Rabbi urges more tolerance for Muslims in Europe

[struggle4progress]

December 3, 2009

PARIS (JTA) -- France’s chief rabbi .... Gilles Bernheim said a Swiss vote Nov. 29 forbidding the construction of minarets alongside mosques was a clear sign that Western European leaders had “failed” at building tolerance toward Muslims, and he called on “all religions” as well as political leaders to increase interfaith dialogue.

“Today we need to act so that Europeans, and not just the Swiss, change their opinion about Islam,” he wrote in an editorial published Wednesday in the French daily Le Figaro.

He compared the law aimed at minarets to past sanctions against European Jews.

“The problem” with the Swiss vote “is the discrimination that it introduces by authorizing the construction of church steeples and tall buildings by all other religions except Islam ...

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/12/03/1009516/rabbi-europe-must-be-tolerant-toward-muslims

[sui generis]

1. if I am not mistaken one of the purposes of a minaret

is to serve as a pulpit outside the mosque, for the muezzin call to prayer five times a day.

In deference to other religions, churches in Europe no longer ring angelines in their bell towers.

So . . . I have no problem with a decorative vs. a functional minaret. However, if the idea of the minaret is to be functional then no tolerance of that architectural structure is required.

Hating a building and hating a religion are two different things.

But once again there are shit-stirrers out there intentionally confusing the two to people who can't or won't think for themselves.

[struggle4progress]

2. The campaign wasn't about architecture: it was fear-mongering, intended to terrify folk about

the possibility that Islamic extremists would take over. The Swiss are perfectly capable of drafting architectural codes that preserve a certain architectural atmosphere, if they want to do so

[sui generis]

3. I would say that magnet had two poles

no?

[struggle4progress]

4. I don't know. Perhaps you would say that. But if you did, I would have no idea

what the hell you meant

[sui generis]

6. there is hostility on both sides

quit playing the victim-by-proxy. Is that easier to understand?

Anyway, to put it in very easy to understand terms:

Both sides are playing this for all its worth, and quite frankly both sides are equally ugly.

[struggle4progress]

9. "Both sides" suggests a moronic two-tone view of the world: there are more than two places to stand

[sui generis]

10. you are just fucking brilliant, now go shadow box somewhere else

the only moron here is you - clearly reading IS fundamental to understanding.

What in the mother fuck did I say to piss you off? Now go piss off, because this time I intend to earn your ire by design.

and another thing.

The vote was for or against. That would be a binary two sided proposition. Yes or No. True or False. Minarets or No Minarets.

[sui generis]

11. you started the hostility . . . here /nt

[Igel]

5. I've read that the actual call to prayer is

highly regulated. In other words, not done.

So they're not functional. They're also optional in mosques. Rather like bell-less steeples in most of the churches I've seen with steeples. (Or purely ornamental bells.)

[sui generis]

7. as I said, I don't have a problem with it personally

as long as it's architectural.

Speaking practically, Islam suffers from a lack of centralization. So Islam as a general faith cannot realistically divest itself of association with its worst exploiters.

Rather than dealing with that effectively, the rallying cry becomes one of persecution, bigotry and victimization, but what THOSE people fail to admit is that nobody hates peace. It's the violence and lack of human conscience that the worst of it promotes that makes the news, again, due to the inability to effectively disown extremism.

To campaign in the obverse is seen as proselytizing and Europe hates proselytizers of any faith, not just Islam.

What I've stated has nothing to do with bigotry, and introducing or playing on bigotry distracts from the real issues.

[parkia00]

8. There are only four minerats.

In the whole country and they DO NOT issue a call to prayer 5 times a day or even once. This ban is about right wing fear/hate mongering. Just look at the posters they used.