Does that make Sarrazin an anti-Semite?
Broder, the Spiegel newsweekly commentator, offered what might very well be the most cogent explanation for Sarrazin’s statements about Jews.
“And there’s a second trick that’s being used now: he’s being accused of anti-Semitism. If you could accuse him of anything, it’s philo-Semitism, because he wrongly thinks Jews are more intelligent than others,” Broder said.
He added, “But of course, behind the anti-Semitism accusation you can really go after the man, because anti-Semitism of course is no longer acceptable in Germany, and rightly so. There is no substantive debate here at all – the issue is that a nation gets up, as it were, they all agree and they take it all out on a scapegoat who they’d like to send into the desert. It’s very disturbing.”
Sarrazin has acknowledged that he used emotionally charged language to jolt Germans out of a dogmatic slumber about their country’s failed integration policies toward Muslims. His rhetoric is at times prone to clumsy generalizations and sweeping provocations. The efforts to silence him and prevent a debate about his book seem to prove his thesis correct. A closing of the German mind does not help advance the discussion about the dangers of German Islamism and failed assimilation programs.
(Philo-Semitism, Philosemitism, or Judeophilia is an interest in, respect for, and appreciation of the Jewish people, their historical significance and the positive impacts of Judaism in the history of the western world, in particular, generally on the part of a gentile. Within the Jewish community it also includes the significance of Jewish culture and the love of everything Jewish. The concept is not new, and has been avowed by thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, who described himself as a “anti-anti-Semite”[1], but it has perhaps recently become a growing phenomenon. It is characterized (among other things) by an interest in Jewish culture and history, as well as increasing university enrollment by non-Jews in courses relating to Judaism (including Judaism, Hebrew and Jewish languages)[citation needed]. A Philosemite or Judeophile is a gentile who substantially subscribes to, or practices, any of the above.)