Ezra

The Hebrew scriptures have a book or two that remind me of the Hasids in Brooklyn.  The Book of Ezra speaks about the Israelites returning from their Persian exile to the land they had left years ago.  Ezra says the reason they were sent into exile is because they did not keep the law as purely as they should.  Ezra was against intermarriage with non-Jews.  He was for studying and keeping all the various laws.  He was for the separation of Jews of the Law from foreigners, pagans, goyim.  The Hasids of Brooklyn said they were destroyed by Hitler because they did not keep the law correctly.  We see in religions this desire to be apart from others as a way to preserve something.  We may not all agree with it.  Many Jews do not agree with Hasids or Ezra.  But at least we know why people set themselves apart at times.  As the "West" impinges on Islam in the Levant or Middle East, as we call it, maybe there is some of this same desire for pure separation.  Just as some Jews think other Jews are no better than pagans, so some Moslems feel the same way about other Moslems.  Come to think of it, some Catholics feel that way about me.  Gotta' go.