Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Anti-Semitism in the Army?
I can’t speak for chivalry, but bigotry is not dead.
I was talking with a couple of reporters—one Dutch magazine writer and another guy from a newspaper in Turkey—and up walks Lieutenant Hoo-ah, unofficial Battalion public relations officer—and he’s talking about the Iraqi currency exchange program. In a nutshell, that’s us delivering truckloads of the new Iraqi currency to the banks, so that the Iraqis can trade in their Saddam Hussein currency for the new stuff.
Well, he started out ok, explaining that part of the rebuilding process is developing the backward and corrupt Iraqi banking system so that it has the confidence of the people and people will actually make deposits and they will earn interest, etc.
Not wanting any reporters to embarrass themselves in print, I said “be careful about the interest.”
“Why’s that?” asked the LT.
“Because of usury laws. This is a Muslim society, and the Koran forbids usury. There’s creative ways around that, but they’ll have to call it something else.”
“Oh. How come Jews can charge interest but Muslims can’t?”
“Well, the Torah and the rest of the Old Testament is a different thing than the Koran. I guess the Koran prohibits it, but the O.T. doesn’t, or it’s just a different interpretation of usury.”
“Oh, well how come Jewish people get to charge interest?”
“Ummm, as opposed to?”
Now this is in front of a TURKISH reporter, and God knows what he or his editors are going to make of this…
“Well, back through the middle ages, Jews, er, Jewish people got to run banks and charge interest and--…” and off he goes, on this Protocols of the Elders of Zion type tangent. The Dutchman smirks at me with a knowing glance, and I try to chill things out real quick.
“Ummm, I think you’re getting into wayyyyy more subtext here than you want to,” I said.
Fortunately, the lieutenant didn’t press the issue anymore, and I was able to change the subject.
I had heard this guy say some wacky things before—specifically, about how effective Hitler was—which I guess to a certain extent he was if you overlook leading his country and people to utter devastation and destruction in the space of 12 years; but also he said some things about how Nazi ideology was not inherently racist, which strikes me as wholly out of right field no matter WHAT you overlook. Up to then, though, I had always chalked it up to a certain gleeful, Devil’s advocate contrariness—which I can certainly understand and appreciate.
Not sure what to do about it, except try to confront ignorance where it arises.
I was talking with a couple of reporters—one Dutch magazine writer and another guy from a newspaper in Turkey—and up walks Lieutenant Hoo-ah, unofficial Battalion public relations officer—and he’s talking about the Iraqi currency exchange program. In a nutshell, that’s us delivering truckloads of the new Iraqi currency to the banks, so that the Iraqis can trade in their Saddam Hussein currency for the new stuff.
Well, he started out ok, explaining that part of the rebuilding process is developing the backward and corrupt Iraqi banking system so that it has the confidence of the people and people will actually make deposits and they will earn interest, etc.
Not wanting any reporters to embarrass themselves in print, I said “be careful about the interest.”
“Why’s that?” asked the LT.
“Because of usury laws. This is a Muslim society, and the Koran forbids usury. There’s creative ways around that, but they’ll have to call it something else.”
“Oh. How come Jews can charge interest but Muslims can’t?”
“Well, the Torah and the rest of the Old Testament is a different thing than the Koran. I guess the Koran prohibits it, but the O.T. doesn’t, or it’s just a different interpretation of usury.”
“Oh, well how come Jewish people get to charge interest?”
“Ummm, as opposed to?”
Now this is in front of a TURKISH reporter, and God knows what he or his editors are going to make of this…
“Well, back through the middle ages, Jews, er, Jewish people got to run banks and charge interest and--…” and off he goes, on this Protocols of the Elders of Zion type tangent. The Dutchman smirks at me with a knowing glance, and I try to chill things out real quick.
“Ummm, I think you’re getting into wayyyyy more subtext here than you want to,” I said.
Fortunately, the lieutenant didn’t press the issue anymore, and I was able to change the subject.
I had heard this guy say some wacky things before—specifically, about how effective Hitler was—which I guess to a certain extent he was if you overlook leading his country and people to utter devastation and destruction in the space of 12 years; but also he said some things about how Nazi ideology was not inherently racist, which strikes me as wholly out of right field no matter WHAT you overlook. Up to then, though, I had always chalked it up to a certain gleeful, Devil’s advocate contrariness—which I can certainly understand and appreciate.
Not sure what to do about it, except try to confront ignorance where it arises.
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