(AgapePress) - A well-known Christian leader is concerned that the level of anti-Semitism sweeping across Europe continues to worsen -- and he says the driving force behind it is satanic.

Dr. Richard Land is president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Land says growing anti-Semitism in Europe is being fueled by the immigration of hundreds of thousands of young Muslims from North Africa, who he says have been raised on a steady diet of anti-Jewish hatred that would make Hitler and Goebbels proud.

Many of these immigrants, he says, are settling in urban areas where synagogues were originally built. Land says when this trend is coupled with another factor, you have a recipe for disaster.

"Most Europeans in the aftermath of the Holocaust -- most of the French, German, and Italian citizens -- don't know any Jews because they were all killed," Land says. "The vast numbers of Jews either were killed or left after World War II and went to Israel."

A recent survey revealed that 30% of Europeans cling to traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes. The Baptist leader says anti-Jewish hatred often stems from the erroneous belief that God cast away his people.

"I believe that the Bible teaches us that the Jews are God's chosen people -- and as such, they are also the particular object of Satan's wrath and hatred," he says. "And I believe there is a satanic element in all anti-Semitism."

Land says throughout history, "replacement theology" has proven to be a destructive tool of Satan for alienating Israel from her Messiah.

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