[Avodah] Chillul HaShem & Goyim

[Zev Sero]

The translation doesn't make it clear exactly whom this man cursed.  The
original makes it clear, through the euphemisms, that his crime was the
classic Birkas Hashem (modulo the question of whether the Arabic term for
Hashem should be treated as if it were one of the seven Names).  He
expressed the wish that Allah should "bless" [i.e. the opposite] that
which Chazal euphemise as "Yossi", and said "Had I not prayed to Him
[i.e. had I not been a Jew] this would not have happened to me".

The chilul Hashem issue that the Rosh raises is that since the Moslems
take blasphemy against their religion very seriously, if we were to be
lenient with this blasphemer against *our* religion they would conclude
that we don't take it so seriously.

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher