4/26/12
Martha Nussbaum on Religious Intolerance
She talks about her latest book The New Religious Intolerance here. I think she goes too far in the direction of "can't we all just get along?" What she says about martyrdom made me especially queasy. People who let themselves be killed during the Holocaust, in solidarity with Jews, have no connection with suicide bombers who blow up other people in the service of "jihad". And no, we don't have as much reason to worry about orthodox Jews as we have to worry about fundamentalist Muslims. Nonetheless, an interesting interview, and the book is probably good reading too.
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"People who let themselves be killed during the Holocaust, in solidarity with Jews, have no connection with suicide bombers who blow up other people in the service of "jihad". "
OK, there is really no argument here.
"And no, we don't have as much reason to worry about orthodox Jews as we have to worry about fundamentalist Muslims."
This is quite a leap from the previous point, isn't it. Unless by "we", you are talking only about Americans.
Settlers and other hardline followers of Judaism do constitute a major stumbling block in solving the Palestine problem.
It seems to me: if somebody actively aids, abets and/or participates in war or violence that results in civilian deaths - there is very little to distinguish them from suicide bombers. Suicide bombing is more a question of tactic when faced with gross asymmetry in power. I'm sure if just bombing is a realistic option, then suicide bombers would gladly skip the suicide part. Glorifying martyrdom is just a propaganda tool to get volunteers - not very different from propaganda employed by army recruiters - and certainly not different from LTTE and its use of tamil nationalism.
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