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Militant Islam Monitor > Weblog > Jihad denial: Jewish and Catholic groups legitimise Islamists- propagate the hoax of Abrahamic faith unity with Islam

Jihad denial: Jewish and Catholic groups legitimise Islamists- propagate the hoax of Abrahamic faith unity with Islam

December 28, 2005

MIM: The term interfaith has come to denote any activity involving groups or individuals who come together to discuss their respective faiths wax lyrical about how similiar they are. One manifestation of this trend is the idea of 'Islamic faith unity' in which major Jewish and Catholic organisations get together with Muslim groups propagating the myth that they have so much in common when they are being duped by Muslim groups exploiting interfaith activities as a forum for missionising,

Below are several explanations and descriptions of interfaith and interfaith activities by major Christian an Jewish organisations in their own words.

Some of the inclusionary activities border on the ludicrous such as "The national memorial for indigent persons" - which begs the question as to if pauperism has been elevated to the status of a new religion.

The concept of interfaith between Muslim with Christians and Jews is far more insidious and is a form of 'Jihad through Da'wa'.

MIM: The website of the archdiosese of Chicago offers this helpful but inaccurate explanation of the difference between ecumenical , interfaith and interreligious relations. The definition of interreligious according to the arch diocese differs from that of the American Jewish Committee who just lauched their interreligious educational effort which only involves Muslim, Jews, and Christians.

http://www.archchicago.org/departments/ecumenical/eia_relations.shtm

What is the difference between "ecumenical", "interfaith", and "interreligious" relations?

The Catholic Church promotes ecumenical relations and prayer with other Christians, interfaith relations alongside other Christians with the "Abrahamic faiths": Jews and Muslims, and interreligious relations with other religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism.

Our office collaborates with other Christians through the following:

  • Annual Ecumenical Seminar, a speaker series on topics timely to the ecumenical movement, in the autumn of each year
  • Participation in the Ecumenical Millennium Committee (EMC), with representatives from 17 Christian churches on behalf of their judicatory head – the EMC plans the Annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Ecumenical Prayer Service during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18 – 25) of each year
  • Lutheran-Episcopal-Roman Catholic Committee – the LERC Committee plans an Annual LERC Vespers on Trinity Sunday of each year which is co-sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago and the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
  • Evangelical-Roman Catholic Common Root Project, a dialogue between Evangelical Christian and Catholic theologians, co-sponsored by the University of St. Mary of the Lake and Trinity Divinity School
  • Participation in the Illinois Conference of Churches, with representatives from 31 judicatories comprising 15 Christian churches in Illinois
  • Religious for Christian Unity, a group of men and women religious dedicated to fellowship, sharing Scripture and prayer for Christian unity

Our office collaborates with the Jewish community through the following:

  • Annual Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Jerusalem Lecture, a speaker series that alternates between a Jewish and Catholic location and a Catholic and Jewish speaker, co-sponsored with the American Jewish Committee – Chicago Chapter, Chicago Board of Rabbis, Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago and the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, in the winter of each year
  • Annual Jewish-Christian Clergy Retreat, a 24-hour retreat for rabbis, priests and ministers on timely topics, co-sponsored with the American Jewish Committee – Chicago Chapter, the Chicago Board of Rabbis, the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago and the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
  • Collaboration with the American Jewish Committee – Chicago Chapter on the Catholic-Jewish Educational Enrichment Project, which introduces Catholic schools to Judaism and the Jewish people and Jewish schools to Catholicism
  • Ongoing dialogues with the Jewish community, especially a Catholic-Jewish Scholars Dialogue, and promotion of numerous local dialogues

Our office collaborates with the Muslim community through the following:

  • Accepting the invitation of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC) to attend the Annual Interfaith Iftar, which includes the breaking of the Ramadan fast, the observation of maghrib prayer, a festive dinner and program, in the Muslim month of Ramadan
  • Ongoing dialogues with the Muslim community, especially with the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC) and the Ministry of Imam W.D. Mohammed (the Black Muslim community), and promotion of numerous local dialogues

Our office collaborates with other religions through the following:

  • Participation in the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago, which meets periodically to discuss civic affairs and issue common to the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities in the metropolitan Chicago area
  • Participation in the Interfaith Airport Chapels of Chicago (IACC) Board of Directors, which provides Catholic Christian, Eastern Orthodox Christian, Protestant Christian, Jewish and Muslim worship opportunities at the O'Hare and Midway Interfaith Airport Chapels
  • Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions (CPWR), based in Chicago, which hosts periodic Parliaments of the World's Religions and local interreligious programming and dialogues
  • National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), including contributing to the Annual NCCJ Interfaith Calendar and the Annual NCCJ Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, in November of each year
  • Annual Memorial Service for Indigent Persons, commemorating the lives of indigent persons as recorded in the records of the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, the last Wednesday in May of each year
  • Ongoing dialogue with the Buddhist community, especially with the Buddhist Council of the Midwest

The Office for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs supports these and many other groups in the metropolitan Chicago area. Please contact our office for further details on how you can get involved.

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MIM: The interfaith mission statement of the American Jewish Committee includes "communicating concerns and sensitivities of the Jewish community to those of other faiths, and helping the Jewish community understand the concerns and sensitivities of others". This ambiguous declaration belies the fact that the AJC gets actively involved in political and educational endeavors which have granted legitimacy to radical Islamists.

http://www.ajc.org/site/c.ijITI2PHKoG/b.844687/k.886C/MuslimJewish_Relations.htm

Muslim-Jewish Relations

Since its inception, AJC has been one of the leading organizations-Jewish or American--committed to strengthening understanding and communication across religious lines. Our goals include communicating concerns and sensitivities of the Jewish community to those of other faiths, and helping the Jewish community understand the concerns and sensitivities of others. Through organizational partnerships and coalitions, formal and informal discussions and conversations, academic conferences, publications, and personal interaction, our efforts have made major contributions to cooperation and mutual respect among peoples of all faiths.

Rabbi David Rosen
Director of the Department for Interreligious Affairs
Director of the Harriet and Robert Heilbrunn Institute for International Interreligious Understanding

David Elcott
U.S. Director of the Department for Interreligious Affairs



Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are the three "Abrahamic faiths," tracing their roots to the time of Abraham. To quote David Harris, our efforts in the area of Muslim-Jewish relations should remind us "of the long, rich, and often mutually nourishing historical relations between Jews and Muslims in many lands and the extraordinary gifts to humankind that Muslim-Jewish interaction generated in advancing knowledge and culture."

As we face the future, AJCs efforts in the area of Muslim-Jewish relations will lay the groundwork for understanding and cooperation across faith group lines in ways that will be extraordinarily important.

---------------

MIM: The AJC announced that they are 'Monitoring terrorist groups to vet potential partners for Muslim - Jewish dialouge'

  • Monitoring terrorist groups
    We are a resource to local media on issues concerning the terrorist threat in our backyard. With our access to AJC's national division on counter-terrorism, our chapter has also become the central address for local synagogues and other institutions attempting to vet potential partners for Muslim-Jewish Dialogue

    http://www.ajc.org/site/c.ffITK0OyFoG/b.843905/k.F79F/Palm_Beach.htm

    MIM: The AJC is extremely proud of their record of supporting Muslim and Muslim causes. In 2004 the director of the New York office David Harris, and a delegation of 100 AJC members met with terrorist Jibril Rajoub, the PA 'security chief' who told them that his terrorists cronies had killed Jew in the wrong place.

    "...Terror attacks against Israeli civilians within the Green Line were a tragic mistake for the Palestinian people, the Palestinian Security Advisor said on Tuesday.

    "As a matter of principle I think that this was wrong and I think that this was one of the mistakes of the Palestinians, to attack Israeli civilians or to make any kind of attacks inside the Green Line," Rajoub told a meeting of the AJC (American Jewish Committee) Board of Governors at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem..."

    http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:rwfmER3H7SgJ:www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite%3Fpagename%3DJPost/JPArticle/ShowFull%26cid%3D1076393704337%26p%3D1006688055060+jibril+rajoub+ajc+&hl=en

    MIM:This year, Rabjoub joined together with jailed terrorist Marwan Bargouti who was had been given 5 life sentences for the murder of Jews to form a new terrorist group claimng to bea political party.

    MIM: Below are some highlights of the AJC's interfaith 'acheivements' as the AJC bends over forewards to convince Muslims of their humanity and devotion in the hopes they will be loved in return. Some of the more outrageous activities include AJC's NY director's trip to Germany to attend the funeral of Muslims killed in a firebomb attack.

    Which begs the question as to the last time an AJC delegation travelled to Israel to attend the funeral of Jewish terrorist victims.

    MIM: The AJC was also quick to come with a post 9/11 statement decrying an illusory backlash against Muslims after 9/11, and obscenely reiterated their mantra calling for "pluralism and openess".

    MIM: At a recent event the AJC hosted J. Welton Gaddy of the Interfaith Alliance. Among the members of the board of Gaddy's organisation is Mahdi Bray of the Al Qaeda linked MAS, and Maher Hathout of MPAC, which has virtually merged with CAIR.

    http://www.ajcbuffalo.org/Bandkier%20Update.htm Religious Expression in the Public Square
    Professor Richard Parker, lecturer in public policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, was the featured speaker at a daylong consultation at AJC on religious expression in the public square. Also addressing the group was Nathan Diament, director of the Orthodox Union's Institute on Public Affairs, and Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance. The 50 AJC lay leaders and staff attending broke into smaller groups over lunch to discuss the issues and examine what actions AJC should consider in this area.
  • ---------------
    MIM: The AJC started it's Muslim interfaith as a result of the WTC bombings. Under the heading interfaith "History and Highlights" we see that the AJC first post/9/11 manifestation of political correctness was to host adical Islamist Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, who insinuated himself into the WTC bombings commemorations as a leader of the Muslim community.
  • 2001 -December. Imam Feisal Abdel Rauf addresses the AJC National Interreligious Affairs Commission, on the topic of "Challenges Ahead for Jewish-Muslim Relations."
  • http://69.20.5.215/Interreligious/HistoryHighlights.asp
  • ----------------------------------------------------

    http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=846735&ct=1083361

    1992-1995 Urging action in Bosnia
    In a series of letters and public statements from 1992 to 1995 and in numerous meetings with U.S. and foreign officials, AJC urges NATO intervention in Yugoslavia in order to prevent further mass killing of Bosnian Muslims and help bring an end to the continued violence in the region.

    In an "Open Letter to World Leaders," AJC and two sister agencies lament the "the existence of Serbian death camps in which humans, forcibly incarcerated because of their ethnicity, are once again being systematically slaughtered" and urge the United States and the international community to act without delay.

    AJC's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) plays a vital role in strengthening the human rights voice within the international community. In 1993, JBI director Felice Gaer leads a fact-finding mission to the region to document ethnic cleansing and related human rights abuses, including importantly sexual violence against women. In the following year, Gaer travels with the United Nations Association to assess official UN peacekeeping efforts in all parts of the area. JBI works extensively with the UN to ensure that those who perpetrated crimes in the former Yugoslavia be brought to justice and to help educate the public on the complex legal and ethical issues involved in this historic endeavor. Its involvement with the UN War Crimes Tribunal dealing with Bosnia and neighboring countries extends to this day.

    AJC helps to build and set the agendas of a number of powerful coalitions around the issue of Bosnia. From 1993-1995, AJC and JBI issue numerous letters and statements with coalitions of diverse major religious and human rights organizations, laying out specific proposals for action.

    1993 Condemning scapegoating
    In the wake of the March 9 car bomb at the World Trade Center, AJC issues a statement warning against a potential backlash of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim violence in the United States. "Those who would implicate an entire people or religion because of the accusations against a few add grievous insult to murderous injury. Therefore, we call on all Americans of goodwill to denounce any form of ethnic, racial or religious scapegoating."

    1993 Expressing solidarity with Muslim victims of hate in Germany
    AJC executive director David Harris and director of community services Eugene DuBow travel to Germany for the sole purpose of attending the June 3 funeral at a mosque in Cologne of five Muslim victims of the hate-inspired firebombing of a house in Solingen a few days earlier.

    "I am neither a Turk nor a German nor a Muslim, but an American Jew profoundly concerned with the evil of crimes inspired by hatred based on so-called 'differentness' or 'otherness' wherever they may occur," says Harris in his public comments. "I stand with you today on behalf of the American Jewish Committee…. As we are taught in Judaism, we are all - all of us - created in God's image."

    1993 Promoting Muslim-Jewish understanding in the United States
    AJC co-sponsors the first ever national conference on "Muslims and Jews in North America: Past, Present and Future" with the Institute for Islamic-Judaic Studies at the University of Denver in October. Academics and experts from major American universities, including Princeton, Howard, Syracuse, Colorado, and Syracuse, as well as from Tel Aviv University, join for groundbreaking discussions.

    "It is time for Muslims and Jews alike to speak out boldly and honestly to each other, to come to know and understand each other as people and not as spiritual abstractions," says Rabbi A. James Rudin, AJC interreligious director, at the conference.

    1994 Promoting Muslim-Jewish understanding in the United States
    AJC sponsors a second national conference to foster understanding between Muslims and Jews entitled "Women, Families, and Children in Islamic and Judaic Traditions" at the University of Denver. The conference focuses on issues of commonality between the religions and cultures.

    [A third national conference, however, is cancelled when irreconcilable differences emerge over a spate of deadly terrorist attacks against Israeli targets.]

    1995 Condemning scapegoating
    Following the April 19 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, AJC issues a statement warning against any prejudgments about responsibility for the attack and condemns incidents of violence toward Arab and Muslim Americans.

    1995 Forging contacts with the Muslim world
    AJC becomes the first Jewish group to be invited on a diplomatic visit to Kuwait to meet with the foreign minister and other officials. Contact with Kuwait dates back to the Gulf War, when AJC vigorously supported U.S. efforts to oppose Iraqi occupation. In 1994, AJC had hosted a meeting with visiting members of Kuwait's National Assembly to discuss concerns about Kuwaitis missing since the Gulf War and suspected of being held in Iraq.

    In 1995, AJC also becomes the first American Jewish group to visit the moderate Arab states of Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain and encourage the growing dialogue with the West.

    Jason Isaacson, director of AJC's Office of Government and International Affairs, maintains close, ongoing contact with high-level members of the government of these and other moderate Arab and Muslim states.

    1995-present Engaging in dialogue with Muslim influentials
    Starting in 1995, AJC becomes a frequent stop for visiting delegations of Muslim clergy and Arab intellectuals on U.S. State Department-sponsored visits to the United States to study American pluralism.

    1996 Aiding Muslim refugees
    AJC takes a special interest in the welfare of a former senior Muslim government official forced to flee with his family from Sudan, offering needed aid for resettlement.

    1996-2000 Forging contacts with the Muslim world
    AJC representatives are invited to address the Diplomatic Institute of the Egyptian foreign ministry on a number of occasions to discuss Arab-Israeli relations and the status of Muslim-Jewish dialogue worldwide.

    1999 Promoting Muslim-Jewish understanding in the United States
    AJC holds meetings to launch an important relationship with the Islamic Supreme Council of America, a moderate American Muslim organization headed by Sheikh Kabbani.

    1999 Aiding Muslims in Kosovo
    A high-level AJC delegation travels to Macedonia at the start of the Kosovar refugee crisis to bear witness and show solidarity and support for Muslims forced to flee their homes. AJC draws attention to the plight of the refugees through ads in The New York Times depicting the children of Kosovo. Over $1.2 million is raised for humanitarian aid, which AJC directs in its entirety toward alleviating the plight of the refugees.

    AJC publicly supports NATO's action against Serbian troops as a necessary last means of defending Albanian Muslims persecuted in Kosovo. In ads in The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, and New Republic, AJC states: "With determination and courage, NATO weighed the difficult choices and chose to act - because it was right, because the alternative would give tyrants a green light to terrorize civilian populations and destroy the fabric of international order."

    1999 Forging contact between Israel and the Muslim world
    Due to its high standing and legitimacy in the Muslim world, AJC is able to arrange the first-ever meetings between the Israeli and Malaysian and Israeli and Tunisian foreign ministers. (Israel does not have formal relations or contacts with either of these countries.) Not infrequently, AJC has served to help facilitate communication between Muslim nations and Israel or Jewish leaders.

    1999 Providing Turkish earthquake relief
    Following the devastating earthquake in Turkey in the summer of 1999, AJC raises $800,000 for humanitarian relief. The money is used to rebuild a school and construct a clinic in the areas of Adapazari and Duzce - both devastated by the earthquake. AJC executive director David Harris joins Turkish Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at the dedication of the school.

    "We, the Jewish people, have chosen to stand with you, our friends, in your darkest hours, just as you have chosen to stand with us on more than one difficult occasion in our own history," says Harris. "We have chosen to be friends, not only on the nice days but on the rainy days as well."

    2000 Forging contacts with the Muslim world
    AJC and its partner organization, the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, go on an historic joint visit to Indonesia to meet with President Abdurrahman Wahid and other top officials to discuss a possible opening of lines of communication with Israel and the advancement of interreligious dialogue, among other pressing subjects.

    2001 Promoting Muslim-Jewish understanding
    AJC's Robert and Harriet Heilbrunn Institute for Interreligious Understanding releases two pathbreaking volumes designed to advance understanding between Muslims and Jews worldwide. One of the books, entitled Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims, by Professor Reuven Firestone, a scholar of Islam at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, presents Judaism to Muslim readers.

    The second book, by Muslim scholar Khalid Duran, subtitled An Introduction to Islam for Jews, seeks to enhance Jewish understanding of Islam.

    The books are praised by many experts in the field, including the Crown Prince of Jordan, who calls it "a courageous initiative to promote understanding, wisdom and brotherhood between the Jewish and Muslim communities in the land, which is holy to both of them - and around the world."

    2001 Advancing Muslim-Jewish Relations in Germany

    AJC's Berlin Office hosts a pathbreaking meeting with Turkish politicians and leaders of major national Turkish social and religious organizations in Germany to discuss common challenges of the Turkish and Jewish communities.

    2001 Condemning scapegoating
    Following the attack on America by Osama bin Laden's terrorist forces, AJC issues a statement condemning stereotyping and racist action.

    The statement reads: "The catastrophic terror inflicted on American soil must not become an occasion for stereotyping or scapegoating.

    "Jewish history makes us painfully aware that, too often, times of crisis provide opportunities for expressions of bigotry.

    "An entire people or religion should never be implicated because of the heinous crimes committed by some of its members. We call on all Americans of goodwill to denounce any form of ethnic, racial or religious intolerance and reaffirm the American spirit of pluralism and openness."

    Compiled by Rebecca Neuwirth, October 11, 2001

    ----------------

    http://www.forward.com/issues/2001/01.09.21/news3.html

    Leaders Split On Overtures To Muslims' Organizations

    Divisions Emerge As Backlash Brews

    By JULIA GOLDMAN
    FORWARD STAFF

    Reports of anti-Muslim incidents following the September 11 terror attacks are causing a split among American Jewish community leaders, with local Jewish organizations joining calls for tolerance and unity while some national Jewish leaders are urging caution in joining alliances that may include groups opposed to Israel.

    Initial reports of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias surfaced almost immediately after attacks, which claimed thousands of lives and have been blamed on the Afghanistan-based Islamic extremist Osama bin Laden. Reports have included verbal harassment, threats and a handful of physical attacks on individuals and religious institutions.

    Expressions of concern from local Jewish community leaders around the country were almost as instantaneous. In Mobile, Ala., the president of the local Jewish Community Relations Council, Irving Silver, said that one of the first things he did after hearing of the terrorist attack was to call the local police to check that Mobile's small Arab-American community would receive additional security protection.

    Similarly, Michael Rapp, executive director of the JCRC in Cincinnati, thought at once of his contacts in the city's Arab-American community. By mid-afternoon, he said, the regional mosque and educational center had begun receiving threats.

    The heads of several national Jewish organizations, however, warned late last week that poorly planned ecumenical efforts might unintentionally whitewash the image of those groups that they say have failed in the past adequately to condemn Middle East terrorism.

    "We agree there should be expressions of unity among all Americans," Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told the Forward.

    "Our reservation is that we don't want to give credibility or credence to people who have been advocates for or had associations with an organization that had supported terrorism," said Mr. Hoenlein, whose organization speaks for 54 national Jewish groups ranging from the Anti-Defamation League and Hadassah to the four main synagogue federations.

    Mr. Hoenlein was referring to some half-dozen Muslim and Arab-American organizations that frequently advocate lessened U.S. support for Israel. Many Jewish community leaders believe those groups are involved in providing support for organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah that the State Department has designated as terrorist organizations.

    The concerns of the national Jewish leaders are significant at a time when these Muslim and Arab-American groups — among them the American Muslim Alliance, the American Muslim Council and the Council on American-Islamic Relations — are gaining political and public influence. In only the latest example, the heads of those and several other prominent Muslim and Arab-American groups had been scheduled to meet with President Bush on September 11, before the day's tragic events forced a cancellation.

    Several of those groups argued in a letter to the White House that afternoon, and in meetings with Justice and State Department officials September 13, that the administration should speak out quickly against discrimination and violence aimed at American Muslims and Arab-Americans, said Khalil Jahshan, president the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, or ADC.

    Their concerns were answered with unusual rapidity. President Bush raised them in a nationally televised phone conversation on September 13 with New York Mayor Giuliani and New York Governor Pataki. "Our nation must be mindful," the president said, "that there are thousands of Arab-Americans in New York City who love the American flag as much as the three of us do."

    At a press conference the same day, Attorney General John Ashcroft said, "We must not descend to the level of those who perpetrated Tuesday's violence by targeting individuals because of their race, their religion or their national origin."

    Leaders of national Jewish organizations stressed that they strongly oppose stereotyping and assigning blame to any ethnic group or religion, even for the worst terrorist attack in American history.

    The Jewish community and "like-minded groups have always stood clearly, courageously and unequivocally against any form of defamation, especially group defamation," said David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee.

    But, Mr. Harris said, "one of the lines we don't cross is a line that takes us into terrain of dealing with people who defend our worst enemies."

    In a well-reported incident last year, a founder and current board member of AMC, Abdurahman Alamoudi, roused an anti-Israel rally outside the White House with chants of "We are ALL supporters of Hamas.... I am also a supporter of Hezbollah."

    Calls to AMC, CAIR and AMA seeking comment were not returned last week. But in interviews conducted earlier this year, officials at several Muslim organizations said Jewish groups hold them to impossibly high standards of support for Israel. They claimed the pro-Israel lobby is targeting them in order to exclude Muslims from American political discourse.

    AMC's president, Aly Abuzaakouk, has been cited by some Jewish groups for statements defending Palestinian attacks on Israelis. In one statement last June, often cited by Jewish critics, Mr. Abuzaakouk said: "People under occupation have the right to resist occupation. That's what the Palestinians are doing."

    Speaking to the Forward last summer, Mr. Abuzaakouk said: "I said that and I stand for it, but this is not a carte blanche approval of terrorist actions."

    Muslim and Arab-American leaders continued to draw that distinction in the wake of this month's terrorist attacks on the United States. "Any attack which targets civilians is reprehensible," said a spokesman for ADC, Hussein Ibish, interviewed on September 13. "The policy of an organization to hijack an airplane and fly it into a building is wrong," he told the Forward.

    But he went on to say, in apparent reference to Israel: "The policy of a government to assassinate political leaders and to shoot demonstrators is wrong."

    Despite these differences, Muslim and Arab-American groups have sought dialogue and cooperation with Jewish organizations for several years, usually with little success. AMC's Mr. Abuzaakouk said he believed American Jews and Muslims should try to work together on domestic issues by developing a mutual agenda based on "American issues and American ideals" and shared concepts of justice. Earlier this year, however, his participation in a conservative group called the Alliance for Marriage prompted the resignation of an Orthodox Jewish participant.

    Yehudit Barsky, a staff expert on terrorism at AJCommittee, characterized the efforts by Muslim groups to open a dialogue with Jewish groups as tantamount to saying: "Yes, we want to have a dialogue, but we also believe in armed struggle." That, she said, "runs counter to dialogue."

    On a local level, however, the question of evaluating coalition partners can be more nuanced and complex.

    Southeastern Michigan, for example, is home to one of the nation's largest Arab-American populations — some 250,000 to 300,000 strong, according to some estimates.

    The Arab community and the Jewish community "live in the same neighborhoods, we're colleagues at work, we interact with each other," said Rabbi Marla Feldman, assistant director of the Detroit Jewish Community Relations Council. "In our community we're not just talking about national coalition leadership. We have day-to-day relationships with people."

    The Detroit JCRC works closely with an Arab-American community center and social service agency, a Chaldean — or Iraqi Christian — community council and the American Arab Chamber of Commerce. The Jewish council has also been approached by Dr. Yahya Basha, a Detroit-area radiologist who is the national president of the American Muslim Council.

    Dr. Basha told the Forward he was eager to work with the Jewish community on civil- and human-rights issues, such as racial and ethnic profiling and federal funding for faith-based organizations.

    As ethnic minorities in the United States, Dr. Basha said, "We need to improve relations and see each other as humanly as possible."

    The leaders of JCRC and the local AMC chapter held several discussions, but the interactions have not moved beyond preliminary conversations.

    Balancing the need for broad-based community relations with the need for a strong stand in support of Israel, said Rabbi Feldman, is "always a tension and a fine line that we walk."

  • ----------------

    MIM: One of the bright lights of the AJC- The head of the Palm Beach office recently wrote an article where he compared interfaith to air marshals,while inanely asserting that the;

    "good works of interfaith must go on - albeit it carefully and cautiously because these are unprecendently (sic) dangerous times-at least from my perspective".

    Excerpt from "Of terrorists and travel"

    "...Unfortunately is it not just we Americans who know how we are. So does Al Qaeda. In fact in manuals found in Afghanistan and other places, recruits are taught to integrate themselves into American communities, particularly religious communities. They are told to participate in dialogue groups, interfaith services, and teach courses about Islam. Now if my friend Sami Taha, an Israeli Arab Moslem, moved to America and did all these things I would be proud. Regrettably, many who do it are doing it as a means towards an end totally different than bettering interfaith relations. They are doing it to insinuate themselves into the fabric of society, like termites in wood, to weaken the whole structure until it comes down. The only difference between the operatives and the termites is consciousness.

    Several reports of late jibe with these thoughts. One reported that 80% of the mosques in America have been infiltrated by leaders trained in the ultra-conservative, anti-Western Wahabi sect of Islam. Bin Laden belongs to that sect. The sermons of the imams, to the slant of the text books used in adult and children's education, reflect those tenets. Serious, serious business.

    Then there is the conclusion by the Director of Counter-Terrorism of the American Jewish Committee, Yehudit Barsky, who reads, writes, and speaks Arabic, that, if not wary, Americans will continue to be taken advantage of by agents of several organizations in this country known to cooperate with terrorist allies overseas.

    This then is how air marshals and interfaith relations come together. The air marshals are there to protect us from the worst, and in some cases "the worst" will translate in radicalized, probably Wahabi-taught Moslems. Interfaith relations, especially since 1965, the propounding of the Nostre Aetate document from the Second Vatican Council, try to bring out the best of us. The theory is that differences lessen, the edges dull, when people can speak knowledgeably and as friends and neighbors.

    Our real challenge can be equated to the challenge we have in the oceans. In order to feed the world and make a profit, fishing fleets have gone to extensive use of drift nets that cover enormous areas of water. Yes they get their tuna and mackerel and so on, but they also get dolphins, seals, sea turtles, and birds. Over the years regulators and scientists have begun to find ways to protect what needs to be protected while catching what needs to be caught. In addition, once the catch is hoisted additional checks are made, or supposed to be, to release the unwanted.

    Air marshals are part of the safety net. Occasionally the wrong fish will be brought in. We have to be sure and firm with our government that they are released. Meanwhile the good work of interfaith relations must go on albeit carefully and cautiously because these are unprecedentedly dangerous times – at least from my perspective..

  • ------------------------

    MIM: The American Jewish Committee director of interrelious affairs Rabbi David Rosen, is also a participating member of the World Parliament of Religions, (as a representative of the AJC. The WPR is another organisation which is used by Muslims to promote Islam under the guise of interfaith.

    MIM:The WPR also promotes Wiccanism and other 'religions' in the interests of pluralism and diversity.

    On the WPR website Rosen's name appears on the board of trustees directly above that of Saudi millonaire Omar Al Naseef, who was also named on the U.S. government indictment for Al Qaeda funding.

    MIM: In the press release below AJC's David Rosen and Imam Rashied Omar revel in their interfaith lovefest in which they pompously presented a set of proposals called "The Monserat commitments'.

    "...The "Montserrat commitments" have been presented individually and collectively this morning. They include in the words of Imam Omar and Rabbi Rosen "simple and profound acts such as the need to call on governments to use water resources wisely and to recognise the rights of Nature to Water, or to challenge illegitimate armed conflicts and wars through consciousness objection when this is necessary."

    http://www.cpwr.org/2004Parliament/news/pressrelease.2004.07.07.htm

    7000 PEOPLE CONVERGE TOWARDS BARCELONA TODAY FOR WORLD'S GREAT INTERRELIGIOUS CELEBRATION

    CONCLUSION OF MONTSERRAT GATHERING SHOWS DEEP COMMITMENT TO EFFECTIVE ACTION FROM RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES ON KEY ISSUES

    Montserrat-Barcelona, Spain, 7 July 2004 -- Embargoed till 12:00 sharp- "The Parliament of the World's Religions is up to a great start!", said Dirk Ficca, the Executive Director of the Council for the Parliament of the World's Religions, upon joining 6000 to 7000 people of all ages from the 75 countries that are arriving today for the opening of the Parliament of the World's Religions in Barcelona.

    The Parliament is one of the world's greatest interreligious gathering of the dozen of major religions in the world and of hundreds of religious and spiritual movements from the five continents. It will be officially opened at 17:00 hrs today at the Barcelona Forum, with the participation of the Mayor of Barcelona Joan Clos and the President of the Generality of Catalonia Pasqual Maragall, 2003 Peace Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi of Iran, Rabbi David Rosen of Israel, Dr. Ramon Panikar, and many others.

    More than 400 workshops and cultural and spiritual celebrations will take place throughout the whole duration of the Parliament which Dirk Ficca said will be a "festive celebration of cultural and spiritual diversity, and a demonstration of understanding, against all forms of violence perpetrated in the name of religion".

    "If our religious communities are to live up to their purpose, they must play a constructive role to help human societies address key societal issues of our times", said Rabbi David Rosen of the American Jewish Committee.

    Such societal issues, which a preparatory Assembly of spiritual and religious representatives has been addressing in Montserrat Abbey outside Barcelona 4-7 July, include religiously motivated and targeted violence, fundamental rights issues such as the right to water for all, development issues such as the elimination of the external debt which undermines the future of developing countries, as well as our collective response to help the ever increasing number of refugees that are expelled from their homes for political, religious, social and economic as well as environmental reasons.

    At the closure of the Montserrat Assembly this morning, Imam Rashied Omar of South Africa and Rabbi David Rosen, surrounded by dozens of members of other religious traditions, announced together a series of commitments adopted by members of the Montserrat Assembly and which will be shared at the Parliament which starts in Barcelona today.

    The "Montserrat commitments" have been presented individually and collectively this morning. They include in the words of Imam Omar and Rabbi Rosen "simple and profound acts such as the need to call on governments to use water resources wisely and to recognise the rights of Nature to Water, or to challenge illegitimate armed conflicts and wars through consciousness objection when this is necessary." "The ideas underlying some of these commitments are not particularly new; they are largely in concert with the work of many secular organisations around us," said Omar and Rosen, "but what is extraordinary is that they are being endorsed by thousands of people from religious traditions representing. They can trigger a divinely inspired snowball effect".


    Media contact information for journalists covering the Parliament of World Religions:
    Forum Media Center: +34 93 489 89 35 for general questions regarding logistics and security
    Remi Parmentier: +34 637 557 357 (mobile) for International, Spanish and Catalan media requests - English, Spanish, French
    Michelle Mulkey: +34 606 416 172 (mobile) for U.S.-based media requests - English [email protected]
    Luis Garcia Petit, UNESCO Center of Catalonia: +34 677 418 585 (mobile) - Catalan, Spanish, French, German

    MIM:The CPWR advisory committee listing shows David Rosen of the AJC listed below known Al Qaeda funder Abdullah Omar Al Nassef.

    http://www.cpwr.org/who/iac.htm

    The 2002 International Advisory Committee includes:

    Dr. Saleha Abedin, Saudi Arabia

    Dr. Marcus C.R. Braybrooke, England

    Sri Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, India

    Mrs. Mairead Corrigan-McGuire, Ireland

    H.H. The Dalai Lama, Tibet

    Dr. Homi Dhalla, India

    Venerable Dhammananda, Thailand

    Ms. Ela Gandhi, India

    Dr. Susannah Heschel, United States

    H.E. Dr. Abdullah Omar Nasseef

    Rabbi David Rosen, Israel

    Dr. L. M. Singhvi, India

    Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, South Africa

    Mrs. Lally Lucretia M. Warren, Botswana

    Dr. Tu Weiming, China

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