Kevin Marshall's America
From Aron Heller of The Associated Press comes the story of a small child – a little girl – who is spit upon and cursed at by ultra-Orthodox Jews as she walks to school in the town of Beit Shemesh, just West of Jerusalem. (watch video)
It’s a really awful story about pathetic men who are so ghastly afraid of women and their own sexuality that they will bully, taunt, and assault a little girl. But we can’t just stop there.
Perennial nutjobs on the far Right invoke the phrase “Sharia law” like they’re pulling the fire alarm, and all of a sudden people start scrambling. It’s a ridiculous Boogie Man, this idea that the United States would or even could somehow become a country that adopts Islam as a legal system.
Yet, for all that, it’s amazing what some ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities get away with in and outside of New York City. Their clashes with bicyclists are well documented, but there are bigger and uglier problems that don’t get shared for wont of not offending. In particular the separation of the sexes, relegation of women to separate entrances, and even curtains erected on public buses to separate men from women.
Invoke these examples and in some circles you will be chastised as being anti-semitic. Yet there is an inescapable dilemma in these communities where a whole gender – women – are treated like blacks and other minorities in the first half of the twentieth century. They get a pass, sadly, because of the invocation of religious belief. Thus, a practice which should be an embarrassment to anyone with a shred of decency becomes not only permissible, but celebrated.
In these United States, we should not be tolerant of any system that seeks to subjugate, berate, or otherwise dehumanize an entire people. Nor do I think that a group should be allowed to publicly exercise wanton discrimination, bigotry, and misogyny in the name of a religious belief.
This is not to say that you cannot have your beliefs. But we cannot, in our unending quest to appear tolerant, allow ourselves to embrace intolerant exercises.
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3 Responses to 8-year-old girl harassed, spit at for dressing “like a whore” in Israel
Leave a Reply to Erik Dollman Cancel reply
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I find it odd how riled up people are getting about the internal politics of the Modern Orthodox v. Haredi issues inside of extremely insular communities in a country halfway around the world. Nearly the entire Haredi community worldwide has condemned the actions of this extremist group, and some have gone so far as to label them zealots, and cut ties with them.
And as far as women being treated like blacks in the 50’s, I don’t think that’s accurate at all. I’ve worshiped and spent weeks with Hassidic and Haredi people, and while it isn’t a life that I would choose for my daughter, the analogy doesn’t fit.
Accommodation can be a tricky issue. If there were no dividers, the ridership of that particular line might drop in half. It’s bad for the MTA if that happens. Should religious accommodations be made for fiscal reasons? Additionally, if the mission of the public transport system is to serve the communities it operates in, is it reasonable to allow communities to define how they want to be served? I’m not suggesting answers to these questions, just pointing out it’s not such a simple issue.
“Except it’s a ridiculous Boogie Man, this idea that the United States would or even could somehow become a country that adopts Islam as a legal system” – Ask Great Britain about that.
Your daughter will have a choice, is the whole point.
Should discriminatory practices be engaged in order to make a dollar? No.
Not when they run into issues of discrimination, equality, and freedoms. I’m sure there are still communities that would prefer certain types of peoples not be allowed onto buses at all. That there’s a book for them to lean on doesn’t make it any better, and that’s my whole point. We need to stop dressing up fanaticism and discrimination in rainbows and excuses just because it’s cited as a religious belief.
I will the moment they adopt our legal system, customs, etcetera. But they haven’t. Great Britain’s problems are unique to them. The problem hasn’t and won’t occur here because unlike Great Britain, our legal system wouldn’t allow for the tribunals in the first place let alone for their rulings to be binding.
Well, we’ve let the fourth amendment be all but thrown away. I don’t see what makes this any different.