Religious Bullies

I am not a religious person, as regular readers know, but that doesn't mean to say that I'm not interested in religion - or the huge struggle people sometimes face to practice their religious beliefs. 

For example, a group of Jewish women have finally been able to pray at the Wailing Wall - one of Judaism's most holy sites - having been refused access previously because ultra-Orthodox Jews regarded the area as a place reserved for male worshippers only. 

In fact in recent weeks and months, women attempting to pray at the wailing wall were arrested by police and carted off to the cells - until the courts intervened and upheld their rights to pray in the same part of the site as men.

Now this didn't go down too well with the ultra-Orthodox believers (all men, of course) who not only demonstrated their opposition - but threw bricks and bottles at the female worshippers and spat at them as they made their way to the Wailing Wall to offer up prayers to God - the same God worshipped by the men, of course.

But Israeli police held back the angry mob as they tried to drive the women away and in a dramatic turn of events arrested three of the protesters - who were trying to impose their will through physical violence and intimidation.

A strange way for religious people to behave, if you ask me - and not a million miles removed from the practice observed by supporters of fundamentalist Islam whose adherents are also very keen on this artificial segregation of women and men.

So while it all seems quite crazy to me, I admire the courage and tenacity of the women and their supporters - in standing up to the religious bullies in their midst and refusing to be pushed around.