On Thu, 11 Apr 2002, J. van Baardwijk wrote: > We are not distancing ourselves from our Jewish citizens. What apperently > has been asked a few times is to refrain from showing Jewish/Israeli > symbols so as not to provoke an attack. This is in the best interest of > everyone (we are all members of the "public" in "public safety"). > > With the exception of a few idiots, everyone here in Europe condemns the > attacks. We *are* standing beside our Jewish citizens, but that is not > going to be much help if we get blown up.
But you're not really in much danger of being blown up, are you? Surely no more danger than I am of being lynched by the KKK because my wife is black? > >I understand the reasoning that says, "I don't hate Jews, I just don't > >want any trouble." I don't approve of it, but I understand it. But is > >there really enough violence against Jews in Europe to justify that > >attitude at all? > > Personally, I think there is not all that much violence against Jews in > Europe. True, there have been some attacks, but not really all that many. > The only reason it gets all that media attention from around the world is > because the targets are *Jewish* targets. If those attacks had been > against, say, some Baptist churches, it would probably only have been > mentioned in a three-line article on page 27 or so of some major newspaper. > On CNN, it would probably go something like "President Bush met with > Russian president Putin to <yadda yadda yadda -- long story>. In Europe, a > few Baptist churches were burned down by protesters. And now, the weather." Ah, but would Europe ask European Christians not to display crosses for the sake of the public safety? Would Europe say, better we all be safe than we provoke anti-Christian murderers? No, Europe would say parade crosses all over the place in defiance, and would hunt the murderers to extinction. Or maybe I'm overestimating the respect Europe has for Christianity these days. Maybe socialists would be a better example? :-) Marvin Long Austin, Texas
