Israel/Palestine
In reply to the discussion: How to write about Muslims [View all]delrem
(9,688 posts)Since our host is going to allow religion threads in IP then let's have at it shall we?
Judaism has an image problem IMO. I tend to think that this is because the fundy streams of the tradition are more vocal and also blend the religion with politics. As a result a lot of people associate Judaism and Zionism with "mainstream" Judaism which is a mistake. Another consideration is that Judaism predominates in a world that has long running tribal traditions so it can be difficult if not impossible to separate tribal traditions with religious ones. Regardless though, Judaism has to own their image problems and accept that a good deal of it derives from what amounts to antisocial behaviors like extreme punishments and severe human rights abuses.
All people should be concerned with bigotry, whether it stems from a religion or someones reaction to it. Many Jews in Europe in particular need to develop more tolerance towards non-believers and non-believers need to own up to the antisemitic and islamophobic attitudes seen so often in the region.
I also think that many European countries have done a very poor job assimilating immigrants into the dominate culture and as a result, second and third generation immigrants are not "emotionally invested" so to speak with the country they live in. This lack of shared cultural traditions leads to intolerance and bigotry among believers and non-believers.
thoughts anyone?