Rising Anti-Semitism in Britain

This is quite scary!
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British chief rabbi: Worst anti-Semitism since WWII
By Thomas Wagner, The Associated Press

LONDON - Britain's chief rabbi, Professor Jonathan Sacks, said last night
that Jews are suffering the worst anti-Semitism they have faced in the
country since the Holocaust.

In a lecture to legislators, Sacks said the problem being faced by
Britain's approximately 280,000 Jews has gotten especially bad since the
terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11.

He urged swift action to prevent anti-Semitic words and deeds from
eventually descending into violence and bloodshed.

"We have engaged throughout Europe for the last half century in one of the
most intensive education campaigns in all history - Holocaust education,
interfaith dialogue, conferences on racism - and now we are seeing it
return, despite everything," he said.

"That suggests to me that the virus of anti-Semitism has found a way
through our immune systems," Sacks said. "I have to sound a warning so that
other leading figures in British life can sound a warning also."

Sacks, 53, said he was receiving calls from Jewish students on campuses
throughout the country with stories of verbal and physical abuse, arising
from extremist activity against the Jews and Israel.

The students "are telling me they feel a very real sense of fear," Sacks
said. "Words lead to deeds and hate to violence. Someone has to sound an
early warning."

He said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Israel was being used as a
platform for open displays of anti-Semitism in Britain, including a growing
number of attacks on synagogues.

At Manchester University, Sacks said, Jewish students said they were spat
on and mocked during a dispute over attempts by the school's Islamic
Society to have Israel declared an apartheid state by their student union.

He also said that anti-Semitic actions by some extremist Islamic groups in
Britain were going unchallenged by mainstream British society, and that
some left-leaning newspapers such as The Guardian were publishing articles
"calling into question Israel's right to exist."

Last year, the National Front, a small but vocal right-wing extremist group
that opposes the presence in Britain of Jews, blacks and other racial and
ethnic minorities, made headlines for a series of riots in northern
England.

Last week, Muslim cleric Abdullah el-Faisal, 38, of London, was charged
with incitement to murder after The Times newspaper reported that he had
toured Britain calling for the killing of Jews.