On the burkini scandal in France
The law in several French cities regarding the burkini requires a response from the rabbi, because it is the rabbi who often writes about the emptiness of the postmodern ideals of secularism and the left, and the like. What is happening in France right now is the first time (and certainly not the last) that these ideas have been trampled on in such a crude way, and it has been unequivocally proven that behind the great ideals there is nothing that holds them up except uncertainty about nothing. The only thing I don’t understand is what makes such an illogical move.
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0 Answers
Hello Yohai.
You are absolutely right. I really thought about writing about this. But the understanding of what makes them act this way is completely clear. They worry about an Islamic takeover and act from the gut against it. You are right that it is illogical because a burkini ban will not really help them, but on the contrary will open up even more anger and resistance among Muslims.
By the way, I think that in our shaky and poor democracy, this probably wouldn’t have passed the High Court, and leftists would have immediately declared, in their usual hysteria, the death of democracy. I think that with us there is more ideology and less pragmatism, and therefore this wouldn’t have happened. I don’t know if that’s for the better or for the worse. On the one hand, there’s a place for maintaining natural anger and resistance to your oppressors, and on the other hand, it’s important to act logically and according to your values.
In my opinion, the burkini ban is truly a serious, unjustified, and intolerable violation of human rights. If it were to help in any way against Muslim terrorism and violence, I would support it, but as mentioned, that is not the case. For example, a ban on the burqa on the street is understandable, because it interferes with the identification of women and this could create a security problem. But a ban on the burkini at sea is simply an expression of anger and a desire to mistreat Muslims. The mayors there (and I think the prime minister too) say this explicitly. They claim outright that the burkini is a provocation that expresses a Muslim rebellion against secular democracy (which is probably nonsense), and therefore they ban it, and not for any justified reason. I don’t understand since when in a democracy it is forbidden to protest against something, no matter how important it is.
The same goes for the ban on building mosques in Switzerland and the ban on wearing religious symbols in schools and public places in several places in Europe. All of these are moral and civic scandals in my opinion. Here, all the knights of democracy are silent, of course, because only here is democracy collapsing. In other places, it is perfect.
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