Madonna, a.k.a Esther in Kabbala circles, took a stand after her stumble at the BRIT awards performance went viral, and says intolerance has reached such a level in Europe that it resembles Nazi Germany, according to the Guardian.
Madonna, who has visited Israel and may buy a penthouse in Tel Aviv, told a French radio station that “anti-semitism is at an all-time high …” and “it feels like Nazi Germany.” The 56 year old singer says the present state of affairs is lamentable, since France at one time seemed to lead the way in the area of diversity; “France was once a country that accepted people of color and was a place where artists escaped, whether it was Josephine Baker or Charlie Parker.” (It should be noted that the operative word here might be “artists, ” who may have been accepted in France at that time in spite of their race and only because of their talent, which is something different than a national tendency to embrace multiculturalism).
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Madonna got into it with far right French leader Marine Le Pen, who threatened a lawsuit after Madonna had a picture of her with a swastika on her forehead. Madonna removed the Nazi symbol and replaced it with a question mark. The 56 year old singer spoke out about the problem of increasing intolerance in 2012, and added, “What I said two years ago is still valid today. It is not just happening in France, but all over Europe. Particularly in France. The level of intolerance is so enormous, it’s scary.”
The statistics validate Madonna’s statements. Anti-semitic acts doubled in France from 423 to 851 during 2014, not only during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in the summer. The amount of anti-semitic attacks in France involving violence also more than doubled from 105 to 243.