Jewish Identity & Proselytizing
There are very few things that are so utterly taboo that saying them will guarantee being lampooned to no end. Try saying black people are less intelligent than whites, that young girls should get circumcised to maintain their purity, or try denying the Holocaust.
Let's focus on the last example for a moment. The fundamental problem that I find with reactions to Holocaust denial is that the Holocaust has become the focal point of Jewish identity. OK, so Hitler tried to wipe Jews off the face of the earth. Because of the continued, unrelenting emphasis on the Holocaust, Jews have essentially stopped marketing themselves as God's Chosen People in favour of Hitler's Non-Chosen People. The Holocaust has so completely dominated Jewish speech, identity, and intellect that there really seems nothing greater to them. Isn't your status as the Chosen People greater? Isn't Moses or the Torah greater? Is nothing greater in your eyes than the actions of the Nazis? In Islam, we say Allahu Akbar (God is Greater). Were the Nazis so great and powerful that they have replaced all reference to God and the things He has honoured?
Common knowledge says that Jews don't proselytize. Seeing that Holocaust awareness and prevention has essentially become an idol that Jews adore in place of the Sacred, it is clear that they do proselytize, and quite aggressively so. They sure don't carry the Message of God to others. But they will shamelessly push their own agenda when it comes to forcing Holocaust remembrances down our collective throats.
Wake up guys: Hitler simply doesn't equal God. Please get your priorities straight.
Let's focus on the last example for a moment. The fundamental problem that I find with reactions to Holocaust denial is that the Holocaust has become the focal point of Jewish identity. OK, so Hitler tried to wipe Jews off the face of the earth. Because of the continued, unrelenting emphasis on the Holocaust, Jews have essentially stopped marketing themselves as God's Chosen People in favour of Hitler's Non-Chosen People. The Holocaust has so completely dominated Jewish speech, identity, and intellect that there really seems nothing greater to them. Isn't your status as the Chosen People greater? Isn't Moses or the Torah greater? Is nothing greater in your eyes than the actions of the Nazis? In Islam, we say Allahu Akbar (God is Greater). Were the Nazis so great and powerful that they have replaced all reference to God and the things He has honoured?
Common knowledge says that Jews don't proselytize. Seeing that Holocaust awareness and prevention has essentially become an idol that Jews adore in place of the Sacred, it is clear that they do proselytize, and quite aggressively so. They sure don't carry the Message of God to others. But they will shamelessly push their own agenda when it comes to forcing Holocaust remembrances down our collective throats.
Wake up guys: Hitler simply doesn't equal God. Please get your priorities straight.
Labels: freedom of speech, holocaust, jew, judaism, prosetylize
posted by Flicken @ 12:16 AM
4 Comments:
At 11:52 AM ,
Anonymous said...
As-salaamu alaikum.
I think you need to be careful in your generalizations about the Jewish community.
First, not all Jews think this way.
The Orthodox scholar Michael Wyschograd, in his article on "Faith and the Holocaust", wrote: "There is no salvation to be extracted from the Holocaust. No faltering Judaism can be revived by it, no new reason for the continuation of the Jewish people can be found in it." I suspect his feelings are shared by many devout Jews.
Second, while I'm sure the phenomenon you've described as some basis in reality, I suspect what you are reacting to is not so much a Jewish foible as a human foible.
The core meaning of 'God is greater' is very hard to realize, hence Imam Ghazali commenting that many of us commit hypocrisy every time we say it at the start of prayer.
How many Muslims are true to 'Allahu Akbar'? How many Muslims have made an idol out of Palestine, or corrupted their faith to "there is no religion but Islam and Muhammad is the Messenger of Islam"? If Allah is 'akbar' why do so many Muslims sell liquor in America's urban cities? I have talked to some Jordanians who know those that have rushed to Iraq for jihad and have said those who went for jihad were not the most pious. They were the most angry.
In the end, I'm not trying to make excuses for idolmaking, but merely to caution about pointing fingers because it can draw us away from the truth of the situation - our human weakness and sinfulness. I'm not convinced Jews are any more guilty of this than Muslims.
Lastly, I am grateful that there is a Holocaust museum, Holocaust studies, movies about the Holocaust, etc. and even believe the Holocaust should be studied by Westerners, including Western Muslims, more so than other genocides, because it occurred in a Western nation that represented the epitome of art, philosophy, and intellectual cultivation in its day. To the extent that we share connections with that culture - and we do, we we would do well to meditate upon its causes.
At 12:12 AM ,
Anonymous said...
Salaam 'Alaikum
I think also there is the fact that for the first time in the West, the Jewish community is empowered enough, free enough to say, "This happened to us, at your hands." They could not do such a thing in the ghettos of Italy or in the villages of Russia. So in a way, it's as if the floodgates are opened. --youzee
At 10:26 PM ,
Veronica said...
I realize that was posted 2 years ago but I can't believe I came across this simply because I didn't know how to spell proselytize.
The central point of Judaism is not the Holocaust. It is G-d. The use of the Holocaust as an excuse for actions against Palestinians is not acceptable. But that is not the center of Jewish spirit. You do not know Jews if you believe what you said. Go to a synagogue and find out who Jews really worship.
At 10:38 PM ,
Flicken said...
Oh, and thanks for the spelling correction! :)
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