also, north korea said its holding another american citizen but it won't say why. and we'll take a look at how eyewitness accounts can land innocent people in jail. we have more coming up on al jazeera america. >> regi >> i would say antisemittism globally is the worst i knew regi it's been since leach two or regi war 2. >> more than 25% of the world is antisemmet regi regi semittic. an extensive survey of global people. >> region is a major determineant. religion, also, is. >> in the united states, he says the trends are improving. >> while the law permits you to be a bigot, you will pay a price if you are a bigot. look at sterling.

>> the adl stanchion on inter face regi faith reregi relations has been controversial. building a muslim community center two blocks from ground agree regi agree regi zero. >> because you have the right doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. foxman reports on his tenure at the position and how he made it through. >> i survived because a catholic saved me. >> we spoke to him in new york. >> you completed survey that found 26% of adults world war harbor anti-semitic views. what's your reaction. >> i take a reaction to only 26. 26 is a lot. my reaction was not surprised. i wish i was surprised. it's a sober be regiing coming to grips with a certain reality, how deep antisemiti regiism globally. it's distressing. >>

antisemit i can regiism regi regi regi regi poll something one measure. you monitor events. you monitor people's speech, pokesmen regi. poll something one way. it's one snapshot of what it is. it's an important one because how me rpeople feel is important. >> 100 countries, we polled over 503 regi re 53 nations. it's as accurate as anyone has measured it. people's attitudes, what they tell you isn't necessarily always what they feel. >> you asked each person

11 questions we put them in question form and asked individuals whether they agree or disagree and how they feel about it on issues that have haunted jewish people. can you trust jews? >> been a question throughout history. seen as the outsider. you can't trust them. money, too, is historically tied for many good reasons, mostly bad. the jews control finance. they want to control governments. they are not good neighbors. they care about themselves. these are the issues basically asked. conservative.

we trying to as credible as possible. six of those, one question is stronger than another, another question is more indicative but if you answer six, any six, whoa, you are an anti-semite. if you walk like a duck, walk like a duck, you are a duck. people with 3 yeses or 5s are anti-semites, but we tried to be as cautious and conservative as saying if you agree with the majority of anti-semitic kinnards, you are a bigot. >> in the needle east and north africa, in the west bank and gaza, 93% held such views. how much of this has to do with israel's foreign policy? >> let me preface it. the most determinant factor turned out not to be religion but region, geography. what we found is by region, you

can almost predict the level. there, the middle east and north africa scored the highest. in my heart of hearts, i believe that attitudes toward israel do impact on attitudes towards juice. i believe attitudes toward jews tend to impact on attitudes toward israel. having said that, our survey does not give us any evidence, any statistical evidence to say that attitudes towards israel determine or are a cause of antisemittism or that it is a cause of anti-israel. having said that, israel, arab-israel conflict display certainly in the middle east because it's part and

parcel. convention, 49% of muslims are anti-semitic, 1 out of 2. >> were you surprised? >> i was disappointed because religion should be fostering understanding and respect rather prejudice. >> south korea, 53% as anti-semitic views laos, only one %. difference? >> 55%, the data, not the whys. i don't know about south korea. it is just wow. there is an explanation. it's one explanation. it's probably this is my explanation. a lot of the anti-semitism was brought by missionaries. it depends upon what missionaries, how they taught the christian mission? was it antijewish, pro-christian? it may be that's where it came from.

some was brought, you know, in other countries by american troops who brought their western anti-semitism when they came to either safe or conquer the country. there is reason to go back and it. >> the survey found that greece, one of the most anti-semitic countries in europe. what do you attribute that to? >> it's difficult to find the specifics. one of the reasons is the economic instability, political instability. there has been a lot of news coverage about jews. there is a political party called golden dawn which recently was made illegal but was out there actively, not only antiimmigrant, not only antimuslim but antijewish and anti-semitic. we are finding this as a new phenom to non-in

europe. you have nationalist parties opposed to immigration, opposed to the other, jews, muslims, who are against the unified europe yet fielding candidates for the european parliament, and what brings them together is their nativism, poplism, which is antiimmigrant and anti-semitic out of bulgaria, in hungary, in greece. many of these countries are suffering economic instability and are coming together blaming the other. the jew, the muslim, the immigrant. >> that's a political phenomenon which one needs to be aware of and it can be dangerous. >> and in ukraine? this? >> they are not in the eu so they will not be fielding candidates. where you see political or economic instability, you will see prejudice. the end to

prejudice historically has been the jews. you are now finding the jewish issue being played by ukrainians and russians. >> some antisemittism takes the form of holocaust denial. you found half of the respondents had heard of the holocaust. in other words, half had not. did that surprise you? what do you attribute that to? >> i think 54% after sent years is a relatively significant number although most people say half of the world not to know about the holocaust is serious. i would say 54% of adults knowing about it is okay. what's troubling is that one out of three of those 32, 33% believe that it's a myth or that it's been exaggerated so that here, it's not a question of their ignorance. they are aware of it yet they reject it as jewish propaganda. i find that troubling. >> i supposed some of the

population would reject hiro shim a happened or man landed on the moon. >> i don't think it's a third. you know, hiroshima was horrendous. people landing on the moon was great. but this was six years of a genocide. the amount of movies, books, the aware? >> i understand that the sur ais the first time you surveyed all of these countries. but do you have any anecdotal suggestions or evidence that it world? >> i would say yes. i think we did the survey because so much of our knowledge and information was anecdotal or what came in newspaper reports and some surveys and law enforcement reports. our feeling was that since the year 2000, 2001, at the turn of the new millennium, something was happening and antisemittism was becoming more legitimate, more acceptable, more open. and i would say

to you even before the survey and i think the survey now bears it out: i would say that antiis semittism is the worst it has been since world war ii. not like it was in world war ii. absolutely not but since world war ii, it has not been at such a high level. and what we are seeing is not only is it at a high level, but it's pervasive. it's almost everywhere. >> i know you are not looking at what the necessary causes are, but you must have some strong opinions about this. >> i think there is greater instability in the world. i think there is a greater anxiousness about people's present future and when that happens, people look for scapegoats. juice have been the number 1 scapegoat throughout history. economics has something to do with it. political stability, because political governments use scapegoats in order to avoid blame from themselves, they turn on somebody. jews have been the convenient

scapego for throughout the ages i think the internet has something to do with it. i think in terms of, on one hand, the internet is a major, major benefit in terms of education, information, interaction, communication. but at the same time, it is a superhighway for bigots. they can operate in nano seconds, globally, anonymously and there is no perspective. there is no way to check it. >> have you found examples from away the world where combatting prejudice, combatting antisemittism has been more efforts. >> when the democracy is open and people can speak out and challenge and educate and read all kinds of points of view, it's lower. the anecdote is until we find a vaccine, education and the willingness of political religious moral leadership to stand up and say that's unacceptable. take a look at egypt and jordan.

you have peace. so you have peace on the ground basically political peace but peace. >> means the egyptian people under mubarak did not educate people to say now we have peace. now let's learn to respect and live with each other. the same thing in jordan. so, it's a function of not willing to stand up and say, okay. on the ground, we are fine, but we need to educate our children. and as long as the children maintain. >> if you look at democracies and educating children and, of course, the united states comes to mind. according to the survey that you have been doing of the united states since 1964, back then, to 9%, harbor anti-semitic views. today, 9%. what do you attribute in the united states to that drop? >> an openness in a society. i atrtribute it to legislation. this was a country with jim crowism. this was a country that it was

okay to segregate, okay to discriminate against blacks, certainly jews, issues of hispanics, issues of lgbt community. so, yeah, i think this country has come a long way in its learning and almost its pilgrimage to come to grips with who we are. >> we were bigots. we have learned. we started with i think education. then there was legislation, then there was litigation. and now, take a look. the level of antisemitism in the united states is lower. our constitution, our first amendment permits you to be a bigot, even gives you the right to be. we will fight for your right to be a bigot. in europe, on the other hand, you have legislation, legislation against antisemittism, holocaust denial, racism, homo phobia and you have a greater level of the antisemittism. why? the difference is the culture.

the difference is the environment. in this country, while the law permits you to be a bigot, you will pay a price if you are a bigot. soil will make you pay a price. look at sterling. okay? look at what's happening to him. here he was a bigot in private. uh-uh. if you want to play in our culture, we saw it with mel gibson, with politicians. we see it with business people. while this country, yeah, you have a right to be a bigot. at the same time, if you are a bigot, you are going to pay a price because our society doesn't tolerate it. >> with sterling, he is jewish. does that hurt? >> it's embarrassing. you know, we are not immune. we have our bigots. we have our criminals. yeah. it's only when people single them out, look at this jew as... smarter. i wish he had a better sense. he wish he understood his judaism better, but okay.

>> mel gibson, you were instrumental in giving him. >> i give him the credit. he was the most respected, beloved actor/producer/director until he exposed himself as a bigot. sure, we pointed it out. sure, we challenged it. but the response came from the american people. >> coming up next, the controversy about the muslim center near ground zero.

. >> surge. we are back on talk to al jazeera america with abe fausman. >> the survey found there is pretty high unfavorability of muslims. for jewish, favorable/unfavorable. muslims. were you surprised? >> no, because i have always known and understood bigotry is not

unidimensional. people who hate juice hate others. sometimes muslims, hispanics, african americans. if you are a bigot, you are a bigot. today, it's you. tomorrow, maybe me. so we've always known that the level of bigotry is out there is not only directed at us. it's directed at the other. whoever the other is in that society and whoever they feel would be politically expedient to 6 out. >> given those various strong passionate views that you have, it struck a lot of people as surprising when 51 park place, the muslim center was set to open two and a half blocks from ground zero. it was supposed to be a mosque at a community center and you opposed it. how come? >> i didn't oppose it. people didn't bother to read what we said. >> what did you say? >> our statement basically said they have a right. they have a legal right. they have a constitutional right. they have exhausted all of the vehicles to establish their right. but just because you have the right doesn't necessarily mean

that it's the right thing to do. we raised the question: if this is -- park 51 was supposed to be anitiave of reconciliation, opening bridges of understanding, if that's what you want to do, why are you doing it in a place where the people you want to reach out to you say to you don't do it. this is our cemetery. >> two and a half blocks away. >> but that's what it was perceived to be. >> right. don't we all have an obligation to correct perceptions that are wrong? if you look at the things that exist two and a half blocks from where there is muslim center was supposed to be, when i went there recently, there was a bank of america, a catholic church. there is a subway stop. there is a french hair salon where you can get a $25 blow dry special. any one of those can be considered offensive? >> it was hijacked. it was hijacked by politicians by bigots and the people, themselves who weren't sure what they wanted. did they want a jewish community center? did they want a mosque?

did they want a real estate venture? they, too, played it every which way. the fact is our position was: you have a right. listen, as a result of that, if you will, what surfaced in america, what surfaced was that in america was the fact that there were mosques being denied their right to be mosques because they were mosques because they were muslims and that they were being denied zoning. they were denied constitutional rights and because this issue -- >> you are taking credit for the fact that people -- >> no. not taking credit. >> people bringing attention to you -- >> you are challenging my position. i am saying to you, we said they have a right. but at the same time, because this controversy raised the issue publically that there was discrimination, we put together a coalition of muslims and christians and we have been in the courts in the last several years fighting for their right to build mosques. >> here is the larmeger questio out of this.

how did it help relations to take any position crepts yes, they have a right to build it. >> because i have a right to express waybill is our view. listen, there was a very good group a long time ago that decided that they wanted to build a church right outside auschwitz, a good group of nuns who wanted to pray for the souls of jews. the jewish community said thanks but no thanks. jews and the adl were accused of being bigots, racists, we don't souls. took a couple of years. it took john paul to become pope who said, you know what? they have a right to their sensitivities. we raised the sensitivity. don't. we said to them: listen. you want inter faith. you want to reach out. you want respect. listen to their pain. >> you mentioned meeting john paul, pope john paul. he was just made a saint. any feelings about that? any feelings about the catholic church under pope francis?

>> i have a special relationship. historically the catholic church was the enemy of the jewish people. then came two popes recently made saints. somebody asked me how do you feel? to me, they were saints way before the pope decided to make them saints. jenning 23rd and john paul have a very special relation and history of the jewish people . they change christian thinking, catholic theology which basically said god's promise to jesus over -- superseded god's promise to abraham and therefore, jews are nothing. then came these two popes who said, no. jews are our older brothers. we are a continuation. god's promise to the jews was not superseded. when john paul went to the synagogue, it was a magnificent statement to the christian world. the jews have a viability.

jews have a message of spiritual revival and so, yeah, to us, to me, listen, you know, i owe part of my life to the catholic church. >> just ahead on al jazeera, we will ask abe how he survived the holocaust.

fault lines the school to prison pipeline only on al jazeera america you have been with the organization for 50 years. what are your proudet time? >> it will be 50 years next july. i have not yet gone into the enter expe enter /* introspective phase of trying to determine one of my greatest moments, my saddest moments. again, it's very hard to establish, david, what difference one makes. >> that's for somebody else to determine. i have been very lucky, very, very lucky. i have been privileged to spend my

adult life fighting that which on one hand almost destroyed me, the holocaust, antisemittism and building bridges of understanding, of reconciliation, of interfaith and enterethnic. i survived because there was a catholic woman who risked her life to save me. so, to be able to earn a living for almost 50 years fighting bigotry, fighting antisemittism, trying to build the bridges of understanding and sensitivity to each other, wow. >> you were lucky in your childhood that you had a catholic family that protected you and shielded you from the holocaust? >> yeah. very lucky to have a nanny who said to my parents. it won't last long. i will take him. she baptized me, risked her life for four years

and indirectly saved my parents because my parents were able to separate and their goal was to survive, to come back for me. they survived, came back for me. we were reunited and so, i was lucky. >> looking forward, if you had the ability to, you know, live another, say, 70 years, where do you think the world will be with antisemittism 70 years from now? >> well, we just commemorated 100 years, the adl. we made a great deal of progress but i guess the saddest thing is there is still an adl coming in 101 years. the saddest thing to me is that i feared that my grandchildren are going to need an adl. >> abe, thank you very much? >> thank you. >> every saturday join us for exclusive, revealing, and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. grammy award winning singer, songwriter angelique kidjo >> music transforms lives of

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