Thursday, December 22, 2005
"Hatred Must be Eradicated Like Polio"
I saw that quote on this Congress of the Jewish People banner ad splashed across the top of today's Jerusalem Post website -- oddly enough, there's no reference to it on the advertised site's real copy. Maybe it's not on the real site because they realized that, although it's very clever, it might be a bit too clever.While most of us celebrate the existence of a polio vaccine and use it to ensure Polio doesn't rear its ugly head again, there is a segment of the world population that tragically isn't following through in the fight against polio:
I probably should turn down the setting on my irony detectors or I'll never get any sleep. But it just struck me as, well, ironic that we would be pitched a fight against hatred in terms of the fight against polio, when Muslim clerics are among the biggest obstacles in both cases.
The global campaign to eradicate polio by 2005 is being threatened by the resurgence of the disease in the far north of Nigeria.
Despite this, an immunisation programme has been put on hold because of claims by Muslim clerics that the vaccine is being deliberately contaminated as part of a western plot.
Obviously I should add: Not all Muslims. Not all Muslim clerics. Not all hatred. I probably should just copy this disclaimer into a footer for every post, at least until I get that detector fixed.
Nevertheless, although most Muslim clerics are against some hatred -- hatred against Muslims for instance, or even mild disdain -- quite a few clerics are also most decidedly in favor of the hatred of Jews, Americans, Christians, and a grab bag of other pet peeves.
But good luck with the fight. While it's easy to imagine Muslim clerics dismissing the fight against hatred as just another US or Zionist plot, nevertheless, I hope it works.
