I hate zealots.  Religious nuts or any other extremists make my skin crawl.  It's one thing to have a relationship with whatever deity you happen to worship. It's quite another to actively work to impose that relationship on others, whether by government force or via good old fashioned bullying.  I thought that's the kind of twisted zealotry we were fighting against when we took on the Taliban and the fundamentalist Islamist swine who killed thousands of our citizens. 

I'm not thrilled with nimrods who use religious dogma to perpetuate hatred and infringe upon others' rights.  It oogs me out to see fundamentalist fruitcakes try to ban books they find objectionable, ban television shows that don't toe the religious line or try to force others to conform to their standards of dress or behavior. 

And this just makes me angry.  Jewish people are supposed to be our allies against Islamist crazies.  Since when do they start acting like them?  Frankly, twisted shit like this is what makes organized religion so unpalatable to me.

In Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where the rule of law sometimes takes a back seat to the rule of God, zealots are on a campaign to stamp out behavior they consider unchaste. They hurl stones at women for such "sins" as wearing a red blouse, and attack stores selling devices that can access the Internet.

In recent weeks, self-styled "modesty patrols" have been accused of breaking into the apartment of a Jerusalem woman and beating her for allegedly consorting with men. They have torched a store that sells MP4 players, fearing devout Jews would use them to download pornography.

"These breaches of purity and modesty endanger our community," said 38-year-old Elchanan Blau, defending the bearded, black-robed zealots. "If it takes fire to get them to stop, then so be it."

And what, exactly, makes these zealots any different from their twisted Taliban counterparts?  How can we justify allying ourselves with demented animals who think that their faith entitles them to abuse others?  They throw rocks, attack women with pepper spray, spit on them, vandalize businesses that sell MP4 players and pay thugs to beat and threaten women for acts of brazenness such as wearing a red blouse or walking down a street with a man!

Can honor killings be far behind?