Churches reject Black Lives Matter's platform on Israel

[Igel]

18. People conflate religion, ethnicity, race, and nationality all the time.

Some terrorists have been described as "French" when they were French nationals but ethnically Muslim. These are different things.

In the case of Jews, pretty much if you're Jewish you're Jewish. By which I mean, "if you're of Jewish faith you're of Jewish heritage." But I've known Jews who were atheists.

They are distinct.

Now, Ottoman practice was fairly clear: your religion is what you get on your passport. Some Lebanese are Circassians, some are Armenians. But their passports would say "Muslim" ("Shi'ite" or "Sunni", actually) or "Christian". Because that's their collective identity.

In the US we focus on ethnicity and race, and act as though our first allegiance is to race/ethnicity--or perhaps our second. For much of the world, their first allegiance might be religion or ideology. Who are we to squish them into our particular ethnocentric boxes?