 |
|
August 29, 2008
Rabbi Berel Wein: 20/20 sightlessness
Caroline B. Glick: When history is not repeated
JWisdom: Blessed or Cursed: It's Really Up to You by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky
August 28, 2008
Steve Lipman: A Comeback for the 'Jewish Jordan'
Jeffrey Weiss: Researcher reports 'intriguing' diabetes breakthrough
August 27, 2008
Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald: Removing the perfectionist's mask
The Kosher Gourmet
by Emily Nunn: Summer harvest linguine
JWisdom:: The Missing Link in Spiritual Life by Rabbi David Aaron
August 26, 2008
Yaffa Ganz: Grandma gets lessons in staying cool
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: The Dems' 'soft' jihadist
JWisdom::
Today: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Plague of indifference
August 25, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: A friend is bearing a silly grudge from a supposed wrong. What recourse do I have?
Daniel Pipes: Barack Obama through Muslim Eyes
JWisdom:: The knowledge you need to overcome your insecurities by Malka Schulman
August 22, 2008
Rabbi Berel Wein: Life's essential ingredient
Caroline B. Glick: Dominos anyone?
JWisdom:: Actually, Do Sweat the Small Stuff! by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky
August 21, 2008
Today in Biblical History
by Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Popularization of Kabbalah: 20 Menachem-Av 1558 CE
Jonathan Rosenblum: Lessons from the Beyond
JWisdom: : The Olympian within is rooting for you -- yes, you! –- to go for the gold
August 20, 2008
Jonathan Tobin: Misleading Platform Platitudes
The Kosher Gourmet
by Linda Gassenheimer: Chicken Salad with Asian Dressing
JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: America's Defense of the Jews --- Until WWII by Rabbi Nosson Scherman
August 19, 2008
Dennis Prager: If the Almighty doesn't exist
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Obama's Islamist problem has nothing to do with his upbringing
JWisdom:
Think your life is messed up? by Rabbi David Aaron
August 18, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Business with Friends
Diana West: Roars About Russia, Bare Whispers About Islam
JWisdom: Relationship agony: The real cause by Malka Schulman
August 15, 2008
Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: To love the Divine
Caroline B. Glick: Georgia, Israel, and the nature of man
JWisdom: The Truly Righteous Don't Demand Entitlements by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky
August 14, 2008
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Confessions of broken spirit
Libby Lazewnik: The Numbers Game
JWisdom: Six Questions You'll Be Asked in Heaven? - Uh - Let's Just Take One for Now! by Gavriel Aryeh Sanders
August 13, 2008
Jonathan Tobin: Georgia should be on their minds
The Kosher Gourmet
by Linda Gassenheimer: Go Greek: Pair flavorful lamb kebabs with a hearty salad
JWisdom: Human hybrids aren't science fiction by Rabbi David Aaron
August 12, 2008
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bless us
Daniel Pipes: The West's Islamist Infiltrators
JWisdom: From Sadness to Gladness: The Route from Tisha b'Av to Rosh Hashana by Rabbi Mordechai Becher
August 11, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: A Jewish view on fair pricing
Caroline B. Glick: Ignoring failure in Gaza
JWisdom: 'Communication' Is Not The Answer! by Malka Schulman
August 7, 2008
Rabbi David Gutterman: A Continuing Story With a Sustaining Goal
Rabbi Berel Wein: Mourning and morning
JWisdom: Yes, we are still in exile by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky
August 6, 2008
David Ashenfelter: Government made military engineer's life a living hell because of his faith, Defense Department report documents
Jonathan Tobin: Speak the Truth; Defeat the Lies
JWisdom: Jewish Spirituality: Fusion or Confusion? by Rabbi David Aaron
August 5, 2008
Chris Leppek: Church/state wall beginning to crumble?
Paul Greenberg: Exit Olmert (no encore, please)
JWisdom: Serenity: Make the commitment by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin (Read by Gavriel Sanders)
August 4, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Am I taking advantage of another's psychological quirk?
Andrew Silow-Carroll: A black and a Jew walk into the White House…
JWisdom: The Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith: Edward R. Morrow visits the ‘living dead’ by Rabbi Nosson Scherman
August 1, 2008
Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: We have the power to alter another's destiny — use it well
Caroline B. Glick: Why Olmert — finally — did it
JWisdom: Life By The (Book of) Numbers by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky
July 31, 2008
This Week in Biblical History
by Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Ezra the Scribe returns from exile
Joan Verdon: Demure is in demand: More brides seek 'modest' gowns
JWisdom: You don't have to be ‘compatible’ to have a stable, happy relationship by Malka Shulman
July 30, 2008
Jonathan Tobin: Does Israel need 'tough love'?
The Kosher Gourmet
by Gail Borelli: Pickling captures the fleeting tastes of summer's fruits and vegetables
JWisdom:
Serenity: It's Really Up to YOU! by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin (Read by Gavriel Sanders)
July 29, 2008
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Good things happen
Dick Morris: How Israel's race could shift ours
JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Equal but Not Jewish or Jewish but Not Human?
July 28, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: How and when to lie
Steven Emerson: More Perils of Interfaith Dialogue
JWisdom:: A TripTik for Your Spiritual Journey by Rabbi Dovid Gross
March 22, 2007
J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)
|
| |
Jewish World Review
July 28, 2008
/ 25 Tamuz 5768
More Perils of Interfaith Dialogue
By
Steven Emerson
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
News reports indicate that the recent World Conference on Dialogue in Madrid ended with something less than the Kumbaya atmosphere both organizers and attendees had envisioned.
According to the reports, a presidential advisor from the United Arab Emirates urged attendees to "to distinguish between Judaism and Zionism," adding "I can speak to pacifists but not bellicists, who are in favor of war."
Rabbi Marc Schneier, chairman of the World Jewish Congress in North America, responded, saying "Israel is not a political issue... If you want to understand Judaism, then you need to understand that Israel is a core issue of our religion."
Jay Rosenbaum of Temple Israel in Lawrence, N.Y., went further, telling a New York Sun reporter that the comments were anti-Semitic, representing "the same old rhetoric that has led to more hatred and the building of a wall between the Jews and the Muslims for the last 60 years."
Here's hoping that the episode opens more eyes than just Rosenbaum's. After all, if Jewish leaders such as Schneier, David Rosen of the American Jewish Committee legitimize these meetings with their presence, how can representatives of any other faith challenge their wisdom? The same holds true for interfaith dialogue back home in America.
The Madrid conference is the latest in a long line of so-called interfaith dialogue initiatives between various leaders of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. It was sponsored by the Saudi monarch and organized by a man who justifies Palestinian suicide bombings and is alleged to have links to a senior Al Qaeda financier. (See "Organizer's Past Raises Questions About Madrid Interfaith Conference" for background.)
Now come new disclosures that the principal partner in domestic outreach, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), is rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood, the 80-year-old Egyptian society from which virtually all Sunni terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, emerge. The Brotherhood's long range goal is to make Islam dominant throughout the world, not to seek a path to mutual understanding.
The time for ignoring these links or blaming the messenger has passed. It is a time for pointed questions, answered publicly. Those Jewish leaders, ever desperate to forge any common ground with self-styled mainstream Muslim organizations, must examine these new disclosures and explain why they believe in continued dialogue with people who are blatantly deceiving them.
They must challenge their outreach partners for credible explanations. At a time when Sami Al-Arian admits he was in the Muslim Brotherhood when ISNA was created, and that he co-founded ISNA, as the Investigative Project on Terrorism reported Tuesday, it's time to stop the "dialogue" and demand real answers.
Schneier, a participant at the aforementioned Madrid conference, and Eric Yoffie of the Union of Reform Judaism, are cases in point. Both have bent over backward to whitewash ISNA, currently named an unindicted co-conspirator by the government in a HAMAS financing trial in Dallas against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF).
As reported in the New York Sun, on the topic of ISNA, the major Muslim Brotherhood umbrella group in the U.S.:
"People do evolve," says Rabbi Schneier, who told us that he has worked with the Islamic Society of North America to prepare a public service announcement with rabbis and imams jointly warning against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and also to plan joint activities between synagogues and mosques that are set for November.
Evolve? ISNA denies having anything from which it has to evolve. And this is Schneier at the Madrid Conference opening:
Rabbi Marc Schneier, North American chairman of the World Jewish Congress, said King Abdullah was reaching out to other faiths to counter extremists and fanatics within Islam.
"What I heard from him is that 'I represent Islam, and I am the voice of moderation'," said Schneier.
So the leading exporter of Wahabbi Islam, who refused to invite any Israelis (the one rabbi with Israeli citizenship at the conference, the AJC's David Rosen, was listed on the program as an American), let alone have the conference on Saudi soil, is somehow a voice of moderation. Adding to his "moderate" credentials, Abdullah invited a radical, pro-Islamist Jewish leader who attended the Iranian president's 2006 Holocaust denial conference:
Some other Jewish officials invited to the conference are more controversial, including Rabbi David Weiss, whose group, Neturei Karta, objects to the creation of Israel on the grounds that it violates Jewish religious law.
At a 2006 gathering in Tehran hosted by hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Weiss made headlines by saying the number of Jews said to have been killed in the Holocaust was inflated.
Given that, how surprising is it to learn that the Madrid conference featured former neo-Nazi leader William Baker? There is no report of any protest for Baker's inclusion. The Associated Press quoted Rosen after the conference opened:
"What is historic about this is that it is organized by the king of Saudi Arabia," he told the Associated Press. "To hear the king of Saudi Arabia talk about tolerance, moderation and cooperation between the religions to address contemporary challenges is quite something."
When asked what he hoped to get out of the three-day gathering, Rosen added:
"The significance of this event is the fact that it is happening. I didn't have any great expectations with regards to the intellectual content."
Michael Lerner, editor of the liberal Tikkun magazine. Lerner wrote a fairly glowing assessment of the conference's opening, acknowledging dramatic change could take years, but finding the Madrid meeting a key step in the right direction:
I came away from this direct time with the Saudis with the distinct impression that I had helped foster more positive notions about who Americans are, who Jews are, and what Israelis are about. I believe that this happened in many other conversations that took place in the hallways between the 20 or so Jews at the conference and the hundreds of Muslims and Christians. While some of those Jews probably conveyed the same stuckness and stubbornness that Israel and the American Jewish establishment always conveys, there were fresh thinkers like Rabbi Michael Paley, Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, Rabbi Phyllis Berman, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Rabbi Marc Gopin, Rabbi Scott Sperling and Rabbi David Rosen who each have creative and exciting ideas on how to continue this dialogue. For that, as for many other aspects of this set of conversations, I give thanks to God for the opportunity that I have had to serve the causes of peace and reconciliation!
In an email to Lerner shared with the IPT, Ali Alyami, the executive director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, told the rabbi's his high hopes were not warranted:
The Madrid Conference has two objectives: One is to spread the deadly Wahhabi ideology and the other to silence critics of Saudi gross violations of basic human rights and hate for non-Muslims. With due you respect, you missed the point completely. According to the secretariat of the Muslim World League (the extremist organizer of the conference you praise profusely) "The conference does not aim to unite religions or to reconcile between them…the differences are there through God's wisdom and will. The objective of the conference is to spread knowledge {Wahhabism} and encourage cooperation in hope of attaining positive coexistence." The Saudis fed you a lot of false information and you bought it. This is tragic. (emphasis original)
Meanwhile, Yoffie, who spoke at ISNA's convention in Chicago last summer and has a history of partnering with ISNA, has said, in a statement posted on ISNA's website:
We chose ISNA as our partner because it is the closest equivalent to the Union within the American Muslim community. It has issued a strong and unequivocal condemnation of terror, including a specific condemnation of Hizbollah and Hamas terror against Jews and Israelis.
True, one can find this statement, "ISNA rejects all acts of terrorism, including those perpetrated by HAMAS, Hizbullah and any other group that claims Islam as their inspiration" on ISNA's website. ISNA rather slyly only generally "rejects" the violent acts: its officials refuse to condemn both groups, will not label either as terrorist organizations, but instead refer to HAMAS favorably as the "democratically-elected Palestinian government."[1] ISNA studiously ignores the HAMAS Charter, a virulently anti-Semitic tract which states that, "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" and the fact that violent jihad is a core principal of HAMAS and Hezbollah. More on this below, as ISNA's own website contains similar anti-Jewish sentiments.
And unfortunately for Schneier and Yoffie, their timing on ISNA's alleged evolution and condemnation of terrorist groups, respectively, could not have been worse. Just last week, in documents presented in the HLF case, federal prosecutors said of ISNA:
HLF raised money and supported HAMAS through a bank account it held with ISNA as NAIT [the North American Islamic Trust]. Indeed, HLF (under its former name, OLF) operated from within ISNA, in Plainfield, Indiana… ISNA checks deposited into the ISNA/NAIT account for the HLF were often made payable to "the Palestinian Mujahadeen," the original name for the HAMAS military wing. From that ISNA/NAIT account, the HLF sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to HAMAS leader Mousa Abu Marzook, Nadia Elashi (defendant Ghassan Elashi's cousin and Marzook's wife), Sheikh Ahmed Yassin's Islamic Center of Gaza, the Islamic University and a number of other individuals associated with HAMAS.
As I have previously reported, ISNA's support of HAMAS is not merely financial, but the group was also a vocal supporter of HAMAS leader Mousa Abu Marzook, using the pages of its magazine, Islamic Horizons, to both whitewash HAMAS' bloody history and engage in thinly veiled anti-Semitism. For example, in the November/December 1995 issue of Islamic Horizons, almost a full year after HAMAS was officially designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, an article titled "Muslim Leader Hostage to Israeli Interests" characterized Marzook as:
[a] member of the political wing of Hamas, disliked by the Zionist entity for its Islamic orientation, continues to be held hostage in the U.S. at the whims of his Zionist accusers.
And, more than two years after HAMAS' designation as a terrorist group, in the September/October 1997 issue, Islamic Horizons published an article describing Marzook as:
[j]ailed without trial in New York for-months for alleged ties to organizations seeking Palestinian rights.
This is an almost unbelievable contention, if not for the fact that it was uttered by the house organ of a major Muslim Brotherhood front organization.
Now, despite the documented evidence, ISNA says it has no connection - and indeed that it never had any connection - to the Muslim Brotherhood. And apparently Rabbi Schneier not only takes the group's word - again, in face of the actual evidence - but claims that ISNA has somehow "evolved." Since ISNA unabashedly claims no connection to the Muslim Brotherhood, it is true the group has evolved, just not in the way Schneier suggests, since the transparent lies of ISNA's leadership have grown even bolder, which is an evolution of sorts.
And ISNA's ties to the most virulent anti-Israel terrorist groups are hardly the only complication when it comes to "interfaith dialogue," especially with Jews, despite Rabbi Yoffie's assurances to the contrary.
A cursory look at the "library" page on ISNA's website includes the following passages about Jews (as well as four other, similar in nature to those in the HAMAS Charter) used to justify extremist violence against both Israelis and Jews around the world by the most radical of Islamist terrorists:
Book 41, Number 6985:
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.
Perhaps Schneier and Yoffie are unaware of ISNA's invocation of this Hadith - which plainly states that Muslims need to kill the Jews to bring about the end of times. Or perhaps they are aware, but choose to look the other way. Either way, pining for the mass slaughter of Jews by Muslims to usher in paradise should be a disqualifier for any sort of interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Jews.
Schneier, who has a history of failed outreach efforts, should know better. In November 2006, he attempted "interfaith dialogue" with a leader of the largest mosque in New York, with less than optimum results:
One of the last widely publicized Jewish outreach efforts to Muslims was made last November by Rabbi Marc Schneier, spiritual leader of the New York Synagogue. But it backfired when Imam Omar Abu Namous of the Islamic Cultural Center, who was invited to the rabbi's synagogue for a dialogue, unleashed a barrage of criticism of Israel - even questioning its legitimacy - as a stunned congregation watched. Rabbi Schneier said later that the incident "opened my eyes to the reality that we have a long way to go."
Actual constructive interfaith dialogue can only come when Islamist groups own up to their past and present support for terrorist groups. For ISNA's part, only after a sort of "truth and reconciliation" construct, in which the group's leadership admits its history of support for HAMAS, former U.S.-based HAMAS leader Mousa Abu Marzook, and various and sundry other Palestinian and Islamist terror organizations (all documented by federal prosecutors, by the way) should the organization begin to earn trust. Indeed, the various Jewish representatives who overlook these ties in the name of "interfaith dialogue," themselves are engaged in a huge disservice to everyone who deplores Islamist terrorism and extremism, and have no place as religious or community leaders.
[1] "US Muslim coalition condemns Israeli action in Gaza," The Muslim News, July 11, 2006, http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=11322.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
JWR contributor Steven Emerson is an internationally recognized expert on terrorism and national security and considered one of the leading world authorities on Islamic extremist networks, financing and operations. He now serves as the Executive Director of The Investigative Project on Terrorism, one of the world’s largest archival data and intelligence institutes on Islamic and Middle Eastern terrorist groups.
© 2008, Steven Emerson
|
