Miscellanea Agnostica

Note: See the update below for an important update to this blog post!

I’ve blogged a number of times about a movement I call “the Neocrusade” — a modern effort by “Christian nationers” to eliminate Islam within the U.S. It’s mostly found in the same parts of the country as Religious Rightism, i.e. in the Bobble Bayelt (er, Bible Belt), but it can be found elsewhere too, including the New York City metropolis. As CBS News reports, there’s a chance that Neocrusading vigilantes might once again be active in the Big Apple (WebCite cached article):

Authorities are investigating four fire attacks in New York City, including one at an Islamic center and one at a house used for Hindu worship.

Police say three attacks Sunday night involved molotov cocktails. There were no injuries. Police are investigating the attacks as bias crimes.

The fact that non-Islam-related targets were hit, certainly suggests these attacks weren’t Neocrusade-motivated. But then again, Neocrusaders have been known to lash out at the wrong targets, so it can’t be ruled out quite yet.

If this is, in fact, the work of militant Christian Neocrusaders, the irony of Christianists resorting to terror and violence in their campaign against a religion they consider violent and terror-promoting, is precious.

Update: It turns out this may have not been Neocrusaders’ work, after all. The New York Times reports a suspect has been arrested, police say the fires he set all resulted from specific, personal grudges, not out of religious fervor (cached).

Photo credit: WCBS via CBS News.

Tags: attack, bombing, bombings, christian, christian nation, christianism, christianist, christianists, Christianity, christians, fire, imam al-khoei foundation, Islam, militant christianity, militant christians, muslim, muslims, neocrusade, neocrusader, neocrusaders, neocrusades, new york city, new york NY, nyc, queens, queens NY, religiofascism, religiofascist, religiofascists, religionism, religionist, religionists, violence

As a follow-up to my most recent post, I’d like to offer another sterling example of Christianity in action (and Christians acting however they damn please, rather than obeying Jesus‘ own teachings). This one comes from a Christian community which has a reputation for being non-violent, even pacifist, in nature. Time magazine’s Newsfeed blog reports some Amish castoffs appear to be assaulting other Amish over some sort of theological or ecclesiastical schism (WebCite cached article):

Amish families in Ohio have suffered a number of unwanted close shaves in recent weeks, after shunned members of the community devised a bizarre form of retaliation, the Associated Press reports.

The beard bandits have taken revenge by scalping the hair of a half-dozen or more men and women who ostracized them, as well as chopping off the males’ facial hair.

The intention behind such attacks is to humiliate the victims, since hair and beards are sacred among the Amish. (Many Christians, Jews and Muslims have such fetishes, perhaps inspired by the Nazirites of the Old Testament, the most famous of them being Samson.)

Authorities have been unable to do much about this spate of attacks, though, due to the beliefs of the Amish themselves:

Despite several victims suffering minor injuries, police have so far failed to charge anyone as they struggle to overcome the traditional “wall of silence” Amish communities adopt when dealing with the authorities.

“You see this crime being committed, and I’m sitting here with my hands tied,” said a frustrated [Jefferson County Sheriff Fred] Abdalla. “I can’t do a thing.”

Because of Amish silence, authorities also don’t really understand why the attacks are taking place, they only know it involves some sort of schism among some 18 Amish families.

You just know things must be really bad, if the usually-pacifist Amish are attacking one another.

Photo credit: puliarf via Flickr.

Tags: amish, amish feud, amish schism, attack, attacks, beard cutting, christian, Christianity, christians, hair cutting, steubenville OH, violence

There’s something odd going on in the worldwide Sikh community. (Sikhism, in case you didn’t know, is a Dharmic faith strongly influenced by Islam, particularly Sufic Islam.) It began in Vienna (Austria) and has already spilled over into Sikhism’s native land, India, as the AP reports (via Google News):

Sikhs wielding knives and a handgun attacked two preachers at a rival temple in Vienna in a brawl that left one of the victims dead Monday and at least 15 others wounded, police said. A related clash later broke out in northern India.

Witnesses said a group of bearded and turbaned men attacked the religious leaders at the temple in Austria’s capital on Sunday and their followers moved to defend them. …

Police spokesman Michael Takacs earlier said the scene was “like a battlefield.” Six suspects were in custody with more arrests possible, he said. …

In India, fighting between mainstream Sikhs and followers of the guru broke out in the northern city of Jalandhar several hours after the Vienna clash, in what locals there described as an apparent reaction to the melee in the Austrian capital. Sanjiv Kalra, a senior police official at Jalandhar, said that protesters had set fire to a number of vehicles and erected several roadblocks across the city. He gave no other details.

Reasons for this bloody attack are not all that clear, at least not to me. The AP report offers what explanation it can:

Witnesses said the perpetrators were fundamentalist Sikhs from a higher caste, who accused one or both of the preachers of being disrespectful of the Holy Book. Indian news reports said the attackers were incensed that one of the preachers was given a ceremonial shawl considered a high Sikh honor.

I can’t even begin to guess as to how, exactly, a savage mass attack like this is a reasonable response to being given a shawl. It’s also not clear to me how Sikh temples have managed to divide themselves along caste lines, since I’d thought that Sikhism denounced caste distinctions (see e.g. this Sikh-written Web page, and keep in mind that Sikhs have a ritual called Langar, in which free food is eaten by those of all castes, side-by-side. The ancient Hindu caste distinction — whose evils I blogged about before — appears to be inflicting yet more harm on people, even in the 21st century, and even in a religion which branched off from Hinduism centuries ago.

Tags: attack, brawl, dera sach khand, jalandhar, sikhism, sikhs, vienna