Israel-Gaza Conflict Puts Interfaith Relations To The Test

[cbayer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/31/israel-gaza-interfaith-muslim-jewish_n_5638602.html

Jaweed Kaleem

Posted: 07/31/2014 6:24 pm EDT Updated: 08/01/2014 3:59 pm EDT


Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, and Imam Shamsi Ali, embrace in on May 21, 2009, at the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, where Ali used to be the lead imam. Shamsi is currently the imam of the Jamaica Muslim Center and Al-Hikmah mosques in New York.

When a group of Arab college students visiting New York met last week for a Ramadan iftar, they were greeted with an unexpected keynote speech.

Rabbi Marc Schneier, head of The Hampton Synagogue on Long Island and the leader of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, an interfaith-oriented nonprofit, had come by for what initially seemed simple and routine: Sharing about his religion and his belief in Muslim-Jewish friendship. Instead, he addressed the tension in the room full of Muslims, and the space between his views and theirs on Israel and Gaza, now on day 24 of fighting with more than 1,300 dead. Israel and Hamas agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire that begins Friday.

"I don't see an end to this conflict until more Muslims speak about against terror and evil in their midst," Schneier said in an interview, paraphrasing his speech at Nusantara, a Muslim-run charity, to students who hailed from Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and Turkey.

Afterward, prominent New York mosque leader Imam Shamsi Ali, who was hosting the event, had his turn to speak. "I, too, blame Hamas," he said later, recalling his words, "but I also blame Israel, which has killed thousands of innocent lives."

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[msongs]

1. thou shall not kill....lololol. an alien concept nt

[cbayer]

2. Apparently not to the people this article focuses on. How did you like it?