Tragedy and Opportunity

And Ruth, you’re also secular. You were born in Baghdad. What was it like being an Iraqi Jew?

Ruth: As a child, my friends were mostly from the Jewish community, but I played with Muslims, too. We had very good relations until 1942, when there was an attempted takeover by a pro-Nazi government. There was looting. Over 100 Jews were killed. After that, we moved from the center of Baghdad to the suburbs. Then in 1948, the Iraqi Army returned in defeat from the war with Israel. After that, people became belligerent. It became illegal to teach Hebrew. They started arresting people. We were part of the underground, those who kept the Jewish traditions. I remember going to school and having to walk under the dead bodies of communists, Christians and Jews they had hanged to scare those communities.

Judea, don’t you feel that your secularism discredits you in your efforts to reach out to religious extremists?

Judea: On the contrary, I think it is my secularism that makes me credible. A true believer is compelled to bend to divine preferences. Only a secular person can be equally respectful of all religions, because only a secular person understands that religions do not deal with absolute truth, but with poetic visions of the truth.

But isn’t this secular view itself some sort of religion?

No, it’s not. Because you’re not scared that God will watch over your shoulder and punish you if you think forbidden thoughts. In this secular view, people’s belief in God is a metaphor expressing their commitment to live by principles that help our society survive, principles that supercede everything else, including God. The principles of civilized society.

© 2006