Jewish worshippers returning to Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs after Muslims were given exclusive access to the holy site at the weekend reported that the cabinet containing their Torah scrolls had been urinated on.
Such fine people. So tolerant of other faiths. So respectful.
Before you consider that it may have merely been a couple of yobs on a dare,
Another Jewish resident of Hebron said that some damage to Jewish religious articles or the Jewish side of the site is found every time the Muslims take over.
Charming.
The dingo ate my sanity, and other tales from marsupial land
I say we take a 747 full of pig urine and fly it straight into Mecca.
If the world was a testicle, radical Muslims would be crabs.
Read Schmoozing With Terrorists by Aaron Klein. It is very insightful regarding this subject.
Occasional reader, first time poster. (Moderate Republican)
I am going to share something I posted on another blog, but it is relevant here also.
First let me say that I agree this is a despicable act, and that the desecration of the Jewish articles is a disgrace. However, I feel that often we overlook the fact that the action of a few paints a negative portrait of the many. Just as the Taliban practice hate speech towards the West and Israel, we ourselves have people like Ann Coulter who said “We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” Another extremist view.
As a Republican, I flinch when I hear fellow Republicans say things like “I say we take a 747 full of pig urine and fly it straight into Mecca.”
I think the most appropriate quote on this whole thing comes from (gasp) Hillary Clinton who said “In every religion, there are those who would drape themselves in the mantle of belief and faith only to distort it’s most sacred teachings — preaching intolerance and resorting to violence.”
Too often we are confusing the religion of Islam with the extremists who only use it as a mantle, but do not actually represent it’s view.
When I was in grad school in the 80′s, one of my fellow students in the Electrical Engineering department was a brilliant man (who now lives in California) who was from Iran, we also played sports together on an intra-mural team, and were good friends. He explained the problems of the Middle East and some of it’s hostility towards the west beautifully:
(I’m going to use quotes here, even though I am paraphrasing from memory)
“Of course the Middle East is troubled right now. Many of our nations, even though theoretically thousands of years old, are in their infancy when it comes to the modern world. Jordan? Only achieved independence since 1948. Iran? 1979 was the Islamic revolution, but the country was unstable since 1941 when it was invaded by Britain and the USSR during the second World War. Israel? 1948. Pakistan? 1947. Afghanistan? 1919, but had to fight off the Soviets as well, to say nothing of the former Middle East countries who did succumb to Soviet expansion. Iraq? 1932.
It is an area in it’s collective National infancies, and many of the borders that exist were thrust upon it by the West with little understanding of the religious, ethnic, or cultural make-up of the area. Think about how long it took the United States to define itself? Did you just write the declaration of independence in 1776 and have 50 instant states? No. You fought wars against Britain, you fought wars against Mexico, you fought a war against yourself North and South, and after some 200 years you eventually had a stable nation.
In the Middle East, we are just now facing some of the problems that you encountered in your first 50 years. Some cultural areas were split in two, others were placed next to life long enemies? In some cases, areas that had belonged to one tribe for thousands of years were suddenly given to another tribe. It is no wonder that the area is a mess, and resentful of the West’s role in creating that mess.
Furthermore, many of the countries are resentful of the West’s prior colonialism in the region, and it’s continued involvement now. Companies from Western countries have come in and obtained contracts to pump the oil from the Middle East, but where to the profits go? Back to the West, meanwhile many of our countries struggle to give our children decent education, and with a lack of education, our children become ripe and gullible to the edicts of extremism.
For example, American warships patrol the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. To many it is an obvious sign of Imperialism. Why are these ships there? How would America feel if Iranian ships were to patrol the Gulf of Mexico? They would be outraged. What would Iranian ships be doing half a world away in a body of water they have no business in? It is the same thing here. Even if the ships do no harm, Iranian leaders can point towards the American ships and say “See! They are encroaching on our territory and want do to us harm!” and who can say they aren’t correct?
Dealing with our national infancies is already difficult enough, nevermind having western corporations and armies interfering within our territories! Add on top of that the problem of religion, and you can see that it is an awful mess. Religiously we are divided, Shi’a and Sunni, and people say “Look! It is a religion that cannot even get along with itself” and yet, weren’t there many wars between Catholics and Protestants?
Just because you have painted your glass house does not mean you can throw a stone at someone else’s.”
He made some good points, and has always given me a lot to think about, and I hope something for you to think about as well. I still keep in touch with him, and we still discuss Middle East politics and the West’s complete lack of understanding of them. I will again paraphrase in quotes what he said:
“…and suddenly, there is a ray of hope for Iran! Rafsanjani takes us away from the total oppresion, and then Mohammad Khatami, a brilliant man who published the forward thinking “Dialogue Among Civilizations” becomes our President, and certainly it is an uphill struggle, but the promise of reform is there! Freedom of Expression, more rights for women! He must be careful not to upset the clergy, but little by little he starts making progress, opening Iran up to western ideas and Iran starts to enjoy a renaissance. And then what happens? President Bush makes his famous “Axis of Evil” speech and Iran loses faith. The hardliners come back saying “See? The West will never accept us!” The people are disheartened, and Khatami loses the next election and now we have a problematic extremist in Ahmadinejad. Before Bush’s “Axis of Evil” speech we were slowly improving our diplomatic relations with all countries, and our radical clergy was becoming more and more marginalized, after his speech, they stormed back to power. Was his comment based on the Iran of 1979? Or was it based on a desire simply to portray Iran as an enemy so that eventually he could target us for our oil? Whatever the reason, he lacked a fundamental understanding of the Iran of 2002, and with those poorly chosen words, plunged us backwards 20 years.”
Where’s Elijah when we need him?
I think it’s time for another Mt. Carmel smackdown!
We’ll talk about religious tolerance after all the prophets of Baal get smoked! (BTW: Baal=Baalla=Allah)