Jewish Groups Object to Switzerland’s Minaret Ban
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on December 4th, 2009 5:49 am by HL
Jewish Groups Object to Switzerland’s Minaret Ban
Recognizing that this week’s popular vote to forbid the building of minarets in Switzerland represented a blatant show of religious intolerance it couldn’t ignore, an association of Jewish organizations is expressing its strong disagreement with the ban and calling on Swiss leaders to defend religious freedom. —KA The Jerusalem Post: Rabbi Pinchas Dunner, executive director of the Conference of European Rabbis, an Orthodox organization, said “a war on religious freedom cannot defeat Islamic extremists. The best weapon against radical Islam is support for moderate elements in the Muslim community and promoting interfaith dialogue.” In contrast, the Anti-Defamation League tied the move to religious discrimination against Jews. “This is not the first time a Swiss popular vote has been used to promote religious intolerance,” said the ADL in a press release. “A century ago, a Swiss referendum banned Jewish ritual slaughter, in an attempt to drive out its Jewish population.” Noting that the “Swiss government opposed the initiative during the campaign and underscored its commitment to religious freedom in a statement after the vote,” the ADL urged Swiss leaders to “be vigilant” in their “defense of religious freedom, even though the SVP is the largest party in the Swiss Parliament and has two of the seven government ministries.” Read more READ THE WHOLE ITEM
Recognizing that this week’s popular vote to forbid the building of minarets in Switzerland represented a blatant show of religious intolerance it couldn’t ignore, an association of Jewish organizations is expressing its strong disagreement with the ban and calling on Swiss leaders to defend religious freedom.? —KA
The Jerusalem Post:
Rabbi Pinchas Dunner, executive director of the Conference of European Rabbis, an Orthodox organization, said “a war on religious freedom cannot defeat Islamic extremists. The best weapon against radical Islam is support for moderate elements in the Muslim community and promoting interfaith dialogue.”
In contrast, the Anti-Defamation League tied the move to religious discrimination against Jews.
“This is not the first time a Swiss popular vote has been used to promote religious intolerance,” said the ADL in a press release. “A century ago, a Swiss referendum banned Jewish ritual slaughter, in an attempt to drive out its Jewish population.”
Noting that the “Swiss government opposed the initiative during the campaign and underscored its commitment to religious freedom in a statement after the vote,” the ADL urged Swiss leaders to “be vigilant” in their “defense of religious freedom, even though the SVP is the largest party in the Swiss Parliament and has two of the seven government ministries.”
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Put Your Money Where Your Jobs Aren’t
The president is so desperate for ways to fight unemployment he issued a call Thursday for “fresh perspectives and new ideas.” Well, Nancy Pelosi has some. The House speaker wants to spend some of that hot, hot TARP money on job creation. Don’t get too excited. The figure that congressional Democrats dropped on The Associated Press is $70 billion. You may recall the original TARP budget was $700 billion. By the AP’s tally, $210 billion remains or has been repaid, and Bank of America recently promised to return $45 billion. So why only $70 billion? It seems there are rather complicated rules for how the funds can be spent—although it didn’t feel so complicated when the banks descended in a feeding frenzy. —PZS AP via Google: “The investment that we have in jobs ought to be paid for in TARP funds,” Pelosi said. Using bailout authority for a jobs initiative would add billions to the $12.1 trillion national debt. Under the law, repaid TARP funds must be used to reduce the debt and unused bailout money is never borrowed. Read more READ THE WHOLE ITEM
The president is so desperate for ways to fight unemployment he issued a call Thursday for “fresh perspectives and new ideas.” Well, Nancy Pelosi has some. The House speaker wants to spend some of that hot, hot TARP money on job creation.
Don’t get too excited. The figure that congressional Democrats dropped on The Associated Press is $70 billion. You may recall the original TARP budget was $700 billion. By the AP’s tally, $210 billion remains or has been repaid, and Bank of America recently promised to return $45 billion.
So why only $70 billion? It seems there are rather complicated rules for how the funds can be spent—although it didn’t feel so complicated when the banks descended in a feeding frenzy.? —PZS
AP via Google:
“The investment that we have in jobs ought to be paid for in TARP funds,” Pelosi said.
Using bailout authority for a jobs initiative would add billions to the $12.1 trillion national debt. Under the law, repaid TARP funds must be used to reduce the debt and unused bailout money is never borrowed.
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- December 2, 2009 Larry’s List: West Point Hangover Edition
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