Has the Arab Spring Arrived in Iraq?
▻http://en.qantara.de/wcsite.php?wc_c=20521&wc_id=22532
Iraq’s government is falling apart. While the president of the country is being treated for a serious illness in Germany, both the national parliament and the government back home are dysfunctional and in disarray. Birgit Svensson reports from Baghdad
For Wolfgang Benz, the stigmatisation of Jews through anti-Semitism is most certainly comparable with the exclusion of Muslims as a manifestation of hostility towards and hatred of Islam. In his new book, the historian takes stock and highlights new dangers for western societies in their behaviour towards minorities. By Claudia Mende
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Opinion polls repeatedly draw the conclusion that up to 20 percent of Germans hold latently anti-Semitic views. There is evidence of anti-Jewish sentiment in everyday life, as well as attacks on Jews, synagogues and Jewish cemeteries. From 1990 to 2011, Wolfgang Benz had had a huge influence on the work of the Berlin Centre for Research on Anti-Semitism and the processing of Germany’s Nazi past. He received the emeritus status in 2010. He is among those German historians whose work also reaches a broader public beyond the confines of his special focus area.
His most recent book, “Antisemitismus und ’Islamkritik’” (Anti-Semitism and Criticism of Islam), is the result of over 30 years work on this issue. The book captivates with its precise, careful language and the occasional flash of refined irony. Despite the cumbersome nature of its subject matter, it is highly readable.
Benz examines the facets of anti-Semitic prejudice, charts its historic development with the help of documentary evidence, and finds parallels with and differences to prejudices against other minorities. He describes the failed attempts of liberal circles to effectively combat anti-Semitism in the 19th century and the Weimar Republic. He outlines the debates in research into anti-Semitism and genocide.
Treacherous Sympathy with Muslim Women | Leila Ahmed (Qantara.de)
►http://en.qantara.de/wcsite.php?wc_c=16963&wc_id=17398
Ever since the attacks of 9/11, feminists in the West have increasingly used the theme of the oppression of women in Islam as justification for war and domination. This strategy of using this rhetoric of “saving the women” in the name of “civilization” is an old ploy used many times in the past by Western imperialists, writes Leila Ahmed