Revulsion would curb antisemitism

Andrew L. Urban

Legislation won’t stop the hate that drives antisemitism, but legislation can stop manifestations of it. So can public intolerance of such hate. So can robust condemnation by political and social leadership. If revulsion to antisemitism were as prevalent as it is to child sexual abuse, it would curb its brazen manifestation.

As we are hearing from witnesses every day at the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, antisemitism is not an underground phenomenon, but a daily living scourge out in the open, often brazen, always ugly.

Antisemites have grown brazen since October 7, 2023, and often defy police presence. It’s probably up to the public to confront antisemitic behaviour with the depth of opprobrium reserved for the wors child sex abuse offenders.

There are more antisemites in Australia than Jews. Even before October 7, 2023, which triggered an explosion of this hate, the numbers were disturbing. The 2019 “Islam in Australia” National Survey (n=1,034 Muslim Australian citizens and permanent residents) conducted online in September–October 2019 by Griffith University researchers (Halim Rane et al.), disseminated via Muslim community organisations and social media was instructive. The sample was broadly representative on key demographics (gender, age, birthplace, etc.), though self-selected and only in English.

-9.5% identified as “Political Islamist” (“I am a committed Muslim who believes politics is part of Islam and advocates for an Islamic state based on shariah laws”). That’s about 95,000 Muslims, if we accept that Muslims now total about 1,000,000 of the population.

-3.3% identified as “Militant” (“I am a committed Muslim who believes an Islamic political order and shariah should be implemented by force if necessary”).  These are the closest proxies to “extremist” orientations; the researchers described the militant group as a “smaller sub-group” with views that “could be considered extreme.” That’s about 33,000 Muslims.

Those two cohorts alone, make up about 128,000 people, some 28,000 more than the 100,000 Jews in Australia. But that ignores the potential pool of antisemites that make up the rest of the Muslim population.

To those numbers we can add an unknown but significant number of non-Muslims as demonstrated at the Royal Commission. Incidentally, I should note that my assumption that the majority of the Muslim community is naturally antisemitic on some level is based on a combination of observed reporting and research. For example, the belligerent sections of the Muslim world seek to destroy Israel (‘from the river to the sea’ and ‘death to Israel’). But it has to be recognised that not all Muslim conform to this simplistic view. Some Muslims live happily inside Israel, for example.

Nothing, it seems, will temper current leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran and their proxies in the region, in their campaign of violence against the Jews. But physical intervention can minimise it. Likewise in Australia, laws and their robust implementation can safeguard Jews and the rest of the population from the violent manifestation of Judeophobia. It must be confronted with derision.