Beware of Hate Mongrels or: Not Everything is Religious

(Created March 5)

The attack on the Church of Annunciation has made it painfully clear that although attacks in the Middle East have a lot to do with religions, not all of them are religiously motivated. That simple fact requires us to beware of those who try to take these unrelated attacks and characterize them as religious even when it is not the case for their own political needs.

On Friday a Jewish father entered with his family to the church and threw firecrackers onto worshipers. Irresponsible political leaders of the Arab community have tried to portray it as a religious attack carried out by Jewish right wing extremists. This only served their interests as they prepared for the March 28 elections in Israel. This prompted me to write this post on religious based attacks. It is important to note the difference between a religious hate based attack and a simple attack in order to better understand events in the Middle East and distinguish the relevant and the irrelevant. I will do so by comparing the attack on the church with the murder of Ilan Halimi, a Jewish cell phone salesman in Paris. In the end, it is my hope that you too will understand the difference. I begin with analyzing the church attack in contrast with the Arab claim that his was a Jewish right wing religiously motivated attack.

A key to that call is that the attackers were Jewish so were they? Not really. The fact is that only the Father, Mr. Habibi, was but his wife and daughter are Christians, so with that defused we can continue.

Was it a religiously motivated attack based on hate? Certainly not. Mr. Habibi and his wife have been having problems with Israeli welfare services that saw them as unfit to have custody of their kids. In a sickening attempt to draw attention to their plight they took their now 20 year old daughter and did whatever could get world attention to their welfare case. Clearly this was not a religion based attack. As Mr. Habibi claimed, he has nothing against Christians and Muslims, He's married to a Christian!

This leaves us with the final question, are Mr. Habibi and his wife right wing extremists attempting a provocation? Again the answer is an unequivocal no. There are Christian evangelists, there are Jewish right wing extremists, but Violet and Haim Habibi are not two of them. This is not the first time the couple has been on Israeli news and the first time helps answer this question. In 2002 during their fight with Israeli child services, Haim and Violet Habibi tried to contact their kids in foster homes despite court order and even threatened the child services representative. As police got involved, the two fled to Arafat's Muqata compound seeking refuge and were welcomed with open arms. From there they were interviewed by Israel's channel 10 saying Arafat is not a terrorist and understands what it is to be humane (a seriously contended proclamation by many right wingers). So clearly this is not what it seems though irresponsible political leaders would like to portray it as such. So if Violet and Haim Habibi's attack is not religious, then what is a religious attack? This is where the French case comes in to set an example.

When Ilan Halimi was kidnapped in January, his captors contacted the family demanding 450,000 Euros. When the family responded that they do not have such money, the response was 'go to synagogue and get it'. Clearly the kidnap and murder here were related to Halimi's being Jewish and to the anti-Semitic stereotype that all Jews have money (I know a couple of Jewish friends who look sadly at their beaten old Taurus when they hear that). Even if Joseph Foufouna, the leader of the gang tried to claim that this was not anti-Semitic and actually was all about money, he would still have to explain why he thought Ilan's family would have money and why he told the family to go to synagogue and get the money. The issue here is the motive.

I will admit it is hard to make the distinction but I believe these two cases make a clear distinction. Halimi's case involved a motive based on stereotypes of a certain religion; Habibi's case on the other hand was based on their attempt to fight authorities in a horrific way. The identity of the attackers has nothing to do with that despite what some irresponsible leaders in the Arab community in Israel try to say. And so I hope that this little demonstration clarifies a thin line that is sometimes very hard to make sense of; a thin line that is too often used by demagogues to distract us from the main issue.