For the attention of the Islam researcher: Count heads in Vienna schools, this will end badly

Tamir Sorek analyzes an interview with Islam researcher Dr. Dina Lisnansky in Haaretz, comparing her demographic argument mechanism to Nazi propaganda. He argues that presenting Muslim presence as a threat, linking it to sexual crime, and explaining the rise of the far right as a response to demographic change echo historical anti-Semitic motifs, and warns against legitimizing harm to minority rights.

Tamir Sorek, a history professor at Penn State University, analyzes in an opinion piece on Local Call an interview published in Haaretz with Dr. Dina Lisnansky, an Islam researcher from the Dayan Center. The Haaretz headline quoted Lisnansky saying that in many schools in Vienna there are over 40% Muslims, and that the integration will not end well. Sorek compares the demographic argument mechanism to that used by Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg, who used numbers on Jewish presence at the University of Vienna as evidence of takeover. Sorek argues that presenting Muslim presence as a threat, linking demography to sexual crime, and explaining the rise of the far right as a necessary response to demographic change all echo historical anti-Semitic motifs. He warns that language that prepares the public to see the existence of a group as a problem may legitimize harm to its rights, even without an explicit action plan. Sorek connects the European discussion to Israeli anxiety about Palestinians, and argues that liberal discourse is inconsistent with the demand of Jews in Israel to keep Arabs away from centers of political decision-making.