Moslem mania

I realized today that I am anti-Moslem and I don't like that about myself.

Actually, I realized that I'm paranoid about many religions. Christians as well as Moslems have a bleak history of anti-semitism and since I'm Jewish I feel vulnerable and frightened.

Of course, I've always felt that way - but I've read a lot of history and there is a lot of justification for how I feel.

It's just that I also have values of ethical and moral behaviour and that includes NOT treating other people badly because they are different from me; not supporting programs, laws or attitudes that ostracize or punish people by group, rather than individual transgressors and not using the bad behaviour of some people (however bad it is) to condemn everyone of that race, religion or nationality.

Fine words - but, I do. I'm angry at Christians and Catholics (I know, I know, they are all Christians) for their violence in word and action against Jews since the Middle Ages and probably before. The Catholic Church came out - under Pope John - with some rules that stated that anti-semitism was a sin, that blaming the Jews for the death of Jesus was a sin etc. etc.
But I don't think that cut any ice with a large segment of the Catholic community. Certainly the Orthodox segment of Christianity doesn't feel any obligation to support a liberal attitude toward the Jews.

Protestant/Lutheran ministers railed against the Jews from the pulpit long before Hitler became Chancellor. They certainly didn't stop when his program to annihilate the Jews was set into motion and many today add Moslems to their litany and continue to preach violence, hate and
isolation - if not death for all not of their ilk.

The Moslems, if anything, were the most liberal of the major religions for many years and lived in relative harmony with other groups when they were in power ( I say relative harmony because it wasn't all peaches and cream) - but that wasn't the modern fundamentalist. That group doesn't live in harmony with anyone - not even other Moslems.
One only has to look at the infighting between the Sunni and Shiite to see Moslems killing other Moslems although there is a strong political flavor to it in Iraq. Still, one has to wonder just how strong are these fundamentalists? They certainly grab the headlines with their violence and intransigence - and I'm not even talking about the Middle East , which in my opinion is a disaster area whether it's Afghanistan or Iran, Iraq or Syria.

There is a rising tide of anti-Moslem sentiment in this country since 9/11 and I find myself riding on that tide. I found myself thinking of all the reasons NOT to build a mosque in New York City near the site of the twin towers. Most of those reasons were not in line with the freedom of religion which I so proudly waved from the beema during my Bat Mitzvah. I love this country with it's history of assimilation, or at least tolerance. But there has always been a strain of those who hate - hate the Jews, hate the Mormons, hate black people, and now hate the Moslems and I don't want to be in that herd.

It would be helpful if the Moslems met us half way. Do they respect the customs of other countries in which they have taken refuge? I'm thinking of France here with the fight over wearing headscarves...........or England, with the insistance of not teaching Holocaust material because it offends them (the Moslems) - although I'm not sure that is a fact or a rumour circulating through the Internet. Certainly France and the Netherlands have had trouble with Moslem youth - and are being overwhelmed by this minority which is becoming a huge segment of the population.

Some of the slack being cut the Moslems in these countries is a reaction to the restrictions for the Jews that fed them to the concentration camps. Not that they like the Jews but guilt makes them more tolerant of minorities in their midst now - until the minorities push too hard. And their minorities are pushing hard.

I wouldn't like it either - I was offended by the flocks of black shrouded women in the streets of London. I dislike the pictures of veiled - to the point of blindness - of chador shrouded women in the Middle East. I HATE the restrictions against women and the mistreatment of women in many Moslem countries. I guess that's part of the reason I'm so uncomfortable with Moslems
- the fact that I know how they treat their own people in many countries - and how they treat their women in many countries.

Are there parallels with fundamentalist Jews - you betcha. And I hate them too.

So here I am - not as I think I am, a tolerant, accepting person. But a radical anti - a lot of things
I don't agree with.

I studied anthropology - in fact have a degree in it - and some of the basic rules are not to judge other people's customs or behaviour by your own. To respect the individuality of cultures and peoples and to try and understand their customs and religion. So where did all that go?

Oh I guess it's still there - in theory - but, in fact ----it's hard to live with other cultures side by side. Attitudes harden with age - even good ones (see I can't let go of the fact that MY attitudes are good ones). It's hard to look at female circumcision, for example, and be neutral about it.
It's a custom, convention of another society and in theory, they are entitled to do it. Male circumcision is still practiced by Jews and others and that's OK - right? But female circumcision
is vile, detestable and immoral (according to MY morality).

Oh what a tangled mess is my cultural, religious and ethnic bigotry. My way IS the best way.
Can't they see that? Why won't they come into the 21st century and be like me? And why do they have to build a mosque so close to the 9/11 site? Freedom of religion doesn't preclude sensitivity to the feelings of others - does it?

Is freedom of religion only good as long as it doesn't butt up against my feelings?