Coptic Christians, Muslims and Steven Klein

Posted on | September 17, 2012 

Press Enterprise

David Olson

As the bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Los Angeles and an official with the Muslim Public Affairs Council were holding a joint news conference in Los Angeles Monday to condemn the anti-Muslim film “Innocence of Muslims” and the violence that has surrounded it, I was meeting with Hussam Ayloush, the Corona resident who is executive director of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.


Ayloush said he hoped that one positive effect of the uproar over the video, and of extremist Copts’ involvement in it, would be more interfaith efforts between Coptic Christians and Muslims.
Ayloush said when he saw media coverage of the Copts over the weekend, he flashed back to the days following 9/11.

Just as many Americans had little familiarity with Islam before 9/11, most Americans knew little or nothing about Coptic Christians until the past week.

And as with Islam, what they saw was extremists, not the beliefs and lives of the majority of Copts, Ayloush said.

“This is not what the Coptic people and religion stand for,” he said.

Television viewers also saw people who, like some Muslims, appear very different from most Americans: Copts with long beards, foreign accents and long black robes. That can create a view among Americans that Copts aren’t Americans as others.

Ayloush said he has worked for years with Arab Christians and enjoys warm relations with them. The Syrian-born Ayloush grew up in Lebanon and attended a Christian school there.

He was buoyed by the joint news conference Monday and hopes there will be more interfaith efforts among Copts and Muslims.

Ayloush and I have chatted a few times about the video and the violent reaction to it. He and CAIR have strongly condemned the violence.

Ayloush said he has long been familiar with Steven Klein, the Hemet insurance agent who was a consultant on the video.

Klein has a satellite-television show in which he has discussed his disdain for Islam.

“I hate Islam,” Klein said in an Aug. 30 broadcast of his “Wake up America” show on The Way TV, an Arab Christian station based in the San Gabriel Valley city of Duarte. “I don’t ever want to see it (Islam) again.”

In the show, Klein said, “The Lord Jesus Christ has caused me to be a terrorist to the terrorists.”
He introduced a video clip of a man singing about guns and then shooting off guns by saying, “This is going to be the ultimate solution to the Muslims.”

Klein and his supporters have distributed virulently anti-Islam leaflets outside mosques throughout California – including Ayloush’s Corona mosque – and at dozens of Southern California high schools, including campuses in Temecula, Murrieta, Corona, Norco and Menifee. Ayloush’s own daughter received one of the leaflets at Corona’s Santiago High School.

The handouts say Mohammad had sex with children, committed incest and participated in genocide. One of the leaflets had Ayloush’s photo on it.

Ayloush said CAIR had deliberately avoided calling attention to Klein’s leafleting campaign.
“Our dilemma is there are a lot of crazy people out there and we don’t want to give them publicity,” he said.
Klein said one reason for his anti-Islam leafleting is so Muslims find out the “truth” about Islam and leave the faith.

But Ayloush believes the leafleting at mosques was meant to provoke Muslims to react violently, to confirm the stereotype of Muslims as violent people. Even though Klein leafleted mosques throughout Southern California, Ayloush said he is unaware of any violent reaction to the handouts.

Ayloush said if Klein had really wanted to convert Muslims, he would not have insulted the very people he was allegedly trying to reach.

Ayloush said it’s not uncommon for evangelical Christians to stand outside his and other mosques with leaflets and with signs that say something along the lines of “Visit our Church.” They’re clearly hoping to convert Muslims.

“I think it’s kind of out of place to do that,” Ayloush said. “But I have to say, they do it in the most respectful way. They don’t offend me. It’s not the right place to market your religion. But that’s fine.”

Ayloush said those Christians smile and carry materials that are focused on what they see as the positive aspects of Christianity.

The leaflets that Klein and his supporters handed out were different.

“It described the Prophet Mohammad and the religion of Islam in the most vulgar and offensive manner,” Ayloush said. “I have not a shred of doubt in my mind that what this was about was not to teach people who are Muslim about Islam or make people who are Muslim Christians. He is being driven by pure hatred and disdain for all Muslims.”

Showing 'the face of Islam'

Huntington Beach Independent
(A Los Angeles Times community newspaper)


By Mona Shadia, mona.shadia@latimes.com
May 11, 2011

Before the Huntington Beach City Council meets every other week, someone walks up to the podium to lead a prayer after the flag salute.

Prayers in public meetings often end with a phrase like "in Jesus' name," which reflects the country's dominant faith.

But on the day following the announcement of the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, a woman in a long, flowing, sky-blue dress and a blue scarf covering her hair walked to the podium. With her head down, she led the prayer.

Maria Khani, a representative of the Islamic faith on the Greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council, didn't lead the prayer on that Monday evening as a result of the news about the killing of an extremist who used her faith to commit terrorist acts that changed the world almost 10 years ago.

In fact, it wasn't Khani's first time leading the prayer at the council meeting.

At first glance, it seemed like a coincidence. But thinking about it, Khani said it was an act of God, who usually works in mysterious ways.

"I said, 'Wow! God wanted me to do the invocation,'" Khani, a Huntington Beach resident, said. "I was thinking to myself on Sunday when the incident happened, and I said, 'Maybe God has a plan. Maybe he wants a Muslim to be in a city hall doing an invocation.'"

Fighting for a voice

Since 9/11, Muslims have been blamed for and associated with actions that they say do not represent their faith. Many have spoken in opposition to Bin Laden and his followers through various media outlets, held community prayers and even prayed at Capitol Hill in solidarity with 9/11 victims' families.

But it always seemed as if their voice was not loud enough or simply not given enough attention, said the Rev. Peggy Price of the Center for Spiritual Living in Seal Beach.

Price, a Huntington Beach resident, is one of the founders of the Interfaith Council.

"Moderate Muslims, most of Muslims, were hijacked on 9/11, but then continued to be hijacked by the media," she said.

Price spoke of the many press conferences and events she attended with Muslims speaking against acts of terrorism in the name of Islam, and the disappointment she felt when the story didn't make the media or only got a few paragraphs in the back of a newspaper.

Khani's presence that night was a subtle reminder to all Americans.

"I'm one of them," she said. "I'm part of this community. I'm part of this society. Nobody forced me to be here. When I took my citizenship and took the oath, I believed in every word I said, and I still do and I'm living by my words."

A push for diversity

It is also what Surf City is all about: including everyone.

While outsiders might know Huntington Beach for its bustling downtown and high surf, deep within lies a diverse community, one that has suffered from high-profile hate crimes but also rejoices in overcoming differences.

Several crimes, including the brutal beating and targeting of gay men and people of color in the city in the mid-1990s, led former Mayors Ralph Bauer, Shirley Dettloff and others to create the Human Relations Task Force.

The Interfaith Council also came from that effort. Its mission is to represent various faiths in the community and build tolerance and respect among people, Price said.

The city approached the Interfaith Council with the task of selecting people of various faiths to lead the invocation before each meeting.

"It was to help set the tone," Price said. "Sometimes the meetings can get very contentious. We try to select people from different religious beliefs so the city can see the diversity that's here."

While it's permissible to use the words "God" or "spirit," those who lead the prayer at City Hall are asked to not use names that are exclusive to specific religions, like Jesus or Allah, although Allah is Arabic for God.

Keeping the prayer inclusive keeps the city within the right guidelines of the Constitution, which prohibits governments from promoting one religion over another, Price said.

It also shows tolerance for one another, said Mayor Joe Carchio.

"I think we set that example," Carchio said. "I think Huntington Beach is pretty tolerant of religion."

'The face of Islam'

While some continue to look at Muslims with suspicion, Khani's prayer at the council meeting is an example of the real story that is being written about Muslims in America today, said Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"It's a story of Muslims being accepted and recognized as part and parcel of our diverse American religious and social fabric," Ayloush said. "In America, for the most part, the face of Islam is the Muslim teacher, the Muslim doctor, the Muslim member of Congress, the Muslim student, the Muslim neighbor and the Muslim friend. And Bin Laden and his group are becoming and were becoming what they are: mostly an irrelevant, extremist and rejected phenomenon."

As she prayed, Khani, a full-time mom who volunteers with many organizations throughout Orange County, hoped her prayer would mark a new, more peaceful era.

"I was thinking about the words I was saying," she said. "I was thinking that God put me in this place for a reason to say the invocation. We hope this will bring a new beginning, a great beginning."

Daily Show: At great personal risk, John Oliver witnesses Muslims praying in a church's all-purpose room (Funny)

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Ayloush: Condemn hateful rhetoric against Muslims (OC Register)

April 05, 2011|
Orange County Register 
By HUSSAM AYLOUSH

Let me clear a few misconceptions about the American Muslim community, generally used as a cover to fuel anti-Muslim sentiment:

1. American Muslims support the exercise of First Amendment by individuals or groups to protest speakers, voice concerns, dissent, and even spew hatred. We support the same constitutional right to challenge bigotry and its enablers, particularly if the enablers are public officials who are sworn to protect the Constitution yet engage in promoting bigotry against an entire faith or ethnic community.

2. American Muslims categorically condemn any and all acts of violence against civilians – a principled stance rooted in our Islamic faith. Only a week ago, the Register quoted me on this subject. Moreover, American Muslims have zero tolerance for bigotry against any group of people based on religion, ethnicity, or national origin. Therefore, any attempt to paint American Muslims as otherwise is abhorrent. Now, here is a summary of events that unfolded at the Feb. 13 ICNA Relief charity dinner:

A group of right-wing activists and groups mobilized a wide grassroots effort to protest two speakers – a legitimate activity – at the charity dinner. The charity dinner was held to raise money for women's shelters and to fight homelessness.

CAIR-LA did not organize the charity dinner, but being a civil rights organization sent observers to document possible anti-Muslim bigotry and hate at the protest rally.

The "peaceful protest," as described by Rabbi David Eliezrie, was not so peaceful. Starting a couple hours before the charity dinner, the speakers whipped up anti-Muslim sentiment among protesters with their comments. Karen Lugo, a California Civil Rights Commission advisory committee appointee, advocated discriminating against Muslims, saying: "When we have a group that is asking for special preferences and special treatment, it is not a matter of discrimination to say no when a group is less than one percent of our population."

Councilwoman Deborah Pauly said at the rally: "These who are assembling are enemies of America. They are your enemy. They are my enemy because they seek to destroy it." The councilwoman further said in her speech, to the applause of her audience, "I know quite a few Marines who will be happy to help these terrorists [pointing toward the location of the Muslim charity dinner] to an early meeting in paradise."

News articles reported Rabbi Eliezrie as a speaker at the rally. Does Rabbi Eliezrie, as a Jewish leader, not see the sad parallel between this dehumanizing rhetoric and that of 1930s Nazi Germany which later led to the horrors of the Holocaust?

In light of the above professed anti-Muslim rhetoric, is it any surprise that many of the protesters started yelling hateful slurs such as "Go home terrorist." "Muhammad is a pervert." "Muhammad is a child molester." "Go home and beat your wife. She needs a good beating," once Muslim families began showing up to the charity event? Some protesters even blew shofars, declaring a battle against Muslims.

Public officials and protesters have a right to protest any speaker, but it is not acceptable for them to use such protest as a pretext to launch and incite a hateful attack on an entire religion and its followers, and support violence and discrimination against them.

Instead of insulting Americans' intelligence by attempting to re-write the history of the "peaceful protest" and blaming CAIR-LA's video – which we completely stand by – for exposing the hate fest, Rabbi Eliezrie and rally speakers should have the moral integrity to take responsibility for their role in enabling this despicable incident against peaceful families and children. They have a responsibility to condemn the hateful rhetoric at every stage in the rally and apologize to the American Muslim community and Orange County residents for the pain and embarrassment they have caused.


Let us begin a process of healing by becoming agents of unity and peace rather than engaging in McCarthyesque tactics to demonize and marginalize American Muslims.

Stand Together: Rabbis Speak out against Islamophobia

March 9, 2011
Rabbis for Human Rights
Posted by Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster

Ever since the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States, hatred and discrimination against Muslim Americans has been growing. Over the past year, the rhetoric has only gotten louder and more violent. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects the freedoms of religion, speech, and assembly. These are also essential American values. Yet across the United States today, we see attempts to prevent the construction of mosques, laws outlawing Sharia law, and the vilification of our Muslim neighbors and friends as un-American.

Jewish historical experience remembers that not too long ago, we too were the victims of suspicion and hatred based on our religion and ethnicity. The actions of the few should not condemn the many, and every religion has its teachings both of violence and of peace. Jewish tradition demands that we remember the heart of the stranger, because we were strangers in the land of Egypt. If one minority can be singled out for congressional hearings or restrictions on places of worship, anyone can be.

These are not American values. These are not Jewish values. It is time to Stand Together and speak out against Islamophobia...

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On the RHR-NA blog are a series of videos from rabbis and rabbinical students explaining why Islamophobia is against Jewish values. We encourage you to watch them and to share them with your community. We also encourage you to create your own video and upload it to YouTube tagged “rabbisagainstislamophobia.” We want to hear from you in your own words why bigotry against Muslims is wrong.

Click here to watch the videos

'Jewish-Muslim ties in Maghreb were good despite Nazis'

By GIL SHEFLER
01/24/2011
Jerusalem Post


When Nazi Germany’s Afrika Korps invaded Tunisia in 1942, panic quickly spread among members of the local Jewish community, many of whom packed their belongings and fled to the countryside, fearing persecution.

Dr. Haim Saadon of the Hebrew University recalled, in an interview with the The Jerusalem Post last week, how his parents had to live in hiding until the French colony was liberated by the allies.

“They remember exactly how they left their houses and lived in a little village with Muslims in the country,” Saadon said.

“They had to pay for their accommodation but they were well treated there.”

Relatively good ties between Jews and Muslims in North Africa during World War II stand in stark contrast to the treatment of their coreligionists by gentiles in Europe at the same time and is the central theme of the English-language lecture Saadon is scheduled to deliver at the Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem on Tuesday, on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Whereas in Europe Jews were hunted down by locals – in Lithuania the Jewish community was almost annihilated by nationalist militias without the Nazis lifting a finger – the Jews of North Africa were for the most part left unharmed by Muslims.

“There was no violence towards Jews during the war from Muslims,” he said.

“Even between 1911 when Libya was occupied by the Italians, until 1943, there was a lot of tension between the Italians and the Jews, but the Jews were relatively on good terms with the Muslims...

CAIR-LA, Islamic Shura Council of So. Calif. Condemn Senseless Targeting of Coptic Worshipers in Egypt

(ANAHEIM, January 1, 2011) - CAIR-LA joins the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California and all American Muslims in condemning the heinous killing of innocent Coptic Christian worshipers in Egypt. Such senseless action is alien to the longstanding tradition of peaceful and harmonious relationship between Egypt's Christians and Muslims.

"We offer our condolences to the Coptic Christian community and pray that the perpetrators are swiftly caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law," said Hussam Ayloush, Executive Director of CAIR-LA. "The best response to such vicious and sectarian murders is for Muslims and Christians, in Egypt and around the world, to remain united in opposing and challenging this and all forms of extremism and terrorism," Ayloush added.

Below is the statement issued by the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California of which CAIR-LA is a member.

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(ANAHEIM- January 1, 2011) - The Islamic Shura Council of Southern California mourns the senseless killing of the Saints Coptic Church members in Alexandria, Egypt.

"We extend our most heartfelt condolences to the Coptic Christian community and abhor the heinous crime," said the Chairman of the Shura Council, Dr. Maher Hathout. He also asked the member Mosques to reach out to the Coptic churches in their area and offer moral support.

"We sincerely share your grief and stand in solidarity," wrote Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Shura Council, in a memo to the Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Los Angeles, His Grace Bishop Serapion.

The Islamic Shura Council is an umbrella organization of Mosques and Muslim organizations serving more than half a million Muslims in Southern California.

Muslim-Americans volunteer to serve on Christmas Day

By: Kimberly Craig
12/25/2010
WXYZ.com
 
DETROIT (WXYZ) - Early Christmas morning, hundreds of Muslim-Americans turned out to help their Christian friends by doing the volunteer work that they would normally do. Muslims say this is a way to allow Christians to celebrate the Holiday by stepping in to provide meals to seniors and distributing toys to needy children.

The volunteers began the day at the Community Access Center on W. Vernor in southwest Detroit, and Saturday's effort came out of an interfaith collaboration by the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan and the Jewish Community Relations Council. This year since Christmas falls on the Jewish Sabbath, the need was greater than ever to have Muslim-Americans help deliver the toys and food to Detroit neighborhoods.

Many of the toys being delivered to families today were donated by the organization known as Jimmy's Kids.

"Traveling with Jihad" - Exploring the shared history and common teachings of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

When viewed through the lens of a shared history, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam provide differing perspectives on similar themes. Join Jihad Turk as he leads Charles Annenberg Weingarten through the common threads that tie the western faiths with that of Islam.

CNN: A synagogue reborn in Beirut, Lebanon

While some right-wing bigots in America are trying to make our country take a turn away from religious freedoms and tolerance, Lebanon (and ironically, Hezbollah) can teach us all something about religious tolerance, about places of worship and where they belong or don't belong.

No religious community and group should be blamed for the acts of a few.

Fareed Zakaria CNN reports this interesting quote:
"We respect Divine religions including the Jewish religion. The problem is with Israel's occupation of Arab lands, not with the Jews" - Hezbollah

Since we are on the subject of tolerance toward places of worship, here is some breaking news from the Middle East:

Palestinian mosque torched by settlers

Haaretz Newspaper
By Avi Issacharoff and DPA

A Palestinian mosque was set alight and vandalized late Sunday night in what police suspected was a "price tag" operation by nearby settlers wishing to protest Israel's West Bank policies.
West Bank mosque arson


Residents of the village of Bayt Fajar near Bethlehem alleged that a group of settlers, apparently from the nearby Gush Etzion settlement bloc, entered the village in the early hours and burnt down the mosque before residents were able to kick them out.

O.C. church plans 'bridge' to Muslims

By ERIC CARPENTER
2010-09-09
Orange County Register

IRVINE – With debate reaching a fever pitch over a planned mosque near Ground Zero and talk of a Florida church burning copies of the Islamic holy book on the anniversary of 9-11, an Irvine mega-church hopes to promote conversation encouraging understanding about the Muslim community.

Mariners Church, one of Orange County's largest churches with 7,500-plus members, is hosting an all-day seminar Saturday called "Bridges."

The plans have been greeted with a mixed reaction, with some Muslims worrying that it will spread misinformation about the Islamic faith.

The public event, to be led by Christian Faoud Masri, has a clear goal: To replace fear and misunderstanding of Muslims by others.

"Our goal at Mariners is to provide a contrast to the growing polarity and conflicts and tear down some of the walls of misunderstanding that lead to fear between communities," said Sophia Marsh, a Laguna Beach resident and three-year member of the Christian church.

Marsh, whose father is from Pakistan and who grew up in the Islamic faith, said the "Bridges" program has been in the works for months. The event is happening the same day a Quran-burning was planned by a minister at a Florida church; that protest was called off Thursday after extreme criticism.

Another church – The Irvine United Congregational Church – is hosting a "Quran-blessing" ceremony during its services at 8:45 and 10:45 a.m. Sunday. The Rev. Dr. Paul Tellström, the church's senior pastor, said in a statement: "In our progressive Christian view, Muslims are simply walking a different path than us up the same mountain in order to build a right relationship with God."

Organizers of both events say they hope to promote a spirit of love and a look for common ground.

"The population of Muslims in Orange County is around 170,000, and these are people looking to be part of the larger community," Marsh said. "We need to reach out so that a bridge can be built."

Hassam Ayloush, executive director of the Los Angeles-area Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he has "mixed feelings" about the church events. He would prefer that Muslims themselves explain their views.

"Without hesitation, I support a church's right to preach their religion to whoever they like," he said. "It is good that we have this marketplace of ideas.

"But I do worry when it is based not fully on the truth or on negative stereotypes," he said.

Ayloush said he has not met Masri, a former Muslim who converted to Christianity and the leader of the "Bridges" program. But based on online videos he watched promoting the program, Ayloush said he is concerned that the message is that the world's 1.5 billion Muslims have yet to hear the word of Jesus and are waiting to be converted.

"If they are truly interested in promoting understanding and building bridges, why not invite (practicing) Muslims to explain their faith?"

Leaders of the "Bridges program said they are not excluding Muslims from the program, but are focused on non-Muslims to help them "get over their fears," Marsh said.

"This is just a first step for us, and we hope to have other events between the communities in the future," she added.

Masri, the leader of the program and a resident of Indiana, is a third-generation Christian from Lebanon and well-versed, he said, on establishing relationships between Christians and Muslims.

"We really aren't talking a lot about the religion of Islam, and we certainly aren't bashing it," Masri said. "Everybody is welcome, but our goal is to talk to Christians about how to show respect and begin those conversations with our Muslim friends."

Ayloush said he respects that both churches are trying to do something positive.

"I think what the (United Congregational) church is doing is the most truly Christian thing – to pray for the well-being of people, regardless of who they are.

"But I will take what both Irvine churches are doing any day over a pastor that is talking about burning the Quran and calling my religion evil," Ayloush said.

Contact the writer: 714-704-3769 or ecarpenter@ocregister.com

CAIR's PSA: 'We Have More in Common than We Think', Interfaith

Rabbi Arthur Waskow along with Muslim and Christian leaders describing the "golden rule" as expressed by their respective faiths.

A message from an Arab Catholic priest to Pastor Jones who wants to burn the Quran

Original Arabic message.
http://www.thenewalphabet.com/details5692.html


Translated from Arabic by Hussam Ayloush


A message from Father Elias Zahlawi (a Syrian Catholic priest) to Pastor Terry Jones (who is calling for the burning of the Quran).


Respected Pastor Terry Jones,

I have read your worldwide call for the burning of the Quran on this coming 11th of September. Your message stated that you are a pastor of one of the churches in Florida in the United States of America.

As an Arab Catholic priest from Damascus (Syria), I wondered what would be your objective, as an American pastor, for such a call?

I wondered, and I ask you: What are your responsibilities as a pastor?
Are you really a Christian pastor serving God in a church in America?
Or are you merely a layperson from America who is pretending to be in the service of Christ?

Did you give in to your nationalism (Americanism) rather than giving in to your Christianity?

What is your aim with that call?

(Do you wish) to further fuel hatred among people? Is that consistent with (the teachings of) Jesus, whom you represent in your eyes and the eyes of many others?
Tell me, is there in the character of Jesus, in his words or in his actions anything that would remotely justify even a hint of promoting disdain and hatred among people?

Have you forgotten that Jesus was completely for love, forgiveness and peace? Have you forgotten what he taught us when he told his disciples and the people after them to tell God the heavenly Father of all to “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who wrong us”? You overlooked or forgot that when Jesus was hanging on the cross and being subjected to insults and vile words, he raised his voice, saying, “O Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Who, then, do you represent or who are you trying to guide with this call of yours?

Isn’t it enough what has been happening since September 11, 2001: the killing, destruction, displacement and starvation of hundreds of millions of people throughout the world, from Palestine – the land of Jesus – by your leaders in particular, headed by George Bush, who was claiming direct communication with God?

Wouldn’t you agree with me that with your call (to burn the Quran), you have demonstrated that you are really unfamiliar with Jesus and that you desperately need to re-discover him again to be a true Christian pastor who calls, like Jesus, for the comprehensive love and full respect for every human being and a commitment to the full and wonderful teachings that call upon all believers, without exception, to always stand beside the poor, the oppressed and the disadvantaged?

My brother Pastor Terry Jones. Can you tell me, honestly, if Jesus came today, whose side would he take?

Is it the side of the powerful and arrogant oppressors who dominate the world and endlessly plunder its resources, violate its laws and international treaties, and kill people in their countries and destroy houses on top of their owners and turn them into refugees across the earth? Or is it the side of those who are oppressed, the disadvantaged, hungry, and homeless?

Did you forget what Jesus himself would say on the Day of Judgment to each person in front of him: “All that you did to one of my brothers, you actually did to me”?

I wonder if you have overlooked or forgotten that Jesus did not point in that speech on the Day of Judgment to the religion of any of those mistreated persons. He only referred to everyone as belonging to the human race and to his standing with the deprived, the weak, and the oppressed in this world.

So how could you as an American Christian pastor stand with the oppressors from your country whose injustice has spread around the world?

Aren’t you afraid of when you appear before Jesus on Judgment Day and you are burdened with a heavy conscience, like your leaders who are blinded by the gods of power, money, control and greed?

My brother Pastor Terry. Do you think I am being unfair if I conclude that your hatred toward Islam is what drove you to such a reprehensible call for the burning of Islam's holy book, the Quran?

But let me ask you, as a Syrian Roman Catholic priest: What do you know about Islam? It appears to me from your call to burn the Quran that you are ignorant of Christ and Christianity, and that makes me believe that you are also ignorant of Islam and Muslims.

Believe me, it is not my intention to indict you and it is not my intention to engage with you in a religious debate about Christianity or Islam. However, after I prayed for a long time, let me suggest for both of us to make a joint effort on this coming September 11.

You might ask me what effort can we do jointly when you are in Florida and I'm in Damascus?

Here is my suggestion.

I invite you to visit Syria, where you will be my guest and the guest of many of my Muslim and Christian friends. Syria is a country populated mostly by Muslims and in which Christians are indigenous to the land and have lived side-by-side with Muslims for centuries and centuries.

Come and don’t worry about anything.

Come and you will find out about Islam and Muslims what will comfort you, please you, surprise you, and even lead you, from where you are today in Florida, to invite all people to live in respect, love and cooperation among all people.

This is what people need rather than the un-Christian call to fuel the sentiment of hatred and division.

Come to Syria and you will be amazed by the good nature of people and their faith, their relations, friendly cooperation and openness toward all strangers.

Come to Damascus to witness and live an experience that is not in your mind nor the mind or expectation of all the churches of the West or their bishops, pastors, and clergymen.

Come to see and hear two choruses, Christian and Muslim, singing together during Christian and Islamic holidays to praise Allah, the One God, who created us all, and to whom we all return.

My brother Pastor Terry.

I call you my brother and I am serious about calling you brother and about my invitation to you. I await a word (of reply) from you. Trust me that you will find a brother in Damascus, actually many brothers.

Please contact me and don’t delay. I am waiting for you in Damascus.

I ask God to make our anticipated meeting the beginning of a long and interesting path that we undertake together with other brothers in Damascus and around the world.

How desperate is the need of our world for bright roads.

Come, the road to Damascus is waiting for you.

Father Elias Zahlawi

At the Death Camps, Muslim Leaders Grapple With Jews’ Pain

By A.J. Goldmann
Published August 11, 2010
The Jewish Daily FORWARD

Krakow, Poland — It was a perfect summer day at the Dachau concentration camp. The clear skies and pleasant breeze seemed almost offensive. And there, beneath the main monument, a bronze sculpture of writhing bodies intermeshed with barbed wire, was an uncommon sight: a group of Muslims leaders prostrate in prayer.

At the end of the service, prayer leader Muzammil Siddiqi, imam of the Islamic Society of Orange County, California, offered up an additional prayer: “We pray to God that this will not happen to the Jewish people or to any people anymore.”

Siddiqi was one of eight American Muslim leaders on a study tour to Dachau and Auschwitz that was co-sponsored by a German think tank and the Center for Interreligious Understanding, a New Jersey-based interfaith dialogue group. The delegation’s sole female member was Laila Muhammad, daughter of the late American Muslim leader W.D. Muhammad and granddaughter of Elijah Muhammad, the late leader of the Nation of Islam...

Read Full Article

Read: Denying the Holocaust is immoral and un-Islamic

Does your faith teach social justice?

Social justice is central to every faith.

Watch this newly released Public Service Announcement: Faith for Justice



Courtesy of: www.faithforjustice.org

Back from Manzanar. More great memories. Toyo Miyatake's grandson.

Like every year, for the last 5 years, CAIR joined the Manzanar Committee and many other groups on this year's annual Manzanar Pilgrimage.

Over 100 Southern California Muslims joined the CAIR bus and participated in this inspirational event. I will write more about it.

My highlight this year was meeting the grandson of Toyo Miyatake.
Miyatake was the award-winning Japanese American photographer who was interned at Manzanar. Miyatake's struggle and inspirational story were the subject of a recent documentary film entitled: Toyo's Camera. I am very honored to be in that documentary.

Below, is my picture with Gary Miyatake, the grandson of the legendary Toyo.

Project helps Jewish and Muslim teens cooperate, form friendships

Los Angeles Daily News
By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer
04/04/2010

VAN NUYS - Danielle Feuer and July Aye both study hard, share Facebook friends and worship the same God.

But one is Jewish, the other Muslim, working side-by-side among a dozen interfaith teens on Sunday to sort food at a Van Nuys food bank.

"The whole point of our group is to not be confrontational, but to learn about each other and to discuss issues in a friendly way," said Feuer, 16, of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills.

"We're not just learning about religions," added Aye, 15, of King Fahad Mosque in Culver City. "We go to each others' houses. We go to each others' places of worship. We go on Facebook."

After six months of praying, meeting, going to the movies and serving to help the poor together, the Teen Interfaith Project of both congregations has formed bonds between faiths at historical odds overseas.

The project - the first known group of its kind in Los Angeles - follows a national "twinning" movement to bring mosques and synagogues together, organizers say.

Both faiths share similarities, including values of required charity. And teens from both have worked to mutually respect their differences...

Muslims join Jews in celebrating Passover and striving for deliverance from Pharaoh's oppression

Passover is the holy day and festival commemorating the biblical event of the Hebrews' escape from enslavement in Egypt.

Many Jews and Christians might be surprised to know that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) instructed Muslims to also commemorate the Exodus of the Hebrews out of Egypt by fasting on the tenth day of the month of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic lunar calendar. The event is called Ashura, referring to the Arabic word for “ten.”

Muslims revere Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) as one of the most important Islamic figures and one of the five most important prophets in the history of humankind chosen by Allah/God.

The Quran details the stories of many of the Hebrew prophets and their early followers. In fact, Islam considers those early followers to be among the first muslims -- in the sense of the literal meaning of “ones who submit themselves to God.”

The Quran and Islamic teachings praise Moses and reminds Muslims and all people to learn from his courage, commitment to speaking the truth, and standing up for justice. Several verses in the Quran also emphasize Moses’ mother's strong faith and trust in Allah/God.

While Muslims and Jews, both tracing their roots to Abraham, commemorate this joyful occasion on different days, our common heritage and history should bring us together in expressing gratitude and thankfulness to our Creator, Allah/God Almighty for saving Moses and his people from the oppression of Pharaoh, and directing them to freedom in the Holy Land, in Palestine, over 3,300 years ago.

Sadly, it is the same Palestine and its long-standing indigenous people that are now subjected to a new form of oppression and bondage. The new Pharaoh is Zionism and its tools of occupation, ethnic cleansing, separation walls, siege, settlements, and land confiscation. This new Pharaoh is not only victimizing Muslims and Christians in the Holy Land, but also Jews by creating animosity and hatred among these three groups.

May the courage and faith of our shared and beloved prophet Moses (peace be upon him) inspire us to strive for justice and freedom for all people, especially those in Palestine.

May our common love for Allah/God and His prophets bring us together as one human race that strives for peace, dignity, and prosperity for all people.

On this day, I am wishing my Jewish friends and neighbors a peaceful and joyful Passover for them and their loved ones.

Is The Bible More Violent Than The Quran? (NPR report)

by Barbara Bradley Hagerty
for NPR
March 18, 2010

Listen to story

As the hijackers boarded the airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, they had a lot on their minds. And if they were following instructions, one of those things was the Quran.

In preparation for the suicide attack, their handlers had told them to meditate on two chapters of the Quran in which God tells Muslims to "cast terror into the hearts of unbelievers."

"Slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them," Allah instructs the Prophet Muhammad (Quran, 9:5). He continues: "Prophet! Make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites! ... Hell shall be their home, an evil fate."

When Osama bin Laden declared war on the West in 1996, he cited the Quran's command to "strike off" the heads of unbelievers. More recently, U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan lectured his colleagues about jihad, or "holy war," and the Quran's exhortation to fight unbelievers and bring them low. Hasan is accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, last year.

Given this violent legacy, religion historian Philip Jenkins decided to compare the brutality quotient of the Quran and the Bible.

Defense Vs. Total Annihilation

"Much to my surprise, the Islamic scriptures in the Quran were actually far less bloody and less violent than those in the Bible," Jenkins says.

Jenkins is a professor at Penn State University and author of two books dealing with the issue: the recently published Jesus Wars, and Dark Passages , which has not been published but is already drawing controversy.

Violence in the Quran, he and others say, is largely a defense against attack.

"By the standards of the time, which is the 7th century A.D., the laws of war that are laid down by the Quran are actually reasonably humane," he says. "Then we turn to the Bible, and we actually find something that is for many people a real surprise. There is a specific kind of warfare laid down in the Bible which we can only call genocide."

It is called herem, and it means total annihilation. Consider the Book of 1 Samuel, when God instructs King Saul to attack the Amalekites: "And utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them," God says through the prophet Samuel. "But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey."

When Saul failed to do that, God took away his kingdom.

"In other words," Jenkins says, "Saul has committed a dreadful sin by failing to complete genocide. And that passage echoes through Christian history. It is often used, for example, in American stories of the confrontation with Indians — not just is it legitimate to kill Indians, but you are violating God's law if you do not."

Jenkins notes that the history of Christianity is strewn with herem. During the Crusades in the Middle Ages, the Catholic popes declared the Muslims Amalekites. In the great religious wars in the 16th, 17th and 19th centuries, Protestants and Catholics each believed the other side were the Amalekites and should be utterly destroyed.

'Holy Amnesia'

But Jenkins says, even though the Bible is violent, Christianity and Judaism today are not for the most part.

"What happens in all religions as they grow and mature and expand, they go through a process of forgetting of the original violence, and I call this a process of holy amnesia," Jenkins says.

They make the violence symbolic: Wiping out the enemy becomes wiping out one's own sins. Jenkins says that until recently, Islam had the same sort of holy amnesia, and many Muslims interpreted jihad, for example, as an internal struggle, not physical warfare.

Andrew Bostom calls this analysis "preposterous." Bostom, editor of The Legacy of Jihad, says there's a major difference between the Bible, which describes the destruction of an enemy at a point in time, and the Quran, which urges an ongoing struggle to defeat unbelievers.

"It's an aggressive doctrine," he says. "The idea is to impose Islamic law on the globe."

Take suicide attacks, he says — a tactic that Muslim radicals have used to great effect in the U.S., Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East. It's true that suicide from depression is forbidden in Islam — but Bostom says the Quran and the Hadith, or the sayings of Muhammad, do allow self-destruction for religious reasons.

"The notion of jihad martyrdom is extolled in the Quran, Quran verse 9:1-11. And then in the Hadith, it's even more explicit. This is the highest form of jihad — to kill and to be killed in acts of jihad."

'Out Of Context'

That may be the popular notion of jihad, says Waleed El-Ansary, but it's the wrong one. El-Ansary, who teaches Islamic studies at the University of South Carolina, says the Quran explicitly condemns religious aggression and the killing of civilians. And it makes the distinction between jihad — legal warfare with the proper rules of engagement — and irjaf, or terrorism.

"All of those types of incidences — [Sept. 11], Maj. Nidal Hasan and so forth — those are all examples of irjaf, not jihad," he says. According to the Quran, he says, those who practice irjaf "are going to hell."

So what's going on here? After all, we all have images of Muslim radicals flying planes into buildings, shooting up soldiers at Fort Hood, trying to detonate a bomb on an airplane on Christmas Day. How to reconcile a peaceful Quran with these violent acts?

El-Ansary says that in the past 30 years, there's been a perfect storm that has created a violent strain of Islam. The first is political: frustration at Western intervention in the Muslim world. The second is intellectual: the rise of Wahhabi Islam, a more fundamentalist interpretation of Islam subscribed to by Osama bin Laden. El-Ansary says fundamentalists have distorted Islam for political purposes.

"Basically what they do is they take verses out of context and then use that to justify these egregious actions," he says.

El-Ansary says we are seeing more religious violence from Muslims now because the Islamic world is far more religious than is the West. Still, Jenkins says Judeo-Christian cultures shouldn't be smug. The Bible has plenty of violence.

"The scriptures are still there, dormant, but not dead," he says, "and they can be resurrected at any time. Witness the white supremacists who cite the murderous Phineas when calling for racial purity, or an anti-abortion activist when shooting a doctor who performs abortions.

In the end, the scholars can agree on one thing: The DNA of early Judaism, Christianity and Islam code for a lot of violence. Whether they can evolve out of it is another thing altogether.

---

Excerpts: "Jesus Wars"

by Philip Jenkins

Muslims in America seek understanding

Muslims in America seek understanding
Monday, February 22, 2010
By GAIL SCHONTZLER Chronicle Staff Writer

Nine years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many Americans still fear Muslims and ask the question, “Why do they hate us?”
Hussam Ayloush, 40, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles, dealt with the question Monday at Montana State University as keynote speaker a day-long conference, Islam in America, sponsored by the MSU Muslim Students Association.

Former President George Bush’s answer that terrorists hate us because of “our freedoms” is obviously wrong, Ayloush said during a panel discussion. The reason Muslims around the world have problems with the United States is because of our policies, not our values, he said. Their No. 1 grievance is the plight of the Palestinian people, as the 9/11 Commission concluded.

Most people deal with grievances in legitimate ways, like lobbying or sending relief supplies, Ayloush said. Unfortunately, a few “deviant” Muslims, like Al Qaeda terrorists, have embraced violence and misinterpret Islam to justify it.

Ayloush argued it makes no more sense to fear and condemn all Muslims for the “tragic” 9/11 attacks by a few terrorists than to fear and condemn all Christians because a few fundamentalists have killed abortion doctors. Lots of people dislike the IRS, but most don’t fly planes into buildings and kill innocent people, as just happened in Texas, he added.


Today there are up to 8 million Muslims living in the United States, including immigrants from many nations, their American children, foreign students, engineers, auto workers and African-Americans. There are two Muslims in Congress, and 10,000 in the U.S. military. Muslims in American probably enjoy more rights to practice their religion here than anywhere else, he said.

An immigrant himself, Ayloush left Lebanon as a teenager for America, studied engineering and became a U.S. citizen. He said he believes America has “the best man-designed political system on earth,” which lets people debate and dissent.

“It’s worth fighting for, defending and celebrating,” he said.

But many American Muslims, he added, feel “like second-class citizens,” who are demonized on TV as “the enemy.”

About a quarter of the world’s people, 1.6 billion, are Muslims, and they are very diverse. Only about 18 percent are Arabs and fit the stereotype many Americans hold.

The world’s Muslims don’t fit our stereotype of hating America either. In every Muslim country’s capital, people line up at 2 a.m. to get visas to come to America, he said. They proudly display the diplomas they’ve earned at American universities in their homes or offices.

Since the 9/11 attacks and 2006 London subway bombings, CAIR has collected on its Web site messages of condemnation by hundreds of Muslim leaders and scholars from all over the world.

“We need to emphasize humanizing one another,” Ayloush said. “We need to insist again and again to reject hate-mongering.”

American attitudes may be slowly changing, said panel member David Grimland, a retired U.S. Information Agency spokesman who worked in U.S. embassies from Turkey to Bangladesh and now lives in Montana.

Grimland cited a Pew poll that in 2007 found 58 percent of Americans thought Islam was more likely to encourage violence than other faiths. By 2009, that had fallen to 38 percent.

Still, there are e-mail messages all over the Internet that spread a “twisted, aggressive, hateful, phobic” view of Islam, Grimland said.

“They take one or two spoonfuls of truth, a few cups of innuendo,” add it to “outright lies and disinformation” and end up with the fearful message that “this is a religious war against America,” Grimland said.

It’s vital that Americans learn to understand, not fear, Islam, he said.

Panel member Tim Spring, Lutheran pastor at Christus Collegium, said Christianity and Islam share common values of caring for the poor, the hungry and powerless.

MSU electrical engineering student Monther Abusultan, a Palestinian and head of the Muslim Students Association, said the two goals of the annual conference are to help Montanans feel comfortable with Islam, and to help Muslims not feel afraid to feel accepted. In general, he said, people in Bozeman accept difference cultures.

“They’re friendly,” he said.

Gail Schontzler can be reached at gails@dailychronicle.com or 582-2633.