Mucha Messa's Mumbo Jumbo

Here's the problem.
For years now I've been reading/watching/witnessing/hearing the fact that Jews and Muslims absolutely cannot stand each other. When a tragedy occurs in the world, rest assured there are a sizable number of Muslims who will blame the Jew and his entire race for it and vice versa. This is not to say that there arent perfectly rational Jews and Muslims whose views arent that one dimensional. But those people arent the problem are they?*. Heres the problem.

This morning I read a news article about bus routes in Israel. Ultra-Orthodox Jews are insisting that women who do not follow the dress codes propagated by them should be made to sit at the back of the bus on certain routes. Iris Yoffe, an Israeli student, has been scoffed at and made to sit at the back of the bus because she chooses to wear pants instead of the long, black skirts that ultra-orthodox women are supposed to wear. Does this sound familiar? To anybody with any rudimentary knowledge about Islamic Shari'a Law will know that Muslims similarly ostracize their women over dress codes. This is just one of the ways in which both religions are similar. Then how is it that they both just cannot get along? Only in a religious context will you see two such similar groups in complete denial of each other.

In any other sphere, such blatant discrimination gets the ridicule it deserves. Since this is a religious matter, we are urged to "respect" their views and their religious observances... irrespective of the fact that they chose not to "respect" one half of humankind with a decent seat on the bus.




*They are not the problem surely, but they are most definitely contributors. Silence is equivalent to consent.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/reuters_ids_new/20080115/r_t_rtrs_wl_us
/twl-israel-back-of-the-bus-rule-sparks-r-d4a870c_1.html

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