professor who conducted the survey concludes that half "can be described as antisemitic which is a very high rate.’’ Five times higher, in fact, then among Flemish-speaking Belgians, who historically have been relatively anti-Jewish.

Incidentally, what was being measured here was not antagonism toward Israel but traditional anti-Jewish stereotypes. No doubt, the former attitude is even stronger.

The anti-Jewish sentiments among Muslims don't vary depending on education level or living standards. Obviously, they aren't getting it from Belgian society.

"The antisemitism is theologically inspired," says the sociologist, Professor Mark Elchardus. "There is a direct link between being Muslim and antisemitic feelings...

May 2011

A major survey among Belgian teenagers indicated anti-Semitism was seven times more prevalent among Muslim youths than in non-Muslim teenagers.

Conducted in recent months by three universities for the Flemish government, the survey was published last month based on questionnaires filled out by 3,867 high school students in Antwerp and Ghent, including 1,068 Muslims.

Among Muslims, 50.9 percent of respondents agreed with the statement “Jews foment war and blame others for it” compared to only 7.1 percent among non-Muslims. Among Muslims, 24.5 percent said they partially agreed with the statement, as did 20.6 percent of non-Muslims.

The statement “Jews seek to control everything” received a 45.1 approval rating among Muslims compared to 10.8 approval among non-Muslims. Of Muslims, 27.9 percent said they partially agreed, as did 29.2 percent of non-Muslims.

About 35 percent of Muslims agreed with the statement that “Jews have too much clout in Belgium” compared to 11.8 percent of non-Muslims who participated in the “Young in Antwerp and Ghent” survey. The results were part of a 360-page report which was produced for the Flemish government’s Youth Research Platform by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; Ghent University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Last week the Brussels-based Jewish educational organization CEJI, which promotes tolerance in Europe, requested a meeting with Belgian Education Minister Pascal Smet to discuss the survey and address “the classical anti-Semitic attitudes” which the study revealed, “which we hoped not to see in a democratic Europe after World War II,” CEJI’s director, Robin Sclafani, wrote.

March 2013

Egypt

Pew asked respondents to give their opinions of Christians, Muslims and Jews, and it found anti-Jewish sentiment to be "overwhelming" in the Muslim countries surveyed. It reached 98 percent in Jordan and 97 percent in Egypt.

June 2006

France

According to a 2004 study, one in four of France's 500,000 Jews was considering emigration to Israel -- out of fear of anti-Semitism.
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Even today, there are already "hundreds of anti-Semitic incidents" a year, committed mainly by Arab immigrants

March 2012

Germany

According to police reports, most attacks [against Jews] have been verbal and have come from segments of society made up primarily of migrants, usually Arabs.
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Berlin’s Jewish community had registered an increase in anti-Semitic violence, in particular from among Muslim youths, during flair ups in the Israel-Arab conflict. It has put the number at one attack, mostly verbal, per day.

November 2006

Jordan

100 percent of Jordanians view Jews unfavorably

Jordan leads the Islamic world in its antipathy for Jews according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center. The poll, which surveyed 17,000 people in 17 countries, said 100 percent of Jordanians viewed Jews unfavorably. The majority of Jordanians are Palestinians, but the late King Hussein and his son and successor, King Abdullah have been known for their pro-American stances.

September 2005

Netherlands

In 2009, the number of anti-Semite incidents in Amsterdam doubled compared to the year before. The Jewish community feels under siege
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Experience has taught him that the boys taunting him are almost always of Moroccan descent.

“Their reasoning goes something like this: Israelis are Jews, Palestinians are Arabs, so we Moroccan ‘Arabs’ in the Netherlands are going to take on Dutch Jews,” said Menno ten Brink, a rabbi for the liberal Jewish community in Amsterdam.

January 2010

Sweden

Among adults 39 percent of Muslim Swedes have a systematically negative view of Jews compared to 5 percent among the rest

Quote from the summary of the study Antisemitiska Attityder och Föreställningar i Sverige by Henrik Bachner and Jonas Ring done by Forum för Levande Historia:

The results suggest that antisemitic views and ambivalent attitudes toward Jews are more common among Muslim Swedes than among Christian Swedes and non-religious Swedes. Among adults 39 percent of Muslim Swedes have a systematically negative view of Jews compared to 5 percent among the rest.

The original quote in Swedish:

Resultaten tyder på att antisemitiska uppfattningar och ambivalenta attityder till judar är jämförelsevis mer utbredda bland muslimer än bland kristna och icke-religiösa. Bland vuxna hyser 39 av dom som betecknar sig som muslimer en systematisk antisemitisk inställning jämfört med 5 procent totalt.

October 2006

Jews leaving Sweden as Hate crimes double

When she first arrived in Sweden after her rescue from a Nazi concentration camp, Judith Popinski was treated with great kindness.

She raised a family in the city of Malmo, and for the next six decades lived happily in her adopted homeland - until last year.

In 2009, a chapel serving the city's 700-strong Jewish community was set ablaze. Jewish cemeteries were repeatedly desecrated, worshippers were abused on their way home from prayer, and "Hitler" was mockingly chanted in the streets by masked men.

"I never thought I would see this hatred again in my lifetime, not in Sweden anyway," Mrs Popinski told The Sunday Telegraph.

"This new hatred comes from Muslim immigrants. The Jewish people are afraid now."
. . .
The future looks so bleak that by one estimate, around 30 Jewish families have already left for Stockholm, England or Israel, and more are preparing to go.

With its young people planning new lives elsewhere, the remaining Jewish households, many of whom are made up of Holocaust survivors and their descendants, fear they will soon be gone altogether. Mrs Popinski, an 86-year-old widow, said she has even encountered hostility when invited to talk about the Holocaust in schools.

"Muslim schoolchildren often ignore me now when I talk about my experiences in the camps," she said. "It is because of what their parents tell them about Jews. The hatreds of the Middle East have come to Malmo. Schools in Muslim areas of the city simply won't invite Holocaust survivors to speak any more."

Hate crimes, mainly directed against Jews, doubled last year with Malmo's police recording 79 incidents and admitting that far more probably went unreported. As of yet, no direct attacks on people have been recorded but many Jews believe it is only a matter of time in the current climate.
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After the war, just as liberal Sweden took in Jews who survived the Holocaust as a humanitarian act, it also took in new waves of refugees from tyranny and conflicts in the Middle East. Muslims are now estimated to make up about a fifth of Malmo's population of nearly 300,000.

"This new hatred from a group 40,000-strong is focused on a small group of Jews," Mrs Popinski said, speaking in a sitting room filled with paintings and Persian carpets.

"Some Swedish politicians are letting them do it, including the mayor. Of course the Muslims have more votes than the Jews."

February 2010

A March 29 story in The Washington Times (“Hate Crimes Force Jews Out of Malmo”) noted that of 115 bias-crimes in Sweden’s third largest city, reported in 2009, 52 were anti-Semitic, this notwithstanding that Malmo’s Jewish population numbers fewer than 700 (half of what it was two decades ago) in a general population of 280,000.

Thus, Jews represent less than .0025% of the city, but account for 45% of all hate crimes. Could that have something to do with Malmo’s 60,000 Muslims?

Malmo Rabbi Shneur Kesselman says: “In the past five years I’ve been here, I think you can count on your hand how many (anti-Semitic) incidents there have been from the extreme right. In my personal experience, it’s 99% Muslim.” Jewish resident Marcus Eilenberg, whose survivor grandparents found shelter in Malmo in 1945, says Jews there are confronting “a degree of hate that none of us – except those who survived the Holocaust – had experienced before.”

September 2010

A record number of complaints about hate crimes in the Swedish city of Malmo has not resulted in any convictions for such offenses in more than two years.

The Swedish court system did not convict anyone of hate crimes in 2010 and 2011 despite 480 complaints, the local daily Sydsvenskan reported Monday.

In total, only 16 cases formed the basis for an indictment, none of them for anti-Semitic behavior.

Malmo Jewish community leaders say a few dozen anti-Semitic attacks occur annually in the city. Approximately 700 Jews live in Malmo amid tens of thousands of immigrants from Muslim countries.

Last October, an explosive charge was detonated in front of the Malmo Jewish Community Center in October and the building’s door was broken. Police have no suspects in connection with the attack.

Malmo Jews say most anti-Semitic attacks are perpetrated by Muslims; Malmo Mayor Ilmar Reepalu has denied the assertion.

Reepalu advised Jews who want to be safe in the city to reject Zionism, which he listed along with anti-Semitism as an unacceptable phenomenon. The mayor also has said that the Jewish community had been “infiltrated” by anti-Muslim agents.

January 2013

United Kingdom

About 2 out of 5 British Muslims believe Jews are "a legitimate target"

Nearly two fifths (37 per cent) [of Muslims] believe that the Jewish community in Britain is a legitimate target “as part of the ongoing struggle for justice in the Middle East”. Moreover, only 52 per cent think that the state of Israel has the right to exist, with 30 per cent disagreeing, a big minority. One in six of all Muslims questioned thinks suicide bombings can sometimes be justified in Israel, though many fewer (7 per cent) say the same about Britain. This is broadly comparable to the number justifying suicide attacks in ICM and YouGov polls of British Muslims after the July 7 attacks.

February 2006

Antisemitism reaches an all time high in the UK

Attacks on Britain’s Jews have risen to the highest level since records began.

A study published today shows the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents has almost tripled in 10 years, with more than half the attacks last year taking place in London. The findings prompted the report’s authors to warn of a “wave of hatred” against Jews. The number of incidents increased to 594 last year, up by 31 per cent on the previous year.

Violent assaults soared to 112, up by more than a third on 2005.

February 2007

According to Pew figures, Muslims represented 4.6% of the UK population in 2010. However, 39 percent of all anti-Semitic incidents of violence, threats and abuse in that same year were perpetrated by "Asians" and "Arabs".

A Jewish charity which monitors acts of anti-Semitism in the UK says it recorded 639 incidents of violence, threats and abuse last year. The figure, from the Community Security Trust, is the second highest since it began its work in 1984.

The peak of 926 incidents came in 2009, and was attributed to a backlash against Israel's invasion of Gaza. Most of last year's incidents happened near Jewish communities in London, Manchester, Hertfordshire and Leeds.

In its annual report, the charity said anti-Semitism had increased since the 1990s and, although said the total number of incidents for 2010 was almost a third less than the 926 recorded in 2009, that was still worse than 2008.
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The CST said that where it had established something of the perpetrator's identity, 47% were white, 29% were Asian, 10% were Arab, 7% were black and 6% were Eastern European.

February 2011

Anti-Jewish hate crime has rocketed by one third in Greater Manchester – with the region for the first time suffering more attacks than London.

Shocking new figures show there were 121 anti-Semitic incidents – including assaults, desecration, threats and abuse - in the first six months of the year.

That compares to 98 in Greater London – despite the capital having a Jewish population six times the size.

The news comes just days after taxi driver Taha Osman, from Blackley, escaped jail after hurling racist abuse outside Manchester’s King David School.

The 36-year-old screamed ‘all Jewish children must die’ in front of horrified onlookers. He was sentenced to a 12-month community order.

The new figures were published by the Community Security Trust, a charity working to protect Jewish communities from crime.

They revealed the number of anti-Semitic incidents across the region rose from 95 in the first six months of 2010 to 121 this year. The data included 29 assaults, 10 reports of damage or desecration, nine cases of threats being made, and 73 incidents of abuse – including hate mail and anti-Semitic graffiti.

July 2011

United States

A review of court records shows that Jewish targets in America are common among would-be terrorists during the past decade. A review of 42 attempted and thwarted terror plots since 9/11 found 16, or 38 percent, included at least talk of attacking Jewish targets. Of the 16, at least seven cases included charges relating to attacks on Jewish targets.

The numbers are in line with a recent study by the New York Police Department, which finds that more than half the terror plots uncovered in New York City since 1992 have been directed at Jewish citizens or institutions.

March 2012

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