A Double Standard?
In the face of accusations of European double standards in the Jyllands-Posten cartoon incident, this BBC News article highlights the anti-semetic literature that is so broadly popular in the Middle East. They’re not the first to do so.
However, rather than mutual recriminations about double standards, I think we would do better to have an open discussion of what the right standard actually is.
While I’m not entirely comfortable with the European criminalization of certain types of anti-semetic speech, there’s something deeply messed up about a society where anti-semetic staples like Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are not only legal, but socially acceptable and popular enough to sell openly in the average corner magazine kiosk.
But Ahmed Radwan, 20, argues that if Jews are outraged by the book “then it shouldn’t be sold.”
He adds that Jews should take to the streets in protest about the Protocols.
Personally, I wouldn’t take the absence of worldwide Jewish riots as evidence that Jews are cool with this.
Update: I’ve received a link to a very good article by Abraham Foxman of the Jewish ADL, offering his view on the Jyllands-Posten incident. Near the end, he also touches specifically on the issue of anti-semetic media in the Middle East.