When Burning Synagogues Meet Secularism
It’s predictable: Israel refuses to demolish synagogues on its way out of Gaza, Palestinians take care of the task in a celebratory fashion, and the resulting images set off the religiously unaware.
In continuing the process we started discussing yesterday, that last has begun to appear.
Instapundit, not one to care much about religion, addresses the situation by noting Farhan Memon’s Alt.Muslim piece, which carries the sub-hed “Do Muslims in America lack the conviction of their religion to condemn sacrilege when it is committed by Muslims against others?”
But that’s a loaded question, because “sacrilege” is yet to have been committed, and neither Memon nor Instapundit nor anyone else has provided the religious argument for sacrilege here.
The real argument here is political. What they want to ask is: how could Palestinians be so disrespectful of the recently-ended Jewish settlement of Gaza? I don’t know why anyone would expect them to be respectful.
Which is why even the political point is flawed. Here’s Memon’s explanation:
The wholesale destruction of the Jewish synagogues is yet another indication that Palestinians of all stripes, whether Fatah secularists or Islamic Hamas types, do not have the political maturity to construct a civil society.
That’s a fundamentally false argument, because one can’t draw any lessons about all Palestinians from this isolated event. But Memon goes further to try to make it a religious argument:
However, it is also a sign that Muslims in America lack the conviction of their religion to condemn sacrilege when it is committed by Muslims against others.
Replace “Muslims” with “Jews” in that statement, and it remains true. Memon here is asking for Muslims to be held to a higher standard than the Jewish community when it comes to burning synagogues. Cute, but ridiculous.
Check out the similarly false argument proposed by Tigerhawk who was also cited by Instapundit:
One would think that if the Palestinians had a clue in the world they would realize that the burning of synagogues will not strengthen the political hand of those within Israel who support further withdrawals.
But there’s nothing that the Palestinians could have done that would accomplish that.
There is no religion story here, only a political one.
September 13th, 2005 at 8:26 pm
But there’s nothing that the Palestinians could have done that would accomplish that. There is no religion story here, only a political one.
I agree with the second sentence, but disagree with the first.
The Palestinians could have strengthened the hand of the peace movement within Israel by responding constructively, rather than destructively, to the withdrawal. Instead, they reacted precisely as the Israeli right predicted they would. Now, one cannot necessarily rely on the behavior of young men being politically sensible. For precisely that reason, this would have been an outstanding opportunity for the PA to prove that it was able to police its territory. It either could not prevent the arson or chose not to. Either does not bode well for future peace talks for the reasons I pointed out.
September 13th, 2005 at 8:40 pm
Tigerhawk - You’re right that they could have done lots of constructive things. But even if they’d built historical signs and turned the synagogues into “Museums of the Great Jewish Presence in Gaza, 1967-2005,” would such actions “strengthen the political hand of those within Israel who support further withdrawals”? I can’t imagine how: the Israeli public is divided now on disengagement as it will be throughout the process; these people have talked about almost nothing else for months, and some predicted arsons of vacated buildings isn’t going to change that.
It may well have been an opportunity for the PA, but it’s ridiculous to expect them to want to stop the arsons: again, they’re empty buildings, with no meaning other than a symbolic one to whomever chooses to take false umbrage at their burning.
The latter part of your response is rather odd, though: what future peace talks are you referring to? Sharon’s entire plan is predicated on the idea that no peace talks will happen, and Abbas has indicated no plans to bring Sharon to the table. There are no peace talks scheduled, and there likely won’t be for at least five years, when the whole ballgame will have changed.
September 14th, 2005 at 11:47 am
I wouldn’t expect them to turn the synagogues into museums, but there’s no point in burning down infrastructure if you claim to be a poor country. Why not turn the buildings in community halls or apartment houses? And what is the point in burning down greenhouses?
September 14th, 2005 at 12:01 pm
Yehudit - All interesting questions, but not at all relevant to a discussion of religion or the peace process.