I took a walk through central Amsterdam very early this morning. The city was completely calm, and it was hard to believe that I was walking on streets that are filled with people every hour of the day except these early-morning hours. I wish I had had my real camera, but I managed to snap two pictures with my iPhone.
As America’s first openly transgender presidential appointee, Amanda Simpson knows.
That’s good news. However, if turned into law, the new bill can send anyone convicted of a homosexual act to serve the rest of his or her life behind bars.
After a week in Amsterdam, I need a holiday. But instead, I have a lot of work to do. Blogging will go on at an irregular pace.
Many thanks to my friends in Amsterdam. Our New Year’s celebration was just perfect in my book.
With fourteen votes for and twenty against, New Jersey’s state Senate said no to legalizing same-sex marriage.
The Portuguese parliament today voted to legalise same-sex marriage. Good!
Sweden’s status as a country with high quality living standards for its residents has been questioned in a newly published index, which claims it is the most costly country in the world to live in.
Branded as a country where quality of life is key, Sweden often ranks among the top ten in country ratings which take both living costs and benefits into consideration. For the last two years Sweden has been placed 7th in the UN Human Development Index.
However, the recently released Quality of Life index 2010 by International Living magazine puts Sweden’s reputation as an oasis of fine living into doubt, placing it in 30th place out of the 200 countries listed.
The magazine gave Sweden a score of 0 in the cost of living category, the only country which received no points in the list.
Something tells me that we will not see much about this in the mainstream media.
Hugo Chávez will devalue the Venezuelan currency by 50 per cent. That means that all Venezuelans—especially the poor who cannot afford to invest in foreign currency—will lose half of what they own and earn. To avoid government responsibility, Chávez threatens businesses with nationalisation and the National Guard if they raise the prises on their goods. This, as we all know, is what every command-economy politician in history has tried to do. It always ends with people being poorer, hungrier, and more isolated.
Some people never learn.
Sweden’s former state church is forecasting a grim future. In the next ten years, the church will lose one million members. However, it will still be the largest religious organisation in country.
More in Swedish here.
Joel McDurmon, director of Christian organisation Research for American Vision, argues that God wants gay people killed. In an article about Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill—which seeks to legalise genocide—McDurmond writes:
Where God says a civil crime deserves the death penalty, I propose that we keep in step with the first greatest commandment and recognise His total sovereignty in heart, soul, strength, and mind. This means placing His word above our own definitions of “love” and “respect” for neighbor, however we may think these should manifest in civil matters. No matter how much we couch our humanistic definitions in biblical language, if we depart from the standards God has revealed then we are no better than the liberals who call Christianity “hate” and sexual perversion “love.”Now, it just so happens that God revealed that the homosexual act is a civil crime, and it just so happens that He revealed that the homosexual act as a civil crime deserves the death penalty.
What fascinates me about Christian fundamentalists’ reading of the Hebrew Bible is the selectivity. Whenever it fits them, they ignore the laws of the “old testament”, but when it serves their own political purposes, these same laws suddenly becomes fundamental to Christian belief. On no issue is this more apparent than homosexuality. The fundamentalist reading of two short instructions in the Books of Moses are said to be more important that all laws concerning respect and love for fellow human beings. The fact that the same type of naïve reading of Mosaic Law could legitimise the death penalty for practising Christianity is actively ignored by homophobic Christians who only pick the verses that legitimise their bigotry.
Below is a list of some of the many activities that—with McDurmon’s reading—could legitimise the killing of people. Notice that many of them deal with things that Christians do all the time. How many people do you know who eat red meat, work on Saturdays, and live in a city not ruled by the Jews?
What is important to remember is that the Hebrew Bible was made by Jews to be read by Jews. Its laws were never intended to be universal. They were written down as a constitution for the Jewish people; and they have developed a great deal over the past three thousand years. Christians have nothing to do with it. In fact, I think the people who wrote the Hebrew Bible would consider the worship of Jesus the worse sin imaginable.
The Biblical “death penalty” list:
(I wonder how many contemporary men would survive a naïve interpretation of the law against rebellious sons. I know I would have been put to sleep at age four.)
Remember Iris Robinson, the British MP from Northern Ireland who in 2008 compared same-sex love to child abuse? Well, it turns out she knew more about sexually abusing children than she let on. It has now emerged that 59-year-old Mrs Robinson had an affair with a teenage boy about the time she made her homophobic remarks.
(The part about “gorgeous, underage youth” refers to a quote from the BBC comedy Absolutely Fabulous.)
James Carroll writes about what he sees as “the latest indication that homosexuals have replaced Jews as the new target for reactionary religious zeal.” I have studied this for quite some time and would say that this is nothing new. It’s a pattern.
Gays and Jews have been the two groups European Christians have targeted for much of the past millennium. Since about 1230 CE, the Roman Catholic Church has singled out gays and Jews as the foremost threat to Christianity in Europe. And if you look carefully, you will find that whenever a regime has tried to get rid of the Jews, gay people have been its target, too.
The arguments are often the same, and much of Christian anti-Semitism and homophobia derives from the writings one biblical man—the Apostle Paul.
I’m very busy writing an essay on Jewish nationhood, which is why the blog hasn’t been updated for days. It is unlikely that I will do much blogging until I’m finished, but here’s something that might entertain you in the meantime. Apparently, the video of Londoner Dave’s visit to Skåne has been something of a hit on the Internet. Thousands of visitors from Britain every day.
The publication of Eli Valley’s cartoons in Forward has sparked some controversy. Personally, I’m more upset about the real-life quotes he uses in his drawings.
I think it takes some knowledge about the Jewish world to really understand what Valley is criticizing, but everyone could visit his website.
(Via Jewschool.)
One of Sweden’s largest newspapers, Sydsvenska Dagbladet, refuses to publish this picture of three lesbian women. However, only a few days earlier, the same newspaper published a picture of an erect penis. The newspaper spokesperson motivates the decision with concern for gay people. I suppose it is better for gay people not to be seen in public than for gay-rights organisations to have their campaigns published for everyone to see. Good gays hide in the closet.
Unlike the three women above, this picture of an erect penis is acceptable to Sydsvenska Dagbladet:
After an incident with an observant Jew being suspected of planning to blow up an aeroplane, Forward suggests it might be time for some religious training for flight attendants. From the article:
In what was dubbed by police a “security situation,” a Chautauqua Airlines flight from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Louisville, Kentucky was diverted to Philadelphia this morning when an observant seventeen-year-old from White Planes tried to put on tefillin. Or as Philadelphia police Lt. Frank Vanore described the “religious device”: a set of small black boxes attached to leather straps and containing biblical passages.
According to news reports, a stewardess became alarmed when the boy stood up and started wrapping them on, alerting the Transportation Administration Authority of a “disruptive passenger” and triggering the stop in Philly. The flight attendant had simply never seen tefillin before.
The Kotel in Jerusalem—sometimes referred to as the Wailing Wall—has de facto been taken over by the ultra-Orthodox minority. Women who wish to pray at Judaism’s most sacred site are being attacked and even arrested. However, this is only one of several examples of ultra-Orthodox Jews being allowed to humiliate Jews that are more progressive.
Now there is an online petition to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that I urge all Jews to sign. The State of Israel should be the homeland of all Jews and cannot allow itself to become a land reserved for the fanatical few. From the petition text:
As a concerned Jew I wish to bring to your attention my very deep distress about recent events in Israel regarding religious pluralism. I am very proud to support Israel as the religious homeland for all Jews and feel strongly that I have the right and responsibility to voice my concern when something touches the very heart of my beliefs as a Jew.
Recent events in Israel point to a continuing bias towards the rights and wishes of the ultra-Orthodox minority at the expense of the majority. Whether through government legislation or through decisions by the courts or tribunals, it appears that Israeli democracy is being eroded.
The most recent cause of concern is the interrogation of Anat Hoffman, Chair of the Women of the Wall, by Jerusalem police. She was threatened with arrest for violating the rules of conduct at what many consider to be Judaism’s most sacred site. This was a pure act of intimidation and comes on the heels of the arrest of Nofrat Frankel at the Wall for wearing a tallit and for holding a sefer Torah. These actions are repugnant to me as one who believes that Israel must be a religious pluralistic society.
These events are the continuation of a trend favoring ultra-Orthodoxy over other streams of Judaism, exemplified in incidents regarding the validity of conversions, rights of marriage and burial, segregated buses and other public spaces, and the use of parking garages on Shabbat. These issues constitute a growing religious crisis in Israel, which is as much a threat to Israel’s survival as are the external threats and perhaps more so. Protecting Israel from religious extremism may be the nation’s biggest challenge.
I urge you to take the necessary steps within your government to insure equality for all streams of Judaism. There must be an end to laws and practices that legitimise abuse and discrimination against Jews who desire to express their Judaism or just want to live their lives in a manner contrary to the ultra-Orthodox minority.
Sign the petition here.
Chris Crain has some interesting information on Uganda, which he found in this NPR article.
A fascinating article by Joy Ladin, a transsexual who went to Jerusalem to pray at the Western Wall—first as a man, then as a woman.
Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet has published an article by Henrik Ennart in which he states that Jews and Muslims are deliberately cruel to animals. Ritual slaughter is a popular theme among anti-Semites and Islamophobes. What is not mentioned in his biased article is that the methods used by traditional Jews and Muslims are intended to shorten the suffering of the animal. However, this is not the case of the ritual killing of wildlife animals that engage many Swedish amateurs during the national hunting seasons. In fact, Swedish hunting methods are condemned by many animal-rights organisations in Europe for its extreme cruelty. Not that this newspaper would ever run an article about that—it would confuse the overall message of Sweden as the land of extraordinary concern for animal welfare.
The killing of animals is always cruel. The only way to stop it would be for everyone to go vegetarian or demand an end to industrialised slaughter methods. Personally, I prefer to buy meat that is labelled kosher by a rabbinical authority.
According to Amos Oz, humour is the best method to cure fanatics. Well, the people behind the “God Hates Shrimp” campaign are trying to do just that. Visit their website here.
(Via Benjamin Gerber.)
It’s no secret that Facebook is full of hate groups, but that doesn’t make it less annoying. One of the Swedish hate groups (“En död bög, är en bra bög!”) promotes deadly violence directed at gay men. It has come to my knowledge that the three founding members not only run this homophobic Facebook group but also send threatening messages to gay individuals online. Many have complained to Facebook’s abuse department about the group and these three individuals, but nothing happens. So I thought I post this short blog entry, as a service to whomever wants to search the Internet for information about any of these young men.
The three men are Mattias Brander, Erik Bejje Månsson, and Felix Karlström. They all live in Edsele, a very small village located between Örnsköldsvik and Östersund in northern Sweden. They are young and probably quite harmless in real life, but their actions online goes far beyond what is legally and morally acceptable.
Update posted on 25 January 2010 at 21:40: Less than twenty-four hours after I published this entry, Facebook decided to close down the named hate group. From what I can tell, the three men’s accounts seem to have been terminated, too. Good!
Swedish newspaper Skånska Dagbladet publishes a disturbing article about the growing hostility towards Jews in Malmö, Sweden’s third city. The number of hate crimes is at a record high, and Jewish individuals say they experience death threats.
Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet runs yet another article on kosher and halal slaughter methods. (See my comment on previous article here.) This article is less xenophobic than the first one, but it is still biased. For example, the research from New Zealand that the journalist puts forward as indubitable proof is still being debated among veterinarians. Professor Temple Grandin of Colorado State University, one of the world’s most prominent experts on Animal Science, writes about the study here. She also has some practical tips on humane ritual slaughter practices here.
Swedish newspaper Skånska Dagbladet quote top politician. “Jews in Malmö have themselves to blame for the violence the experience from anti-Semites,” he says.
I will link to the newspaper article when it’s online.
Update: Link to article.
Update on 28 January at 09:00: International reaction here. More in English here.
“I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are,” Barack Obama said when he addressed the nation yesterday. Hm, I believe it when I see it.
Once again, the city’s socialist leadership has made Malmö the centre of European anti-Semitism.
New research suggests children do not need parents of both sexes. “The bottom line is that the science shows that children raised by two same-gender parents do as well on average as children raised by two different-gender parents,” sociologist Timothy Biblarz of the USC College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences says to Science Daily. “This is obviously inconsistent with the widespread claim that children must be raised by a mother and a father to do well.”
The Official Council of Swedish Jewish Communities writes an open letter to Malmö’s mayor demanding an apology. I don’t think they will ever get one. Mr Reepalu is known for his indifference to other people’s feelings.
French newspaper Le Monde writes about Malmö’s anti-Semitic mayor.
Caroline Glick in Jerusalem Post:
Malmo is one of the most dangerous places for Jews in Europe. The city’s small Jewish population is fleeing. The situation in Malmo was graphically demonstrated last March when Israel’s tennis stars Amir Haddad and Andy Ram faced off against Swedish rivals at a Davis Cup tie in Malmo and Swedish authorities closed their game to the public. Malmo’s Muslim residents and their post-Christian partners on the Left threatened to attack them. Malmo’s authorities didn’t think it was their responsibility to protect their Israeli guests. So Haddad and Ram were forced to play in an empty stadium.
Interviewed in a local paper this week about the rise of anti-Semitic attacks in his city, Reepalu blamed Israel. In his view, the violence against Jews in Malmo by the far Left and Muslims, “spilled over from Gaza.”
By his lights the Jewish national liberation movement is just as bad as the Jewish annihilation movement. As he put it, “We accept neither Zionism nor anti-Semitism. They are extremes that place themselves above other groups they think are less important.”
Reepalu then blamed Malmo’s Jews for their victimisation by his fellow leftists and his Muslim comrades. As far as he is concerned, the Jews brought the violence on themselves last March when they responded to Haddad and Ram’s treatment by holding a demonstration supporting Israel. In his view, Malmo’s Jews need to separate themselves away from Israel, not support it.
Since the Holocaust, old-style right-wing anti-Semites in Europe have had a hard time getting political traction for their desire to see Jews suffer. But by conflating Jews with Israel, their colleagues on the Left have made sticking it to the Jews, our state and our supporters the easiest way to score political points.
Meanwhile, mayor Reepalu seems to have softened up a bit. In an article published in Sydsvenska Dagbladet today, he affirms that he has nothing against Jews and that Israel has a right to exist. However, he says that Israel must withdraw to the borders of 1967.
There is something very odd about vegan animal-rights activist. Every time a have criticised their working methods or voiced an opinion they disapprove of, they reply with racism and silly comments like “go home”. With my un-Swedish name, they assume I’m an immigrant. Never does it seem to occur to them that they are a tiny minority most people consider extremists.
I just had another experience like that. In an online discussion about kosher slaughter methods, I was immediately dismissed as a religious fundamentalist and a foreigner who should leave Sweden at once. So, what is about vegans and racism? Does the strict food regime turn them into bigoted fanatics or is it the other way around? Is too much love for animals the cause of hatred towards fellow human beings?
(The picture is only meant to be funny, don’t take it too seriously.)
Malmö is covered with snow. I snapped these pictures less than an hour ago. These streets are normally filled with cars, but the snow and the freezing temperature made most people decide to spend this Sunday indoors. It always feels strange when the streets are deserted and the city goes quiet. It only happens one or two days during the winter, but I never get used to it. The silence makes me nervous.
