Jews, Muslims on same side of several battles

by HOWARD M. BERLIN

3/8/2004

It's hard to believe that despite the current divide between many of the world's Jews and Muslims, there are several issues that now bring the two religions together as strange bedfellows to protest the banning of religious practices they have in common.

The issue to make the most news lately is French President Jacques Chirac's desire to ban all conspicuous displays of one's religious affiliation in his country.s public schools. Despite world-wide protest by governments and religious groups, the French have stood their ground.

The National Assembly has already passed the legislation and the Senate is also expected to approve it with little opposition. When the law goes into effect this September, "conspicuous" displays of religious affiliation can be interpreted broadly to include clothing and jewelry. That is in public schools, Muslim boys cannot wear the kufi (crocheted skullcap) or the galabiyaa and girls cannot wear either the hijab (head scarf), or the all-covering abayya like the Iranian chador.

By the same token, Sikhs cannot wear turbans, Catholics cannot wear large crucifixes, and Jews cannot wear talismans such as a mezuzah or Star of David around the neck. Assuming that if observant Jewish boys were to attend French public schools, which is highly unlikely, they would be prohibited from wearing yarmulkes, from having their tzitzits (fringed tassels from a religious undergarment) showing, and would be banned from having payes—sidelocks of hair either curled or worn back behind the ears under the new law. For observant Jewish and Muslim females, their clothing is in keeping with well-established religious principles of modesty. For observant males, the head is covered not only during prayer, but at all times, both as a gesture of respect to God and as a further reminder that God is everywhere.

In this country we preach the need for religious tolerance, but the French want to ban it. France's Muslim population with its high birth rate is currently at five million and is the largest in Western Europe. The government's ban will undoubtedly force France's Muslim community to react strongly, and perhaps violently. Islamic governments trading with France will undoubtedly use their leverage to change the law. France's Jewish community has also protested the overt religious discrimination but because of the increase in anti-Semitism in France and much of Europe, is taking a low profile in hoping that Chirac's government will eventually cave in and rescind the law. France is not the only country to consider such a ban on Islamic head scarves. Last year several German states were strongly considering passing similar laws banning the head scarf in public schools.

If it had passed, one must then consider the slippery slope argument--if religious headwear is banned, why not also ban religious clothing and jewelry? Like the French, Germans are a paranoid lot and view the head scarf as some kind of threat to what they refer to as "Western secularism." A second issue that bonds Jews and Muslims together is that of male circumcision—a religious practice almost as old as recorded history that represents the quintessential male rite of passage—the brit milah (covenant of circumcision) for Jews and the fitrah (instinct) for Muslims.

Circumcision has its origin when the biblical patriarch Abraham was stopped from killing his son, Isaac or Ishmael—depending on whether one follows the Torah or the Qur'an—as a sacrifice demanded by God as a test of his obedience. Abraham was then commanded to circumcise his son as a sign of a covenant between all future generations and God. In recent years there is been a strong worldwide campaign by groups pressuring surgeons and pediatricians to end performing elective circumcisions, regarded as a rather commonplace medical procedure on recently-born infants. These pressure groups claim that it is painful to the infant and cite potential problems with its safety and the future health and loss of sexual pleasure of the individual.

If medically performed circumcisions were outlawed, what then about ritual circumcision for Jews and Muslims which often are not done by doctors, but by trained clerics? You can claim that it is absurd for any government to interfere in one's religious practice, but Sweden, a country that helped Jews during World War II, has already tried unsuccessfully several times to ban ritual circumcision.

The final issue affecting both Jews and Muslims is the prohibition of the ritual slaughtering of animals in several European countries. Ritual slaughter is necessary for the production of meat that will be considered as kosher under Jewish dietary law or halal under Islamic law. Prohibition of ritual slaughtering of animals by Jews for food was an early phase of Hitler's Third Reich, and today some fear the action is part of a growing assault on Jewish life linked to the spread of anti-Semitism sweeping across Europe. The same could also be now said for Muslims. Since the 1930s, the production of kosher meat has been banned in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Back then, the Muslim population was virtually non-existent in these Scandinavian countries, but now the ban applies to both kosher and halal meat. In Switzerland, ritual slaughter has been prohibited since 1902. Swiss Jews two years ago attempted to overturn the century-old ban, which coincided with Holocaust restitution efforts from Swiss banks. This resulted in an anti-Semitic backlash. If the ban against ritual slaughter of animals was not enough, the Swiss government was also considering a resolution that would have also banned importation of kosher and halal meat.

As Semitic cousins, Jews and Muslims are now being treated the same.a sort of equal opportunity policy of religious discrimination. The Dutch also had a similar ban, but following a compromise between the government and the Jewish community, now ban ritual slaughter only of older, heavier bulls.not cows or other animals. Even Britain last year debated the possibility of prohibiting ritual slaughtering of animals.

European Union animal welfare regulations now prohibit the method used by Jews and Muslims which does not allow the stunning of the animal before it is actually killed. Observant Jews and Muslims of these enlightened European countries are forced to import certified meat from neighboring countries such as France and Germany, which substantially raises the cost to these consumers.

There is a common thread that seems to run through all these issues. When the justifications are examined along with the rise of anti-Semitic acts, one has to conclude that they simply don't want Jews or the new influx of foreigners, many of whom are Muslims. Often the blunt view is, "If they don't like it, then they can go somewhere else."

Does this sound familiar? What happens when the shoe is on the other foot and the majority becomes the minority? Be warned that in some European countries, there are bans on some of the basic canons of mainstream religions because of xenophobic views. For many of those enlightened Americans who feel that they are drawn towards many views of the European Union, such as those on health care and capital punishment, I say, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it and then some.

Howard Berlin of Wilmington, is the author of 30 books and follows contemporary issues of the major religions.