This week we cover disturbing news, as a New York Rabbi continues to give babies herpes, and a Muslim Imam argues that child marriage is good for society! Don’t miss this one.
The ritualistic mutilation of young boys is a practice that will forever baffle me. Originally it was an Egyptian tradition, reserved only for the royal family. Like all fads, it was eventually abandoned by most of its practitioners, save one: the Jews, who believe that the act of cutting off the foreskin of the penis is part of their covenant with God, who does not seem to be a fan of this particular piece of flesh.
In America, plenty of Gentiles are also circumcised. It’s estimate that about half of American males have been mutilated. It doesn’t hurt that this practice is a cash cow for doctors, who often cite poorly conducted studies on its supposed health benefits. Little is discussed of the physical trauma of cutting off one of the most sensitive areas of a young child without any anesthesia. After watching a few of these procedures, where the children often go into a kind of shock, you’d have a hard time keeping your lunch down.
The pain of this procedure is not the only dangers that these vulnerable children face. In Orthodox Judaism, the mohel who cuts the foreskin will also use his mouth to suck on the penis of the baby, supposedly in an effort to “disinfect” the wound. Instead, these disgusting individuals often carry sexually transmitted diseases, which are then passed on to the child. Naturally, this religious minority is extremely secretive, which means that this kind of abuse goes completely under the radar. Even when it comes to light, authorities will usually trip over themselves to avoid arresting or pressing charges against these mohels, for fear that they might anger the Orthodox community, which tends to have a great deal of voting power.
So, what is Rochester doing to prevent more babies from getting infected? Well, they certainly aren’t prosecuting the people involved. No, instead they are printing out brochures warning people not to allow their religious leaders to engage in their disturbing practices. “you can do it if you want, but know the facts” was one victim’s statement.
I guess giving diseases to babies is kosher, so long as there’s a religious ritual to justify it!
Conflict often brings out the worst in people. When Palestine attacked Israel by kidnapping and murdering over 1400 people, the retribution visited upon them has been tenfold, with over 10,000 people now dead. It is not a pleasant equation, and undoubtedly, countless innocent lives have been lost as two rival ideologies seek to annihilate each other. Israel wants revenge, and Palestine wants to see the destruction of the lonely Jewish state surrounded by Muslim neighbors. The outcome of such hatred and animosity is depressingly predictable. Things are bound to get worse instead of better.
The rest of the world has also reacted poorly. From fights in the streets to protestors chanting anti-Semitic rhetoric, it’s an unpleasant time to for those of us that cherish peace and good will towards men.
This brings us to the story of one Ruba Almaghtheh, a 34 year old woman who drove her car into what she thought was a Jewish school. It turned out to be a sect of “Black Israelites”, called the Israelite School of Universal and Practical Knowledge. These Black supremacists have been identified as a hate group, but Ruba had only seen the star of David on the building, and that was all she needed to know to ram her vehicle into the structure.
The “school” teaches things like hatred of gays, white people, Jews, with a generous dash of sexism. The locals, however, are usually more worried about the decibel level of their protests rather than their hateful message, which seems more silly than terrifying.
Some homeowners say that the group accuses white and gay people of destroying historically black neighborhoods, and at least one resident has complained of being called a “cracker, a slave owner, [and] a white devil,” but they reiterate that the volume of the group’s message, rather than the message’s content, is the real problem.
Ruba is being charged as a terrorist, regardless of attacking the wrong group, who no doubt shares some of her ideology. Such a label is bound to only extend the prison sentence she faces. https://fox59.com/news/indy-police-arrest-terrorist-for-purposely-driving-her-car-into-home-used-by-hate-group/
As the situation worsens in Israel, the rest of the world has responded in a variety of ways. In many countries, Pro-Palestinian protestors have been making their voices heard, and often, these voices have been echoing some familiar sentiments that many of us thought were long gone. Russia, who claims to be fighting a “special military operation” in Ukraine to “rid Kiev of Nazis”, has been named as one of the possible instigators and planners of the attacks that happened (alongside Iran), specifically in an attempt to get attention diverted away from their disastrous war.
The Republic of Dagestan is largely Muslim, which naturally means that the animosity they feel towards Jews has always been high, and is now at a fever pitch. A few days ago, when word reached the populous that a plane from Israel had been diverted to their local airport, they came in force to “greet” any potential Israelite with the familiar phrase “Allahu Akbar”, or God is Great. This phrase has always struck me by how it reeks of insecurity, even as it is used in violent incidents.
The terrified passengers were harassed, and some appeared to have been injured in the process. the mob was tearing passports from the hands of innocent travelers, telling people that they were “only looking for Jews today”. Around 60 people were arrested by police, but it didn’t just stop at the airport:
On Saturday, a crowd in the city of Khasavyurt in Dagestan gathered outside a hotel where they believed some Israelis were staying.
The protesters threw stones at the windows and a sign was put on the door reading: “Entrance strictly forbidden to citizens of Israel”
There are roughly 300-400 Jewish families that live in the Russian republic. How long before something more serious happens?
It’s hard for individuals unfamiliar with Orthodox Jewish culture to fully understand the scope of isolation in that community. For starters, a large number of Orthodox denominations were a direct response to the assimilation of Jews in society near the end of the 19th century. Believing integration with society was leading to impiety, Orthodox Jews adopted a rather extreme position when it comes to the outside world. Everything is forbidden, and the whole community basically operates outside of the laws you and I typically follow.
Every once in a while, a scandal erupts even the community cannot hide. After a young woman came forward to authorities with her abuse story, a number of Ultra-Orthodox men were arrested when it was discovered they had tried to make the charges against Rabbi Nechemya Weberman disappear by offering the victim 500,000 dollars for her to leave the country. When the couple refused, the 4 thugs damaged his restaurant, tearing up his kosher seal. The move has angered his fellow Jews:
Orthodox Jews are supposed to adhere strictly to the laws and ethics of the Torah (Bible) – and clearly the Torah abhors behavior like this. These people’s acts are neither religious nor Orthodox – and it infuriates me to hear them referred to by the media as “religious”, or Weberman referred to as a “Rabbi.” Rabbi is a title of respect, even reverence, and surely someone who allegedly fondled a young girl and forced a 12-year-old to perform indecent acts is not worthy of this label.
This is simply another variation of the ‘No True Scotsman’ fallacy. Any religious leader caught abusing their power must not be a true believer! The problem with that analogy, of course, is it essentially ignores the fact the very power and reverence they receive is part of the problem: with this level of control over their congregation, combined with the ultra-secretive nature of the religion, abuse is almost a guarantee. Just ask the Catholic Church what that combination leads to.
So ineffectual is government to create some kind of oversight for these loonies, that just the other day, the New York City Board of Health put together a regulation which would ‘force’ parents who still allow mohels to suck their infant’s circumcised penis to sign a consent form beforehand (essentially doing nothing to stop the dangerous practice that has already claimed lives). That toothless piece of legislation will undoubtedly do nothing to change their outmoded and dangerous practices. You won’t see the government bending over backwards for any other group, but the raw political power of Orthodox Jews in New York is considerable, and there exists no political will to change things. So long as isolated religious communities thrive, so too will stories of their concealed abuses.
This week, Ryan joins me as we tackle the problem of Orthodox Jews giving herpes to poor little babies, and a scumbag Imam tries to frame a disabled Christian girl for blasphemy in Pakistan.
SHOW NOTES
Topics
New York Rabbis to defy circumcision law, Pakistan Imam accused of planting burnt Qur’an as evidence to prosecute disabled girl
Introduction: 2 day vacation in Banff, Alberta and why I understand why people thought the gods lived in mountains. Fossils for sale make it a poor destination for creationists.
Part 1: Scumbag Rabbis won’t stop dangerous practice despite law.
In New York, many Ultra-Orthodox Jews engage in the practice of metzitzah b’peh, where the Mohel is instructed to place the infant’s penis in his mouth to suck the blood. It comes from a passage in the Torah, that claims this helps prevent infection. However, the exact opposite tends to happen, resulting in serious infections, including herpes.
Less than a year after a Brooklyn tot died following an ancient circumcision ritual, the rabbis say they will ignore a proposed law that would mandate parental-consent forms before performing the dangerous procedure…Over the past decade, at least one other newborn died after contracting herpes from the rite, in which the rabbi draws blood from the penis with his mouth.[1]
Because Jews are weird, since the 18th century man may use a glass tube to perform this ceremony, however, to accommodate the fact that the government was threatening to ban circumcision, and so many orthodox Jews seized on Talmudic interpretations that allowed them to stop this practice. [2]
New York City and federal health authorities issued a public advisory Thursday cautioning against the sucking practice because it has been linked to 11 infants becoming infected with the herpes simplex virus type 1 since 2000. Ten of the infected newborns were hospitalized, two developed brain damage and two died, the health officials said.
The city had tried to prosecute Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer for infecting 3 infants (one of them eventually died), but somehow failed to conclusively prove his guilt. When the city was thinking of suing him to enforce a ban on him performing the ritual, to avoid political fallout Bloomberg allowed the matter to move on to rabbinical court. As expected, he continues to do operate today. [4]
In 2006 Mayor Bloomberg held a meeting with rabbinical leaders which proved to be pointless:[3]
“The Orthodox Jewish community will continue the practice that has been practiced for over 5,000 years,” said Rabbi David Niederman of the United Jewish Organization in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, after the meeting with the mayor. “We do not change. And we will not change.”
Part 2: Imam accused of fabricating evidence to accuse Christian girl of blasphemy
Part of this law also makes it clear that it is intended to persecute an offshoot of Islam called the Ahmadiyya [5], who believe that their 19th century prophet was the legendary Mujaddid (a man said to appear every century to ‘revive’ Islam) [6]. who came back on earth to spread his religion peacefully. Muslims in Pakistan consider them using the label Muslim to be offensive enough to make a law against it.
Since 1987, almost 700 people have been arrested, and 20 died while in custody. Back in 2009, a woman named Asia Bibi was accused of insulting Muhammad and sentenced to death by hanging. Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was shot and killed by despite the man being one of his bodyguards, his murderer managed to pump over 40 bullets in his body. Government officials went on the record to say he deserved it and celebrated the killer. [7][8] He was sentenced to death, which pleased him greatly. [9]
The latest story is of this type of persecution involves a 14 year old disabled Christian girl called Rimsha Masih. After allegedly hanging around a dump site, her accusers claim she was carrying the burnt remains of the Qur’an in her bag. Barnabas Fund reported that enraged Muslims severely beat the little girl and members of her family, and torched the houses of two Christian families…Muslim shopkeepers vowed not to sell food and other essentials to Christians and that Muslim landlords would end tenancy agreements with them [10]
It’s recently come to light that the whole affair was intended to fabricate a false charge to drive local Christians out.
Imam Khalid Chishti allegedly told a witness, after tampering with the girl’s bag, that this was a “way of getting rid of Christians”, according to a prosecutor.
He has already paraded on TV making volatile and threatening remarks about Christians in the community. The government will try to make an example out of him, but they have yet to release Rimsha. [11]
As Germany and the Netherlands consider banning the barbaric and totally useless practice of ‘male circumcision’ (a better word is simply genital mutilation), they face mounting resistance from religious groups who accuse them of anti-Semitism or other such nonsense. While the WHO claims it can help lower the spread of HIV, the actual supporting figures are pretty weak, and may actually lead to risky behavior (given the false sense of security). Some enlightened doctors are protesting that the surgery is both unnecessary (outside of a few special cases) and in violation of their Hippocratic oath to do no harm.
‘We feel circumcision is a medically unnecessary form of surgery. The patient has to give consent, but children can’t give consent and we feel that is wrong and a violation of the child’s rights…In our code of medical ethics, it states that you must not do harm to the patient, but with this procedure this is exactly what you’re doing.”
California has already failed in its bid to protect the penises of young boys, with the Governor instead signing a law specifically PREVENTING anyone from banning the practice. Considering almost half of the male population in the US no longer has any foreskin, it seems doubtful a ban will ever come into effect. It’s so difficult, in fact, that even New York can’t stop herpes infected rabbis from killing kids with this nonsense:
“For the government to force a rabbi who’s practicing a religious act to tell his congregants it’s dangerous is totally unacceptable,” Niederman told The Post.
“You’re forcing the mohel and the parent to sign a piece of paper that contradicts their religious convictions.”
Yet another group of dangerous morons trying to claim their religious convictions are more important than the life of the kids they put at risk. In the 21st century, it’s still controversial to even attempt to stop herpes infested mouths from touching the mutilated penises of young infants. You can officially be depressed now.
This week, Carisa joins me as we discuss Ultra-Orthodox Jews and their hilarious ‘discussion’ of the evils of the Internet, and how this religious group still manages to cover up sex abuse. Also, lots of nostalgia about the way information travels these days.
Imagine holding a rally in a stadium to debate the invention of the printing press. You may as well do so now if you’re an Ultra-Orthodox Jew, because apparently, holding one to ‘discuss’ their official stance on whether or not they should allow themselves to connect with anyone not sharing their limited worldview is growing.
Give them credit for understanding the fact having access to unlimited information, coupled with the ability to communicate with other human beings at the speed of light is dangerous to any insular faith, or faith in general.
Like any archaic religion suffering from a strong hatred of the vagina and a distrust of any opinion that isn’t male, the event, held at Citi-Field, was for the boys only. So many morons showed up, they had to rent a nearby second stadium with a 20k person capacity just to accommodate them.
The conference questioning the Internet was sponsored by an Online company that was sure to hand out fliers for its products. Most were there on the order of their Rabbi, since their community is so isolated, almost everyone there was a perfect stranger.
No strangers to cognitive dissonance, they broadcast the very thing they condemned via electromagnetic waves, hoping in vain it wouldn’t get rebroadcast. Like anything on the Internet, someone “hacked the Gibson” and let everyone see what was going on behind the curtain, much to the delight/disgust of the curious, wishing to understand whether this is a tragedy or a comedic farce.
Indeed it has to be either, since no one there could actually agree on anything other than the fact the Internet is a scary place. Modernity has a way of catching up to you, and Orthodox Jews know well the temptations of modern Hellenization. They fear it but are secretly drawn to it, making it a lot more perverse than it need be. But that’s religion for you, twisting things and demonstrating a childlike understanding of what is the most potent invention of the Information Age.
You’re a gay man, unfortunate enough to be born in the insane cult of Orthodox Judaism. One day, you make the mistake of actually telling someone like Rabbi Arele Harel about your sexual orientation and your desire to start a family. His solution, as you might have guessed, is just about the worst idea anyone can have: He sets you up with a lesbian stuck in the same cult:
Potential candidates email Harel, who meets with them to assess if they are emotionally ready to be fixed up. Harel then picks a suitable match and introduces the parties. They are put in touch with therapists who are to assist them in their new life. Once they are married, they each pay around $400 for Harel’s service.
“The main aspiration here is parenthood,” said Harel, 36, from his home in the Jewish West Bank settlement of Shilo. “It allows them to become parents in a way that is permitted by religious Jewish law and prevents a conflict between their religious world and their sexual world.”
Summary: if your sexuality conflicts with your Bronze Age religion, then the problem is you, not your antiquated beliefs. All you need to do sacrifice your happiness and desires in order to fulfill the expectations of your family and friends who can’t accept who you are.
I learned two things today. The first is that some Orthodox Jews believe in reincarnation. The second is these same Jews actually believe these reincarnated souls can seek revenge on their previous tormentors. That’s what a group of Rabbis thought when a stray dog entered their religious “court” and refused to leave. They were convinced it must have been the re-birthed soul of one of their “secular” enemies that had since passed away.
One of the sitting judges then recalled a curse the court had passed down upon a secular lawyer who had insulted the judges two decades previously.
Their preferred divine retribution was for the lawyer’s spirit to move into the body of a dog, an animal considered impure by traditional Judaism.
Clearly still offended, one of the judges sentenced the animal to death by stoning by local children
Don’t worry: the dog actually escaped. When an animal rights group tried to take action, the Rabbis did the right thing: they totally lied about it, and tried to sweep the whole affair under the rug. Luckily, one of the court’s managers actually has a conscience, and confirmed that Rabbi Ynet is both a liar and a coward. Let’s hope he doesn’t get away with this kind of sick and twisted shit.
It’s weird how the word kosher, which typically means “proper” or “legitimate”, has become such an important part of our vernacular. It’s especially weird that the concept of kosher is really a series of arbitrary rules that make little to no sense. For instance, according to Leviticus, animals that have clove hooves and chew cud are clean, but animals that have only one of these qualities are not. Jews also have a prohibition against consuming blood, which is about as impossible as you can get when eating meat.
The Dutch aren’t particularly fond of the ritualized slaughtering process either. Kosher forbids the animal from being unconscious when it gets slaughtered, which means that the suffering is much greater. The government has decided to take action and ban the practice. Cue the outrage!
For Mr. Rosenzweig, it is the latest sign of rising religious intolerance in a country where broad-mindedness has been a defining value since the 17th century.
“The country has changed. They’re not friendly any more to any religious needs people may have,” says Mr. Rosenzweig.
If your idea of a religious need just happens to be a set of arbitrary rules on how to kill animals, I’ve got some bad news for you. It looks like you might actually have to buy your food like everyone else. Oh, the horror!
As for the perceived intolerance, it’s less directed at Jews and more about the needless suffering of animals. Yes, we’re gigantic pussies now, but that’s a good thing: we’re no longer interested in causing the unnecessary suffering of our food. It almost feels progressive. Of course, that’s not the way everyone sees it.
There’s some serious debate on the science of the kindest way to kill an animal (Rosenzweig assures everyone that his knife is so sharp, they barely feel a thing), but it sounds to me like the Dutch have just about reached their tolerance limit. Perhaps it has something to do with the failure of religious minorities to properly integrate themselves into society. While I admit to being against laws that take away the rights of individuals, the slaughter of an animal is not a real concern of mine. If some religious rubes are upset that they can’t eat some ritualized consumables, I’m not really going to lose much sleep over this.
To be fair, there is a point when all of this can go too far. I’ve made a few “slippery slope” statements I’ve come to regret in the past, many of which seem embarrassing in hindsight, and I don’t want to use this line of argument here. Perhaps this is a masked attempt to make religious minorities feel less welcome. That is a strong possibility. But the Dutch are well within their rights to decide how they want animals to be killed for consumption.
In some ways the conflict has brought Jews and Muslims together; the Amsterdam Jewish-Moroccan Council has carried out protests against the new law, with imams and rabbis marching together. Kosher slaughter experts have attended Mr. Altuntas’s conferences to advise halal slaughterers on how to bring standardization to their system.
“I understand that the emotions run high,” says Ms. Thieme, “because you think that your religious community has been doing things the best possible way for thousands of years, and it’s painful to be confronted with scientific facts that show otherwise.”
Yeah, religions usually don’t have the greatest relationship with science, especially when it contradicts their bullshit. Welcome to the fucking 21st century, guys!
Here we see a glorious display of nationalism, xenophobia and religious division. There’s nothing like showing up to your neighbor’s house, chanting “Death to Arabs” while waving a gigantic Israeli flag. Is it any fucking wonder why the Middle East is still a gigantic shit-hole? Maybe it has something to do with all these assholes about.
Wow, it’s so close to the real thing, isn’t it? If this is the best God can do in terms of informing his “children” on the technical specifications of the Universe, it certainly explains why he did such a piss-poor job teaching other things, like morality and civics. Fail.
I love it whenever experts in nonsense start ranting about the immorality of others. It’s especially pleasant whenever these idiots make incredibly racist remarks without actually understanding the ramifications of what they say. It’s like having an embarrassingly racist grandpa make totally inappropriate remarks to the cashiers at the local Burger King: you’d try and say something, but the old man is way beyond salvation.
The latest hyper-racist-but-doesn’t-even-know-it old fool is Rabbi Dov Lior, who issued statements claiming all “Gentile” sperm contains “adverse traits” inherent to the “race”, and that Jewish couples should avoid using their love seed for artificial insemination:
“Sefer HaChinuch (a book of Jewish law) states that the character traits of the father pass on to the son,” he said in the lecture. “If the father in not Jewish, what character traits could he have? Traits of cruelty, of barbarism! These are not traits that characterize the people of Israel.”
Lior added identified Jews as merciful, shy and charitable – qualities that he claimed could be inherited. “A person born to Jewish parents, even if they weren’t raised on the Torah – there are things that are passed on (to him) in the blood, it’s genetic,” he explained. “If the father is a gentile, then the child is deprived of these things.
Is this moron pretending he understands anything about genes, while simultaneously using his ludicrous fantasy novel as proof? Firstly, I think it’s relatively important to stipulate Jews aren’t genetically a “people” to begin with? It’s merely a religious belief, and a xenophobic one at that.
Not only are non-Jews sinister, but children of single mothers are hell bound hooligans:
“If a child is born without a father, he cannot be 100% normal.” He stated that rabbinical literature defines these kids as “criminals and subjects of other negative phenomena.”
Forget about modern parenting techniques: you should put all your trust in a book of fairy tales written at a time when children who talked back to their parents would be stoned to death. Nowadays we’re too afraid to even spank them. We need to get back to the fundamentals, people!
