Thilo Sarrazin: philosémite ou antisémite ?

"Les commentaires antérieurs de Thilo Sarrazin sur les Juifs sont très clairement davantage de nature philosémite qu'antisémite.  Pour preuve, en automne, par exemple, lors d'une interview il a déclaré que l'expulsion et l'extermination de la population juive d'Allemagne constitua "une énorme hémorragie intellectuelle" de laquelle le pays (et en particulier la ville de Berlin) ne s'était jamais relevé." (John Rosenthal)

"Il y a une seconde astuce qu'on utilise contre lui maintenant: on l'accuse d'antisémitisme [pour avoir dit qu'il existe un gène particulier commun à tous les Juifs, comme à tous les Basques]. S'il faut l'accuser de quoi que ce soit c'est de philosémitisme, parce qu'il croit, à tort, que les Juifs sont plus intellingents que d'autres." (Henryk M. Broder)

Contexte: Accusations de racisme et d'antisémitisme : Un provocateur raciste à la Bundesbank et Le directoire de la Bundesbank vote l'éviction d'un de ses membres accusé de propos racistes (Le Monde)
Thilo Sarrazin se dit soutenu sur ses propos sur les musulmans (Reuters)

Les propos sur l'Islam de Thilo Sarrazin sont approuvés par 85 à 95% des Allemands.

Why are Germans upset over critic of Islam?, Benjamin Weinthal (extraits)

"While the discussion about a shared genetic makeup among Jews was reported on in June in The New York Times and Jewish newspapers, Germans react in a Pavlovian way to genetic theories, because the Nazis employed biological racial theories to dehumanize Jews and other groups. All of this helps to explain the hysterical attacks on Sarrazin’s references to Jewish genetics. [Studies Show Jews’ Genetic Similarity,  Un Espagnol ou Portugais sur cinq a des origines juives et The Genetic Legacy of Religious Diversity and Intolerance: Paternal Lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula]

Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle went so far as to term Sarrazin’s comments "anti-Semitic and racist".  Back in 2002, Westerwelle could not bring himself to rope in Jürgen Möllemann’s (then a top Free Democratic Party politician) mass-mailing of election flyers bashing prime minister Ariel Sharon. Möllemann’s campaign strategy was widely viewed as the first public use of anti-Semitism to win over voters since the Hitler movement.


Leading members of the FDP, including Westerwelle and Development Minister Dirk Niebel, have refused to recognize the outbreak of Israel-hatred within the FDP as modern anti-Semitism.

Meanwhile, Sarrazin further clarified his comment and said, "A statement I made in an interview on August 29, 2010, caused irritation and misunderstanding that I regret. When I said that ‘all Jews share a particular gene,’ I did not express myself with sufficient precision".

Does that make Sarrazin an anti-Semite? [Henryk M.] 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.

The Saracen and the Jews, John Rosenthal