Wars of Thought

The Herald Tribune's July 8th article "Youth violence churns Paris district" has me wondering what it actually takes for the media to call a war religious. The article outlines the June 21st attack on "Rudy" a Jewish boy in Paris who was beaten unconscious apparently for wearing a kippah.

We must all understand the need to downplay social injustices in order to prevent further such injustices, but when the media seems to have no problem accusing Israel of either malice or discrimination, or at the very least putting Israel's name in the headline when some scandal or atrocity is cited, it seems we have one of two problems. Either, a) the media is blatantly anti-semitic, or b) everyone is so clearly afraid of retaliation from the growing and ubiquitous Muslim communities that they are loathe to mention offenses being of a religious nature.

In this instance, the attack, others like it, and mounting pressures are all attributed to gang activity. I'll grant that is probably a large part of it. But whether the attackers were Muslim (and apparently they were) or just kids, the fact of the matter is, when someone is attacked because they are Jewish, it makes the attack religious. It isn't simply a racial issue, because the attackers were of mixed race. However, as the Jewish "race" defines itself solely by its relation to God, any hatred toward it necessarily becomes religious. Its not just a hatred of the people, its a hatred of God. (Granted, as Jews or Christians would attest, any attack on another person whatsoever becomes an attack on God, as we are made in His image.)

There is a fine line here, or a fine convergence of lines. Included are politics, religion, social equilibrium, forgiveness and tolerance. But it is happening in so many cases, in so many places that it can no longer really be taken as random I think. Racial tensions are usually emotional, fear driven occurrences.* But here we have frequency and (seemingly) purpose. That raises it from the occasional attack to something else...


*In fact, a lot of pride and angst, jealously, fear and greed are involved.