Let’s Talk About Proportion, Shall We?

September 18, 2006 - 3:12 PM by

Sarah decided to take the personal approach to addressing Palestinians who firebombed two churches in the West Bank because they were angered by a perceived insult by the Pope:

Dear Muslim neighbors,

During the Israel-Hezballah war over the summer, I’m sure you called Israel’s actions disproportionate. Maybe they were, and maybe they weren’t, but as long as we’re on the topic, want to give you a tip about proportionality.

If the leader of another religion, say, the Pope, verbally offends your religious sensibilities by, say, quoting an anti-Muslim Byzantine Emperor in the context of a broader speech to academics, there are many proportionate ways to respond.

You could, for example, have your own religious leaders issue statements of condemnation to the Pope and to the press.

You could schedule meetings with Catholic leaders to make sure they understand how offended you are.

You could approach the religious leaders of your local churches in the West Bank and request that they publicly distance themselves from the insulting words.

And if you are really, really offended, you could stage mass protests in which hundreds or thousands of people demand that the Pope apologize.

See, among rational, mature human beings, a verbal attack produces a verbal response.

But, if you are going to get upset because in a very indirect way someone called your religion “inhuman,” or you thought that he did, then firebombing places of worship is not a great way to go. Because, see, firebombing places of worship because someone called you names is a pretty animalistic thing to do. Pretty inhuman, you know.

Yeah, I just compared you (not all Muslims, just you and your friends) to animals. So what are you going to do now? Condemn my blog? Or firebomb a synagogue on another continent?

If you want anyone to take you, Islam, Muslims, and/or Palestinians seriously, I recommend that you take a chill pill. Because starting riots or setting fire to churches when someone has hurt your feelings is not cool.

Love,
Sarah

Tags: • Category: Politics 

Comments

5 Comments on Let’s Talk About Proportion, Shall We?

  1. nochum on Mon, Sep 18th 2006 5:29 PM

    2. Dear Sarah,
    What you write is certainly true within the context of rational. Starting riots and firebombing churches “is not cool,” as you say; but it works. Hasn’t the Christian population in the mideast been downsized greatly? Isn’t Bethlehem now Arab? Aren’t people terrified to say”boo” to a Muslim? Who has come out in support of the Pope’s right to say that Islam is on the move? Islam is indeed on its way to conquering the world, it’ll be too late when or if, we wake up.

  2. terence rous on Mon, Sep 18th 2006 6:32 PM

    3. good for you sarah as they say in the uk
    :nice one cyrill

  3. Sarah on Tue, Sep 19th 2006 12:42 AM

    4. Nochum-

    Without arguing your main point, I feel a need to point out that your question “Isn’t Bethlehem now Arab?” should probably say instead “Isn’t Bethlehem now Muslim?” since there are in fact Christian Arabs. The fact that someone is Arab does not mean they are necessarily Muslim. (I do not know what the religious demographics are of Bethlehem today. Yes it is an Arab city. Is it mostly Muslim or Christian? I have no idea.)

  4. David on Tue, Sep 19th 2006 1:00 AM

    5. First of all it was most unwise for a world political and religious figure, the Pope, to refer to the comments of Emperor Manual. It was equally uneccessary for the Pope yesterday to utter words referring to Jewish blame for the crucifiction.

    The issue is what is the intention for Ratzinger? Is he trying to undemine Vatican 2? In the current worldwide environment he does realize that incendiary remarks have consequences such as the murder of a nun and the firebombing of churches.

    So what is his game plan? The Christian religion is last one to point fingers. It was after all in countries where Christianity is “the religion” that the Jewish people have always found their greatest enemies and destroyers. The Inquisitions and Nazi Germany being two examples.

  5. Gallil on Tue, Sep 19th 2006 5:28 AM

    6. obviously the pope’s plan was to provoke the muslims into a violent response. He would have to be –fallible– to, in the guise of a religious speech provoke the muslims.

    (either that or he is a senile old fart with no sense whatsoever.)

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