Jacob Christensen

This is just to note that the Danish think tank CEPOS – that an acronym for “Center for Politiske Studier” – celebrated its first birthday on Monday.

As my brain is working at something like 20% capacity today (yes, a common cold can cause that), I will just note that CEPOS is a rare bird in a Danish context as it brands itself as freedom-oriented (as in free-market liberal) and bourgeois.

The Swedish Timbro think tank was an obvious inspiration to a group of Danish liberals who were disappointed with the turn toward the centre made by the Liberal Party under Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

We shall see if Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard will be flaming me for calling CEPOS a think tank.

The Swedish Forum for Living History – which is a government agency – today published a report on anti-semitism in Sweden. Depending on your point of view, the results can be seen as reassuring or troubling.

The good news are that hard-core anti-semites only constitute around 5% of the adult population and that anti-semitism has no hold within mainstream political parties.

Things get a little more troublesome when you start to look at issues related to anti-semitism. For instance, one in four Swedes do not find the idea of having a Jewish prime minister acceptable.

Furthermore, anti-semitic attitudes are widespread among Swedish Muslims: Nearly 40% of adult Muslims can be classified as anti-semites according to the study.

Interestingly, Swedish television chose not to cover the Muslim angle in its report about the study.