RUTHFULLY YOURS

Anne in Petah Tikva is an Israeli likely none of us know or have ever heard of. But she has a story to tell about life in Israel these days. And her ultimate message is one that should resonate with every American.

Writing for Legal Insurrection, Anne reports that she, like many Israelis, is feeling “furious, angry, frightened and frustrated.” She railed against the government, the Arabs in the Knesset, and about the refusal to recognize that this is a war with Islam. She also talked about the struggle to balance one’s fears with the need to go about living a normal life, as she recalls life during the second Intifada.

She also wrote of shock and disgust at the ceaseless brainwashing of generation after generation of “Palestinians” to hate Jews.

I find it profoundly depressing, almost nauseating, to realize that with the indoctrination by the Palestinian education system. Their accommodating media pushes yet another generation of Palestinian children into vicious and unreasonable Jew-hatred, there is not a chance in hell of us ever reaching any kind of workable way for the two nations to live in an armed truce if not peace in our little country.

They don’t just hate us. They hate our dogs, too.

What’s the deal with Islam and dogs? It’s this: Dogs are viewed as unclean. More importantly, Mohammed didn’t like them – as in wanted them dead.

Although there is nothing written in the Quran about dogs, Mohammed’s thoughts on all things canine can be found throughout the Hadith (a collection of direct quotes from Mohammed on a range of issues that was compiled after his death).

Mohammed warned angels not to enter any home that had a dog. He also ordered that dogs be killed and that none be spared, with a specific directive to kill all black dogs. (More information can be found here, here, and here.)

That doesn’t mean that all Muslims hate dogs, just as all Muslims don’t do or not do anything. (To hear an excellent take down by Jamie Glazov of the “not all Muslims do that” argument, see here.) But enough Muslims seem to hate dogs and enough act on that hatred to reveal a hideous pattern of mistreatment and abuse. Dogs are also used to assert supremacy, as you will see in the examples noted below.

This semester I am teaching developmental reading at a local community college. This means that most of the students are reading at sixth-grade reading level. Their writing skills are, at best, very basic. Below is a sample of an unedited paragraph (replete with errors) that a student was asked to write after having been taught the meanings of autocratic, demolish, debilitating, hyperthermophile, perpetrators, and plaque. You will note that while the student incorporated the words into her paper, she does not really understand the meaning or the nuances of the words.

In the Atlantic Ocean there are tons of Hyperthermophiles hidden in the ocean. These plants often are by the waters or in it. Some sea creatures around this area are debilitating because of the warm temperatures. The plants have to be in cold waters where it’s below zero to stay alive. They will demolish into the ocean once they are gone. These pants will go into the colder parts of the ocean if they can make it. The marine biologist can be autocratic when picking these plants. They are just so rare in the U.S. that they don’t want these Hyperthermophiles to go instinct.

From Asia to Africa, Islamic militants are slaughtering fellow Muslims. In Europe, they’re fomenting anti-Semitism. Through the Internet, they’re spreading hatred and winning recruits. We can’t defeat this enemy with weapons, money or liberal platitudes. We need a man of God.

Into this role steps a most unlikely candidate: Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi of Britain. Mr. Sacks believes that Islamic violence, like Jewish and Christian violence, flows from a misunderstanding of sacred text. In “Not in God’s Name,” he illuminates a wiser faith and a gentler God. It’s a perceptive, poignant and beautifully written book. But its analysis of history suggests a darker conclusion: Words alone won’t pacify Islam. There will be a lot more killing.

The problem isn’t Islam: Mr. Sacks points out that Jewish and Christian scriptures have also been invoked to justify violence. It’s human nature. We’re tribal creatures. We bond with our kinsmen against outsiders. Tyrants and demagogues exploit this tribal propensity by feeding us religious doctrines that blame our suffering on enemies: infidels, Crusaders, Jews. This “pathological dualism,” as Mr. Sacks describes it, corrupts societies by deflecting internal scrutiny and impeding reform. And it dehumanizes the putative enemy, facilitating mass murder.

So why do Muslims, Christians and Jews kill one another? Because we’re sibling rivals. As children of Abraham, we claim the same holy land. Each of the three communities sees itself as the people of God. Mr. Sacks says we’re all wrong: God’s love is infinite. “To insist that being loved entails that others be unloved is to fail to understand love itself.”