Jews and Muslims Co-Exist Peacefully in Brooklyn, NY
The man at the till is wearing phylacteries (amulets) under his shirt. Abundant payot – the sidelocks worn by Orthodox Jews from eastern Europe – spill out from under his black kippa. Some of the waiters are also Jewish, but others are Latinos. But the cooks are all Orthodox Jews. The food, a mixture of central European and Middle Eastern dishes, is strictly kosher. What is more surprising is the clientele: Jews rub shoulders with Muslims who choose to eat here because the food is good value and kosher, and thus close to halal standards set by Islam.
The Famous Pita restaurant, on Coney Island Avenue, is in one of the few neighbourhoods in New York’s Brooklyn borough where Jews and Muslims live side by side. On several blocks the co-existence of the two communities is even more apparent, with a succession of synagogues, mosques and social centres. Usually, however, the two communities live apart, with ultra-Orthodox Jews sticking to their own neighbourhoods, and Muslims, who are relative newcomers, more dispersed. In keeping with tradition, they tend to gather in specific districts.
The co-existence in Brooklyn is noteworthy for several reasons. Terrorist attacks by Muslims resident in the US have recently increased. Meanwhile, Islamophobia is on the rise – witness the hostility to the Islamic cultural centre near Ground Zero – with conservative Jewish groups playing an active role. Last, Brooklyn (2.6 million) has the world’s second-largest Jewish and Muslim population, after Jerusalem. The US census makes no specific reference to religious belief, but an estimated 550,000 Jews live in Brooklyn, almost half of whom are ultra-Orthodox. Between 200,000 and 300,000 Muslims, mainly from the Indian subcontinent, live here too. They form the second-largest group of recent immigrants, after Hispanics, and their number is growing steadily, unlike the dwindling Jewish community. Jews and Muslims make up a third of the borough’s residents.