re israel an apartheid state in article smllm m cville srv wam umd edu aap wam umd edu alberto adolfo pinkas writes in article may pasteur berkeley edu adams bellini berkeley edu adam l schwartz writes i consider that defining the belonging to a nation that claims the right to have a state based on religious belief is a form of racism although i don t want to muddy the waters unnecessarily i disagree any discrimination based on religion is not and cannot be racist unless the sole qualification for religious membership is racial this is not the case for israel although it might get a little closer than say islam this of course raises the vexed question of church antisemitism jews have been heavily discriminated against on the grounds of religion in many christian countries if we take russia as an example jews were seriously persecuted but that persecution in the eyes of the church and state stopped at the baptismal font officially anyway if a jew converted there were no legal barriers in his way that i know of anyway peter the great s interior minister came from such a convert background can we then claim that the russian orthodox did not teach antisemitism and was not antisemitic similarly for the roman catholic church i suspect so as this is not a racial taint but one based on belief and as is after all a form of racism well maybe not what is antisemitism then if not something racially based i wonder if hitler killed converts of pure german blood does anyone know one way or the other joseph askew joseph askew gauche and proud in the autumn stillness see the pleiades jaskew spam maths adelaide edu remote in thorny deserts fell the grief disclaimer sue see if i care north of our tents the sky must end somwhere actually i rather like brenda beyond the pale the river murmurs on
