In recent weeks, ministers of Pakistan’s Muslim government have reported that wealthy men of that origin and religion have laundered millions of euros in Portugal, allegedly illicit, mainly through property purchases and residency programs. Pakistan’s Defense Minister, Khawaja Asif, claimed that more than half of his country’s administrative elite uses Portugal as a destination to channel illicit money. In Portuguese territory, the Chega party raised the alarm, speaking of thousands of individuals involved.
Despite the gravity of the accusations, the issue received virtually no coverage in mainstream media. There were no daily headlines, no investigative reporting, no public opinion campaigns pressuring judicial authorities to take urgent action.
The contrast with what happened with the Sephardic nationality law is striking. In the Jewish case, over fees of symbolic value from Jews to Jews, there was a long defamatory media campaign between 2020 and 2022, with news published almost daily, morning, afternoon, and evening, even resorting to anonymous denunciations from the asylum, based on nothing.
Now, in the face of official accusations of millions of euros laundered by foreign elites, complicit silence prevails. The country keeps importing the homeless Brazilian, the starving African, and above all the “good Muslim,” whether from Bangladesh or Pakistan, while the “bad Jew” is completely sidelined, especially if Israeli.
The Israelis of Porto working in real estate faced protests against “Zionist capital,” lists of names of individuals and companies in newspapers, their association with the “Boavista” synagogue, and even “Apartheid” graffiti on the temple’s façade.
That same temple was once invaded by armed police searching for bags of money, a rabbi was thrown into a cell with violent criminals, the reputation of a community was destroyed — the result of a true digital inquisition carried out by elements of Lisbon’s political and media elites.
Meanwhile, the European Commission is executing a plan to promote Jewish life on the old continent. The response of Porto’s Jewish community has been more work, to act like sunlight in the eyes of state delinquents: ten consecutive years of daily minyan, cemetery, restaurants, museums, historical films, and ongoing efforts to honor the figures who once allowed Portugal to be a great nation.
