Fight Hatred

Following years of blanket indoctrination, even the most absurd and impossible accusations against Jews are now commonly accepted without question in Pakistan, as a recent article shows.

“The Nation”, Pakistan’s largest English-language newspaper, has published claims of a CIA-backed conspiracy to set up a "second Israeli state" in the Kashmir, a disputed region along the Pakistan-India border.

Over the years, Anti-Semitism in Pakistan has grown into a very widely accepted norm, and Pakistanis are routinely subjected to ever-increasing dosages of Jewish Conspiracy theories.

International Jewry and the state of Israel, even more then traditional enemies India and the USA, are blamed for every setback and natural disaster that occur. With Pakistan moving ever closer to the definition of a failed state, there are plenty of setbacks and suffering to blame on others.

The accusations are accepted at all levels of society, and even flaunted by the well-educated, the intellectuals and the country's business, civil and military leaders.

MEMRI has a detailed article about “Pakistan's Jewish Problem”, in which they list some of the accusations leveled at the Jews and widely believed in the country, including:

a) Sports – Jews and Indians Lobby against Pakistani Cricketers

b) Polio Vaccination Campaign – A Dangerous Jewish Conspiracy

c) Pakistan-India Water Dispute – Israel's Hand

d) The U.N. – A Jewish Conspiracy

e) Pakistani Interests Abroad Harmed by Jews/Israel

f) Valentine's Day and April's Fool Day – Used by Jews and Hindus against Muslims

g) Ahmadi Muslims – Agents of Israel/India

h) Video of Taliban Flogging Woman – Made by Jews to Smear Pakistan

i) Facebook – A Jewish/Israeli Conspiracy

j) Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons – Targeted by Jews/Israel

k) Faisal Shehzad's Times Square Attack – A CIA/Mossad Plot to Implicate Pakistan

The recent newspaper clipping from The Nation marks a worrying deepening of the anti-Semitic sentiment in the country. Anti-Jewish accusations have been a staple of the more common and populist Urdu-language press in the country, but the English-language newspapers, associated with the country’s intellectual, business and political elites, have been far less afflicted by them. The appearance of such a crass and absurd piece of Jew-hate in the mainstream English-language press indicates the blind acceptance of anti-Semitism among these elites as well.

The low key manner of the article is also worrying. It is hard to imagine a more mainstream acceptance, appearing, as it does, in an off-hand manner alongside a Microsoft advertisement. The complete lack of any attempt at proof or even of naming a source for the accusation also indicate the deeply-seated and blind acceptance of the anti-Jewish propaganda.

It would also be unwise to shrug off the problem as contained within a country that is already treated as a pariah by many. With its population so deeply convinced that they are under an active attack by Jews and by Israel, unprovoked and murderous attacks against these supposed enemies appear moral and justified to Pakistanis.

This can come into play at the national level: Pakistan, which faces severe internal problems and has a nuclear weapons arsenal, can be a powerful enemy and a sponsor of terrorism.

It can have an impact in the diplomatic sphere, as Pakistan and its friends use their influence in the United Nations and in other global arenas to subject Israel to attack and to counter anti-hate initiatives.

And it will have an effect in other countries, as the millions of Pakistani citizens who emigrate and live abroad bring with them a deep-seated pool of anti-Semitic beliefs, forming a potential feeding ground for extremism and hate in their new adopted lands.

There is no easy solution for Pakistan’s anti-Semitism, but this does not mean that it should be ignored. Pressure can be brought to bear on the country’s government, its civil institutions, and its citizens, making it clear to them that the rest of the world finds this type of racist incitement objectionable.

The article itself, as noted, simply details the plot without quoting a source, or getting into the thorny question of which Jew ould want to move to the fabulous new state it envisions. The internet edition added some more details to the article: