Sharon blamed alleged anti-Semitism in France on the growing Muslim community

By Ibrahim Abdullah, IOL Correspondent

CAIRO, July 20 (IslamOnline.net) – The growing Muslim population across Europe poses threats to the continent's security and social fabric, claims a "classified" Israeli Foreign Ministry report published by an Israeli newspaper on Tuesday, July 20.

An Egyptian specialist on Israeli affairs dismissed the leaking of the reported to Maariv as an "old tactic" used by Tel Aviv in times of crisis with European countries.

Islam has become Europe's second largest religion and the number of Muslims is growing rapidly, which should be a cause for concern to all Europeans, the Israeli report argued.

"According to the demographic data, the number of Muslims will continue to steadily rise due to a high birth rate and the continued mass immigrations.

"The meaning of such a rise could be the increased influence Muslims have on the shape of Europe in the future," it states.

The report also voices concern at an influx of immigrating Muslims, especially women who get married to Muslim citizens.

Two Trends

According to the Israeli foreign ministry report, there are two "contradictory" trends among Muslim communities in Europe.

On the one hand, it argues, large sections of the population want to become integrated into society, but on the other hand, there are some groups who preferred to close themselves in their communities, establishing religions and ethnic institutions.

A report by the French intelligence service said on July 7 that many French city suburbs mostly populated by Muslims were becoming "ethnic ghettos".

However, French Muslims fired back, accusing the state of forcing them in these ghettos.

The Israeli report further claimed that the second and third Muslim generations are an easy target for "recruiters of terror organizations".

'Old Tactic'

But Mohammad Abboud, a researcher and specialist in the Israeli affairs at Ein Shams University, Egypt, dismissed such reports as but an "old tactic" used by Israel to maneuver in times of crisis with Europe.

"It has been always the case that when a crisis pops up with a European country, an Israeli media outlet comes up with useless reports described as 'classified' to drift public attention from that crisis," he told IslamOnline.net.

Abboud said such crises are making the news day in and day out, to mention but a few, French President Jacques Chirac's criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel and declaring him unwelcome in Paris.

He also recalled Tel Aviv's deadlock with Belgium over the Belgian universal competence law which was used by Arab and Palestinian victims to persecute Israeli war criminals.

Under massive American pressures, Brussels amended its legislation to please Israel.

"Add to that, a recent EU poll, which showed that 59 percent of the Europeans believe Israel poses the biggest threat to world peace, just ahead of North Korea, Iran and the United States," Abboud said.

"They only want to wave the Islamic bugaboo at the West against the backdrop of the 9/11 attacks. But Israel will lose the bet at the end of the day as its barbaric raids into the Palestinians are more telling than a plethora of 'classified' reports."

In remarks denounced by French human rights organizations as "racist", Sharon called on all French Jews Sunday, July 18, to leave to Israel "immediately" in view of soaring anti-Semitism and the growing number of Muslims in the European country.

In November last year, Sharon also accused the European Union of inaction against anti-Semitism, alleging that Muslims in Europe posed a threat to the lives of Jews.

American experts told IOL that anti-Semitic charges are sometimes employed to stifle objections to anything the Israelis want to do or have done.