Author Criticizes British Muslims for ‘Deeply Anti-Semitic Views’

An author and former editor at the British publication the New Statesman took the bold step of admonishing the Muslim community in his home country for its “Judaeophobia.”

Writing in the New Statesman, Mehdi Hasan addressed a recent controversysurrounding Lord Ahmed, a British Labor party peer and one of the most powerful Muslims in England,  saying, “To claim that your jail sentence for dangerous driving is the result of a Jewish plot is bigoted and stupid”

Lord Ahmed was sentenced to jail after hitting and killing a man with his car only moments after having sent text messages while driving. In a later interview he blamed a Jewish conspiracy on his having to serve jail time for the crime.

Hasan pointed out that he has defended Lord Ahmed before and that “He is not a latter-day Goebbels. But herein lies the problem. There are thousands of Lord Ahmeds out there: mild-mannered and well-integrated British Muslims who nevertheless harbour deeply anti-Semitic views.”

“It pains me to have to admit this but anti-Semitism isn’t just tolerated in some sections of the British Muslim community; it’s routine and commonplace,” Hasan wrote.

He continued: “The truth is that the virus of anti-Semitism has infected members of the British Muslim community, both young and old. No, the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict hasn’t helped matters. But this goes beyond the Middle East.”

Hassan said that complaints from the Muslim community that they were being vilified and discriminated against were “sheer hypocrisy”  when taking into account the community’s  “rampant anti-Semitism,” adding that “We cannot credibly fight Islamophobia while making excuses for Judaeophobia.”

Hassan wrote that not all Muslims were anti-Semites,  but that as a community there is a “Jewish problem,” concluding that “The time has come for us to own up to a rather shameful fact: Muslims are not only the victims of racial and religious prejudice but purveyors of it, too.”

Community Security Trust (CST), a charity tasked with protecting the British Jewish community,released a report earlier this year that showed anti-Semitism was on the rise in England.