wktSJeWISH
Bulletin
SeniiigBrilishColiiiiihiasinci' I'J.iO irunJciiishhiilletiiLca
Leon Kahn's Partisan past is featured inanev/film being screened next week/13
$1.25 includes GST MAY 28 2004/8 SIVAN 5764
In the SponigM
RimmakerDeboragh Gabler juggles many roles/8
Out Of Focus
Reader says nuclear families not necessarily the best/18
Agreement #40051198, PAP Registration /09300
Muslims, Jews get together
Commonalities, not the current conflict, top talks for new group.
PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Going from jihad to Jesus
Annex territories, kick out Arabs, urges a fornfier terrorist.
PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLBIN
Aformer PLO terrorist set to speak in Vancouver next week says the Islamic fundamentahsm that holds sway throughout the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere must be crushed through war - and a new, tolerant, democratic society imposed in its place.
This assertion is just one of a number of theories and arguments that seem certain to raise controversy when Walid Shoebat speaks at this Monday's Townhall Meeting, which is co-sponsored by Vancouver's Israel Action Committee, Bridges for Peace and the Jewish-Christian Friendsliip Circle, and supported by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, the Canada-Israel Committee and Canadian Jewish Congress.
Shoebat, a Palestinian-bom convert to evangelical Christianity, now hves in California, but travels the world sharing his
story of escaping the Islamist terror movement and his view that God decreed that all of Israel, including the West Bank, should belong to the Jewish people.
Among the views Shoebat expressed in a telephone interview with the Bulletin is a plan to absorb Gaza and the West Bank, ,which he calls Judea, into Israel proper and extradite any Palestinians who do not accept Israel's right to do so. He behoves the Western powers must go to war %vith Islamic fundamentalists in order to close tlie religious schools around the world that are teaching Jew-hatred and jihad. He also tried to assuage those Jews, including an Israeli former diief rabbi, who express worries about the close relationships developing between evangeUcal fimdamcntalist Christians and the Zionist movement.
Please see SHOEBAT page 6
AMuslim cleric has invited Vancouver's Jews to join him and his congregation for a special teaching on One God, Universal Message. The gathering is part of a strug^ing but ongoing effort by a small cluster of local Muslims and Jews to come together and build relationships at a time when their two faiths are racked by mutual distrust and suspicion.
Imam Fode Drome is inviting all interested Jews to visit the Masjid ul-Haqq next Simday, June 6. The imam and several of his congregants have been meeting with Rabbi Da\id Mivasair and some of his congregants in recent months, attempting to bridge the divisions between the two communities. Mivasair is the spiritual leader of Vancouver's small, progressive shul Ahavat 01am.
The rabbi, the imam and their fellow organizers had plaimed to have a peace march of Muslims and Jews together, but as a group decided the tiuuout - and the meaning—would be greater if they continued to meet together and share ideas before making a pubUc demonstration.
However, the pubUc meeting between Jews and Muslims, which will be followed at a later date witli Muslims being invited to visit a Jewish congregation, is part of what Mivasair saj-s is an attempt to heal spiritual pain.
"I have thought for many years that one of the greatest areas of brokenness and pain in the Jewish world is the very, very broken relationship with the Muslim vrarld," Mivasair said, adding that the Is-raeU-Palcstinian conflict has edipsed areas of shared interest. "There's a lot of mutual hostility, suspicion and aHenalion and I think it's largely imnecessary. There's a small part of the Muslim world that's in confUct with part of the Jewish world, but the rest of us don't need to be in conflict with each other. We share a lot of history, a lot of theology, we have a shared destiny to the future."
Mivasair believes the divisions that exist between Muslims and Jews are overwhelmingly due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and do not represent a larger tlieological conflict. He stressed, however, that sohdng the Middle East conflict - or even addressing it - is not a top priority. "Honestly, tlicrc arc many, many oth-
er forums for working on the issue of the Israel-Palestine conflict," Mivasair said. *lf we never get to it, and all we do is build good relationships with each other as Jews and as Muslims, m feel very successful. If, in that relationship, we do talk about it and we come to a better understanding of each other, then all the better, but thaf s not the goal."
•If not addressing the IsraeU-Palestin-ian conflict leaves some in the group feeling like there's a two-ton elephant they're not talking about, so be it, said the rabbi.
*lt mi^t leave people feeling that way, but sometimes thaf s a smart way to proceed," he said. "We know it's there. We to-tafly know it's there. That's why we need to db this. Tm not doing tlus with the Sikhs or the Buddhists or the Hindus. I'm not even doing it with the Christians. There's a brokenness, there's pain [in Jews' relationship with Muslims]. "That's why we need to do it"
The international conflict is like a toothache, he said.
"If you have a toothache and 99.9 per cent of your body is functioning beautifully, you're healtliy and your hver, your kishkes and your heart, everytliings going really well, what does your attention go to?" Mivasair asked. "The toothache, lliat's how it's been for Jews and Muslims. We need to heal that toothache, we need to do something about Uuit, but I'm trying to create a space where we can look at the whole rest of what we're about
"We are trying to build positive relationships between two groups of thoughtful, intelligent, sensitive, caring people, some of whom are Jews, some of whom are Muslims," said Mi^-asair. "Addressing that conflict is not the first thing on our agenda."
Higher on tlie list, he said, are issues like what it means to be a Jew, and what it means to be a Muslim.
Hie event takes place on Simday, Jime 6, from 2 to 5 p.m. The Masjid is located at 4162 Welwyn St., just nortli of Kngsway near Victoria. Women and men are asked to dress modestly. Refhshmcnts ^vill be ser\'ed. For more information, phone the Masjid at 60-1-873-1787. □
Pat Johnson is a native Vancouvcriic, a journalist and commentator.
IHZ ZSA 38 JaAnoauBA •SAV }siv jssrt 0S6-902# Ajsjoos 1B31J0JS}H qsiMar