Fake severed hand found at mosque
A package containing a fake severed hand was delivered to a mosque in Verdun on the weekend. It’s being investigated as a hate crime.
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Kate
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Ian 16:56 on 2026-07-22 Permalink
Is there some special significance to a hand, or is it just implicit violence?
Kate 17:37 on 2026-07-22 Permalink
I assumed it was a reference to the sharia punishment of severing the hand in serious cases of theft.
CE 18:59 on 2026-07-22 Permalink
Doesn’t the Christian Bible prescribe similar punishments?
Daisy 19:46 on 2026-07-22 Permalink
No. Jesus does say if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off, but that is meant as hyperbole, not as a punishment imposed by the authorities.
Kate 19:52 on 2026-07-22 Permalink
The Old Testament recommends executing murderers and people who commit adultery, but I don’t see any mention of amputation as a punishment. But I’m no expert.
Daisy: is it? And would people in the 2000 years since then have understood it that way?
Daisy 06:07 on 2026-07-23 Permalink
Have people over the last 2000 years understood hyperbole? I certainly haven’t noticed anyone anxious to take Jesus literally on his remark that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter to the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus was once asked for his opinion on violent punishment, when a bunch of people brought to him a woman caught in adultery, the punishment for which, according to the Hebrew scriptures, was being stoned to death. Jesus said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Of course they all slunk away, leaving the woman alone with Jesus who said, “Neither do I condemn thee” and let her go.
Kate 13:20 on 2026-07-23 Permalink
I actually do not know. Was there ever an order of literal-minded Christian clerics who cut off their hands?
Tim S. 15:47 on 2026-07-23 Permalink
No.
Tim S. 16:27 on 2026-07-23 Permalink
To be more specific, you could get mortification of the flesh – fasting, wearing of hair shirts and iron belts (rare), self-flagellation (much more rare than Dan Brown would have you think). There are special haircuts for clergy. But there’s no religious tradition, at all, of permanent bodily modification. Even the civil authorities who imposed corporal punishments – whipping, branding, but generally only went as far as cutting off an ear (until they escalate to the whole head!).
In general, it was in no one’s interest to cripple someone and leave them unable to provide for themselves – because Christian charity creates the obligation to then take care of them. It’s funny, because this obligation was taken seriously, it also created a civilization which strongly emphasized the paramount importance of labour. I should check if Max Weber had anything to say about that.
Ian 18:28 on 2026-07-23 Permalink
“But there’s no religious tradition, at all, of permanent bodily modification.”
Genesis 17:10
“This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.”
Kate 20:16 on 2026-07-23 Permalink
Touché!
Tim S. 21:15 on 2026-07-23 Permalink
“Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
Galatians 5:2-6
Ian 08:43 on 2026-07-24 Permalink
While it’s true that Christians are liberated from the Law, the Old Testament still exists, and lots of Christian sects follow various aspects of the Old Testament more or less “literally” too.
But yes, according to Acts 15:20 only 4 kosher laws (and of those only 2 dietary) apply to Christians. Not like abstaining from blood is really followed, though.
Kate 10:20 on 2026-07-24 Permalink
Except by Jehovah’s Witnesses, Ian. That’s why they won’t accept blood transfusions.
On the other hand, some say the JWs aren’t even properly called Christians. I don’t know why.
Chris 22:48 on 2026-07-24 Permalink
Because JWs reject the Trinity and don’t think of Jesus as god.
Kate 23:08 on 2026-07-24 Permalink
For a guy who thinks little of religion, Chris…
Chris 01:02 on 2026-07-25 Permalink
Kate, what does that mean? I know a lot about religion, I have studied it pretty extensively. (That’s how I know it’s bollocks.)