Antisemitism is no longer a marginal outburst from the fringes – it is becoming part of Europe’s new normal. Jewish citizens, children, and cultural institutions are being subjected to harassment, threats, and intimidation, and the authorities’ response is not protection but caution. A caution that quickly becomes another word for moral capitulation. We are witnessing a form of secular dhimmitude – a continent bowing its head voluntarily before a threat it no longer dares to confront.
Birmingham: When Power Bows
The most grotesque example can be found in Birmingham. There, the authorities decided that fans of the Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv would not be allowed to attend their match against Aston Villa – for their own safety. West Midlands Police called it “risk management,” but in practice, it was a declaration: Jews are advised to stay away because others cannot behave.
The city’s political landscape makes the decision all the more telling. Birmingham’s Lord Mayor, Zafar Iqbal, along with prominent city councillors Waseem Zaffar and Mumtaz Hussain – all of Muslim background – supported the measure. The proposal itself came from Birmingham Perry Barr’s newly elected Muslim MP, Ayoub Khan, who argued for banning Israeli players and fans “on moral grounds.”
It takes a special kind of moral relativism to call discrimination moral. The government in London later tried to reverse the decision, but the damage was done: when Jewish fans are banned for their own safety, antisemitism has already become administrative routine – a component of municipal “crisis management.” Birmingham thus became a case study in how to bow to the thug’s veto.
Sweden: Caution as a Virtue
Further north, the pattern repeats itself. In Sweden, a Jewish film festival scheduled for September was cancelled because no cinema dared to host it. Officially, it was about security; unofficially, about fear. Swedish tolerance has thus degenerated into secular dhimmitude: Jewish culture can take place only when no one feels offended by it. “No cinema dares to show Jewish films” – the sentence could have appeared in a newspaper from the 1930s.
They call it consideration. But consideration shown to those who threaten, and not to those who are threatened, is not tolerance. It is submission disguised as civility.
Denmark: Roundtables as a Substitute for Courage
Nor is Denmark immune. When the boys’ team from the Jewish sports club JIF Hakoah was scheduled to play against Brønshøj Boldklub, the match was cancelled. First, it was said that parents refused to let their children play against “a Jewish team.” Later, that there were fears of pro-Palestinian protests.
Copenhagen Municipality subsequently convened a roundtable discussion on antisemitism in sports – a particularly Danish discipline: we talk about the problem once the damage is done, and the roundtable has long since become a symbol of a society that prefers to moderate its tone rather than defend its principles.
It is a milder expression of the same disease seen in Birmingham and Stockholm: moral capitulation. The authorities know what is right – but choose what feels safer.
The Import of Jew-Hatred – and the Left’s Useful Idiots
The surge in antisemitism has many sources, but the most obvious one remains untouchable: the importation of Islam. With mass immigration from the Middle East and North Africa, Europe has imported a culture in which hostility toward Jews is deeply ingrained.
The war between Israel and Hamas has turbocharged antisemitism across Paris, Berlin, London – and Copenhagen. Pro-Palestinian demonstrations slip seamlessly into chants of hatred against Jews, while left-wing activists loyally serve as microphone holders. They call it solidarity, but in practice, they act as useful idiots for a hatred they neither understand nor dare to confront.
It is precisely this alliance between Islamic milieus and the secular Left that sustains Europe’s new double standard: they preach anti-racism, yet look away when Jewish children cannot play football in peace. They speak of tolerance, yet accept that tolerance requires Jewish invisibility. This is the modern, secular form of dhimmitude – voluntary submission born of fear of being called intolerant.
Europe Bows
When authorities, governments, and media would rather manage fear than confront it, it means antisemitism is already built into the system. It rarely happens with fanfare. It happens through small adjustments, safety statements, cancellations, and roundtable talks. It happens when we fear the perpetrator’s anger more than we respect the victim’s rights.
This is not resistance – it is managed capitulation. And the longer Europe keeps bowing, the harder it will be to stand up again.
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