Different Antisemitisms: On Three Distinct Forms of Antisemitism in C | Page 28

Figure 27:

In the on-going public debate, “Muslims” are often targeted as perpetrators of terrorist
attacks. In many cases such attacks are openly motivated by something that has to do with
Israel and actions taken by the Israeli state. Not surprisingly, as shown in Figure 28 below, we
see that many Jews, particularly in France and Belgium, where some major events of this type
took place shortly before our survey, attributed the antisemitic attacks to Muslims. To a
lesser extent, this is also the case in the UK and Sweden (again on almost the same level). On
7 July 2005, some years before our study, a large-scale terrorist attack carried out by Muslim
activists took place in London. On 11 December 2010 a failed terrorist attempt, including
heavy bombs, took place in central Stockholm. The perpetrator was a Muslim activist who
blew himself up, but miraculously did not succeed in killing anyone else. It is understandable
that such major events may colour the perceptions of the Jewish population in these countries.
Closer analysis shows that the Swedish figure also relates to more recent events in the city of
Malmö – a relatively small city with only a tiny Jewish community, but with a relatively large
proportion of Muslims originating from the Middle East. Malmö has become infamous for
continuous harassment of Jews in the city, and for the (by now) former mayor’s expressions
of his tacit understanding for that – referring to actions taken by Israel.

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