Category Archives: Jewish Extremism

religious people need to recommit to and engage with critical thinking

By bananabrain | Published: August 23, 2010
following an unusually thoughtful broadcast last week by richard dawkins (he’s obviously trying to take on board how much his militancy turns people off by some of the pleas he made on behalf of sacred texts as fine language, cultural literacy and so on) i am grappling again with some of the issues raised by [...]
Also posted in Anti Muslim bigotry, Antisemitism, Blogosphere, Christian Evangelical Nutters, Democracy, Exegesis, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Religion, Hate Speech, Hermeneutics, Human Rights, Interfaith, Islamism | 16 Comments

Is this the “counter-Enlightenment”?

By bananabrain | Published: August 6, 2010
i’ve not posted for a while, mostly because of pressure of work, but there are a number of things which are currently causing me to more or less lose sleep. recently, i gave up posting on pickled politics, partly because of the level of personal animosity i was facing, but mostly just in frustration at my [...]
Also posted in Anti Fascism, Anti Muslim bigotry, Antisemitism, Blogosphere, Christian Evangelical Nutters, Civil Rights, Democracy, Entryism, European Fascism, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Religion, Human Rights, Identity Politics, Interfaith, Islamism, Moral relativism, Multiculturalism, Obscurantism, Sectarianism, Secularism, The Far Left, The Regressive Left, UK Politics | 37 Comments

meanwhile, in israel…

By bananabrain | Published: June 4, 2010
with the flotilla imbroglio (or fiasco, if you prefer) in full swing, yours truly has just arrived back from the zionist entity, where numerous representatives of clan bananabrain continue to live as normal a life as one might expect in what hussein shobokshi of asharq al-awsat describes as “a state established on a lie based [...]
Also posted in Civil Rights, Democracy, Freedom of Religion, International Affairs, Israel/Palestine, Politics | 13 Comments

G!D the “misogynist” and other cyclical lepidopterisms

By bananabrain | Published: May 6, 2010
thanks to the delightful sonia from pickled politics, i ended up in a jolly discussion over at butterflies and wheels on feminism and religion. they seem to have closed the comments for some reason, but i still thought it was an interesting subject and thought i’d continue it here if anyone (like ophelia benson or [...]
Also posted in Blogosphere, Esoterica, Ethics, Exegesis, Feminism, Hermeneutics, Human Rights, Interfaith, Moral relativism, Obscurantism, Secularism | 8 Comments

religious idiots round-up

By bananabrain | Published: April 21, 2010
  a woman causing an earthquake yesterday by blatantly showing her elbows and knees well, i expect most of us have probably heard by now that, according to the not-at-all-bonkers iranian regime, that immodestly dressed women cause earthquakes. i expect the haitians are buying their chadors as we speak. in the interests of balance, i thought it [...]
Also posted in Esoterica, Farce, Interfaith, Obscurantism | 18 Comments

seven modest proposals for the british jewish community

By bananabrain | Published: March 16, 2010
the ferocious but charming miriam shaviv over at the jc is blogging a number of “daily proposals to transform the british jewish community” during march. i was discussing this with my redoubtable other half over friday night dinner and we thought the following might be worth submission: 1. transparency at the jewish leadership council ok, we know [...]
Also posted in Activism, Antisemitism, Democracy, Education, Entryism, Environmental, Identity Politics, Interfaith, Israel/Palestine, Misc, Obscurantism, Politics | Tagged , | 6 Comments

“well, they’re a bit extreme, but they do such good work bringing people back to judaism!”

By bananabrain | Published: January 29, 2010
david t from harry’s place forwarded me this cartoon by eli valley, whose satirical strips appear monthly in the leading us jewish magazine “the forward”. on reading it, i didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. on one hand, it’s a caricature of the position of the kiruv (“outreach”) organisations, but on the other hand, once you [...]
Also posted in Entryism, Freedom of Expression, Identity Politics, Interfaith, Obscurantism, Politics, Sectarianism | 57 Comments

Israel’s religious system will bring to its demise

By Guest | Published: January 28, 2010
This is a cross-post of an article from Haaretz by Sefi Rachlevsky, author of ‘The Messiah’s Donkey’, the best-seller which critiqued the Jewish Orthodox establishment. **** “A Bag of Fibs,” the classic collection of tall tales from the pre-state Palmach militia, tells of a truck driver sent from Tel Aviv to deliver a water cistern to Jerusalem. [...]
Posted in Jewish Extremism | 22 Comments

The Stuff of Jewish Terrorism

By Guest | Published: January 8, 2010
This is a guest post by Eyal **** Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak received this week a death threat letter, warning him against the settlement freeze by the Israeli government. “If you think of destroying the settlements, you are mistaken, and I will kill you,” read part of the letter, which has been transferred to the Shin Bet [...]
Also posted in Terrorism | 7 Comments