Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Who would you side with??

Back in 2006, there was a case in London where a Muslim officer requested that he should not be assigned to protect the Israeli Embassy. This was at the height of the Israel-Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, and the officer claimed that he had Lebanese and Syrian family members who not only were at risk based on their geographic locations, but may also threaten him if he protected the embassy of an enemy. He as well as the London commissioner, claimed that this was not a request based on any belief system. Rather, it came as a result of an awkward situation, to say the least. Many people criticized the London police for permitting such exemption, with the arguments like, "What happens if a Greek officer doesn't want to guard the Turkish embassy, or an anti-hunting officer refuses to protect pro-hunt demonstrators?" The Israeli government didn't respond as strongly as some may have hoped. Fox News came out and claimed that based on this logic, a Muslim could be exempt from protecting Jews. Obviously the argument is a strong one, but is it rooted in anything concrete? 


What do you think?


Check out the article from Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/news/london-police-review-move-to-excuse-muslim-officer-at-israeli-embassy-1.200555



No comments:

Post a Comment