re: #7 imp_62

It is a question of perspective. I would prefer that Judaism be interpreted as more inclusive, and would claim that the actions of the Haredim in this instance are “not part of Judaism”. They, however, would disagree.

Similarly, I would much prefer to believe that the actions described in the article are not “part of Islam” from any Muslim’s point of view; however, I am not sure that is true.

I understand what you’re getting at, and I agree that it’s a problem of perspective, but, yeah, I’m sensitive to the issue because if you google things like honor killings, acid throwing, FGM, etc. I wouldn’t really blame you if you made the assumption that those things we almost strictly a Muslim issue when in fact they are not. It doesn’t help that there are a LOT of anti-Muslim websites intent on feeding that assumption. When we try to make distinctions, shouts of “Taqiyyah!” are hurled at us. It’s about pushing back against the narratives that are being woven all across the Web.

As a Jew, I’m sure you’re familiar with similar sites. I’ve seen monstrous lies and incredibly nasty imagery regarding Jews & Israel all over the Web. Not being Jewish or terribly familiar with the precepts of Judaism, Jewish history or, the history & (re)establishment of Israel as a nation, it would be easy enough—if I were sufficiently lazy or incurious—to simply accept the anti-Semitic garbage out there as gospel truth and come to the conclusion that you’re all a bunch of murderous, money-grubbing racists who think you’re better than everyone else.

That is clearly NOT the case, which I assume is one of the reasons that there are numerous Pages posted here (and elsewhere) daily pushing back against anti-Semitism and promoting Israel’s perspective on the I-P situation.

FWIW, I don’t recall ever having seen Pages posted about acid attacks by people other than Muslims, for example the numerous occurrences in Hong Kong like this one and these, or the two attack in Arizona, or this one in Thailand…Do you recall seeing them here? Do see my point?

So, yeah, I’ll agree that we can say that Hardei attacks on secular Jews, Baruch Goldstein’s massacre of Muslims at prayer, Palestinian suicide bombers, Jihadism, acid attacks, the murder of abortion doctors, etc. are the actions of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian extremists, therefore extremism is one aspect of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity (and other non-religious ideologies as well). However…

My problem is not with admitting that there are issues “with extremism, zealotry and intolerance to the point of violence” in various religions, including my own, but in not being specific in indicating them as being outside the norm (regardless of how justified the extremists feel they are). ANY religion, culture, nation, political party, or other group can be painted the color of shit if one uses a broad enough brush.

^{//I was obviously dead wrong in thinking I could avoid a long-winded post on this subject. *headdesk*}