Holocaust Conference Aftermath: Muslim-Jewish Unity December 21, 2006

The Washington Post gives us this heartwarming story of Muslim-Jewish unity borne out of the Tehran Holocaust conference:

Local Muslim leaders lit candles yesterday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to commemorate Jewish suffering under the Nazis, in a ceremony held just days after Iran had a conference denying the genocide.

American Muslims “believe we have to learn the lessons of history and commit ourselves: Never again,” said Imam Mohamed Magid of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, standing before the eternal flame flickering from a black marble base that holds dirt from Nazi concentration camps.

“We stand here with three survivors of the Holocaust and my great Muslim friends to condemn this outrage in Iran,” said Sara J. Bloomfield, the museum’s director, addressing a bank of TV cameras in the room, known as the Hall of Remembrance.

Major American Muslim and Arab-American organizations have condemned the Iran conference. The Muslim speakers at yesterday’s ceremony did not mention that event but called for recognition of the suffering Jews experienced in the Holocaust and condemned religious hatred. Asked afterward why they did not single out Iran, the Muslim leaders said the problem was broader than the recent conference.

“The issue here is: There might be somebody from X and Y country, a Muslim, saying the same thing,” Magid said. If anyone wants to make Holocaust denial an Islamic cause, he said, “we want to say to them: You cannot use our name.”

And just to show how important this cause was to Imam Magid:

Bloomfield, the museum director, noted that Magid delayed his trip to Mecca for the annual hajj pilgrimage by a day to attend the ceremony.

“That’s a pretty strong statement,” she said.

To reach out to Jews in an unprecedented gesture of Muslim-Jewish unity, the Imam delayed his hajj. You’re right, that’s a strong statement. Quite strong.

WNBC-4 has the video link to this monumental event.

Columnist Salma Yaqoob, from Birmingham (UK), writes in The Guardian about the boycotting of Holocaust Remembrance Day by British Palestinian Muslims. They claim that, while Palestinians remain disenfranchised, there is no reason for their community to embrace a day to remember the Holocaust. Ms. Yaqoob writes: “We should be part of it because there are lessons from history which relate very closely to our experience today. We should be part of it because our refusal merely gives succour to those who peddle prejudice and lies about the Holocaust. And we should be part of it because it is right to remember the millions of our fellow human beings who died at the hands of a racist and supremacist ideology.”

This is what is most striking about the anti-Semitic alliances being formed between Muslims and the far-right: who could be so naive as to believe that the people hell bent on extermination of Jews will be unwaveringly pro-Muslim? Do they believe anti-Semites won’t also turn on them?

Whereas some use inflammatory situations as the basis for future conflict and division, some respond with unity. Kol ha’kavod.