Religion, Nationalism, and Terror

Impasse in India - The New York Review of Books, June 28, 2007
Until 2004 the central government as well as many state governments in India were, as the philosopher Martha Nussbaum puts it in her new book,

increasingly controlled by right-wing Hindu extremists who condone and in some cases actively support violence against minorities, especially the Muslim minority. Many seek fundamental changes in India’s pluralistic democracy.

Outrage after Yosef links troops dying, religosity, Jerusalem Post, August 27, 2007
Officials from across the political and military spectrums slammed Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Monday for a sermon in which Yosef said troops killed in the Second Lebanon War lost their lives because of their lack of religious observance.

Eli Ben-Shem, chairman of the Yad Labanim organization, which represents families of fallen soldiers, called Yosef’s remarks “shameful” and said that the comments had provoked angry phone calls to the organization, specifically from religious parents who “were hurt very badly.”

Ben-Shem emphasized that a large proportion of the 112 families who lost children in the war were religious and learned in yeshivot. “It is specifically those religious people that have been hurt by the comments. Secular people don’t pay much attention to him anyway,” said Ben-Shem.

Liberaland and Haredistan - Haaretz - Israel News
The burning of the Alei Shalechet crematorium probably doesn’t surprise anyone who has been following Israel’s ongoing culture war. However, Shas Minister Yitzhak Cohen’s statements have raised the stakes. He said he would push a bill criminalizing cremation, a bill that would “put an end to those who are implementing a Final Solution once again.”

Rabbi Yosef: No wonder secular IDF soldiers are killed in war - Haaretz - Israel News
Shas party spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel, told followers in remarks broadcast on Monday that Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed in combat because they did not observe Jewish religious laws.