“Out of France, Jews!” That was late 19th Century and Now its Muslims!

“It is no accident that the rise of anti-Semitism in nineteenth-century Europe coincided with the rise of nationalism. Nationalism, you will recall, presupposes a measure of ethnic or cultural homogeneity within a nation-state—something to bind a population together under a single collective identity. But the Jews represented a conspicuously alien culture that, despite centuries of living and thriving in every corner of Europe, had, in the minds of many, yet to sufficiently assimilate into European society (at least not enough to have disappeared altogether). The secret trial and false conviction of Alfred Dreyfus was a human tragedy. But the affair also raised much broader issues of a national identity among the French. The right-wing newspaper editor Edouard Drumont captured the sentiment of many French nationalists when he declared that Dreyfus’s betrayal was the inexorable destiny of his race. The Jews were a nation within a nation; it was inconceivable to think that their loyalties would be to France.”