Quote:
Originally Posted by Halx
"Judaism is a religion, not a race. The racial definition of a Jew was established by a French anti-semite over 100 years ago in order to classify a lesser breed of people. I'm not fucking Jewish and you need a better education."
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I've fantasized about Lebanese people saying these kinds of things in their home country, but it's just not that simple. "Being Muslim" (or Christian, or any other of the 18 sects in that country) has almost zero to do with what you believe or even what you look like, and everything to do with where you were born and what your last name (from your father).
Same deal with your post--Judaism is not a race, but it *is* an ethnic identification, and the vast majority of the world's population recognizes and participates in some form or another of ethnic identification. Good or bad, it's the way things are. And after my experiences in Lebanon, I don't know how wise or productive it is to start arguments for the sake of arguments (especially about ethnicity) as a foreigner in the Middle East. In the US, sure... it's our own culture, and we know how to negotiate it. But not as a stranger in a strange land.
-----Added 20/8/2008 at 11 : 29 : 21-----
Quote:
Originally Posted by sapiens
Man: Are you Christian?
Me: I am Catholic.
Man: What is that?
Me: ?!?!?
I wanted to say, "Do you know anything about the history of your church?"
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Wow, that is scary, though not altogether surprising. At my evangelical university, it was required for us to take church history classes--and we had Catholic professors, thank goodness. (Other evangelical universities will not even hire Catholic professors, if you can imagine that.) But yeah, the old American prejudice of Catholics not being "real Christians" (in the evangelical sense) is extremely bothersome.