thisisbabylon.net

Un legislador de Colorado comparó la ciudad de Miami con "un país tercermundista" y el...

Oh I'm sorry. I didn't want to speak the language of a Third World country. CBS News reports:

[Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO)] a vocal supporter of the anti-illegal immigration movement in the U.S. House, made his initial comments to WorldNetDaily, a conservative online new site, his spokesman Carlos Espinosa said.

"Look at what has happened to Miami. It has become a Third World country. You just pick it up and take it and move it someplace. You would never know you're in the United States of America. You would certainly say you're in a Third World country," Tancredo said.

"I certainly understand and appreciate your need and desire to create the illusion of Miami as a multiethnic 'All American' city," Tancredo wrote. "I can also appreciate that Miami's schools graduate many outstanding students and that the cultural and ethnic diversity of the city offers many advantages to its residents.

"However, it is neither naïve nor insulting to call attention to a real problem that cannot be easily dismissed through politically correct happy talk," Tancredo wrote.

Tancredo said a growing number of Miami residents don't speak English, one of the few things that holds Americans together.

I mean, this is the guy who, after The Denver Post published a report about an illegal immigrant struggling to pay for college, called up the immigration agency to have him deported. The guy who thinks President Bush is going soft. The guy who last year told a radio show that the United States should ''take out'' Islamic holy sites if fundamentalists attacked this country.

''You're talking about bombing Mecca?'' the radio host asked, just to clarify.

''Yeah,'' Thoughtful Counsel responded.

He said he absolutely stands behind his statements. Defending himself to the Rocky Mountain News, he said that:

But Tancredo said it was Bush who is being naive.

"The tolerance of cultural diversity in a city or a nation is admirable up to a point, but when diversity is worshipped to the detriment of assimilation, it becomes a serious problem that undermines the civic culture that forms the basis for our democratic institutions and the rule of law," he wrote.

[...]

He's best known for campaigning against illegal immigration. But Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Littleton, makes headlines in all sorts of ways:

• September 2006: Tancredo speaks at a South Carolina gathering that critics called "a hate-group event." Tancredo and others dispute the description. But he still draws flak for appearing on a podium with a Confederate flag and joining audience members in singing Dixie.

• September 2005: Tancredo criticizes the crescent-shaped design of a 9/11 memorial to victims of United Airlines Flight 93. He said it resembles the lunar crescent symbol of Islam and could be seen as a "tribute to the hijackers."

Damned right. I hate 'em all - negroes, wasps, spics, eskimos, jews, honkies, krauts, ruskies, ethopans, pakis, hunkies, pollocks and marxists; there are way too many of them. I'm all for trout, elephants, bacteria, whales, wolves, birds, parrot fish, deciduous foliage and mollusks. Time to rebalance the planet, bleeding heart liberals be damned. [sic]

This is what Colorado voted for? Read more about this pro-racist Republican at tancredowatch.blogspot.com.

So if you don't have a dominant European culture with "white" paradigms, or too much pluralism and not enough assimilation, you're obviously living in a backwater village in Chad. Disgusting.

Posted by Y-Love at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

As is well-known, the American-led War in Iraq has led to the interruption of utilities for many Iraqi civilians. So, many people find themselves -- intermittently at a minimum, permanently at worst -- without water service.

So then, what kind of cruelty does THIS have to be? WTF is this?

Hat tip to Kool-Aid.

Posted by Y-Love at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

From The Frederick (MD) News-Post:

The president of Frederick County's largest Jewish congregation met with the spiritual leader of the local Muslim community, and plans are in the works for a festive joint gathering in December.

"My goal for this meeting was to establish relationships between Frederick's Islamic and Jewish communities," said Andy Carpel, president of the Beth Sholom Congregation, in a press release issued Nov. 22...Yahya Hendi, imam of the Islamic Society of Frederick, reaffirmed his commitment to "dialogue with all people, Jews and Christians," according to the press release.

"I would want more Muslims to understand the Jewish story. I also urge more Jews to understand the Muslim and the Palestinian story of pain and suffering," the press release quoted him.

Imam Hendi's August call for dialogue among Muslims, Jews and Christians has led to meetings, dinners, and joint celebrations, and the dialogue has continued to gain momentum.

One call to dialogue and so many results. One love to Imam Hendi and may it be G-d's Will that the shared atmosphere of respect experienced at so many meetings and dinners translate into the abatement of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in our respective communities.

Ken y'hi ratzon. Insha'All-h.

Posted by Y-Love at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From the Toronto Star:

In his compelling work Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation, social critic Jonathan Kozol interviews children and adults in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx.

It's one of the poorest congressional districts in the U.S. nited States and an area with alarmingly high incidences of murder, drug abuse, and poverty. (It is usually not a stop on the Disney-Times Square package tours of The Big Apple.)

Unfortunately, this section of New York also has one of the highest rates of asthma in the nation, and children with inhalers are commonplace. One of the main reasons for the soaring asthma rates, according to Kozol, is the medical waste incinerator operating in the neighbourhood.

Kozol learned from a local minister, Rev. Martha Overall, that the waste incinerator handles so-called "red bag products" — amputated limbs, fetal tissue, bedding, syringes, and bandages from 14 New York City hospitals.

Some of these items were slated to be burned at a proposed incinerator on the East Side of Manhattan, but the proposal was successfully blocked by area parents worried about the cancer risks an incinerator posed for their children.

For both Kozol and Reverend Overall, the ultimate home for this incinerator, in a severely depressed area largely of black and minority residents, is no accident.

It is rather an example of what U.S. church groups have labelled "environmental racism."

Environmental racism affects many people in the United States. Three out of five Black and Hispanic Americans lived in communities with one or more toxic waste sites and the racial representation in numbers shows that over 15 million African -Americans, over 8 million Hispanics and about 50 percent of Asian/Pacific Islanders and Native Americans are living in communities with one or more abandoned or uncontrolled toxic waste sites (Bullard, 1993).

At least thirty-three such communities have populations exceeding 10,000 people (Bullard, 1993).

As Ms. Crane notes in her paper, this takes grassroots motivation within poor and minority areas -- literally knocking on doors -- to combat.

Poor parents should get together to block incinerators like their affluent counterparts -- what, their children don't get cancer? Asthma?

"Legal notices" are often overlooked by poorer people when they are printed in newspapers, and often signs saying "to whom it may concern" are vandalized or ignored by area residents in poorer areas. Those of us who know and see the risk need to tell our neighbors: This sign means that your kids will be sick, are at greater risk, or will die if they build this factory!

The move for Eco-Justice is being led by Christian and interfaith organizations. One Jewish organization leading the way for ecojustice is the (lamentably un-Orthodox) Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL).

Environmental racism is very real, and very ugly and destroys the health of thousands of poor children every year.

Eat organic and boycott, but most of all -- the poor and minorities must let it be known: not in MY backyard, either.

(crossposted to MySpace.)

Posted by Y-Love at 01:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A Jewish school in Austria was vandalized on Sunday, with windows and other glass surfaces smashed with an iron rod. Glass and other material was also damaged inside restrooms. A Croatian man was arrested around 2 AM after residents of the area of the Lauder Chabad school complained about the noise emanating from the school.

The Jerusalem Post reports the reaction of Jewish leaders:

Following the vandalism of a Jewish school in Vienna on Sunday, Ephraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Israel office, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that it was not surprising "that events like this take place in a country that protects Croatian Nazi war criminals."

He referred specifically to the case of Milivoj Asner, "a Croation Nazi war criminal living in Klagenfort whose extradition has been sought for over a year by the Croatian authorities who want to put him on trial for his role as the police chief of the city of Pozegga during 1941-42."

The Austrians, he said, "refuse to send Asner back to Croatia despite the fact that he's not an Austrian citizen and there is ostensibly no reason that they haven't acceded to Croatian extradition request."

He concluded by pointing out that Austria "has not successfully prosecuted Nazi war criminals in more than 30 years, and in that atmosphere of impunity, perhaps it's not surprising that such terrible events take place."

Ariel Muzicant, the head of Vienna's Jewish Community, expressed shock and disbelief at the devastation. He noted it was still unclear if the man was anti-Semitic or mentally ill.

"One asks oneself however, what goes through the mind of a man who attacks a school and destroys so much," Muzicant was quoted as saying. He did not provide an estimate of the damage caused. "We're now in the process of putting everything in order," he said.

APA cited Jacob Biderman, head of the school's administration, as saying that the man told the police officers who arrested him that his name was Adolf Hitler.

Posted by Y-Love at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From the frum news source Vos Iz Neias:

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, writes and receives an average of no less than 3,000 cellphone text (SMS) messages a month. Almost all are questions of halacha, to which Aviner responds in short, permitted or forbidden, without giving the reason.

The questions vary: Is it permissible to prepare tehina on Shabbat? Only if it is watery, Aviner responds.

‪Can I have physical contact with my three-year-old niece? Up to age nine is the answer.

Can one steal from an Arab, who probably stole one's merchandise? No, stealing from a thief is prohibited.

Ultra-Orthodox rabbis prohibit the use of SMS even for secular purposes.

Perhaps the SMS also reaches neshamos -- souls -- unreachable by "normal" means.

Posted by Y-Love at 01:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

From the Canadian Jewish News:

In the fight against militant Islam, one of the new theories is this: if you force Muslims to look like everyone else, they’ll start acting like everyone else. That thought was the driving force behind the French government’s 2004 decision to ban religious symbols in schools.

It’s also the driving force behind a new bill proposed by the Dutch government that, if passed, would forbid Muslim women from donning facial veils in public, and it’s the reason former British foreign secretary Jack Straw admitted in a recent editorial that he asks Muslim women to remove their veils during conversations with him.

The effort to end fanaticism – religious or otherwise – is always a worthy cause. But inherent in this endeavor is the danger of becoming precisely the fanatic you had hoped to eradicate. In the effort to create uniformity and civic equality, it’s quite possible that what we reward is actually a form of secular fanaticism.

In 1959, Philip Roth posed the question that we should all be asking ourselves right now: who are the real fanatics?

Posted by Y-Love at 01:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A security threat? Or just "blogging while Arab"?

And my feelings on the subject.

Posted by Y-Love at 08:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Audio from CBC (10 minutes, RealAudio):

From the CBC:

The Montreal Police Service is defending an article that recommends women officers call for backup from male colleagues on calls involving the Hasidic Jewish community.

The article, published in the October issue of the internal newsletter L'Heure Juste, is part of a series of features on different religions and cultures, and aims to assist officers who find themselves in potentially awkward situations, said a police spokeswoman.

"That's the reality," said Insp. Joanne Paquin. "If we don't understand the differences of all those cultures, maybe we won't respond the right way."

But the Montreal Police Brotherhood insists the force has gone too far, accusing it of denigrating its female officers by suggesting they can't do the job alone.

Posted by Y-Love at 04:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jonathan Tobin of the Jewish World Review:

The notion of educated, sophisticated and even affluent Jews embracing an Orthodox lifestyle with all it entails is profoundly disturbing to those who saw assimilation into the mainstream as the main goal of American Jewry...

Among secular Jews who have come to view all religion as negative, the prejudice against Orthodoxy is often no less visceral than the prevailing attitudes among many Jews about evangelical Christians. As in that case, it isn't just that their beliefs are different. It is that many of us unfairly view them as backward and inherently illegitimate.

What is the antidote to this ugly and disturbing trend?

The obvious answer would be for those who feel threatened by the Orthodox to try talking to them, rather than merely seize upon any unflattering anecdote to justify negative stereotypes. If they did, they'd find that despite the differences, they still have in more in common with their fellow Jews than they think.

And I'll add that "assimilation into the mainstream" is quite often a function of that mainstream. Attempts at assimilation into a "mainstream" too infected with anti-Semitism proves patently impossible.

Posted by Y-Love at 05:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You can't stop the unstoppable.

Much love to Jay-Z and Russell Simmons for this most worthy endeavor.

Posted by Y-Love at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of these Israel-firsters. I'm not an ultra-Zionist bent on the indiscriminate expansion of a Herzl idea. I support Israel's right to exist, yes, and I believe in a viable 2-state solution.

But I find myself unable to hold back from questioning, "Just where in the hell does this guy get off talking about Israel like this?"

On YNet today, Columnist B. Michael just goes too far:

Kazakhstan is here

Borat didn't need to use Kazakhstan; he could have portrayed Israel
B. Michael

But it's especially bad, because with a little forethought, Sacha Cohen could have spared himself this embarrassing fiasco. Had he presented himself as an Israeli reporter to begin with – a country that under some of our strange laws is his as well - he would not have had to lie so much to reveal his interviewees' true character.

Without insulting an innocent country, he could have told how women are banned from testifying in certain courts of law and that religious officials compare homosexuals to beasts. He could have mentioned how if a person is not born to the right people he or she cannot purchase Israeli land. And that to kill minorities is much easier and widespread than picking a protected iris in the Galilee.

That rabbis feed their cattle strange crackers during the month of March, so that their milk can be consumed in April…and a series of other humoristic and enlightening rules and regulations.

He could have also talked about the boutique wineries in our country, whose flavor does indeed resemble that of fermented horse urine. He could have done all that without lying, without exaggerating and without getting himself into trouble. Because Borat's Kazakhstan isn't in Kazakhstan, it's here.

First of all, no religion should be derided this much in secular media. Matzah? "Strange crackers"? The New York Times wouldn't even print that! And Golan, Galil, Yarden, and Carmel -- Israeli wines traded at the most exclusive of expositions worldwide -- "fermented horse urine". This is so offensive it's almost art.

And about the "religious officials comparing homosexuals to beasts". No doubt B. Michael was at least alluding to this. Yet I hardly see how an "IDF rabbi in the rank of first-lieutenant from the Home Front Command" who "sent an email to dozens of officers" is a "religious official." He's not chief of anything. No yeshiva, no group of chassidim follow him. But besides that. The religious decrees from Sephardi Chief Rabbi Amar only decried the parade, not the people. Chief Rabbi = Religious Official. Of course, in such a heated debate you can always find a quote or two to support your hypothesis.

The hypothesis being, of course, that dati and charedi people are ignorant, backwards peasants who eke out lives based on superstition. (Oh yeah, we "bilk the public purse" and "use the Torah as a weapon" to keep up with our "one" golden "rule" of "always take". Silly me.)

This is the same type of mindset that is responsible for the anti-Semitic vitriol of hate-filled "Talmud Unmasked" websites.

Only the utmost ignorance of a religion's values and foundations leads people to take lines out of a text and treat them as if they exist in a vacuum. For instance, women not testifying in a rabbinical court. B. Michael could have looked at Hilchot Edut which tells of how the witnesses were interrogated before giving testimony. The Mishnah tells us that the witnesses were asked a series of questions ("What did you see/hear? When did you see/hear it? Where were you? Where was the offender? What time was it? What was he/she wearing? What were you wearing?" etc.) designed solely to make the witness slip up and invalidate his own testimony. A process slightly akin to any "interrogation room" of media fame, a person would get drilled by a rabbinical drill sargeant to the point of near breakdown.

This can be quite emotionally traumatizing. Women were exempted from doing so for this reason. And we also know that when it comes to crimes of sexual victimization, even the verses tell us, a woman need only report her crime according to halacha. (Even marital rape is prosecutable according to many opinions.)

The purchase of Israeli land is subject to a debate so vast that even R' Kook the Chief Rabbi wasn't so clear on it as to not say that heter mechirah -- selling Israeli land to non-Jews for the purposes of Passover mitzvot of not "owning" any leaven -- was a feasible possibility, even if only for a time. Of course, B. Michael apparently felt strongly enough that the camp which forbids such a transaction has the Divine halacha in their favor.

The extent to which Judaism is allowed to be derided in the Israeli media is the extent to which the religious readers of said media feel alienated by it. This is indicative of -- especially in light of the charedi rioting in Jerusalem and the reactions it provoked -- what seems to be an expanding anti-religious prejudice.

Israel is Borat's Kazakhstan? "Throw the Jew Arab down the well?" That's what you get out of Hatikva?

The Torah gets ridiculed, halacha gets overruled by the Israeli Supreme Court -- and charedi people are supposed to not dissent? The "Jewish-controlled" media of the "Jewish State" calls some beliefs "superstition" and insults Jewish religious sensitivities, and in favor of what? The Western pan-secularist paradigm and secularization theory? This is not new, or necessarily confined to the media. Perhaps this is behind some of the rise in non-Zionist and anti-Zionist sentiments among religious Jews (including Mizrachi Jews).

B. Michael would be well served by a reminder -- Israel was founded on the backs of many people who gave their lives for the chance to eat those "strange crackers", and the day a Jew can't get his "strange crackers" and kosher "fermented horse urine" in the "Jewish State" is the day that Israel can say that it has failed. In which case, I'm sure there's a plan B.

Posted by Y-Love at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This would not be a particularly shocking story were it taking place in a vacuum.

From the Daily Telegraph (UK):

Three in four young black men on the DNA database

By Ben Leapman, Home Affairs correspondent, The Sunday Telegraph (12:13am GMT 05/11/2006)

Race watchdogs are to investigate the national DNA database over revelations that up to three quarters of young black men will soon have their profiles stored. Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), vowed to examine whether the database breached race relations laws following the findings by The
Sunday Telegraph. "This is tantamount to criminalising a generation of young black men," he said.

An estimated 135,000 black males aged 15 to 34 will be entered in the crime-fighting- database by April, equivalent to as many as 77 per cent of the young black male population in England and Wales. By contrast, only 22 per cent of young white males, and six per cent of the general population, will be on the database.

All arrested crime suspects have their DNA taken and their profile stored for life, even if they are later cleared or the arrest is found to be a case of mistaken identity.

But of course:

Mr Phillips disclosed that his officials will investigate whether the policy of retaining DNA from suspects who are never convicted of a crime results in discrimination against black men, who are more likely to come into contact with police than their white counterparts.

"Stop and search statistics suggest that black males are more likely to be stopped simply because they are young black males," he said. "This database figure is just perpetuating this stereotype, and does nothing to instil confidence in a measure that seeks to serve all members of our community. It is provocative, unfair and unjust and will do little to reduce crime.

"It would be fairer to have a database that restricts itself to storing the DNA profiles of those who are convicted, rather than this fast and loose approach, which opens up the potential for discrimination.

The figures arise from Home Office projections released to Bob Spink, a Conservative MP, which show that by April 2007 the DNA database will hold 3.7 million profiles, including three million "white-skinned Europeans" and 257,099 "Afro-Caribbeans".

The Home Office could not break down the figures for each ethnic group by age or sex. But, in general, 82 per cent of individuals on the entire database are male, while 64 per cent are aged 15 to 34.

It means that, assuming a similar sex and age balance for all ethnic groups, there will be 135,000 young black men on the database next April.

Figures for the last census in 2001 showed there were 175,000 black men, aged between 15 and 34, in England and Wales.

But regardless. Driving while black means that your DNA is now no longer private?

Racism should not be given the legislative power to cause this much damage.

Posted by Y-Love at 05:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My esteemed co-editors on Jewschool.com have graced the site with pages decrying the opposition to the parade-turned-rally which occurred today in Jerusalem. Comments like "the terrorists have won" referring to charedi Jews' violence, comments likening Meah Shearim to some Taliban bastion -- articles in Ynet calling on the state to "impose martial law" on the streets of religious neighborhoods -- denote nothing but anti-charedi prejudice, especially in light of today's Yeshiva World News.

From the chatzer charedi that is YWN, we find out today that the head of Bada"tz, the Rabbinical Court of the Charedi community, the esteemed author and codifier of Jewish Law, Ha'Rav Weiss (corrected, hat tip to "c"), made a rare personal appearance on the streets of Ge'ulah.

From YWN:

Gavad Yerushalayim visits Kikar Shabbos

The Gavad Yerushalayim Shlita made a surprise visit to Kikar Shabbos in his private car at the same time as the Shame Rally was taking place.

The point of his visit?

To personally stop people from participating in any further Hafganos. He got out of his car and walked over to a group of people who were congregating on the corner and told the crowd to disperse.

Posted by Y-Love at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The first Muslim ever to be elected to Congress emerged from this past Election Day. Keith Ellison, 43, a Democrat from Minnesota's 5th District, won the election on a "populist platform", citing common ground, calling for "peace in Iraq, for greater US reliance on renewable fuels and for a universal, government-paid health care system."

His rallying cry? "We need to care about the common good."

Of course, as a Jew, I should be concerned no? A Muslim in the house can't be good, right? How does he feel about Jews? Will it be good for the JEWS!?!

Republican rival Alan Fine ran campaign ads emphasizing Ellison’s past association with Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam group, seeking to use it as a sign of anti-Semitism. Ellison, who said he converted from Catholicism to Islam in college, insists his involvement with Farrakhan was limited to helping organize a 1995 march on Washington aimed at encouraging black men to improve their communities.

He was supported by the National Jewish Democratic Council as well as a prominent Minneapolis Jewish newspaper, which endorsed him over his Republican rival Fine, who is Jewish.

He stressed commonality and apologetically noted that he did not previously realize that Farrakhan was, and is, anti-Semitic. He stressed unity.

So now, in Congress, it seems as if Jewish-Muslim unity has a voice. Ken yirbu.

May unity be allowed to bring the ends of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia speedily in our days.

Posted by Y-Love at 02:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Ontario Court of Appeals said in an "unually blunt statement" regarding racism in the Ontario police department: Racism by police is "real and can't be ignored."

Anti-black racism by police is a reality of life that cannot be ignored, the Ontario Court of Appeal said in an unusually blunt statement on the highly sensitive issue of race.

It said that the community "and the courts, in particular, have come, some would say belatedly, to recognize that racism operates in the criminal justice system."

They also warned that courts must not bend over too far in the other direction, effectively forcing police defendants to prove that they did not act on racist impulses.

Of course, this would save lives, and I don't know how much our government is into that sort of thing.

Posted by Y-Love at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A statistic that shouldn't go untold: racist and xenophobic incidents were up 21 percent in Northern Ireland last year. The latest report from the Equality Commission says that 242 incidents were reported in calendar year 2005.

Some of the cases detailed in its latest report reveal a shocking catalogue of racial abuse, with one African man being awarded £16,000 (€23,900) in compensation from his Co Tyrone employer.

The man, who was working as a welder, was asked by his colleagues if he knew Osama bin Laden and if he was in the country for terrorist training.

He says he also had bananas waved at him, was subjected to obscene and racist abuse and was the target of offensive graffiti, but his complaints were never taken seriously.

Posted by Y-Love at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I wrote on Jewschool.com today of the findings of Special Rapporteur Doudou Diène, speaking to the UN’s Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) -- that the "most serious threat to democratic progress" was the amalgam of "contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance."

Within a matter of minutes, the debate was on. Commenter Rob Adams was having none of Mr. Diène's assessment. He said flatly:

The greatest threat is religious fundamentalism.

Fight Fundamentalism in all its pernicious manifestations/infestations, lest it continue to be taught and embraced by our children; These religious-text-idolaters types represent everything that can go rotten with religion.

I’d have no problem with their text-worship-ways if they just kept it to that. But, alas, their hate-agenda is doing more to destroy democracy than racism/xenophobia could ever do within Israel, at least thus far.

Celebrate Liberal, Tolerant, Inclusive Religious Thought!
Infilitrate fundamentlist congregations and spread loving truth among their young.

Uh huh. This is just another example of anti-haredi prejudice, and virtual hypocrisy when examined in context, but when you say you want to "infiltrate" my shul, you have crossed the line. You are saying that my religion has no right to exist and no one should take such a statement, when addressed to them, lightly.

Rabbi Avi Shafran of Agudath Israel wrote a piece for Torah.org entitled "Confessions of A Jewish Fundamentalist" which I think bears quoting:

Confessions of a Jewish Fundamentalist - Rabbi Avi Shafran

With all the understandable concern these days about fundamentalism, the American public might want to better understand one group of religious reactionaries that have long been lurking in our midst: Jewish ones, that is, like me.

-- Fundamentals --
"Haredim", as rigorously observant Orthodox Jews are called, are fundamentalists of the first order. The fundamentals we affirm without compromise are those of the Jewish faith: That there is a G-d. That He revealed Himself at Sinai. And that an ultimate reward and punishment awaits all human beings - though we tend to dwell more on the particulars of good and bad than those of Heaven and Hell.

- Subversive Behavior --
Most reactionary of all, we tend to shun television, movies and much of what passes for music and popular culture these days. We even reject the contention that witnessing thousands of murders and immoral acts is a harmless part of coming of age.

And, like all good fundamentalists, we don't just disapprove; we react - by attempting to shelter ourselves and our children as best we can from things like the commercialization of sexuality and the idealization of materialism. We even go so far - hey, fundamentalists aren't passive sorts - as to support legislation that is consonant with our beliefs.

-- Holy War! --
True to the fundamentalist credo, we Haredim embrace holy war. But while some others see their jihads or crusades as involving violence and the vanquishing of others, our battle is exclusively with what our tradition teaches is the evil that lurks within our hearts. Swords and bombs and germs and such are generally ineffectual in that struggle, and so we opt instead for more useful stratagems like studying ethical works and engaging in deep introspection.

The lie of making bombing, violence, and destruction synonymous with "adherence to a strict sense of basic principles" is largely the result of the secular media, pushing secularization theory. Secularization theory states that as humanity moves forward, it gradually discards more and more religious observance, and this -- unabashedly -- is the agenda of much of academia, of much of the elite literati.

Jewschool is a bastion of enlightened opinion. Knowledge of the true definiton of "fundamentalism" is a prerequisite to knowing where today's fundamentalists are going wrong.

Strict adherence to the Shulchan Aruch would preclude one from, oh, throwing bleach on passing ladies. The Jewish "fundamentalist" decried in the media often sees himself as a modern Pinchas, acting out with zeal to defend the honor of G-d.

The Targum Yonasan, however, tells us the problem with thinking that. Why did Pinchas act as he did? "Anei v'amra hilch'sa", he (lit. answered and said) was saying halachos, laws at the time. In reviewing the law, he realized that a Sanhedrin had ruled wrong and he went to correct that. He did not completely bypass the Sanhedrin and halachic process and run out of his ohel with a sword. Everything was based on halacha, and we see that G-d rewarded that.

Decry what you see happening in the world. Or decry fundamentalism. But don't dare get the two confused.

Remember, 9/11 was caused by "Islamic fundamentalists" who were in a bar the night before (Islam forbids alcohol).

Posted by Y-Love at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On second thought, maybe I didn't express da'as Torah regarding the Jerusalem pride parade riots.

Maybe I could have said better.

One thing is for sure. I could not have said it better than HaYom. He screams:

WHAT I DON'T BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND IS HOW THESE IMAGES WILL LEAD ANYONE TO SAY "ASHREI AVIV SHELOMDO TORAH, ASHREI RABBO SHELOMDO TORAH".

Exactly. 1,000 kudos.

Posted by Y-Love at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The People's Voice, a blog which appears ostensibly left-wing and bills itself as being charged with the mission to:

To inform the public about news and information, which a corporate media aligned with the Bush administration will not.

To provide people with a way of expressing their views publicly concerning issues that effect the quality of life, our freedoms, and our environment. Other areas of interest also include, but are not limited to; articles about politics, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues.

So left-wing. So radical. So anti-corporatist.

And so anti-Semitic.

Columnist Mark Glenn crossposts from his "Crescent and Cross" blog:

We all know what the score is…There is no reason to wait around for the blank of this fill-in-the-blank exercise to be filled in. It’s as obvious as the ‘elephant in the room’ that was mentioned previously. It’s name is whispered with the same kind of quiet, timid respect that people used to employ when talking about the ‘Syndicate’ or the ‘Black Hand’ nearly a century ago. It is the most exclusive, the most clannish, the most discriminating of all religions when it comes to dealing with others on an eye-to-eye/man-to-man business, and it’s name is Judaism.

"Oh, right, that one" they say, as if it weren’t as obvious as the odor emanating from an over-used public outhouse in mid-July. Yes, that’s right, I did say ‘Judaism’ and not Zionism...

...Wake up and smell the Knishes, my friends, Judaism has been at war with us for over 2,000 years, ever since this man named Jesus of Nazareth came and blew the lid open on what Judaism‘s real agenda was. Judaism is a declaration of war and manifested by thousands upon thousands of acts of intentional malice directed by Rabbinical generals against the rest within the non-Jewish world in matters involving money, business, politics, and culture...

Is this guy trying to incite a pogrom in America?

Any blog which dedicates itself to "social justice" or has any rei'ach, any smidgeon of pro-diversity thinking, should not publish such drivvel. Ideologies do not pull triggers. No religious text mandates suicide bombing or terrorism. Mr. Glenn's way of thinking -- whether manifested in Anti-Semitism, Christophobia, or Islamophobia -- that, and not any religious practice or ideology, is the problem, and such divisiveness should become part of our dark past. G-d willing, im yirtzeh Hashem, insha'All-h.

Posted by Y-Love at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Charedi comes from the word charad, to tremble. Shaking, out of fear, and awe, and reverence, for the words of the Creator. Charedi Judaism also takes the timeless words of the verses in Deuteronomy 17:9-11 quite literally: according to the word of the judge who is extant "in your days", so shall you do, you shall not depart from his words right or left. To not do so would violate up to four commandments.

Commandments. Precepts. Requests from G-d Himself. Please listen to the Gedolei Yisra'el who are in your days.

This is not about the validity or invalidity of the upcoming pride parade, scheduled for this Friday. Parade or no parade, something far more insidious has been evidenced by the past week of rioting.

Columnist Anshel Pfeffer alluded to it a few days ago in the Jerusalem Post. Israel Insider columnist Aviram Zino quoted:

[Shas MK Yishai] called on the public not to resort to violence and noted that all rabbis, including Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, called to refrain from violent acts.

"[W]e call on the entire public to join mass prayers for the abolition of this bad command, and as we have learned, our power is in prayer, not in violent clashes, God forbid," the [Committee of Yesh"a] rabbis said.

Rabbi Moshe Sternbach, head of the Eda Haredit Rabbinic Court, said he had specifically ordered his followers not to use violence.

"I said 'don't give blows,' but the public is really angry and cannot control itself."

Their words? Brushed aside by a "really angry" public. Oy lanu, woe to the traditional Orthodox public, if this is how people are acting.

A recent YouTube search of Jerusalem rioting videos shows rabbis screaming "repentance!" Walking and screaming is non-violent protest. Walking and screaming does not damage property or cause six police officers to go to hospitals. The gedolim have called for prayer rallies, for signs to be put up in front of shuls, and other forms of passive expressions of discontent.

Did anyone call for bomb threats? Our tradition tells us that emunas chachamim, faith in the Torah Sages, is a pinnacle of Torah Judaism, starting from the first incidence of it, "and [the Children of Israel] believed in Hashem and in Moses, His servant" at the Song at the Sea. If this is the case, then there is something fundamentally wrong here,

The question is often asked in secular media when faced with religious violence, "Where are the clerics? Why aren't they calling on their followers to stop this?" Unfortunately, Rav Ovadia is over 70 and can't fight a horde of teenagers with his bare hands. They are calling out, in the media, in the shuls, in the yeshivas: "Don't be violent."

And some people just refuse to listen.

Forget what may have been said or may not have been said in the past. A little faith in the Sages right now could stop a lot of chillul Hashem. Maybe now's the time to put a little trust in Rav Ovadia or in Bada"tz. Violence is not what G-d wants. So say the "judges of our day". Who are these people, these "rabbis" who called for people to throw rocks and injure police? Who gave the decree -- because apparently they're more revered than Bada"tz and Rav Ovadia Yosef put together -- to bomb the streets of Jerusalem?

I asked one of my friends who lives in Meah Shearim what he's going to be doing on Friday.

He chuckled and said, "Exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. Learning Torah!"

Posted by Y-Love at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Canada.com reports some of what's going on in the Senate race in Tennessee:

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Harold Ford Jr. grasps the pulpit at the Temple of Deliverance Church of God with both hands and, after a brief pause, begins quoting from scripture.

Cries of 'Hallelujah' and 'Amen' erupt from the 3,000 supporters crammed into the church's vast sanctuary and, for just a second, it is difficult to tell whether Ford is politician or pastor. It is precisely the effect Ford is seeking.

At almost every stop in his campaign to become Tennessee's newest U.S. senator, Ford sings the Lord's praises and stresses the importance of ''faith and family'' in his life.

The heavy emphasis on traditional values is considered vital to the chances of any candidate running in a state sometimes described as the buckle of America's Bible Belt.

But the focus on religion is considered doubly important for Ford, who faces two added obstacles in his bid to win in Tennessee he is black, and he is a Democrat.

The third-most popular article today in the Washington Post religion section caught my attention. Not so much for its content, but because I could not help but question its underlying principle.

Journalist Selcan Hacaoglu reported some of the speech given by Ali Bardakoglu, head of Turkey's Religious Affairs Ministry, to a Muslim conference in preparation of the Pope's upcoming visit to Turkey. Among the things Bardakoglu said was that criticism of Islam is, in and of itself, an obstacle to world peace:

A leading Turkish cleric called criticism of Islam a serious threat to world peace, speaking Wednesday as Turkey prepared for a controversial visit by Pope Benedict XVI later in the month. Benedict visits Turkey...two months after provoking widespread anger by quoting an emperor who characterized the Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman."

Ali Bardakoglu, head of the country's religious affairs, said "it was saddening" to see Islam being criticized while the religion's contribution to civilization is ignored.

"This attitude, which fuels division and lack of mutual trust, is seriously threatening world peace," Bardakoglu told a conference in Istanbul attended by several African Muslim leaders.

During any of the Catholic priest sex abuse scandals, when archdiocese after archdiocese saw itself mired in a slew of phone calls and investigations, when the Pope himself had to comment, did anyone say anything to the effect of, "Wherever you find Thomas Aquinas creating anything new, there you will find things only evil and inhuman"? Even with the quick juxtaposition and clarification the Pope followed his quote up with?

For some reason, even in the Arabic-speaking media, such a contention was not even a thought. However, Islam has been subject to website after website decrying it as the problem. Not only does this serve to partially indemnify terrorists, as one has placed blame on a centuries-old ideology and not a human being with explosives attached to them, but it also is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

By dissing the religion espoused by one-sixth of the human population of the planet, one sets oneself up to be hated. By a lot of people. Why wasn't, for instance, nationalist violence (committed largely by Christians and atheists) in Europe followed by a series of cartoons of Christian personalities vilifying enough to make Andres Serrano's historic Piss Christ look like The Little Mermaid? Why was shari'a allowed to be flagrantly disrespected in the media through the Muhammad cartoons by non-Muslims -- which infuriated me, for one, if only as a religious individual (I can't imagine how insulted the Muslims who protested must have felt) -- but blue laws were allowed to be on the books until 2002 in Massachusetts without a peep?

I think we are seeing the proliferation of a baseless hatred for Islam. Perhaps rooted in European colonialism and pan-European racism, perhaps rooted in pan-Americanism and general neocon vociferousness, but definitely there. Islam takes criticism no one subjects other ideologies too. The Washington Post article made me question: why would you even think to criticize Islam, the ideology?

Criticize the imam who denounces Jews. Criticize the sheikh who calls for violence. Criticize the suicide bomber. But to not examine these things as what they are -- violations of Qur'an, not the "following of Islam", and certainly not "mainstream Islam" itself -- places the blame on hundreds of millions of innocent people and removes blame from the hundreds (perhaps) of actual criminals. Criticism of Islam does prevent world peace from becoming a reality.

It takes our attention away from the real hindrances to peace.

(Crossposted to Jewschool)

Posted by Y-Love at 06:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)