British Jews express demographic anxiety about being outnumbered by Muslims

Evidence

The responses that we received from our Jewish interviewees about their experiences of interactions with British Muslims were positive, although almost every respondent talked about the concern present in their congregations. This is how Michael, a Jewish man in his sixties, attempted to explain this concern to us: ‘Unfortunately there is a fear [among British Jews] of being overtaken, and I think it’s the numbers, because we’re such a small number and Muslims are a relatively large number … and then there is of course the question of Israel.’ — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1719

Categorization

• QUESTION: The ‘fear of being overtaken’ framing — a demographics-based anxiety about group survival echoing far-right ‘great replacement’ discourse — is worth examining closely. Does it parallel Muslim minorities’ own fears elsewhere in Europe?
• XREF: This echoes the ‘controversy’ frame of the replacement/fear-of-being-overtaken that shows up across European far-right and centrist discourse about both Jews and Muslims.