Information AboutBlood Libel |
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Jew s are the most common target of blood libels, but many other groups have been accused, including Christian s, Cathar s, Carthaginian s, Knights Templar , Witches , Christian Heretics , Roman Catholic s, Roma , Wiccan s, Druid s, Neopagan s, Satanists , and Evangelical Protestant Missionaries . BLOOD LIBEL AGAINST FOLLOWERS OF ANCIENT GREEK RELIGION When the Christianization of Greece occurred, there was an attempt to portray all sacrifices as blood sacrifices, but contrary to popular Christian myth sacrifices to the Greek gods were typically in the forms of wealth. Human blood sacrifices were exceedingly rare and, in most Greek cities they were illegal. Early Christians spread myths about Christian children being abducted and having their throats slit in various temples. Such myths are similar to the Blood Libel accusations against Jews. Human blood sacrifices were seen by the Greek people as barbaric and laws against them were believed to be part of what separated the Greeks from those they considered barbarians, even after Romanization occurred. BLOOD LIBEL AGAINST JEWS Main article Blood libels against the Jews were a common form of Anti-Semitism during the Middle Ages, though there is no ritual involving human blood in Jewish law or custom. Though the first recorded instance was in the writings of Apion , who claimed that the Jews sacrificed Greek victims in the Temple, there are no existent records of the blood libel against the Jews from that period until the legend surrounding William Of Norwich in the 12th century, but the libel afterward became an increasingly common accusation. In many cases, anti-Semitic blood libels served as the basis for a ''blood libel cult'', in which the alleged victim of human sacrifice was worshipped as a Christian martyr, but the claim has pre-Christian origins. Many Jews were killed as a result of false blood libels, which continued into the 20th century, with the Beilis Trial in Russia and the Kielce Pogrom in Poland, and the persistence of blood libel stories in the Arab world. BLOOD LIBEL AGAINST CHRISTIANS Main article During the First and Second centuries, some Roman commentators misunderstood the ritual of the Eucharist and related teachings. While celebrating the Eucharist, Christians drink red wine in response to the words "This is the blood of Christ". Propaganda arguing that the Christians literally drank blood was written and used to Persecute Christians . Romans were highly suspicious of Christian Adoption s of abandoned Roman babies and this was suggested as a possible source of the blood. In the Mandaean scripture, the Ginza Rba , a purportedly Christian group called the "Minunei" are accused of it against the Jews: "They kill a Jewish child, they take his blood, they cook it in bread and they proffer it to them as food." (Ginza Rba 9.1). CONTEMPORARY BLOOD LIBEL MYTHS IN THE WEST Accusations of ritual murder are being advanced by different groups to this day. In the United States, this is especially noticeable in certain branches of the anti- Abortion movement, which has produced numerous charges against doctors performing the procedure. {Link without Title} One claim stated that physicians in . [http://www.nesu.mphy.lu.se/nectar/eth.1.html Another contemporary blood libel in the United States alleges, falsely, that both neopagans and Satanists use human blood, sexual abuse, or ritual murder, especially of children, in their rituals. Often (''America's Best Kept Secret''), Bill Pricer , and Ken Wooden (''Child Lures'') are some of the voices of these libels. In impoverished parts of Latin America , members of the Marxist group Shining Path tell rural villagers that Americans will kidnap and murder their children. The purported reasons for these supposed abductions/murders are human sacrifice and organs harvesting. Many Jewish groups were shocked by the publication in 2003 by the British newspaper 's Political Cartoon of the Year award. THE DECLINE OF BELIEF IN RITUAL MURDER Belief in ritual murder has gradually disappeared from mainstream Christianity, and child-martyrs have been purged from the official Catholic calendar of saints. Nevertheless, similar accusations are still being made by some Muslim groups against the Jews, and the same accusations were defended by Nazism and related movements in the twentieth century. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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