More Unity for Jews and Muslims
The world is a very strange place, finding good will and cooperation where you least expect it. Timing is everything.
Group promotes moderate Islam after bin Laden death
By JONAH MANDEL, 05/17/2011 jpost.comThe recent killing of Osama bin Laden, who epitomized radical and violent Islam, is being leveraged by interfaith groups seeking to promote a more moderate Muslim message, as evident in a recent meeting between some 80 Jewish and Muslim clerics in Kiev.
“The fact that the person who the world has always associated with violence in the name of Islam is no longer living should be understood as a major opportunity for the forces of moderation,” Rabbi Marc Schneier, founder and president of the US-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU) said. “Bin Laden’s death serves as a definitive test for Muslims as to where their true loyalties lie, but I’m confident it will encourage more and more people to say no to terrorism, and yes to tolerance.”
Many of these conferences are planned around Europe. Jewish and Muslims clerics are coming together to condemn anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
The European efforts of dialogue, he [Rabbi Schneier] said, were part of an international campaign to strengthen relations between Muslims and Jews, encouraging each community to fight for the other – Muslim leaders speaking out in combating anti-Semitism, and Jewish leaders speaking out against Islamophobia.
“I’m tired of dialogue – this is not about exchanging pleasantries,” he said, “rather about each community fighting for the other.”
“We as Jews cannot fight our battles alone,” Schneier continued, noting confronting anti-Semitism and the support for the State of Israel as the two major issues confronting Jews around the world today.
This really clarified my own feelings about supporting Muslims in their fight against Islamophobia and those who spread it. I never quite looked at it from the other side. That Jews can’t fight anti-Semitism alone. There are plenty of non-Muslim or Jewish people, of course, who support us both, but ultimately it’s a fight we have to resolve together. I’m very encouraged.
The “Muslims and Jews United Against Hatred and Extremism” conference in the Ukrainian capital, held on Thursday, was part of a series of Muslim-Jewish events in nine European countries during May…
I posted here about how moved I was with these conferences. I hope to post more.