540 words
Reading the papers today, there's lots of commentary and notes on the current state of the world coming up.
Firstly, Schröder seems to be having fans in the US now [English] for opposing the war. We also have Michael Naumann, formerly minister for culture, making the point that the anti-war stance is not Anti-Americanism [English translation], no matter what people say. Recently, he also wrote an article on why the war is wrong [English], even when taking into account the circumstances the U.S. government is in.
There was also an interesting report on the trial of a guy accused to have helped the attackers of the World Trade Centre [English]. It seems to be a tricky case. He has helped the terrorists in general ways and doesn't deny it. But he claims he did that in the way you help our members of your faith, without knowing their devastating plans.
Also in taz there's on article on Schächten, the religious killing of animals (I couldn't find a single English word for that neither in my dictionary nor on Wordreference.com) by letting them bleed to death. Doing this isn't allowed in Germany for sake of the animals. But there are exceptions made for jewish and muslim rites. Apart from the facts on the current situation, they also have an article by my friend Yassin who compiled several facts, non-facts, opinions and history on the topic [English].
I've got mixed feelings about that. For one, I'm not the kind of person who'll worry too much about an animal's life. In particular as there doesn't seem to be any evidence that killing them according to those rituals actually is more painful for them than bog-standard industrial mass executions they do before turning the animals into sausages. Indeed, just the fact that the animal probably gets much more attention during those rituals, suggests that it is treated with more care and respect than in a food-factory. On the other hand, we know that while the law may not be reasonable, it is always right. That's the way we live. If you get caught for speeding, you broke the law – no matter whether going faster may have been acceptable at that time and place – and you'll have to pay a fine. Similarly, if there is a law against killing animals that way, people should stick to it. What's the point of that kind of law if you allow exceptions? In particular for specific branches of religions? I don't think that the state should treat religions any better that any other club or allowing people freedom of thought and speech. We are living in a secular country.
Funnily, this issue unites both muslims and jews. It's a good thing to see these groups co-operating rather than killing each other – even if it's only for lobbying a government. Perhaps they'll get the hint that they may just be able to co-exist peacefully. In another article, the political scientist Bassam Tibi (who's at our university in fact) gives an account of how antisemitism spread in the arab world and how arabs and jews used to get along quite well [English].