The hatred continues, er, continued.
Apr. 3rd, 2003 01:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitchen_kinkMore anti-Franceism, more hatred toward Muslims, more clueless protestors! Yay! I can never get enough!
So the sidewalk across the street from my work seems to be a popular spot for idiot protestors. Today it was a Jewish group, once again protesting against France. When I emerged from the building, they were yelling, "End the hate! End the hate!" Good idea, I thought. Then a woman handed me this leaflet. Watch carefully for the hidden message, kids!
***
France: Arrest the Arab Thugs
On the Sabbath afternoon of March 22, three French Jewish children were beaten by racist thugs.
The incident took place during a massive anti-war anti-America protest. Among the "peace" marchers were French Arabs who marched carrying large sticks and wearing keffiyas. They spotted a Jewish boy on a sidewalk and beat him. The Muslims then raced down a street leading away from the line of march, shouting 'there are Jews over there.' When they reached the door of the JCC (the Centre Benard Lazare), they beat two more fourteen-year-old Jewish boys arriving for a Sabbath youth group meeting.
The marauding Muslims actually shouted anti-Semitic verses from the Koran as they beat the Jewish boys. They were attempting to batter down the door of the Jewish Centre when police arrived.
No arrests have been made despite the presence of numerous witnesses and the existence of television film shot by a French news crew that filmed the entire incident.
This attack is far from isolated. There were four times as many violent racist attacks in France in 2002 as in 2001, a wave of violent assaults on Jews not seen in Europe since before WWII.
We demand that the French government arrest the Arab thugs who beat up Jewish children.
***
Now, I won't even go into the little dig at anti-war protestors and the implication that this war is just. But I did go up to the little crowd and address the people who seemed to be in charge.
"Excuse me," I said. "I just got handed this leaflet. Can I ask you something?
Sure I could, they said.
"This is terrible, of course, and of course these people should be arrested. But does it strike you as ironic at all that while you're over here chanting 'End the hate, end the hate,' your literature refers to 'Arab Thugs' and 'Marauding Muslims,' and implies that all Muslims are bad??" (I wanted to say, "implies racism toward Muslims and obliquely implicates that religion and thus all of its members, rather than a small group of zealots, in the current wave of violence toward Jews?" But I don't think that fast on my feet.)
To their credit, I got some mumbles, an agreement from an older gentleman who said he had objected to the language in the leaflets, and no angry response.
Still. Calling for the arrest of these racist scum while at the same time pointing out as many times as possible that these racist scum are Arabs, down to describing their dress and hypocritically pointing out the hatespeech in the Koran? (Have they looked at their book lately?)
"Reactionary tactics don't make for very effective protests," I called over my shoulder as I crossed the street.
I know I'm probably going to get skewered and roasted on a spit for this, but it just made me hopping mad.
So the sidewalk across the street from my work seems to be a popular spot for idiot protestors. Today it was a Jewish group, once again protesting against France. When I emerged from the building, they were yelling, "End the hate! End the hate!" Good idea, I thought. Then a woman handed me this leaflet. Watch carefully for the hidden message, kids!
***
France: Arrest the Arab Thugs
On the Sabbath afternoon of March 22, three French Jewish children were beaten by racist thugs.
The incident took place during a massive anti-war anti-America protest. Among the "peace" marchers were French Arabs who marched carrying large sticks and wearing keffiyas. They spotted a Jewish boy on a sidewalk and beat him. The Muslims then raced down a street leading away from the line of march, shouting 'there are Jews over there.' When they reached the door of the JCC (the Centre Benard Lazare), they beat two more fourteen-year-old Jewish boys arriving for a Sabbath youth group meeting.
The marauding Muslims actually shouted anti-Semitic verses from the Koran as they beat the Jewish boys. They were attempting to batter down the door of the Jewish Centre when police arrived.
No arrests have been made despite the presence of numerous witnesses and the existence of television film shot by a French news crew that filmed the entire incident.
This attack is far from isolated. There were four times as many violent racist attacks in France in 2002 as in 2001, a wave of violent assaults on Jews not seen in Europe since before WWII.
We demand that the French government arrest the Arab thugs who beat up Jewish children.
***
Now, I won't even go into the little dig at anti-war protestors and the implication that this war is just. But I did go up to the little crowd and address the people who seemed to be in charge.
"Excuse me," I said. "I just got handed this leaflet. Can I ask you something?
Sure I could, they said.
"This is terrible, of course, and of course these people should be arrested. But does it strike you as ironic at all that while you're over here chanting 'End the hate, end the hate,' your literature refers to 'Arab Thugs' and 'Marauding Muslims,' and implies that all Muslims are bad??" (I wanted to say, "implies racism toward Muslims and obliquely implicates that religion and thus all of its members, rather than a small group of zealots, in the current wave of violence toward Jews?" But I don't think that fast on my feet.)
To their credit, I got some mumbles, an agreement from an older gentleman who said he had objected to the language in the leaflets, and no angry response.
Still. Calling for the arrest of these racist scum while at the same time pointing out as many times as possible that these racist scum are Arabs, down to describing their dress and hypocritically pointing out the hatespeech in the Koran? (Have they looked at their book lately?)
"Reactionary tactics don't make for very effective protests," I called over my shoulder as I crossed the street.
I know I'm probably going to get skewered and roasted on a spit for this, but it just made me hopping mad.
Re: "anti-semitism"
Date: 2003-04-03 02:53 pm (UTC)"anti-semite" is anti-Jewish racism.
Your feelings about how the language developed that way are not relevant to the point I was making. Like it or not, that is what the term means.
"homophobe" is a very good example for you to bring up. Because, whether you like it or not, "homophobia" does mean anti-homosexuality. It does not mean "fear of that which is like you", even though that's what etymology might otherwise suggest. I wouldn't have designed that meaning either, but there it is.
When people say "anti-semitic" they mean anti-Jewish, and you know perfectly well that is what they mean. If someone accuses an Arab of being anti-semitic and the response is "that's ludicrous, he's a semite", that is infuriating to those of us who have had to deal with far, far too many instances of that. It's pointless semantic quibbling. Whether you like the word or not is not the issue. The person who said it may not like the word either, but it's the term we have for the intended meaning, so they used it. If your answer is to pretend that what they said means something different than what both you and they know they meant, you're not going to be effective, just annoying.
Re: "anti-semitism"
Date: 2003-04-03 03:11 pm (UTC)As someone who has had their head kicked in on numerous occasions by christian jew-haters, skin-heads and random bigots, I believe I have earned the right to respond to particular terms in any way I see fit. I AM one of us that has dealt with it in too many instances. That said, I will agree that it is a semantic point, and probably not helpful given the situation.
But it is NOT a pointless one, IMO. The attempt to remind people that jews and arabs are all semites is an attempt (on my part) to recall and reinforce the fact that we share a common background and heritage, and that we are tied by more than a simple desire for a piece of land.
My feelings on the matter.
Re: "anti-semitism"
Date: 2003-04-22 07:14 pm (UTC)http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=IA13503
Re: "anti-semitism"
Date: 2003-04-04 07:32 am (UTC)