[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB1ZnvCuXzg[/youtube]

I happened to read this unreal opinion by the editor of “The Local”, an English website detailing life in Germany. The article is named “The New anti-Semitism” and it deals with some parallels of what is happening now to the Muslim immigrants in Germany to what happened to the Jews in Europe in the 30’s and 40’s. Of course, the distinguished writer put a disclaimer that he doesn’t equate the two cases, but that’s exactly what he does.

Since I have been hearing this claim a few times already I would like to make it perfectly clear what I think about it. The political remarks toward Muslim in Germany are horrible, but anyone who draw a line between the history of the Jews to the situation of the Muslim these days, is not only not-well informed historically, but even worse: by using this guilt-filled flag he or she are also decreasing the possibility of building a real dialog between Germans and Muslims.

There are two important points to this matter:

1. There is no such thing as new anti-Semitism. Religious Jews are still hiding their yarmulka while walking the streets of Berlin (and other European cities) for fear of being attacked, and there are still a presence of policemen in front of Jewish institutions.

2. And this is the important point of why these cases can’t be linked: Jews were prosecuted in Germany despite their wishes to assimilate. They knew the language and were integral part of the workforce.

There is only one place where Jews should be carried into this controversy: Our moral duty to do what we were expecting others to do.