Cremation is latest battlefield in Israel's perennial religious wars  | September 23, 2007

From its earliest days the Inter Religious Federation for World Peace (IRFWP), (more precisely the Council for the World's Religions (CWR), founded in 1985) recognized INTRA religious dialogue as vital and indispensable to the mission of religion and peace. Religions divided in themselves can not function reliably as dialogue partners. For this reason, CWR blazed a strong and fine trail of intrareligious dialogue greatly serving to knit together the inner factions of the world's great religious families.

Sadly this work was not properly sustained, leaving now horrible rifts in the major religions. Religion has descended further from its mission for peace when factions so misread scripture as to find justification not only for violence, but violence against innocents, and violence against our own fellow believers.

We are most accustomed to wincing at the horror of deaths among pilgrims as we see in Iraq frequently. Today however evidence of intra Jewish strife has made the news. It may seem merely like the destruction of a single and simple crematorium, but the intelligent reader will recognize in this the inner rifts in Israel that help to render it incapable of effective peace seeking for its own benefit.

Extensive reportage is found in the Signonsandiego article "Cremation is latest battlefield in Israel's perennial religious wars" .

Yitzhak Cohen, the minister for religious affairs from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, refused to condemn the fire.