Paving a Road to Nowhere

Based on estimates, there are about 7 million Muslims living in the US today, surpassing the number of Jews by about 2 million.  In the last couple of years prominent voices, such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, have naively called for redirecting efforts and allocating resources in order to open a dialogue with the Muslims in the US.  Principally, having a dialogue is a good thing, however, I believe that it would be a mistake to go down that road at this time.  Some of those voices go further and argue that efforts in establishing dialogue should take precedence over maintaining and fostering relations with the Catholic Church.  Abe Foxman, of the Anti-Defamation League, also disagrees; saying “neither we (Jews) nor they (Muslims) are ready for a significant dialogue.”

Since this idea of dialogue is in its infancy stage, it could serve as an important juncture for examining some of the issues associated with such an attempt.  Jews in America have experience in developing relationships with minorities.  In the 1920s and ’30s, a common bond arose between Jews and African Americans in response to American anti-Semitism and racism, culminating in the civil rights movement.  But the rise of Black nationalism that carried its own undertones of anti-Semitism often polarized the groups.  One flashpoint was Jesse Jackson’s 1984 reference to New York as “Hymietown” and the 1991 Crown Heights riots which erupted after a Lubavitch-driven vehicle accidentally hit and killed a Black child in Brooklyn.  Ann Schaffer, director of the AJC Belfer Center for American Pluralism, says relations are strained.  “We’re not seeing the kind of reciprocity that we would like to see in the relationship,” she said.  Many Black leaders are consumed with internal issues, such as job discrimination and poverty.  In addition, the Black community “is not forthcoming” in defending Israel and condemning anti-Semitism.  In part, that’s because Blacks identify with the Palestinians, who they see as disenfranchised like themselves.  It seems the current phase in the relationship between Jews and African Americans today can be at most described as neutral.  That is unfortunate, considering the dialogue started about 80 years ago.

The Jewish minority experience, in the US and elsewhere, hinges on one important and strongly held axiom—that maintaining identity does not preclude integration and contribution to society for the benefit of all.  This precept is shown to run contrary in Muslims populations who are minorities in various parts of the world, Muslims do not come to integrate into societies, they expect societies to integrate into their Dar-al-Islam (the house of Islam, Arabic).  The Pew Research Center reported (July 6, 2006) that most Europeans doubt that Muslims coming into their countries want to adopt their national customs and way of life.  Substantial majorities in Germany (76%), Great Britain (64%), Spain (67%) and Russia (69%) say that Muslims in their country want to remain distinct from the larger society.  The level of Muslim identification in Britain, Spain and Germany is similar to that in Pakistan, Nigeria and Jordan—even higher than levels in Egypt, Turkey and Indonesia.  At about 20% of the world’s population and growing, integration for Muslims does not seem to be critical nor religiously or culturally desirable, and time is on their side.

The voices that call for establishing a dialogue with the Muslim minority in the US should seriously reassess their efforts in terms of resources and cost/benefit.  The US, the Jewish community, and Israel would be better served by efforts directed at establishing a dialogue with the Latino population, which truly strives to peacefully integrate into American society.  This fast growing minority is already making significant in-roads in terms of political clout.  Furthermore, it is safe to say that this friendly group is also a tabula rasa (blank slate, Latin) in terms of issues dealing with Israel and the Jewish people.  It would be an opportunity to develop a meaningful relationship with a group who can greatly benefit from the Jewish experience and be appreciative of the effort.  Taking this route may prove to be an important catalyst for repairing and improving relations between Jews and African Americans, and the current US President is uniquely positioned to play a major role in making it happen.

Paving a Road to Coexistence

On April 6 of this year, in a speech in front of the Turkish Parliament in Ankara, President Obama said the United States “is not and will never be at war with Islam.” Additionally, according to the New York Times, he stated: “America’s relationship with the Muslim community, the Muslim world, cannot and will not just be based upon opposition to terrorism. We seek broader engagement based upon mutual interest and mutual respect.”

               And yet, here comes my colleague from the right, with the audacity—not of hope, mind you, but of despair—to suggest that disengagement, rather than engagement; that separation, rather than inclusion; that animosity, rather than friendship, is the right course of action. His doomsday scenario, and others such as his, fall ripe into the hands of our enemies; not the least among them are the terror masterminds, hidden in mountain caves, planning their next attack against Jews in particular, and western civilization as a whole.

               But let’s go back to the first black president, who was also the first president to celebrate Passover with a Seder in the White House. As did many African-American Jews in homes and synagogues in our major cities. (Yes, African-American Jews!) Yet here again, I hear from the right how problematic, how fruitless the relationship between Jews and Blacks are, and always were. Not so, I say. From the African-American Civil Rights Movement, to the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, all the way to the present day with the election of Barak Obama, Jews—indeed, mostly of liberal, progressive inclinations—found the way to engage, support and march ahead with their fellow black citizens on a road not to nowhere, but toward a better tomorrow and a real progress.

               The word progress, of course, is like waving a red cape in front of conservatives and people on the right. Because, when it comes to the forces that want to widen the divide, who are set for some reason or other on preventing the possibility of mutual, peaceful coexistence, anything goes; and any terrorist attack, or any sign of disagreement with the west, is enough of a proof that there are no chances for coexistence. Granted, this road of common ground is full of potholes and bumps. And yes, there are strong elements within the Muslim world, here in America as well—just as we have those elements within us—who are committed on rivalry; on domination; on fostering hate and continuity of the endless war. We have to fight these adversarial elements within our society by opening our hearts and minds.

               We just observed Holocaust Remembrance Day, and we will be well advised not to forget from which nations we, the Jewish People, had suffered the most. From the Greeks to the Romans; from the Russian to the Germans; the atrocities and pogroms and mass exterminations came from European countries, from the most “admired, advanced and cultured” people on earth. And yet, in Muslim countries through centauries of Diaspora, Jews lived in relative peace. To this day—even in Iran, the “devil” nation reincarnation —Jews are allowed to go about their daily business without fear, and practice their cultural and religious beliefs freely.

As for establishing a dialogue with the Latino, Hispanic population, I will add only this: First, it is not mutually exclusive. In other words, working to engage and strengthen relations between Jews and Hispanics does not negate doing the same with the Muslim population. Second, to say, as my colleague had stated, that the “Latino population… truly strives to peacefully integrate into American society,” implies that the Muslim population does not. This statesman is wrong at best, and false at worst. Moreover, many Americans in fact accuse the Latinos of the same “crime:” they don’t want to integrate, to learn and speak English (on our voting ballots, and other such services, do we have Arabic or Hispanic written and voiced?); most of them came here illegally anyhow, and want to reverse the course of history and return California and Texas to Mexico, and other such abominable things. It would do us good not only to reject these notions but to walk together ahead: Jews and Muslims—Latinos, too—not Jews against Muslims.