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Please please stop killing worshipers 😢
Like many Jews around the world I was at synagogue with my family this morning for the sabbath and end of Passover. Like in Christchurch, Sri Lanka, these poor people were just going about their lives. Please stop this!
Like many Jews around the world I was at synagogue with my family this morning for the sabbath and end of Passover. Like in Christchurch, Sri Lanka, these poor people were just going about their lives. Please stop this!
Here’s a thread I did at the beginning of Passover. It lasts 8 days and ended today, which is what these poor people would have been celebrating in synagogue
This piece by @Freedland
and @mehdirhasan is excellent and worth revisiting. Personally, as a human rights lawyer (who happens to be Jewish), I am trying to focus now on how to help prevent the intolerance and radicalisation which leads us here theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
and @mehdirhasan is excellent and worth revisiting. Personally, as a human rights lawyer (who happens to be Jewish), I am trying to focus now on how to help prevent the intolerance and radicalisation which leads us here theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
@Freedland @mehdirhasan Against my better instincts, I read what is supposed to be the online manifesto of the alleged shooter (not sharing as no idea if authentic) but, if it is, it brings home the real threat of online radicalisation through siloed communities who build their own sealed moral systems
Fanatical groups which closet themselves off from the world, believing in conspiracy theories (eg in this case - allegedly - that white people are being ‘replaced’ and a climatic battle for survival is imminent) and rejecting mainstream media, science, democracy, human rights
It’s not caused by Internet discussion groups, YouTube etc but they do provide the means by which fanatical groups can develop culturally without meeting or even knowing each other’s real identities, and construct alternative realities insulated by inconvenient facts and truths
I’m not arrogant enough to claim to have a solution. But my best guess is we need to build new and support existing institutions that strengthen democracy+human rights - they are the antidote to populism, extremism. We must give people hope, a voice, make them feel listened to
I’m not making an argument for left or right politics -extremism is its own thing, and history says it can be justified by whatever grand theory you like. I’m making the argument for democratic politics, even (perhaps especially) radical politics - as long as it’s democratic
I also think , for individuals, the way to help prevent the rise of extremism is by standing up for principles of human rights - not technical legal ideas but the basic point that humans are fundamentally similar to each other, sharing common needs and - on a broad level - values
It's about increasing empathy towards, common felling and even love for each other. To try and see beyond our own silos, to listen, to engage with others from a starting point of commonality not difference. I know this sounds wishy washy but it's the antidote to extremism
Practically, that should begin in the small places, close to home - in the way we interact at home, at work, on the street. If we don't bring it down to that level, how can individuals look at horrific events like worshippers being massacred with anything but hopelessness?
Of course we need the government, police, security services, to prevent terrorism before it happens - the buck doesn't stop with individuals. But individuals *can* make a difference through values and basic human interactions. I'm sure of that - that's what culture is
