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Author accused of anti-Semitism

Critics compare book to Mein Kampf, say it could encourage racists

Author Petr Bakalar claims that Eastern European Jews have higher IQs than other Eastern Europeans. He said he wants his book to break taboos.
By Mindy Kay Bricker
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
(February 26, 2003)


Last summer, the Supreme Court ruled that the publication of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf could not be banned.

Now, a new book that some have decried as anti-Semitic has sparked a new legal battle.

Within two weeks of the mid-February release of Petr Bakalar's Taboos in Social Sciences, a lawsuit was filed to halt the book's publication. Critics have denounced the work as racist propaganda.

"It seems to be more dangerous than the publication of Hitler's Mein Kampf," said Tomas Jelinek, chairman of the Prague Jewish Community. He said the book could become a manual for Czech racists and anti-Semites.

"The book is dangerous because it appears as scientific work. And its form corresponds to it."

Tomas Kamin,
Prague sociologist

The 300-page book, which is presented as scholarly research with about 400 footnotes, describes theories purporting that levels of human intelligence are based on race and ethnicity.

The book "tries to bring new arguments about the influence of the Jews in the world and about the role of Jews in undermining the role of Christian societies," Jelinek said.

"As a citizen of the Czech Republic, I found many arguments in the book outrageous, and I don't understand the scientific methodology of the book," he added. "What was it that he wanted to prove? What was it that he wanted to say?"


Brisk sales

Olomouc-based publishing house Votobia printed 4,500 copies. It does not plan to translate the book for sale in other countries. Within one week, 4,000 copies were sold.

"The book is dangerous because it appears as scientific work. And its form corresponds to it," said Prague sociologist Tomas Kamin, who filed a lawsuit against Bakalar.

The lawsuit is based on paragraph 260 of the penal code. The paragraph states: "Someone who supports or promotes a movement that explicitly aids the suppression of the rights of man or promotes ethnic, religious, nationalist or class hatred against some person will be punished by one to five years in prison."

"The author has only chosen quotations from specific sources so that they correspond to his objective. And his goal, in my view, is to present racist and anti-Semitic views," Kamin said.

Bakalar, 33, rejects the racist label.

"I state in the book that Mongoloids [peoples of East Asia and the indigenous peoples of the Americas] have the highest IQ, so I'm not a white supremacist," he said.

In his book, Bakalar concludes that Eastern European Jews have higher IQs than other Eastern Europeans. He reasons that concentration camps created a "survival-of-the-fittest" atmosphere -- those who were more intelligent either escaped or were able to survive in the camps, he said.

"You can't even say [Jews] have high IQs -- that is anti-Semitic," he said. "You can write about Jewish suffering, but you can't write about, or analyze, the reason why so many people were against them. The main reason was economic competition."

Bakalar also says that the number of Jews working in the American entertainment industry, media and academia support his theory.

He said Eastern European Jews have an average IQ of 115. Other Eastern Europeans test at 100.

Bakalar said his work has been criticized because he focused much of his work on Jews. If he had written The Psychology of Gypsies, he said, "I probably would not have such controversy."


Reaction anticipated

Petr Jungling, owner of Votobia, said he anticipated the negative responses. "I read it and, of course, I don't agree that it is racist," he said.
THE BAKALAR FILE

• Born: Jan. 27, 1970, Prague

• Education: Charles University, psychology department

• Profession: Author

• Books: Psychology in Questions (1999), Book of Questions (2001), Taboos in Social Sciences (2003)

• Awards: Czechoslovak Chess Champion, 1988

Since its publication, the book has received positive feedback, Jungling said. "I think that the situation on the Czech book market is very conformist," he said.

Jungling and Bakalar said they wanted to break taboos that would prompt discussions that are not socially acceptable.

"I couldn't find any other topics that would be hotter than this," Bakalar said during an interview in his Mala Strana flat, a home that he jokes will be a museum one day.

"Of course, I had in mind that people would be outraged and [the book would be] analyzed by experts," he said.

"But they are just facts. I didn't have, and I don't have, any censorship."

Bakalar said that he is open to criticism.

"Everybody can make mistakes. That is not a sin -- if you show me mistakes in the book -- it's not the Bible -- I will correct them. But nobody will show me. I think the main concept stands."

"The motivation of many endeavors is boredom, and I was bored by the conventional psychological authorities and the political correctness," he said.

"Political correctness and science cannot go together."


-- Martina Sedlakova and wire stories contributed to this report.

Mindy Kay Bricker's e-mail address is mbricker@praguepost.com




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