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Malcolm MacPhail's avatar

Excellent and insightful analysis. I wonder if we can apply Shlomo Sands’ insights about contemporary French society to Germany. That current Islamophobia, of which fanatical support of Israel’s actions is an expression, has replaced anti-semitism as the hatred of the ‘ other’. That current exponents of Islamophobia would be right at home with the anti-semites of the mid-twentieth century. The only difference is the target of the hatred - Muslims in the current case and Jews 80 years ago. In any case it means Germany has learned nothing, just like the US where previous extreme hatred of people of African descent has been replaced by a deep seated hatred and unacknowledged hatred of Arabs and Muslims.

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Mary Johnson's avatar

I majored in German and lived for a year in Austria. It struck me very much then that 1) Germans had done a better job than Austrians in coming to grips with their Nazi past, but that (2) that atonement was imperfect. I noticed Germans and Austrians were very racist against Turks and other people from majority Muslim countries. Some of our fellow students asked us why Americans were prejudiced against Blacks. In response, a smart undergrad asked if the girl who was asking this question would ever go out with a Turk. Never! Was the response. And I think the Austrian girl couldn’t see her inconsistency. This was in the ‘80s, btw.

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