[lit-ideas] Re: 21. century European anti-Semitism
- From: Scribe1865@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 14:13:31 EDT
General question: why do we classify these hate crimes as "racist" rather
than as a dysfunctional anthropological phenomena?
Regardless of what race, religion, or groups is being victimized -- isn't
something older at work here? Older than the ideas being cited that is?
Doesn't every group attack what it perceives to be "the outsider"? Don't
attacks against "outsiders" also serve to enhance the feeling of group
solidarity?
The same anthropological forces that moves Muslims and Jews and Christians to
keep practicing their faith in the US, Europe, or Saudi Arabia -- are similar
to the forces that motivate hate crimes against Christians and Jews in Muslim
countries and hate crimes against Muslims, Jews, etc., in secular countries.
The same forces that drives the "outsider" to maintain identity through
religion and culture also motivates the in-group to express hostility and
resentment.
One side of the equation is pious -- keep the faith, preserve the culture --
and the other side is violent and destructive -- destroy the outsider,
homogenize the culture -- but isn't it the same feature of human thinking with
regard
to group identity?
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