Garbanzo Toons

Muslims and Jews Start to What?

The title of the article is Muslims, Jews start to heal.

One of the world's leading experts on overcoming religious barriers flew from Israel to Michigan on Thursday to help ease tensions between local Muslims and Jews.

"You have such a remarkable opportunity here in Detroit, because people from so many different cultures live here, to transform clashes into opportunities for enrichment," Rabbi David Rosen, expert on interfaith relations for the American Jewish Committee, said Thursday night.

Of course,

Victor Begg, chair of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan, said local Muslim leaders are fed up with non-Muslims' demands that that they continually condemn terrorism, as if they are responsible for all such crimes.

"It is exhausting and depressing to be responsible for everyone in the world who uses our faith for evil," Begg said.

In the Jewish community, Begg said, "there is little condemnation heard when there is a death of innocent Palestinians, but Muslims here are expected to condemn any instance of someone being killed by anyone who claims to be a Muslim anywhere in the world."

And,

Najah Bazzy, a nurse and member of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, told the largely Jewish audience, "You have a huge responsibility to extend your hands, too."

But on the Jewish side,

Rabbi Daniel Nevins, senior rabbi at Adat Shalom, responded. "This summer was so hard," he said, "but I didn't feel, as a rabbi in Farmington Hills, that I could dictate the policies to the Israeli government," so he said little in reaction to events in the war.

"But I was saddened by deaths on both sides," he said.

And,

Nevins thanked his Muslim guests and said, "We come from different perspectives. Our hearts hurt over different issues and yet we have to hear from one another."

Nevins and Rosen said that the point of this renewed dialogue was to listen, not debate.

Nevins said, "We have to try very, very hard not to allow ourselves to become warped reflections of hatred. And, I think tonight's dialogue is a part of that."

So Jews are still expected to reach out to Muslims as Muslims continue to try to get the world to blame the Jews for all of its evils. Muslims are never repsonsible for the evils they commit. We are still supposed to equate Muslims targeting civilians for cold blooded murder with Israeli self defense that accidently kills Muslims because Islamic terrorist groups continue to use thier own women and children as human shields. Just shut up already.

Labels: islam, Jews

posted by Harry @ 6:54 PM