Comment

In Gaza Siege, Atheist Author Sam Harris Finds Yet Another Opportunity to Disparage Islam

30
CuriousLurker8/10/2014 12:26:24 pm PDT

re: #29 Islamo-Masonic Conspirator

Okay, see this is where I get tripped up. To borrow from Wikipedia, which is my understanding of what you mean when you say “ethnos” or “ethnocultural”:

An ethnicity, or ethnic group, is a socially-defined category of people who identify with each other based on common ancestral, social, cultural, or national experience. Membership of an ethnic group tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, myth of origins, history, homeland, language (dialect), or even ideology, and manifests itself through symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, physical appearance, etc.

en.wikipedia.org

Diaspora Jews have tended to blend in to the various non-Jewish nations in which they lived. For example, I can meet someone who’s Jewish and never even be aware of it if they don’t mention it or have an obviously Jewish last name—we will have a shared language, homeland/national experience, etc. The only thing in which we significantly differ would be out religious beliefs & practices. If both of us were 100% secular, then the differences in religious beliefs & practices would be non-existent and therefore irrelevant.

How are disapora Jews any different in this sense than Muslims or Christians? Why can they be considered part of a “people” but Christians & Muslims can’t? So an Ethiopian Jew and a Polish Jew are part of the same “people”, but an Ethiopian Muslim and a Bosnian Muslim are not part of the same “people”? I know I’m probably trying your patience, but that just doesn’t make sense to me.