There is plenty of room for critiques of the European far right’s influence, whether one’s target is violent extremists, legitimate but bigoted parties and groups, or more insidious rhetoric which taints even mainstream politics and widely read newspapers.
But I didn’t care at all for Anne Karpf’s approach to the problem in this article, ‘Don’t be fooled. Europe’s far-right racists are not discerning’. This begins with a criticism of a far right rally in Denmark and a swipe at Marine le Pen – fine – and then goes on to caution readers that although many sections of the far right seem to have shaken off their antisemitic heritage, and even to have turned into supporters of Israel, they should not be trusted. Well, that’s fine too – I wouldn’t cut such parties any slack just because they support Israel.
Mr Sarah asked a pertinent question – who is this article for? It perhaps seems to be aimed at Jewish readers, or anti-racist readers more generally, who might see antisemitism as a useful far right litmus test, warning them that in fact opposition to antisemitism is no guarantee of all round soundness.
But I had a problem with the section of the article which lists people and groups who are Zionist, or ‘philozionist’ to use Karpf’s interesting term. It began to read like an argument for seeing support for Israel as, in itself, bad. Although Karpf asserted that this was not actually her intention (and generally seemed to be responding helpfully to comments although I haven’t read the whole thread) the entire central section of this piece would, I thought, seem quite at home in an article demonstrating that support for Israel correlated with nasty far right views:
But the most rabidly Islamophobic European philozionist is Heinz-Christian Strache, head of the Austrian Freedom party, who compared foreigners to harmful insects and consorts with neo-Nazis. And yet where do we find Strache in December 2010? In Jerusalem alongside Dewinter, supporting Israel’s right to defend itself.
In Scandinavia the anti-immigrant Danish People’s party is a vocal supporter of Israel. And Siv Jensen, leader of the Norwegian Progress party and staunch supporter of Israel, has warned of the stealthy Islamicisation of Norway.
In Britain EDL leader Tommy Robinson, in his first public speech, sported a star of David. At anti-immigrant rallies, EDL banners read: “There is no place for Fascist Islamic Jew Haters in England”.
There’s a slippage towards the end of the article when she seems to want to use the Toulouse killer as proof that the far right are equal opportunities bigots. But although I am sure there are plenty of right wing racists who dislike Jews and Muslims equally, Merah’s own motivation was very different. The Muslims were attacked, not because he was an anti-Muslim bigot, but because he was an Islamist, and they were, in his eyes, traitors.
The article ends with a hope that the Jewish community in France might show support for Muslims, also victims of racism. It’s hard to quarrel with such a sentiment – by all means let people be nice to one another – and yet there was (to me) a strange note, just a hint, of reproof in that wish:
Next week sees the start of Passover, a festival celebrating the liberation of Jews from slavery in Egypt, when Jews often think about modern examples of oppression. Let’s hope that French Jewish leaders use the occasion to rally round Muslim communities, and to remember that ultimately, racism is indiscriminate.
I’ll end by continuing to consider the question ‘who is this article for?’. It’s certainly for all us controversy junkies – it attracted pages of comments. But what really interested me – given that its ostensible remit is antisemitism, a warning to Jews/anti-racists not to be taken in by false friends (all fair enough, and endorsed by the CST) – is that the article was immediately picked up by Islamophobia Watch.
