E/CN.4/2002/24 page 17 Attitude of the authorities and politicians 37. From the time the press first began to speculate that the outrages committed in New York and Washington on Tuesday, 11 September 2001 were the work of “Islamic terrorists”, the Government of the United Kingdom was immediately conscious of the need to reassure Muslim communities who felt vulnerable and to emphasize that the overwhelming majority of Muslims, both in the United Kingdom and in the wider world, did not support such attacks. From the morning of Wednesday, 12 September, both government ministers and the leaders of the religious communities in the United Kingdom sought consistently to put out this message. Observation by the Special Rapporteur 38. Given the reactions of the authorities and people in the various countries, it is pleasing and reassuring to note that a crucial distinction is increasingly being made between Islam and Muslims, on the one hand, and terrorism, on the other. This is an issue that should be monitored by the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. B. Anti-Semitism 39. The report “Anti-Semitism Worldwide 2000/2001” by Tel-Aviv University was transmitted to the Special Rapporteur by the Government of Israel. The document as a whole, from which the Special Rapporteur quotes the paragraphs below, may be consulted in the secretariat. “During the period under review, a wave of anti-Semitic violence which “swept Europe and North America … beginning in autumn 2000, was regarded by some Jewish leaders as unprecedented since World War II. This, in spite of the fact that in terms of numbers, 1994 was the worst year for violent anti-Semitism, witnessing 300 such incidents (the year 1993 was not far behind with 270 incidents), whereas in 2000, 255 cases were recorded: 66 major attacks (involving the use of a weapon, including knives and stones, or arson) and 189 other major violent incidents. The many events which took place within a brief period, namely in October and November 2000, altered familiar patterns. The period 1995-97 was relatively quiet, whereas 1998-99 were years of intensified anti-Semitic activity. Yet even this escalation was dwarfed by the year 2000 when major violent attacks more than doubled, from 32 in 1999 to 66, as stated, and other acts of violence increased by 50 per cent, from 114 to 189. Thus, at the end of the decade, the achievements reached after 1994, thanks to better legislation and law enforcement, as well as intensified police activity and increased public awareness, seem to have been erased. The steep rise in numbers of cases perpetrated against Jews between 1999 and 2000 was not paralleled by anti-foreigner hostility. Moreover, 180 of these acts were concentrated in about six weeks, beginning during the High Holidays, and were directed mostly against synagogues and worshipers (about 60 in France alone), evoking concern that Jews and their religious sites might once again be considered easy prey. In 1998-99, the ideological and active resurgence of the extreme right, both in Europe and the United States, resulted in a large number of casualties. This tendency continued