Mere Rhetoric: Shas Has Brilliant Idea About How They Would Run Things If Israel Wasn't A Democracy

You have to be very careful about making equivalences between the fundamentalists of one religion and the fundamentalists of another religion. No one wants to be the idiot who says that "it's not any religion in particular, it's fundamentalism in general" - because that';s an aggressively stupid thing to say, and no one wants to be aggressively stupid. Right?

Let's take an example. Shas is trying to pass a law passed that would jail missionaries who try to convert Jews in Israel:

A war on missionaries was declared Tuesday when Shas faction head MK Yakov Margi proposed a bill stating that Israel 's laws against proselytism should be aggravated. Backed by six other faction members and in concordance with Shas' spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's instructions, Margi proposed the sentence for preaching conversion should be one year imprisonment. "Every time he (Rabbi Ovadia Yosef) hears of a case where someone falls into missionary hands, he feels great sadness and asks us to try and save at least one soul in Israel," said Margi.

It's very easy to say "well, this is just like Saudi officials who arrest missionaries". But - again, this is important to remember - that's also a very stupid thing to say. In Saudi Arabia the punishment for missionary work is death. In Israel the punishment would be jail time. And you see, that's like the difference between killing someone and not killing them.

Now that that's out of the way, we can get on with the important business of mocking Shas for being total lunatics. Seriously, could these people be more aggravating? How fast - exactly - do you think this law would get struck down by the High Court? Would they actually wait for the law to be challenged, or just preemptively issue a ruling with just the giant word "NO" on it? We think it should be the latter, for effect. Or instead of being really emphatic, maybe the High Court would just be really lethargic, and kind of write in cribbed script "obviously not".

Freedom of religion - no one likes the results all the time, but that's the price of advanced democracy. Which, someone should remind Shas, Israel is.

PS - the other difference between this law and what happens in Saudi Arabia is that this law bans all proselytizing. So a Jew trying to convert a Muslim in Israel would be thrown in jail. Saudi Arabia's laws against proselytizing would have no problem with a Muslim trying to convert a Jew. If Jews were allowed in Saudi Arabia, that is.

References:
* Shas seeks harsher punishment for missionaries [YNet]

Previously:
* Haredis In Jerusalem Need To Learn How To Effing Behave Themselves
* Mere Rhetoric is Mean to Religious Jews
* Seriously, Get A Hobby