Germany's Jewish community head fears Muslim migrants' anti-Semitism

“Many Syrians and Arab migrants grow up in an environment in which hostility to Jews and Israel is common practice,” Josef Schuster told Hesse radio on Wednesday.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
DATE IMPORTED: September 06, 2015 Refugees and migrants sleep on the railway tracks close to the borders of Greece with Macedonia, near the village of Idomeni, September 6, 2015. (photo credit: REUTERS)
DATE IMPORTED: September 06, 2015 Refugees and migrants sleep on the railway tracks close to the borders of Greece with Macedonia, near the village of Idomeni, September 6, 2015.
(photo credit: REUTERS)
BERLIN – Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, expressed fear about increased anti-Semitism due to the attitudes of Muslim migrants entering the country.
“Many Syrians and Arab migrants grow up in an environment in which hostility to Jews and Israel is common practice,” he told Hesse radio on Wednesday.
Schuster called on Muslim organizations and communities to help integrate immigrants into German society. He urged leaders in mosques to communicate values that “we in Germany have as a basic prerequisite of mutual coexistence.”
“When one lives in a country in which one is told for 30 years that Israel is the No. 1 arch-enemy and Jews from the outset are all bad, then one does not simply arrive in Germany and that is suddenly forgotten,” he said.
The Central Council of German Jews has 100,500 members. Germany has more than 4,000,000 Muslims, most of whom are of Turkish origin.
Germany expects a million refugee-seekers to arrive in 2015. Most of them are from Muslim-majority countries such as Syria and Afghanistan. Some Palestinians from Lebanon are among the migrants, disguised as Syrians.