Interesting fact (and an opinion)

In Arabic, 'Hamas' means "zeal", "strength", or "bravery". In Hebrew, it means "violence".

The portion of the Torah for this week that is read in synagogues, from Noach (the Hebrew book named after Noah in the Jewish scriptures) contains the word Hamas.

My friend, who was watching services this morning, pointed it out to me. It's getting a lot of attention on the Internet given the current events in Israel.

I just think this whole thing is a tragedy. What happened with the attacks on Jews in Israel was horrible, and unforgivable. The response, attacking civilians who are already corralled in Gaza and who have nowhere to go, the history of supplanting Palestinians [who, incidentally, are a nationality, not a religious group, as there are both Muslims and Christians who are Palestinian], so there could be a Jewish state (regardless of it being their ancient homeland) has roots going back a century-and-a-half and breeds extreme emotions and violence on both sides. And that is tragic.

My friend's synagogue has members in Israel. They are thankfully safe, and I am so glad for this. His friends from the congregation in general were shocked and expressed extreme grief at the deaths. I also heard a young man asking a lady on the bus with whom he had class how she and her family were. She said they were relieved her brother was safe, as he'd been at the hospital which was bombed, thinking it would be safer like so many. I nearly cried at her words. I can't imagine how either side feels in terms of lack of safety (even here in America there is fear of attacks for both) and the fate of loved ones. I pray for those affected on both sides who are not the instigators themselves, the ones who viciously began this war.

It's just all so sad.

On a more serious note...

Threats, harassment, vandalism at mosques reach record high

Gunshots fired into a mosque in Connecticut. Armed men protesting the "Islamization of America" outside Islamic centers in Texas. Death threats called in to mosques in Florida, Maryland and Virginia.

Anecdotal evidence suggests 2015, a year bookended by murderous attacks carried out in the name of Islam, has been one of the most intensely anti-Muslim periods in American history. A new study shared with CNN puts statistical heft behind that suspicion.

Through December 8, American mosques and Islamic centers have been the victims of vandalism, harassment and anti-Muslim bigotry at least 63 times this year, the Council on American-Islamic Relations says in the study. That's the highest number since the Muslim civil rights group began keeping track in 2009 and a threefold increase over last year.

The previous high was 53 incidents in 2010, during the controversy over the "ground zero mosque" near the site of the 9/11 attack in New York. But many of those incidents concerned bias at zoning hearings for new mosques. This year's hostilities have a sharper edge.

There is a map as well. Kentucky has three incidents, one in what appears to be Louisville, one in Lexington, and I think the third is either Lexington as well, or somewhere very close.

Also...

The Growing List Of Anti-Islam Incidents Since Paris details specifics in various parts of the country.

I hope you can read this very good Facebook post

Dear Non-Muslim Allies, by Sofia Ali-Khan

No one should have to feel this sort of anxiety in America 2015. Or anywhere, for that matter. We had a local Islamic centre sent a death threat via e-mail recently. In Philadelphia, someone desecrated a mosque with a severed pig's head. In my apartment complex, there are many Southern and Central Asian, Middle Eastern, and African immigrants. I'm sure there are Muslims among them. I embrace the diversity of my area. I make a point to say hello and make conversation. Why should I be threatened by the sight of a foreigner because of the actions of a relative few? I don't fear men of European descent just because statistically they are more likely to be mass shooters in our country. But put in the concept of the other, alien culture, and suddenly we're back to the years of trying to keep the Irish, the Eastern Europeans, the Armenians, and the Jews out of our country. That's wrong. The US was founded on the principle of immigrants seeking a better life in a new world. Unless you are completely of American Indian heritage, if you are American you are the result of immigration. So I just don't get the xenophobia I've been seeing. It's wrong. Completely and utterly.

Because of course if your name is Mohamed, you have to be a terrorist, right?

Clock-making teen transferring to another school, family says

In an interview late Wednesday with MSNBC's Chris Hayes [N.b., I've changed the link CNN had, as it was incorrect and pointed to a different video], Ahmed said he was pulled out of class at MacArthur High School by his principal and five police officers and taken to a room where he was questioned for about an hour and a half.

He said he asked the adults if he could call his parents.

"They told me 'No, you can't call your parents,'" Ahmed said. "'You're in the middle of an interrogation at the moment.' They asked me a couple of times, 'Is it a bomb?' and I answered a couple of times, 'It's a clock.'"

"I felt like I was a criminal," the teenager said. "I felt like I was a terrorist. I felt like all the names I was called."

Hayes asked what he meant.

In middle school, Ahmed said, he had been called "bombmaker" and a "terrorist."

"Just because of my race and my religion," he said, adding that when he walked into the room where he was questioned, an officer reclined in a chair and remarked, "That's who I thought it was."

"I took it to mean he was pointing at me for what I am, my race," the freshman explained.

I have no doubt that if a white student brought a clock in to show his (or her) teacher, this would not have happened. It's ridiculous.

One thing about reading fiction

it's a great escape when the real world news disgusts you. So I've got the windows open (it's a glorious day, weather-wise) and I'm assiduously going to avoid the real world out there for an hour or two. Of course, I don't have angry mobs protesting at the gates outside, either, so I'm have that luxury. Some Americans aren't so lucky, and my thoughts are with them and the security forces of the various countries who are trying to contain this senseless violence.

A great cause

TEDGlobal 2011: Social media game aims to end extremism

Mr Bakhit, who comes from Jordan, was a student at the US University of Minnesota when the 9/11 attacks took place. Shortly afterwards he was attacked by four men because he was an Arab....

Instead of feeling bitter, Mr Bakhit decided to engage in an education campaign.

"I realised that you fight extremism by starting with the young. The message was simple - 'We are not all terrorists'," he told the BBC.

Armed with a not-so-magic carpet, he began telling Aladdin-style stories in local schools.

"One day a child asked me if there was an Arab superman and I realised that there wasn't," he said.

So began his comic-book project which aimed to create a range of positive Arab role-models, including a female James Bond and a Jordanian special agent who fights extremists.

Awful

Cops: NYC cabbie is asked if he's Muslim, stabbed: Violence comes amid tensions over plans for a mosque near ground zero

A college student who did volunteer work in Afghanistan was charged Wednesday with using a folding tool to slash the neck and face of a New York City taxi driver after the driver said he is Muslim.

A criminal complaint alleged that Michael Enright uttered an Arabic greeting and told the victim, "Consider this a checkpoint," before the brutal bias attack occurred Tuesday night inside the yellow cab on Manhattan's East Side. Police say Enright was drunk at the time.

I hope the driver recovers fully. The defence attorney argued that his client was an honours student who lived with his parents, and did not believe bail should have been denied. I do. I don't care who you are or what your background, if you go slashing people up with Leatherman tools because you don't like their religion, you don't belong on the street (drunk or sober) with the rest of us, thank you very much.

Violence begets violence

Muslims, Christians set homes ablaze in Egypt: Fires follow killing of 6 Christians on Coptic Christmas, rape of Muslim girl

The area of Nagaa Hamady, a little north of Luxor in Aegypt, has become in embroiled in violence after the (Coptic) Christmas Eve [Wednesday night] drive-by shooting of six Coptic Christians. Two of the three men held are believed to be related to a Muslim girl who was said to be raped about a month ago by a Copt. In the wake of the shootings, four Muslim shops in a nearby village and four Coptic houses in another have been torched. Demonstrations also yielded several arrests.

Here's hoping for peace to reassert itself. Copts and Muslims have co-existed in Aegypt for many hundreds of years, and I'd like to see this as an isolated incident that will die down. But whenever you get into retaliation violence, there's a tendency for it to escalate first.