Nothing But Politics

[otraque]

Racist Attack on Muslims--From an American Jewish Leader

(-the post i am responding comes in oversized on my puter any way---does it for you? wl--see if this comes in sized)
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Michael Lerner


Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in the United States, made a quick trip to Israel in late July 2004 in support of the building of the Wall through the West Bank.




Hoenlein, described in Ma'ariv as "U.S. Jewry's most prominent leader," (July 16, 2004) told the Israeli newspaper that he was extremely concerned about the growth of the Islamic community in the United States. Ma'ariv quotes Hoenlein as saying that "Europe is the current Muslim battlefield, but America is their ultimate goal. There are already 10 Muslim schools in New York, and my feeling is that despite growing post-9/11 awareness, there is still a degree of naiveté among Americans. I warned against the growing US Muslim community 10 years ago, but nobody understood it then. It is estimated that there are currently around 10 million Muslims in the US illegally and the authorities are finding it very difficult to find them. It's like a game of cat and mouse." (Interview available at www.maarivintl.com).

Imagine what the Jewish reaction would be if the person we believed to be the most prominent Islamic figure in the United States were to issue a statement warning about the growth of the Jewish community in the United States. Imagine if he pointed to Jewish schools as a part of the danger and decried the naiveté of Americans in not recognizing the degree of threat these Jews posed. The outcry would be overwhelming.

Tikkun received a letter the next day from Iftekhar Hai, director of interfaith relations for the United Muslims of America. He says:

For the last twenty years I have been reaching out to the American Jewish community as an American Muslim--trying to build peace among Arabs, Muslims, and Jewish people in the USA. [Hoenlein's statement makes it seem as if] my children and my grandchildren are guilty because they were born here as Americans. We all learned a lesson from the suffering of the Jewish people during the Nazi era, that if good people keep quiet and do not speak against [this sort of thing] we encourage a climate of bias, bigotry, and hatred. Can you please help me understand how we should act? The climate against American Muslims is so poisoned now--what can follow next, God knows.
I have contacted the ADL [Anti-Defamation League] and the JCRC [Jewish Community Relations Council], but nobody seems to understand the deep implications [of Hoenlein's statement] for the American Muslim community. I was told very casually this is not what he meant. Mr. Hoenlein is a very intelligent leader--he commands a lot of respect and has a great influence on American Jewry. How do you think we should handle this situation?
Ma'ariv must have heard these complaints too, because the next day, July 27, the paper ran a second story on Hoenlein, in which he claimed that "in his previous interview…he had been referring to the Islamic fundamentalists, not the American Muslim community." Hoenlein's story now is that he was only referring to fundamentalist infiltrators of the American Islamic community. Even in this "corrective" interview, however, Hoenlein implies that any illegal immigrant who follows Islam is or could be a terrorist: "I also mentioned the fact that according to the best estimates available, there are about 10 million illegal aliens in the US, some of whom are Muslims. Some of these include emissaries and agents of militant pro-jihadist groups"(Ma'ariv, July 27, 2004). This reminds us of talk during World War II when illegal Jewish immigrants to the United States--fleeing Nazi persecution--were often described as threats to the American way of life.

The reality is that voices like Hoenlein's can only be adequately confronted if enough people are willing to align themselves with the forces that oppose this kind of bigotry. An important first step is for enough people to tell papers like Ma'ariv that men like Hoenlein do not speak for us and to ask that the media pay attention instead to voices like Tikkun, Rabbis for Human Rights, Bereaved Parents, Jewish Voice for Peace, Americans for Peace Now, American Jewish World Service, Progressive Jewish Alliance, and Brit Tzedek.

Who do you call or write to? Go to www.tikkun.org/community/index.cfm/action/media_list.html and you will find a list of key media people. Take a few minutes each day to call or write to one name on this list, and you will have a cumulative impact. Insist that they start quoting other voices who reject the racism supported by supposed Jewish leaders like Hoenlein.



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