Pogrom

(A) violent riot aimed at the massacre or persecution of an ethnic or religious group, particularly one aimed at Jews. The term originally entered the English language in order to describe 19th and 20th century attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire.
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Similar attacks against Jews at other times and places also became retrospectively known as pogroms. The word is now also sometimes used to describe publicly sanctioned purgative attacks against non-Jewish ethnic or religious groups.

Now I’m not Jewish, though I often wanted to be (I was awfully impressed by Rabbi David Small), but as you know I’m a member of of another religiously (it has many meanings, consider frequently if you are squeamish) persecuted group, the Freemasons.

Yeah, some people actually believe that Illuminati crap and we generally titter and giggle and invent even sillier handshakes but ’twas not always so. On Friday the 13th of October, 1307, Philip the Fourth of France, sanctioned by Avignon Pope Clement V, had every Templar Knight he could find arrested, tortured, and executed.

Frankly this probably had as much to do with the fact that Philip and Clement both owed huge sums of money to the Templar Bank as the fantastical charges of blasphemy, witchcraft, and ritual sacrifice of babies (I’ll leave Dan Brown conspiracy theories right out).

Dieu sait qui a tort et a péché. Il va bientot arriver malheur à ceux qui nous ont condamnés à mort.

Oh, but such things can’t happen here in the United States of America! Horse apples. For 26 years (between 1828 and 1838, then again between 1872 and 1888) there were Political Parties dedicated by their very name (Anti-Masonic) to the concept that Masons had too much infuence in Government (and Banking and the Arts) and that they should be expunged because of their “religious” beliefs. These Parties were pretty popular, though never in the top 2, and elected several Members of Congress, Governors, and State Legislators.

However maybe it’s not my word to use. Still, I invite you to consider this-

House Republican calls for mass killing of ‘radicalized Islamic’ suspects
by Laurel Raymond, Think Progress
June 5th, 2017

Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins (R) responded to an attack in downtown London over the weekend by calling for a mass extrajudicial killing of people suspected of adhering to “radicalized” Islam.

“Not one penny of American treasure should be granted to any nation who harbors these heathen animals. Not a single radicalized Islamic suspect should be granted any measure of quarter,” he wrote. “Hunt them, identify them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all.”

Notably, Higgins advocated for the killing of anyone even suspected of having links to terrorism, and gave no definition of how that should be determined. He described the fight as a “war” between Christendom and “Islamic horror,” echoing a rallying cry of the far-right.

Such black-and-white rhetoric also dovetails with one of ISIS’ stated goals: To divide the world into two camps, those who believe their ideology and everyone else. In so doing, they aim to eliminate the “grey zone” and convince other Muslims that their faith is unwelcome and incompatible with the West, radicalizing them.

The statement also hedges close to allowing ISIS and other militant groups to represent Islam as a whole, even though the group is deeply unpopular in huge swaths of the Muslim world, and scores of prominent Muslim leaders have condemned them.

Higgins shared his message alongside an image of the terror attack in downtown London on Saturday, which left seven civilians dead and 48 hospitalized. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.
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Higgins is a first term Congressman, and has been a strong supporter of President Trump and his attempts to ban travelers from several Muslim-majority countries from the United States. Higgins resigned from his previous post as the public information officer in the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s office after being instructed by his boss, the sheriff, to tone down his “disrespectful and demeaning” comments.