Anti-Semitism in the Netherlands, and the Consequences of Confronting It

I'm a bit late posting this, but when I first watched this video last week, I was very disturbed.  Now, however, new developments to this story have made me even more upset.  First, the video:

In the video above, Mehmet Sahin, a PhD candidate at Universiteit Leiden's Netherlands Interuniversity School for Islamic Studies, interviews several Dutch students of Turkish descent about their attitudes towards Jews and Judaism.  The results are horrific.  The viewer can get the sense of the video immediately, as the first student leads with the comment: "What Hitler did to the Jews . . . to be honest, I'm happy about it!"  The other students agree, echoing the first student's opinion that the Jews killed in the Holocaust deserved to die.  In response to Sahin's questions regarding the source of the students' anti-semitic views, they admit that they have mostly formed their opinions of Jews from talking to their friends.  But not just their Muslim friends . . . as one student chillingly insists, "I have many Dutch friends who can't stand the Jews.  The whole of our school doesn't like the Jews! Just come to our school and you'll see!"  Indeed, to these Dutch schoolchildren the word "Jew" is a curse-word and insult, perhaps the equivalent of modern American middle- and high school students' "douchebag."

As if this video was not terrible enough, however, the consequences that releasing it appears to have had for Mr. Sahin are even worse.  According to a story published in the Netherland's NRC Handelsblad daily evening newspaper on March 9, Mr. Sahin received death threats - reportedly from the local Islamic community - in the days after the clip above was shown on Dutch television.  The NRC writes that Sahin and his family were forced to go into hiding for at least several days, and that the local community has started a petition to "get him away" from the neighborhood.  (NOTE: I don't totally know what that means . . . whether it is in the sense of exiling Sahin and his family from the neighborhood, or something more simple like forbidding him to conduct his academic research there? I don't know whether Sahim lives in this neighborhood or not...).  And all this because he had the audacity to report on the vile opinions that Dutch youth, and perhaps particularly Dutch Muslim youth, are forming about Jews.

As Dutch Parliamentarian Ahmed Marcouch is quoted as saying in the NRC article, "It is appalling that anyone should be afraid because he has done something which we all should do: teach children not to hate."

I am personally appalled at this story, and I hope that Mr. Sahin will be able to return from hiding soon and continue his research.  Racism and anti-semitism cannot be addressed if it is pushed under the rug and allowed to fester, whether out of ignorance or fear of confrontation.  With luck, the Dutch authorities will investigate this incident further and come up with some meaningful ways to combat anti-semitism and foster tolerance in Dutch society.