The whole Islamophobia / anti-Semitism debacle – is definitively racism either / both ways. Race itself is biologically ill-defined as a concept but it is nevertheless real. In same way Islam-ism / Juda-ism obviously have a social / intellectual angle around the religion itself vs freedoms of belief and religion and the cultural inheritance of societal values, most interactions and responses are bio-socio-physical. Racism and nationalism / national-identity especially when the topic is acts of violence and war. “Semites” of course are / were and Arab ethnic tribal name anyway, before being conveniently used to tag Judaism in recent decades.
It’s obviously compounded when the nation-states – like Iran & Afghanistan – involve non-Secular / Theocratic governments or other states harbour other deeper long-standing conflicts. Not just freedoms of belief and religion impinging upon the rights and freedoms of others, but imposition of one set of values and beliefs by physical means. Ironically, Israel the refuge of Zionism, and neighbouring Lebanon, has one of the most secular, liberal and tolerant cultures in honouring freedom of alternative religious belief (and practice).
Another issue on the other side is expectations about punishment, sanctions and sentencing when laws against violence are applied. The other side of that coin being merely the practical limitations, incentives and priorities of legally enforcing such measures. Complex to say the least and never entirely rational / objective / scientific. (eg Anyone who keeps their nose-clean during incarceration rightly expects to serve only a portion of their sentence. Prisons would be ungovernable otherwise.)
Obviously these are all topical again thanks to fuckwits – autistic simpletons – like Musk wading in on the UK “Grooming Gang” scandals (and New Year’s terrorist atrocities) – without the slightest hint of understanding any such complexity, nor even any signs caring about fellow humanity. Competitive tweeting / retweeting / disagreeing & community-noting binarily for or against either or both simplistic positions – “virtue-signalling” or indeed populist voting on such a basis – is purely degenerative. Worsening rather than solving any of any number of entangled issues. #PartOfTheProblem
If civilised intelligent people – especially those that claim to be on the side of free-thought and rationality in opposition to religious dogmatism and bigotry (and violence, against especially women) cannot see the need nor make the effort to disentangle the complexity of issues before rejecting or supporting any position, then there is no hope. With the impending imposition of “Trusk”, on UK, European and Middle-East politics as well as the US, it looks like this incoherent degeneracy is about to define 2025. Such incoherence can’t end well.
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