Prejudice is not a joke

Check out the full Opinion piece from The Age here...

Instead of denying the Holocaust, Muslims — and indeed peoples of all faiths and no faith in particular — should study its causes and consequences, especially the rhetorical devices used by political leaders, columnists and commentators in the decades leading up to it.

No two faith traditions are more similar than Islam and Judaism. Both worship a strictly Unitarian God. Both have sacred laws with strict dietary codes and detailed rules governing gender relations. Both insist on their texts being learned and taught in their original languages. Both refuse to deny their Middle Eastern roots.

The reasons used by many Muslimphobes to generate hatred against those deemed Muslim are almost identical to those used to generate hatred against Jews in the decades leading up to the Holocaust. Muslimphobic columnists and bloggers poke fun at Muslim dietary laws and cast aspersions on Muslims by citing out of context verses from the Koran discussing wars.

I guess it is hard to imagine the time in Germany leading up to the atrocities that were committed in the Holocaust, but after going to Austwitz, The Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe (in Berlin) and other museums and exhibitions in Europe in 2005 the one big thing I learnt, and that scared me, is that these things were not committed by one crazy person (ie Hitler), but by many many individuals, either actively or passively.

I agree with a lot of the things written in this above opinion piece today in The Age. Not only is the current prejudice going around the world wrong, it is damn scary when you consider it in this historical context. Worth a read.