I have always maintained that Muslims are held to a very high secular standards in the West, or that selectively secular standards are imposed on Muslims. Thus, the religious statements of their clerics are meticulously scrutinized and often mocked because (like all religious statements) they fall below the secular standards. But since I arrived in the US 30 years ago exactly, I have been astonished that Jewish religiosity and even Jewish fundamentalism are treated it (by the same secular critics of Islam and Muslims) with utmost respect and even reverence. You never see anyone in the Western press dare mock fanatic or even kooky (by the standards of the enlightenment) religious statements by fanatic and far-right rabbis. No one dares because then the label of anti-Seimitism gets affixed to that person. I have always maintained that real atheism or even secularism holds that all religious thought and practices are treated equally, and that selective secularism or atheism is a form of bigotry, pure and simple. The tributes to Ovadia fill the American press today and some, like the New York Times, even mention his bigotry but only in passing: "the sermons also became the rabbi’s platform for lashing out against those he despised — rival politicians, gay people and perceived enemies of Israel." I bet that American gay advocates and feminists would NEVER dare criticize the rabbi for his pronouncements. If a Muslim cleric (as influential as this guy) ever spoke against women, gays, and "the others" like this guy, I am convinced that Western liberals would be urging NATO to begin bombing at once. The Feminist Majority (the leader of the war lobby prior to the invasion of Afghanistan) would be leading the charge. Another sample: "In 2010, he called President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority “evil” and asked God to strike “these Ishmaelites and Palestinians with a plague, these evil haters of Israel.”" Of course, there are many other hateful statements by this guy but they were not fit to print in the Times. The man rarely opened his mouth without vomiting hate, obscurantism, and kookiness. Never. Yet, this is what Israeli society is about: "It set off a huge outpouring of grief and one of the biggest events the city has seen. By police estimates, 700,000 people — almost one-tenth of the population of Israel — swept into the streets and onto rooftops along the route of the funeral procession, many of them chanting prayers and tearing their clothes in a show of grief that brought much of the city to a standstill...
“The Jewish people have lost one of the wisest men of this generation,”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Monday. “Rabbi Ovadia
was a giant in Torah and Jewish law and a teacher for tens of
thousands.”
President Shimon Peres said he had been at the rabbi’s bedside hours
before his death. “When I pressed his hand, I felt I was touching
history,” Mr. Peres said, “and when I kissed his head, it was as though I
kissed the very greatness of Israel.”"
