Sam Harris

while i am aware of the reasons for the focus on christianity and islam in matters of secular criticism, i am astonished to find so little material available in terms of judaism.  we have heard elsewhere on this forum that judaism is more intellectually rigorous and does not proselytize.  ok, that's all well and good—but there is another (very important) argument that deals with the miserable and violent effects attributed to religion.  we hear constant anecdotes about witch trials, the inquisition and the current issue of terrorism and islamofascism.  but why is judaism left out? 

sam's book is one of the first i have found which incorporates criticisms of judaism to any noticable degree.  this is difficult, because many muslims who may be even slightly open to criticism, find an apparent lack of quips and disparagements made about judaism.  where are they?  can anybody recommend books, websites, authors, etc.?  the crimes of the jews and the argument against the malignancy in the core of judaism needs to come more front and center—even if they do not surface as easily as a recitation of surah 9 from the koran.  sam touches on this when he attacks the sectarianism of judaism, but we need more of the historical examples (alluded to at times by noam chomsky when he refers to the bible as 'the most genocidal book in the canon'). 

as long as judaism came first, we should look at the phenomenon of monotheism as an evolving singular phenomenon.  the 'violent core' of islam must be traceable to judaism, no?  why is this point never made?  of, at least, why is it not made more often?  i'm sure it is not a result of some feared retaliation from the "jewish cabals" so many assert exist in the media and government.  however, without these issues being brought front and center, the community of secular critics must understand that a large, important contingent of their potential audience is writing them off, if for no other reason than because it looks disingenuous.  i'm not jewish, christian or muslim and it looks out of balance to me.  the history of secularism in the modern west shows that a significant portion of it's progenitors were formerly jewish or of jewish descent.  my only point is that these issues should be addressed.  critics of religion should be as willing to endure empty accusations of anti-semitism from jewish groups as they are to endure being called infidels by muslim groups and immoral by the christian right.  currently they are not.

i consider myself to be fairly aware of the available major works of religious criticism that have circulated in the past 200 years (though i am aware that i ahve missed many).  why, then, am i so much more equipped as a result of my readings, to offer anecdotes and statistics, scriptural references from christianity and islam than i am from judaism?  where are the big, popular anti-judaism books so i can quote in conversation the atrocities of the jewish religion the way i can christianity and islam?  maybe i have missed something.  if so, i hope somebody on this forum can direct me to the right place.

Speaking only for myself, of course, it’s difficult to become worked up about Jewish history the way one can about the other two “Abrahamic” religions.  The bloody histories of both Christianity and Islam are well known – and well documented.  Jewish history, on the other hand, the old testament anyhow, is mainly myth created to impress the Babylonians, and give some sort of an identity to a people who were conquered by every other nation in the region.

Until recent times the Jewish people just kind of drifted through history, for the most part very inoffensively.  It wasn’t until the establishment of the Jewish state that they began to have a history as a nation.  So far, they have established themselves as fitting members of the Abrahamic fraternity.  Their treatment of the Palestinians ranks right up there with the Christian’s treatment of heretics, and the historic Islamic treatment of infidels. 

The Jews are the predecessors of Christians and Islamics only accidentally.  The early literal Christians needed some scriptural foundation for their fictitious god-man and adapted the Jewish old testament, claiming roots therein.  Same thing for the Moslems, so why blame the Jews?  The old testament was created out of whole cloth, and so were the other religions.

I would think one main reason is that Jews don’t seek converts, so they dont advertise or preach or try to enforce their religion on anyone except in Isreal, which is a theocracy.

I have had my share of getting callled anti-semite for trying to discuss the problems I see with the state of Isreal, and with the Jewish religion, particulary with the more fundamentalist Jewish groups.

In fact I think it is one reason GVI left this forum = (

A few quotes I have picked up along the way.  I really don’t have a “thing” against Jews only that they are not immune from the ills of hatred and small mindedness.  These quotes demonstrate this:

“There is a huge gap between us (Jews) and our enemies, not just in ability but in morality, culture, sanctity of life, and conscience. They are our neighbors here, but it seems as if at a distance of a few hundred meters away, there are people who do not belong to our continent, to our world, but actually belong to a different galaxy.”
- Israeli president Moshe Katsav, The Jerusalem Post, May 10th 2001

There is a serious problem in Israel, the treatment of Palestinians has never been fair and human rights violations abound. Israel however is no theocracy. It is one of the few countries in the world where both women and men are paid the same salaries and women can rise to the heights of power all the way to Prime Minister. The Knesset, Israeli parliament has Arab members. Contrast this with its Arab neighbours and you will see that the only thing they have in common is the human rights abuses. Remember that it wasn’t long ago that Jordan expelled the PLO along thousands of Palestinians to camps in Lebanon because of the security risk they posed to their soveirgnty.
Sam mentioned once that he thought it was obnoxious that a nation should be founded on the basis of religious mythology, but he also mentioned that on account of the world’s violent anti-semitism they needed a nation for their own safety, he’s right on both accounts. Jews where targeted for elimination in every single country in Europe, except for Georgia. That is the only historical factor all European nations have in common. Even in Canada for many years Jews were not allowed to own property. In Turkey this was true up to only a few years ago.
For most of WWII the Palestinians succesfully barred Jewish migration to Palestine by pleading with the British colonials to keep them out. Although some made through the blockade in secrecy, most Jews were re-routed by boatloads to Eastern Europe to be killed in the Holocaust. There is not one Israeli who will ever forget that.
The nationalistic and chauvinistic quotes you have posted here may all be real, but what do Israel’s neighbours say about Jews? Recently the Iranian president said he wanted to wipe Israel off the map and that the Holocaust never happened.
Jews have always been a literate and educated people usually surrounded by ignorant, jealous and violent Christian neighbours who went out of their way to kill them.
When the Portuguese (my people!) finally ousted the Dutch from the coast of northeastern Brazil, before taking any other administrative decision or attempting any sort of post-war re-building they immediately started executing the local Jewish population. To them it was a much bigger priority to do the ‘Lord’s work’ than to attend to anything else.
Unfortunately I’m afraid you will find that most critique of Jews to be nothing more than well-worded thinly disguised bigotry.
The US and UK media is run overwhelmingly by Christians, most of them with ties to Protestant/Anglican churches. The same go for banks. This myth of media and banks being run by Jews together with this ‘they killed Christ’ myth have been at the centre of the genocidal behaviour Christians have engaged in towards Jews.

Check out Munich, it has a harsh critique of Israeli policy and it was directed by a very famous Jew, also check out Pearls:

http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/archive/pearls-20060103.html