Saturday, July 31, 2010

Israeli rabbis clamp down on burka

“They imitated the nations around them although the LORD had ordered them, ‘Do not do as they do’” II Kings 17:15

If some people in Israel, a nation that sees the reality of Islam on a daily basis, don’t understand the threat of Islam then I don’t see how the left in the West will ever get it.

Israeli rabbis are to clamp down on the growing number of devout Jewish women wearing the burka by declaring the garment an item of sexual deviancy.

Telegraph:

By Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem
Published: 6:40PM BST 30 Jul 2010

Israeli rabbis clamp down on burka

The move was prompted by the husbands of some burka-wearing women Photo: Tim Whitby / Alamy

At the insistence of the husbands of some burka-wearing women, a leading rabbinical authority is to issue an edict declaring burka wearing a sexual fetish that is as promiscuous as wearing too little.

A small group of ultra-orthodox Jews in the town of Beit Shemesh chose to don the burka, usually associated with women in repressive Islamist regimes, three years ago in a bid to protect their modesty.

Since then, the habit has spread to five other Israeli towns causing alarm among ultra-orthodox religious leaders who once saw it as a relatively harmless eccentricity – even though the number of Jewish burka wearers is not thought to be more than a few hundred.

“There is a real danger that by exaggerating, you are doing the opposite of what is intended [resulting in] severe transgressions in sexual matters,” Shlomo Pappenheim, a member of the rabbinical authority preparing to make the edict, was quoted as saying.

Ultra-Orthodox women are required to dress conservatively and keep their heads covered with a scarf, hat or wig when in public.

But even that was not enough for some, who insisted that only by covering their faces and wearing multiple layers of clothes to hide the shape of their bodies can they really be chaste.

"At first, I just wore a wig," one burka-wearing woman told the Haaretz newspaper. "Now when I see a woman with a wig, I pray to God to forgive her for wearing that thing on her head."

Since donning the burka, the woman said she had been taunted by neighbours who called her a "smelly Arab" and that Israeli soldiers had asked to see her identification papers to prove she was not a Muslim. They backed down, she said, when she showed them that her children were clearly Jewish.

The trend has also caused tensions in family life. One man went to a rabbinical court in an attempt to get a ruling to force his wife to stop wearing the burka.

The plan backfired, however. The court ruled that that woman's behaviour was so "extreme" that it ordered the couple to undergo an immediate religious divorce.

5 comments:

revereridesagain said...

Any time religion suggests an subserviency and inherent sexual "impurity" of women, nobody should be surprised if some women take it at its word and then proceed to go overboard. Sounds like that rabbinical authority hit the nail right on the head, however. If the ladies can't see the common sense in that ruling, they probably have too much time on their hands.

Speaking of women being annoying about religion, vampire novel author Ann Rice has decided she is Christian but doesn't want to be A Christian because they are all "anti-Democrat". Efforts to convert the epically neurotic Rice to Islam just to see how much of a fool she can make of herself there would be greatly appreciated.

Pastorius said...

Yeah, Anne Rice's most recent books have all been about Jesus.

But, as you say, she is working overtime to keep her leftie creds.

revereridesagain said...

She's like Tribbles. I wanna give her to the Scientologists next.

Then I want to have J.K. Rowling dinged for practicing Calvinism without a license.

Pastorius said...

RRA,
Oh, I see that she announced that she can no longer be a Christian, and mentions her dedication to the Democratic Party as a primary reason.

That lacks reason, doesn't it?

At this point, I know more Christians who are Left-leaning Democrats, than I know Conservative Christians.

By the way, here's her statement:

“For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian ... It's simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.” ... said Wednesday that she refuses to be “anti-gay,” “anti-feminist," “anti-science” and “anti-Democrat.”


I respond: I have all the same qualms about many of my fellow Christians. However, I also have major issues with Christians who support Hamas and the PLO over Israel.

Hell, the Presbyterian Church has declared there is no historical basis for Israel as a Jewish state.

http://ibloga.blogspot.com/2010/02/presbyterian-church-usa-set-to-declare.html

Talk about anti-Science, and that's coming from the Left.

And yet, still, for some reason, I call myself a Christian.

Pastorius said...

Wow, this Anne Rice woman must be having the mother of all hot flashes.

She added:

Rice then added another post explaining her decision on Thursday:

“My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me," Rice wrote. "But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been or might become.”