Commitment Pressure

Make a guess: Who is the source of the following quote?

Muslims living here are entitled to protection from right-wing extremist violence – and rightly so. When they are attacked, their right to protection must be honoured and they must also honour this right of the Jews now that the Jews have been attacked. They must clearly distance themselves from anti-Semitism so as not to undermine their own right to tolerance.

It’s an interesting argument, though, isn’t it? The claim to protection from right-wing extremist violence of “Muslims living here” is placed in a strangely ambiguous nexus with the fulfilment of a counter-claim. They have to do something in order not to jeopardise their own right to tolerance, if not protection. They, the “Muslims living here”, do not naturally belong to the national Schicksalsgemeinschaft of the heirs of both sides of the Holocaust, remaining forever a little suspicious, their commitment to the German raison d’état always a little dubious. Which is why they have to convince us of their sincerity. They have to commit themselves. Not just dutifully, fingers crossed behind their backs, not obscured by any clever post-colonial contexts, but without ifs and buts, klipp und klar (clearly and unequivocally), as the German original text puts it. Anyone who does not fulfil this claim, who still leaves room for doubt and questions, “undermines” their “own right to tolerance”.

To solve the riddle: The quote is from Robert Habeck’s much acclaimed “Israel and anti-Semitism” video speech. The Green Vice-Chancellor set out to untangle the debate, and his speech does indeed provide liberating clarity about the fact that Jewish life in Germany must be given all the protection it needs. To be honest, however, the passage quoted does not seem to me to untangle much at all, quite the contrary.

I am fully aware that there are a large number of hard-core anti-Semites among the “Muslims living here” and that they pose an intolerable threat to the safety of Jews, not only in Germany. The same is true of much of the finger-pointing to Israel, which is actually meant to relativise or even legitimise terrorism and is understood as such. I am equally aware that there were and are quite a few among the many German Islamic organisations, whose representativeness is notoriously dubious, who proved unwilling to explicitly condemn the terror of Hamas. I know all that.

What Habeck is calling on Muslims to do, though, is not just to distance themselves from Hamas and other terrorist acts or from any specific acts at all, but from anti-Semitism as such, and to do so klipp und klar, despite the highly controversial nature of this term, especially when it comes to Israel-related anti-Semitism: Commit yourself! Away with all ambiguity! Take away our doubt as to which side you are on, if you don’t want to undermine your right to our tolerance!

It is the Vice-Chancellor who is articulating this demand. It is the state. He is calling on the Muslims, the migrants, to declare themselves clearly and unequivocally in favour of his raison d’état. But they can never quite satisfy that demand. When is a commitment klipp und klar enough? Aren’t there still some explicit or implicit reservations lingering? Are they just pretending perhaps, to earn their right to our tolerance? Do they really mean it? There is always some residual doubt about the loyalty of these migrants, who are not addressed as fellow citizens but only as “Muslims living here”. And that doubt is quite useful, too, because it allows those who belong by virtue of their joint fate to feel all the closer, more homogeneous and more certain of their identity.

I wonder, though. In a country whose Vice-Chancellor, to the jubilant applause of the vast majority of public opinion, uses this line of argument against a vulnerable minority – how safe can Jews actually feel?

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The week on Verfassungsblog

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That’s all for today. See you next week! Chin up, and all the best

Max Steinbeis