The Dutch continue to be ridiculously racist and in denial about it

[Brazen]

Anti-Semitic crimes are notably on the rise in the UK, especially assaults in individuals and damage to synagogues and graveyards. But sadly hate crimes in general are increasing.

[Warspite]

[Brazen]

 

[celedhring]

Heh, precisely there's been a pretty ugly fracas involving Matisyahu and a reggae festival in Spain. A BDS group - with the support of some other artists featured in the festival - pressured the organization to get Matisyahu to speak on the Palestinian issue and the festival ended up cancelling his performance when he refused to do so. The fallout has been quite big and the festival apologized and reversed, but man...

[derspiess]

I read about that.  They didn't just want him to speak on the issue-- they wanted him to make a statement supporting a Palestinian state.

[Valmy]

Given what was done to Muslims in Spain, pagans in Eastern Europe or Aztecs in Mexico after the Spanish conquest, you could say that Jews got off light.

They were forced to convert in Spain and then got persecuted anyway so pretty much what happened to the Aztecs and the Muslims.

[Valmy]

I read about that.  They didn't just want him to speak on the issue-- they wanted him to make a statement supporting a Palestinian state.

BDS is still around? I figured they had given up by now.

[celedhring]

Given what was done to Muslims in Spain, pagans in Eastern Europe or Aztecs in Mexico after the Spanish conquest, you could say that Jews got off light.

They were forced to convert in Spain and then got persecuted anyway so pretty much what happened to the Aztecs and the Muslims.

My greatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgrandparents 

[Valmy]

You know things were getting bad for them in Spain when they had to make the decision 'damn the Muslims are getting a little crazy, I guess we have to support the Christians now.'

[Razgovory]

I guess when talking about anti-semitism people usually mean the Christian world (the roots of antisemitism in the Muslim world are different and more recent, I would say). If you consider it from this perspective, then it is explainable, given that until recently Jews were really the only ethnic and religious group that existed throughout the Christian world (as opposed to a localised, regional minority) and was not Christian.

Given what was done to Muslims in Spain, pagans in Eastern Europe or Aztecs in Mexico after the Spanish conquest, you could say that Jews got off light.

Interestingly widespread hatred of Jews predates both religions.  The blood libel seems is first mentioned by pagan Greeks.