[Prishtina-E] Fwd: [alb-information] Greece

[Uk Lushi]

>From: "Nikoll A Mirakaj" <albania at EROLS.COM>
>To: "a" <alb-information at egroups.com>
>Subject: [alb-information] Greece
>Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2000 10:53:48 -0700
>
>Greek Jews Wary of Backlash
>By Brian Murphy
>Associated Press Writer
>Wednesday, May 31, 2000; 4:34 p.m. EDT
>
>ATHENS, Greece –– The messages dripped of pure hate. "Hitler was right,"
>vandals wrote during the desecration last week of the largest Jewish
>cemetery in Greece. A similar message appeared on a Jewish community Web
>site.
>
>The attacks are startling in a nation with no history of widespread
>anti-Semitism and a strong distaste for Fascist-style groups since the
>collapse of a military dictatorship in 1974.
>
>But Greece's small Jewish community is being targeted in the backlash
>against a government plan to remove religious affiliations from identity
>cards – a proposal that has incensed the powerful Greek Orthodox Church.
>
>Many opponents blame a vague "conspiracy" of Jews and European Union
>bureaucrats for the ID changes. Church leaders have declared a "relentless
>struggle" to overturn the plan, which they see as a first step toward a
>possible separation of church and state.
>
>"We ask our politicians: Are they listening to the Greek Orthodox people or
>the Jewish lobby?" protest leader Panayiotis Lyras said at a march 
>Wednesday
>of about 2,500 people opposed to the plan.
>
>"Those who lay a hand on Orthodoxy will pay for it. There are battles
>ahead," he said as the marchers headed toward parliament.
>
>Most mainstream clerics have been careful to distance themselves from any
>calls for violence. Yet cliques of religious fringe groups and
>ultra-nationalists have drawn considerable strength from the 
>church-fostered
>controversy.
>
>The cemetery attack – Nazi slogans and symbols painted on buildings and 
>more
>than 90 graves last Friday – was the third against Jews or Jewish sites in
>Greece in a month.
>
>"Jewish plot behind the IDs," said a headline in the Orthodox Press, a
>weekly newspaper thought to reflect church thinking.
>
>Meanwhile, the crusaders fighting the ID changes are trying to rally 
>support
>with calls similar to the slogan of the 1967-74 junta: "Greece for 
>Christian
>Greeks."
>
>A parliament member, Giorgos Karatzaferis, has made an issue of whether a
>respected colleague, Miltiades Evert, wore a yarmulke while accepting an
>award for his father's role in saving Jews during the Nazi occupation of
>Greece. Only about 5,000 Jews remain from a prewar population of more than
>80,000.
>
>"Who is, or who is not with the Jews?" said Karatzaferis, who has used his
>Athens television station as a soapbox to attack the ID changes. "Who
>conspires and who does not conspire against our country?"
>
>Jewish leaders note there are no signs of an organized ultra-nationalist
>political movement such as Austria's Freedom Party. But there are clear
>worries of a backlash against anyone not Greek Orthodox, who comprise more
>than 97 percent of the population.
>
>"It's xenophobia," said Jean Cohen, a Greek Jewish journalist and
>commentator. "There is a difference between being anti-Semitic and
>xenophobic ... Xenophobic means they are against anyone who is not Greek
>Orthodox."
>
>At a news conference Wednesday, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church,
>Archbishop Christodoulos, used descriptions that could be viewed as
>incompatible with the secular and multicultural strivings of the European
>Union.
>
>"The Greek church and people are one and the same," he said. "Greeks are
>Christian Orthodox."
>
>But, he later added, Jews "have no reason to be scared."
>
>Andreas Andreanopoulos, a commentator writing in the daily Exousia
>newspaper, blamed Greek Orthodox leaders for "cultivating a dangerous 
>spirit
>of inquisitorial mania and fanaticism."
>
>This atmosphere can turn suddenly against minorities, some scholars say.
>
>"Anytime you have ethnic identity and religion intertwined, as in the case
>of the Greek Orthodox Church, there is the potential for very negative
>attitudes toward anyone considered an enemy of their perception of the
>world," said Doug Bandow, an analyst specializing in religion and politics
>at the Cato Institute in Washington.
>
>© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
>
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Failed tests, classes skipped, forgotten locker combinations.
>Remember the good 'ol days
>http://click.egroups.com/1/4053/1/_/1980/_/960130415/
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>Poll - Was NATO"s intervention worthed?
>Go to http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Kosovo/ and vote "YES"!
>

________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com