Bahrain’s Newest Ambassador June 2, 2008

King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain made a historic appointment on Wednesday, the appointment of Huda Azra Ibrahim Nunu to the post of ambassador to the United States. Ms. Nunu is Bahrain’s third female ambassador — the first being to France and the second to China — but it is not Ms. Nunu’s gender that makes her appointment so significant.

Ms. Nunu is Bahrain’s first Jewish female ambassador — and the first Jewish ambassador from the Arab world.

It was not initially known to which country Bahrain’s king would send the 43-year-old parliamentarian of Iraqi descent, but it soon became clear, Ms. Nunu was bound to represent her country in the United States. Ms. Nunu said she was proud to serve her country “first of all as a Bahraini”, and was quick to note that her appointment was not due to her religion, with one Bahraini official stressing that the selection of Ms. Nunu as envoy was “not propaganda”:

“This is not a public relations move,” the official told AFP, referring to the expected naming soon of Huda Nunu as the Gulf kingdom’s ambassador to Washington. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said King Hamad informed US officials during a visit to Washington in March of Bahrain’s intention to name Nunu…

“This move is not propaganda. It reflects a climate of tolerance towards minorities in Bahrain,” which is ruled by a Sunni dynasty and has a disgruntled Shiite majority…

“Nunu’s appointment stresses the seriousness of Bahrain’s reform policies … It shows that Bahrain does not differentiate between men and women in public offices and does not discriminate against citizens on the bases of their beliefs,” the official said.

Ms. Nunu’s appointment has drawn some criticism in Bahrain, where some have questioned the “political motives” which precipitated King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s decision.

Ms. Nunu’s brother Ibrahim was previously the first Jewish member of Bahrain’s Shura Council, the upper house of Bahraini parliament, and Ms. Nunu, a Shura Council member for three years, is herself the co-founder of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society, and is the granddaughter of Ibrahim Nunu who, in 1919, served as the Bahraini Jewish Community’s representative under the British authorities.

Bahrain’s tiny Jewish community numbers no more than 40, but its members are well-represented in Bahrain’s business community. The community in Bahrain dates back to Talmudic times, and Bahrain’s capital boasts the only synagogue in the Persian Gulf. When asked about her Jewish observance, Ms. Nunu told the Jerusalem Post:

“We keep Rosh Hashana and Pessah and the other holidays in our homes,” Nonoo said, according to a report by the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. “When my son had his bar mitzva, I flew a rabbi over from London for it.”

The Bahraini king’s decision comes amidst talk to grant “full citizenship rights” to Jewish returnees to Bahrain, whereby any Jews “who were residing in Bahrain and are of Arab or Iraqi roots who migrated from another country” can become full Bahraini citizens.

Ask Moses? Ask Musa! April 7, 2008

I recently stumbled upon a novel website, designed to explain about the fundamentals of Judaism and Jewish identity to the Muslim and Arab World. AskMusa.org is a project of a group of “traditional, observant Jews” from various Jewish organizations and presents answers to questions on monotheism and Jewish belief as well as an essay which asks “Who are the Jews?” — contrasting “sons of apes and pigs” with “contributors to society”.

A site too long in coming — but a pleasant change of place.

Visit AskMusa.org.

Geert Wilders and Islamophobic Incitement March 24, 2008

Geert Wilders, the Islamophobic (not, he says, to be confused with anti-Muslim, which would be wrong) right-wing Dutch MP who everyone loves to hate has decided to go full-speed ahead with releasing his anti-Islam film, Fitna — which has already begun to spark outrage throughout the European Union and the Muslim world:

Already, 15,000 people have protested in Afghanistan against the film, burning Dutch flags.

Nato commanders say that the Taliban could use it to whip up more anger and the Dutch ambassador in Malaysia said protests could lead to “dozens of deaths”. Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation, said the film would threaten peace.

In a speech to the European parliament in Strasbourg this year, the Grand Mufti of Syria warned of global consequences. “If there is unrest, bloodshed and violence after the broadcast of the Koran film, Wilders will be responsible,” he said.

The website for the film - fitnathemovie.com - was taken offline by its Internet Service Provider, Network Solutions, for the flagrant violation of its acceptable use policy which bans such inciting speech.

Of course, like minds flock together — the Czech far-right National Party has offered to step up and broadcast the movie, offering Wilders asylum and protection in the Czech Republic in an “undisclosed location” should any attempts be made on his life.

And all this for what? To continue to give a voice to this man’s racist diatribe? This is someone who has called Islamic society “retarded” and inferior, and who has called the Qur’an a “fascist text”? Where is the heter, who gave this man permission, to just patently diss 1/6 of humanity like this?

Would he honestly be able to stomach an equivalent diss against his own faith, his own background, his own culture? And the National Party will be equally responsible if they take the disastrous step of broadcasting Fitna in lieu of Network Solutions.

Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard told the Dutch De Volksrant in an exclusive interview that:

Dutch politician Geert Wilders should definitely air his anti-Quranfilm, Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard says Monday in an exclusive interview in the Dutch newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’.

Westergaard says he does not understand Dutch politicians who say that Wilders should not air his film. ‘There is not a single politician in Denmark that would state a similar thing. That would mean political suicide for him. Every Danish politician knows you should never limit the freedom of speech.’

Westergaard does not regret his caricatures of the prophet Muhammad ‘at all’. ‘It started out as and still is a matter of freedom of speech.’ Westergaard considers starting this debate as a ‘duty’ of newspapers and cartoonists. ‘Muslims are to accept that.’

Muslims are to “accept that”? Freedom of speech, as the Egyptian ambassador to Indonesia already said, is circumscribed by a sense of responsibility which must likewise never be compromised — the International Human Rights Law makes provisions for hate speech and related things.

How is Westergaard living, by the way?

Death threats have forced Westergaard to live in safe houses. He will soon be moving to a new shelter for the sixth time.

He was first criticized after he had drawn a picture of the prophet Muhammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban for the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. His caricatures were recently republished by several newspapers in Denmark. Three men plotting an attack on his life were arrested mid February….More than 200 thousand people demonstrated against the Danish cartoons and the Dutch film of Wilders in the Afghan city of Jalalabad on Sunday. ‘Death to Denmark, death to the Nederlands’, the crowd shouted.

So Wilders is willing to go through this, put Dutch troops on the frontlines in danger, cause millions of euros in losses for Dutch businesses, potentially cause hundreds of murders, and cause a worldwide furor by insulting the faith of 1/6 of humanity — for what? What could possibly be worth it?

Jewish-Muslim Unity In the News December 3, 2007

The Muslim Council of Britain has finally voted to end its almost seven-year boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day:

“The MCB has always placed a lot of emphasis on inter-faith work and building ties … so this was becoming a problem.” — MCB assistant general secretary, Inayat Bunglawala

In Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, the 6th Annual Dialogue Project Teach-In was a huge success with people of all religious stripes coming together for “no feuding, just talking”:

At another session, an imam explained that Christians and Jews were to be respected and welcomed as equals in true Muslim nations. He went on to explain that much of the radicalism associated with Islam was not consonant with a true interpretation of the faith.

“Many of the fatwas that get issued, they are issued by scholars who are unqualified and therefore they are unacceptable,” said the imam.

In South Africa, Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Dr Warren Goldstein and the Premier of the Western Cape, Ebrahim Rasool will speak on “Jews and Muslims: Faith, Community and Country” at the Chief Rabbi’s Enriching Tomorrows: Sharing Ideas for the Future public speaking forum.

Rightwing British politicans scheduled to speak at the Oxford Forum at Oxford University in England were greeted last week by a joint protest from Oxford’s Union of Jewish Students and Islamic Society:

The Union of Jewish Students and Oxford University’s Islamic Society carried a huge banner marked with the symbols of both organisations. Some Muslim demonstrators carried posters proclaiming “Hands off our Jews”, while the Jewish Society carried others saying “Hands off our Muslims”.

This beautiful interfaith “holiday service” would have been better if it had a rabbi, but whatever…

And finally, in Washington, DC leaders of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities came together to fight a common problem: poverty and inequality, two things all faiths consider to be front-burner issues.

May we see the end of religion-driven violence speedily in our days, and may all religious leaders come to realize the huge benefits reaped by humanity when bridges are built instead of walls.

‘Halal Pork’? Pranksters Under Investigation November 5, 2007

What in the hell is this?

NTUC FairPrice said it will make a police report over “a deliberate and wilful act of mischief” to tamper with its packaging of “Pasar Fresh Pork”. It said it takes such matters seriously. A photo by a MediaCorp viewer showed a pack of NTUC’s Pasar pork with a halal sticker from the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore. FairPrice clarified the original packaging has no halal sticker.

OK - after seeing the debacles in Monsey, NY where nonkosher meat was mislabeled as kosher (intentionally) and Brooklyn where “glatt kosher” labels were placed on kosher meat of lesser standard, two words jump to my mind: inside job. Either someone who had access to these Islamic Religious Council labels did this, or the person who did this has some connection to Islamic Religious Council stationery, etc.

Not to mention, we are not talking about a minor infraction of sharia here. We’re talking about pork. No store employee would have inadvertently done something like this.

How does this benefit anyone? One is not “wrestling power” into the hands of a “secular majority” by attaching these labels — one advances no cause by attempting to screw with the heads of innocent shoppers simply looking for halal food to prepare for their families. NTUC FairPrice is completely justified in seeking criminal redress (and, in Singapore, that could equal a physically painful price), and I pray that no sincere All-h-fearing Muslim person got caught up in this oh-it’s-so-funny act of anti-religious prejudice.

Jewish-Muslim Unity: JAM on it! October 31, 2007

First of all, I wanted to thank and sent out my heartfelt acknowledgements to everyone who I met on the PLP conference I was attending in Santa Monica, California this week. A city whose beauty is surpassed only by its warm inhabitants, the beach and sun served as the perfect backdrop for the conference of idea exchange and bridge building among Jewish leaders and professionals. I thank G-d for giving me the merit to be part of such an event.

Speaking of meritorious events, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, a group of students at Yale University had the foresight to realize that there was a need for dialogue with Muslims, especially between Jews and Muslims, and that bridges needed to be built after the towers fell. A group of undergraduate students formed JAM (Jews And Muslims) to bridge gaps and unite communities. Now, six years later, JAM has launched its own blog, as the Yale Daily News tells us:

Yale students with opinions about the relationship between Jews and Muslims now have an online forum in which to air their thoughts.

On Sunday night, Jews and Muslims at Yale (JAM) launched a new blog called “Jews, Muslims and Dialogue” that members said they hope will be a vehicle for discussion about issues ranging from the concept of justice in Islam and Judaism to student reactions to Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz’s LAW ’62 visit to Yale earlier this month….

The blog should be an online meeting place for people of all ideological views to listen to each other and their opinions, Blau said.

“I don’t want people leaving feeling like ‘Oh, now I see,’ ” Blau said. “[But at least] they can see why their colleagues would think something like that.”

Altaf Saadi ’08, a JAM member who served as its co-head last year, said she hopes the blog’s dialogue will serve as a model for discussion of controversial issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We are such a diverse body of students at Yale, with such varied thoughts and opinions, that there needs to be constructive forums like JAM where all those ideas can be exchanged in a respectful way,” Saadi said in an e-mail. “Our hope is to try to bridge those gaps and points of misunderstanding, real or perceived,” Saadi said.

Jeremy Avins ’10, one of the current co-heads of JAM, said both the Jewish and Muslim communities feel threatened. This reciprocal fear has led members of each group to “dehumanize” members of the other, making mutual understanding difficult, he said.

“It’s too easy to dehumanize a people you either don’t know or feel threatened by,” Avins said in an e-mail. “JAM is one of many efforts to bring the human back into the equation.”

Battling mutual fear with open and respectful idea exchange. May this be the way all of humanity begins to cope with its fear of communities and ideologies.

JAM’s blog can be found at jewsandmuslims.blogspot.com.

Like JAM say, “Peace, Shalom, and Salaam.”

Why A Non-Muslim Observes Ramadan September 18, 2007

Today, Dave Matthews, (ha!) a non-Muslim writing for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, decided to observe the Muslim holy month this year, as a non-Muslim:

OK, I’m not Muslim. In fact, I can’t claim to be of any religious persuasion. I practice Sufism, but that isn’t like practicing medicine. In the community of Sufis I belong to, we understand that we are forever striving but never really achieving Sufism.

Be that as it may, I have for the past several years decided I would observe Ramadan. You might well ask why.

OK. Why?

For my children’s sake and as a model for my community, I observe Ramadan in honor of my brothers and sisters in the Muslim world. In honor of their suffering. In honor of their pain. In honor of the truth of their teachings.

The world we inhabit seems to be splintering apart around me. All the hopes I have harbored for peace on the planet, in the Middle East, even in my neighborhood, seem to be floating forlornly to the ground like the last autumn leaves.

This powerful, remarkable nation that I have lived in all my life seems incapable of wielding its influence in a responsible way. Every move by our current administration seems to dig us deeper into the pit of hatred and anger that has already manifested on our shores with the deaths of thousands of innocents. Radicals on all sides seem to command the lines of communication. So that instead of hearing the pope speaking about loving everyone in the way that Christ taught, he is famous for insulting the Muslims. Instead of hearing of Muhammad’s call for peace and tolerance, we only hear of jihad and a call to murder.

It’s hard not to feel powerless in the midst of the ubiquitous strife and fury. But in some small way, perhaps we can work within our own communities and our own relationships to demonstrate a different reality.

May we all succeed in doing so. May this Ramadan drive all of its observers to “demonstrate a different reality.” May we all work together to usher in peace and unity.

What does Islam have to say about tolerance? January 1, 2007

A video featuring an Indian woman’s question to Dr. Zakir Naik.

New Hampshire Jews, Muslims Come Together To Feed Needy December 26, 2006

Another example of interfaith unity accomplishing wonderful things.

From Boston.com:

N.H. Jews, Muslims serve meal at shelter
December 26, 2006

MANCHESTER, N.H. –New Hampshire Jews and Muslims say serving Christmas meals to the poor on a Christian holy day shows that different faiths can work together. Volunteers from the two religions were at the New Horizon shelter Monday. They worked in the kitchen and on the serving line where turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes were on the menu.

For more than 25 years, members of a local synagogue have volunteered Christmas Eve and Christmas at the soup kitchen. This year, members of the Islamic Society of Greater Manchester joined in.

Ken yirbu.

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.
(more…)

First Muslim Ever Elected to Congress November 9, 2006

The first Muslim ever to be elected to Congress emerged from this past Election Day. Keith Ellison, 43, a Democrat from Minnesota’s 5th District, won the election on a “populist platform”, citing common ground, calling for “peace in Iraq, for greater US reliance on renewable fuels and for a universal, government-paid health care system.”

His rallying cry? “We need to care about the common good.”

Of course, as a Jew, I should be concerned no? A Muslim in the house can’t be good, right? How does he feel about Jews? Will it be good for the JEWS!?!

Republican rival Alan Fine ran campaign ads emphasizing Ellison’s past association with Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam group, seeking to use it as a sign of anti-Semitism. Ellison, who said he converted from Catholicism to Islam in college, insists his involvement with Farrakhan was limited to helping organize a 1995 march on Washington aimed at encouraging black men to improve their communities.

He was supported by the National Jewish Democratic Council as well as a prominent Minneapolis Jewish newspaper, which endorsed him over his Republican rival Fine, who is Jewish.

He wrote a rebuttal letter to the JCRC answering the contentions of anti-Semitism leveled against him.

He stressed commonality and apologetically noted that he did not previously realize that Farrakhan was, and is, anti-Semitic. He stressed unity.

So now, in Congress, it seems as if Jewish-Muslim unity has a voice. Ken yirbu.

May unity be allowed to bring the ends of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia speedily in our days.

Why should we criticize Islam as if it’s the problem? November 1, 2006

The third-most popular article today in the Washington Post religion section caught my attention. Not so much for its content, but because I could not help but question its underlying principle.

Journalist Selcan Hacaoglu reported some of the speech given by Ali Bardakoglu, head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Ministry, to a Muslim conference in preparation of the Pope’s upcoming visit to Turkey. Among the things Bardakoglu said was that criticism of Islam is, in and of itself, an obstacle to world peace:

A leading Turkish cleric called criticism of Islam a serious threat to world peace, speaking Wednesday as Turkey prepared for a controversial visit by Pope Benedict XVI later in the month. Benedict visits Turkey…two months after provoking widespread anger by quoting an emperor who characterized the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings as “evil and inhuman.”

Ali Bardakoglu, head of the country’s religious affairs, said “it was saddening” to see Islam being criticized while the religion’s contribution to civilization is ignored.

“This attitude, which fuels division and lack of mutual trust, is seriously threatening world peace,” Bardakoglu told a conference in Istanbul attended by several African Muslim leaders.

I must say that I am inclined to agree with Bardakoglu. Not only is criticism of Islam an obstacle to world peace, but criticism of Islam takes the attention away from the pathology of terrorism and unduly draws attention away from non-Muslim terrorists.

During any of the Catholic priest sex abuse scandals, when archdiocese after archdiocese saw itself mired in a slew of phone calls and investigations, when the Pope himself had to comment, did anyone say anything to the effect of, “Wherever you find Thomas Aquinas creating anything new, there you will find things only evil and inhuman”? Even with the quick juxtaposition and clarification the Pope followed his quote up with?

For some reason, even in the Arabic-speaking media, such a contention was not even a thought. However, Islam has been subject to website after website decrying it as the problem. Not only does this serve to partially indemnify terrorists, as one has placed blame on a centuries-old ideology and not a human being with explosives attached to them, but it also is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

By dissing the religion espoused by one-sixth of the human population of the planet, one sets oneself up to be hated. By a lot of people. Why wasn’t, for instance, nationalist violence (committed largely by Christians and atheists) in Europe followed by a series of cartoons of Christian personalities vilifying enough to make Andres Serrano’s historic Piss Christ look like The Little Mermaid? Why was shari’a allowed to be flagrantly disrespected in the media through the Muhammad cartoons by non-Muslims — which infuriated me, for one, if only as a religious individual (I can’t imagine how insulted the Muslims who protested must have felt) — but blue laws were allowed to be on the books until 2002 in Massachusetts without a peep?

I think we are seeing the proliferation of a baseless hatred for Islam. Perhaps rooted in European colonialism and pan-European racism, perhaps rooted in pan-Americanism and general neocon vociferousness, but definitely there. Islam takes criticism no one subjects other ideologies too. The Washington Post article made me question: why would you even think to criticize Islam, the ideology?

Criticize the imam who denounces Jews. Criticize the sheikh who calls for violence. Criticize the suicide bomber. But to not examine these things as what they are — violations of Qur’an, not the “following of Islam”, and certainly not “mainstream Islam” itself — places the blame on hundreds of millions of innocent people and removes blame from the hundreds (perhaps) of actual criminals. Criticism of Islam does prevent world peace from becoming a reality.

It takes our attention away from the real hindrances to peace.

(Crossposted to Jewschool)