Interfaith Conflict Quotes
At the time almost everyone thought him overly pessimistic. Despite huge efforts to bridge the differences including the partition of India and creating a separate Muslim state, the Muslims have become even more discontented in modern times. The Muslim antagonism however has expanded beyond the Hindus, to include the Christians, Jews, Bhais, Buddhists and any other religion in control of land where there are Muslims or they feel should have Muslims. Today, as in 1925 however, the difficult was caused be a very vocal and often violent extremist minority of the Islamic population.
In 2016 Hoffman was part of a congregation of Jews who carried Holy Torahs (Handwritten scrolls of the first 5 Books of the Old Testament and most sacred document to Jewish people) to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. The group included men and women. With the religious politics of Israel, the “custody and management” of the holiest of Jewish site, the Western Wall of the original Temple, had been awarded to an Ultra-Orthodox sect which had ruled that women should not be allowed to pray at the Wailing Wall—only males. The majority of Jews, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Modern have no such gender bias. When they were rebuffed beforeaall, the case ended up in the Israeli Supreme Court which ruled that women as well as man had an absolute right to pray. After some delay, the government created an area where women and gender integrated groups could pray and hold ceremonies at The Wall. However, the ultra orthodox, still managing the facility, also believed that women carrying and leading prayers from a Torah was sacrilegious. When the mixed gender group approached The Wall with Torahs, a mob of ultra orthodox surrounded the gender integrated group and started roughing them up. The quotation describes the feelings of the the group who for the fist time since Israel regained control of the Western Wall in 1967 (Arabs then prevented any Jews from praying at The Wal) had a gender mixed group of Jews conduct a service at the Wailing Wall.
