FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 14, 2015 | USCIRF

WASHINGTON, D.C. - April 15 is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day, an international day commemorating the six million Jews murdered by Nazi Germany and her allies.  It is a solemn day of remembrance, recalling those who suffered and died and those who fought against this evil.  

“As we honor the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and those who fought against the Nazis and their sympathizers, we must go beyond remembering and condemn the torrent of virulent anti-Semitism that has been unleashed seventy years after the Holocaust’s end.  We also must condemn the continued existence and growth of Holocaust denial, an especially solemn responsibility given the gradual disappearance of the generations who witnessed the Nazi evil," said Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).    

The murder of four Jews in the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris during January’s terrorist attacks in Paris highlights the alarming rise of anti-Semitism in France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish community.  However, anti-Semitism’s rise is not limited to France.  Killings have taken place in Denmark and Belgium, Jewish businesses have been attacked in cities across Europe, cemeteries have been defaced, hateful chants have rung out in soccer stadiums, and harassment has occurred in virtually every capital city on the continent.  And this disturbing litany of hatred is not merely anecdotal in nature.  According to the Pew Research Center, by 2013, Jews were harassed in 34 of 45 European countries and, according to some polls, nearly one in four Europeans hold anti-Jewish attitudes.  Furthermore, anti-Semitic harassment worldwide has reached a seven-year high. 

To this day, many governments still perpetrate or tolerate conduct which targets Jews and fosters anti-Semitism.  In Iran, organizers in Tehran in early May will stage the Second International Holocaust Cartoon Contest, and elsewhere in the region, anti-Semitism persists in most educational systems, including in Egypt, as well as in largely government controlled media.  Anti-Semitic literature from Middle East countries, like Saudi Arabia, continue to promote publications such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious forgery from early twentieth century Russia.  Outside of the Middle East, in post-Soviet Russia, "skinhead" groups commit violent acts of anti-Semitism in the name of Russian nationalism.

“We dare not remain silent in the face of this alarming resurgence of anti-Semitism, but we are equally obligated to speak out when other peoples similarly are threatened.  The Yazidis and Christians of the Middle East now are threatened with enslavement and extinction at the hands of ISIL and other violent religious extremists.  As we remember the tragedy of the genocide against the Jews, we must stiffen our determination to defend the fundamental rights of all persecuted people.  Yom Hashoah is a time to remember that if the human family is to endure and prevail, we must indeed be our brother’s keepers,” concluded Dr. Lantos Swett.  

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 3, 2015 | USCIRF

Calls on President-Elect to Govern Inclusively and Address Inter-Faith Tensions

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) congratulates the people of Nigeria on peaceful national elections held on March 28.  The historic elections led to Nigeria’s first democratic transfer of power between parties and fears of inter-religious violence were unrealized.  Opposition candidate Major General (ret.) Muhammadu Buhari was declared the presidential winner on March 31.  USCIRF also applauds President Goodluck Jonathan’s gracious acknowledgement of defeat.

“Nigerians and democracy are the real winners of these elections, which we hope signals the end of identity politics,” said USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett.  “President-elect Buhari’s outreach to a diverse cross-section of Nigerians transcended many regional and religious fissures that long have characterized Nigerian politics.  Now the hard work begins to govern inclusively, address inter-faith tensions, and confront Boko Haram.

“President-elect Buhari should seize this moment to help Nigeria tackle regional and religious differences and tensions by engaging in reconciliation with his opponents and their supporters,” said Lantos Swett.  “Reconciliation is essential for Nigeria to address the sectarian and religious freedom issues confronting the nation.”

This change in leadership comes at a challenging time for Nigeria given the need to address insecurity, endemic corruption, inequality, and strains on the economy partly due to falling oil prices and a devalued currency. 

Tackling the continuing Boko Haram insurgency that has killed more than 8,300 persons in 2014 and 2015 will be one of the president-elect’s primary responsibilities.  USCIRF reiterates that efforts to confront Boko Haram must respect the human rights of citizens in affected areas.  Additionally, any campaign to stop Boko Haram also must address the underlying conditions that have contributed to the radicalization of individuals, allowing the group and others like it to grow and operate.

President-elect Buhari also will need to address government failure to hold perpetrators of Muslim-Christian violence in the Middle Belt accountable, state-level religious discrimination laws, deteriorating inter-faith relations, and other religious freedom related issues.  Since 1999, sectarian violence in Nigeria, particularly in the Middle Belt states, has resulted in more than 18,000 people killed, hundreds of thousands displaced, and thousands of churches, mosques, businesses, homes, and other structures damaged or destroyed.

USCIRF has recommended since 2009 that the State Department designate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” (CPC).  For more information about Nigeria see the Nigeria chapter in USCIRF’s 2014 Annual Report.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION 

April 2, 2015 | By Katrina Lantos Swett, M. Zuhdi Jasser and Hannah Rosenthal

The following op-ed appeared in U.S. News and World Report on April 2, 2015.

The targeting and murder of four Jews in the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket during January’s terrorist attacks in Paris highlighted a somber fact: Seventy years after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is again growing more virulent in Europe. From Toulouse to Paris, London to Berlin, Brussels to Copenhagen, Jews are being harassed, assaulted and even killed.

A just-released study confirms that this is hardly a recent phenomenon. According to Pew Research Center, by 2013, Jews were harassed in 34 of 45 European countries, and anti-Semitic harassment worldwide had reached a seven-year high.

Today’s anti-Semitism differs from that of the 1930s. There is no single counterpart to Hitler. There is no one European government or leader fueling most of today’s anti-Jewish acts. Nonetheless, Europe’s leading heads of state acknowledge that Jew-hatred is spreading. Jews are seeing their religious freedom violated, their grave sites vandalized, their synagogues desecrated, and Jewish lives lost.

Who are committing these acts? While some are nativists, neo-Nazis and skinheads, many others are religious extremists radicalized by those who distort Islam to fit their intolerant agendas. All are deeply hostile to pluralism and democratic liberties.

How will Europeans ultimately respond? Will they simply watch the threat grow? Or will they take the lead, confront the danger and stand with their Jewish neighbors?

The Hyper Cacher murders underscore the problem in France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish community. During one week last July, eight synagogues were attacked, a kosher supermarket and pharmacy trashed and looted, and mobs were yelling “death to Jews.” The annual number of anti-Semitic incidents is seven times as high as in the 1990s. Last year alone, the number of violent anti-Jewish acts doubled. The problem is serious enough to prompt Serge Cwajgenbaum, the secretary-general of the European Jewish Congress, to explain that the Hyper Cacher victims would be buried in Jerusalem so no one would desecrate their graves.

In the U.K., the Jewish Community Security Trust reported more than 1,100 anti-Jewish incidents last year, 81 of which were violent assaults. These incidents ranged from the desecration of Jewish cemeteries to graffiti on Jewish homes to attacks on Jewish schoolchildren to assaults on Jews entering or leaving synagogues. The number of incidents had doubled from 2013, and was the highest figure since the trust began monitoring anti-Semitism in 1984.

Some say that hatred of the state of Israel, not the Jews of Europe, is behind this upsurge. Yet the cry of many haters is “death to all Jews.” Make no mistake. Acts of terror perpetrated against Jewish schoolchildren in Europe have no conceivable connection to Israel’s policies in the Middle East. Anti-Zionism often is a cloak for anti-Semitism which comes through when people deploy words designed to delegitimize Israel, demonize its people and hold it to standards far above other countries.

Yet we’d be mistaken to attribute the most virulent expressions of European anti-Semitism to Middle East sources alone. To be sure, history has shown that Muslim societies in centuries past were not immune to anti-Semitism. However, beginning nearly a century ago, Europe’s modern totalitarian ideologies like fascism combined with like-minded nationalist strivings and politicized Islam in the Middle East to produce an even more potent anti-Semitism.

From promoting belief in blood libels to peddling the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the notorious anti-Semitic forgery describing a Jewish plot for world domination, extremists acting in Islam’s name are mimicking millennia of European anti-Semitism. Moreover, according to some polls, nearly one in four Europeans holds anti-Jewish attitudes. Most have no Middle Eastern or Muslim background but deep roots in Europe’s soil. Given this history, Europe has a special responsibility to combat the return of this ancient scourge.

What can be done? Governments must protect lives and religious freedom by increasing security in Jewish neighborhoods and religious sites. There are signs that this is happening. France has deployed 10,000 troops and other security personnel for that purpose. However, considering the depth of these problems, this security must be extended for the foreseeable future.

Second, there are cases where Muslim communities are protecting Jews, and vice versa, against the haters, including the recent protective encirclement of a Danish synagogue by Danish Muslims. Such examples of humanity, decency and good citizenship must be highlighted to encourage emulation.

Finally, people must understand how much of Europe’s tradition of monolithic culture and ideology – from yesterday’s monolithic state religion to today’s monolithic state secularism – breeds attitudes that view today’s most pious adherents to Judaism, Islam, Christianity and other beliefs as the “other” who are deemed appropriate targets for exclusion. Today’s Europe must reflect greater pluralism and inclusion.

It is time for people of all beliefs and nationalities to stand together against anti-Semitism and all forms of intolerance and hatred.

 To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.