… in the Jerusalem Post.
Halachic terrorists harm three groups: They harm their victims, of course. They also do injury to the haredi community [from which they come], the vast majority of whom are law-abiding, God-fearing individuals with exemplary behavior. But they also harm the Jewish People and the Jewish state in general, projecting upon us an odious image of being intolerant, incorrigible and at war with one another.
Or as Efraim Halevy recently said, referring to out-of-control haredim: “Israel’s true existential danger comes from within.”
The main targets of these determined forces of reaction are women and girls – just as women and girls are the main targets of similar forces of reaction in places like Afghanistan. Women moving freely in the public world, thinking independently, pursuing an education – these provoke the most dangerous violence.
December 9th, 2011 at 5:36AM
The article in the post was pretty good, but I think there’s something important that’s been omitted.
The psychologist is quoted as saying “They can see things only in the extreme – black or white, no compromise, with no middle ground whatsoever.”
So then, what was unsaid?
The belief in a sole almighty deity greatly enables this black and white thinking. This absolute power is invested in a being who cannot be rationally shown to exist, yet conveniently cannot be shown to be mere fiction. This same being dictates what is right and what is wrong.
Obviously many who believe in such a god do not succumb to fanaticism. Others can become absolutists while anchoring their delusion on something other than the divine. Yet it seems that the one true god, supreme over all, dictator of morality, unseen but followed all the same, this thing is the most effective incubator of absolutist terror.