Jewish-Muslim Dialogue in Nashville, Tennessee

by Rebecca Bynum (March 2009)

the Temple where no fewer than three police cars were visible outside and there were at least three armed guards inside. Congregation Micah which is involved in outreach to the local Muslim community, also employs two very visible armed guards, one at the door and one in the main congregation room with the assembly. They were also in evidence during the three part lecture series entitled, “Islam: What Every Jew Needs To Know,” given by

It was clear from the beginning, Rabbi Shapiro knows practically nothing about Islam, but he declared his intention early on to save us “from looking stupid,” by explaining that people who contend that Allah is a different God from the Judeo-Christian deity are simply mistaking “a different word for another reality,” that this is the equivalent of saying the French worship a different God because the word God in French is Dieu. He declared this a laughably silly and obvious mistake and apparently had thought through the issue no deeper.And how.

It is well known in the American Jewish community that Yassir Arafat said one thing to the Western world and quite another to his own followers. It is even accepted that this phenomenon is widespread in the Arab world, thus prompting organizations like MEMRI and Palestinian Media Watch to document and translate Arabic newspaper materials and Arab television so Westerners can see first hand the kinds of anti-Semitic hate-filled propaganda that pervades the atmosphere of the Muslim Arab world. When it comes to American Muslims, however, the tendency is to hope against hope that things will be different, that when Muslims come to America, they will assimilate easily and forget the tenets of Islam which make assimilation difficult, even though they have singularly failed to do so in Europe and in Britain.

Since obedience and worship are thought to be equivalent in Islam, those who obey man-made law, as is the ruling principle in democratic society, are often accused of being guilty of idolatry. Therefore, there is a great incentive to replace man-made law with Islamic law.

Here is the full verse 32 (note the exception):

32 For this reason We prescribed

for the Children of Israel that whoever

kills a person, unless it be for

manslaughter or for mischief in the

land, it is as though he had killed all

men. And whoever saves a life, it is

as though he had saved the lives

of all men.a And certainly Our messengers

came to them with clear

arguments, but even after that many

of them commit excesses in the land.

33 The only punishment of those

who wage war against Allah and His

Messenger and strive to make mischief

in the landa is that they should

be murdered, or crucified, or their

hands and their feet should be cut off

on opposite sides, or they should be

imprisoned.b This shall be a disgrace

for them in this world, and in the

Hereafter they shall have a grievous

chastisement.

34 Except those who repent before

Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.

To read the pdf file of the notice at the mosque, click here.*

Barré also made the claim that Muhammad’s last words were “forgive everybody.” A questioner surmised that, according to the law of abrogation, this should bring the religion full circle and back to the Meccan verses, but there is one problem. Those were not Muhammad’s last words. He said three things, one of which is forgotten. The other two were:

Iqra presents a word from the heart of an unknown Falasteeni youth (submitted by G. K Alavi)

Look into my eyes

And tell me what you see

My life makes no sense to you.

Each day you wake in tranquility,

No fears to cross your eyes.

Each day I wake in gratitude,

Thanking god He let me rise.

You worry about your education

And bills you have to pay.

I worry about my vulnerable life

Your biggest fear is getting ticketed

As you drive your Cadillac.

My fear is that the tank that just left

Will turn around and come back.

American, do you realize,

That the taxes that you pay

Feed the forces that traumatize

My every living day?

The bulldozers and the tanks,

The gases and the guns,

The bombs that fall outside my door,

All due to American funds.

Yet do you know the truth

Of where your money goes?

Do you let your media deceive your mind?

Is this a truth that no one knows?

You blame me for defending myself

Against the ways of Zionists.

You think you know all about terrorism

So let me define the term for you,

And teach you what you thought you knew.

Fifty-five years and more.

Terrorism breathes the air I breathe.

And the penalties of breaking that curfew rule.

Terrorism is the robbery of my land,

And the torture of my mother,

The imprisonment of my innocent father,

The bullet in my baby brother.

The things I feel and see.

And the blame is put on me.

But I will not rest, I shall never settle

For the injustice my people endure.

Until the day our homeland is secure.

And if that time shall never come,

Then we will never see a day of peace.

I will not be thrown from my own home,

Nor will my fight for justice cease.

And if I am killed, it will be in Filasteen

So in you own patriotic words,

Give me liberty or give me death.

Barré told us fundamentalism is fine.

here.

One of the most misleading comments of the third evening came from Rabbi Shapiro himself who said, “[Martin] Luther’s book, [On the Jews and Their Lies (1543)] was central to the Jew-hatred that defined Protestant Europe, and proudly displayed by the Nazis during their Nuremberg rallies.” A few minutes later, this was echoed by the Malaysian ICN secretary when he said, “You shouldn’t call Muslims terrorists, any more than you would call Hitler or Timothy McVeigh Christian terrorists.”

While it would be untrue to say that the Nazi movement did not grow in pre-existing antisemitic German soil, Nazism itself was a profoundly anti-Christian movement. Hitler despised Christianity and

 

*All materials used in the story were provided by David Gaubatz of DG CT Publishing www.dgaubatz.blogspot.com.

 

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Rebecca Bynum contributes regularly to The Iconoclast, our Community Blog. Click here to see all her contributions, on which comments are welcome.