Shame on America, Jews and the Anti-Defamation League
Amidst the hysteria over the mosque at Ground Zero the hate-mongers have described the name Cordoba House as a reference to Muslim designs to attack western culture, hearkening back to the Muslim-Christian wars of domination in medieval Spain. The name was chosen for precisely the opposite reason.
In the 10th century Cordoba was the centre of the most liberal and sophisticated Caliphate in the Islamic world. All religions were not merely tolerated but respected. The Caliph, Abdul Rahman III, had a Jew as his foreign minister and a Greek bishop in his diplomatic corps. He also had a library of 400,000 volumes at a time when the largest library in Christian Europe numbered merely 400 manuscripts.
There were also 70 other smaller libraries in Cordoba. The very reference to Cordoba reflects the sophistication and liberality of the Muslims behind this project. They have changed the name of the centre to the address of the building, Park 51, to deflect criticism. This was unfortunate, since nothing will quiet a hate-monger.
The question which must be asked is why this hysteria? The impetus comes from a triumvirate of right-wing Christians, Jews and politicians. Fundamentalist Christians are still fighting the crusades, still vying to convert the world to their truths. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, to the distress of these Christian proselytisers. What better way to win this battle than to brand all Muslims as terrorists?
Right-wing Jews think that they are doing Israel a favour by painting Islam as a terrorist religion thereby proving that Israel need not negotiate with the Palestinians. This theme is picked up in the right-wing press of Israel. Right-wing Jews in Israel as well as the United States believe that demonising the religion of 1.3 billion people is good for Israel. God help us.
Right-wing politicians join the fray. On Fox News Newt Gingrich compares a mosque at Ground Zero to Nazis protesting at the United States Holocaust Memorial. The Democrats are cowed by the American outpouring of hate and even Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid voices disapproval of the Park 51 site. Its a perfect storm of hate.
Periodically we go through this in America. The anti-Catholic Know-Nothing party ran ex-president Millard Fillmore in the presidential election of 1856 and garnered 27 per cent of the votes.
The US deported over 10,000 people during the First World War because they opposed its entry into that war and incarcerated loyal Japanese Americans during the Second World War. Now during this war on terror I shudder to think where the US is headed.
The tool used in this hate campaign is the concept of collective guilt. Based on that, all Jews are traitors since Ethel and Julius Rosenberg sold out the country. All Christians are terrorists since Timothy McVeigh attacked the federal building in Oklahoma City. Neither are all Muslims traitors nor terrorists.
Islam is not monolithic. Its forms are as varied as Judaism or Christianity. I do not practice Judaism the same as a Satmar Hasidic Jew. A Catholic does not practice Christianity the same as a Jehovah Witness. Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf does not share the same Islamic beliefs as Osama Bin Laden.
Finally, to the role of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and its director, Abe Foxman. The world was literally shocked, thats the word used by the Associated Press, by ADLs call for the mosque to be moved. Fareed Zakaria of CNN and Newsweek called it a bizarre decision. Foxman, a Holocaust survivor, said, Survivors of the Holocaust are entitled to feelings that are irrational. Referring to loved ones of the September 11 victims, he continued: Their anguish entitles them to positions that others would categorise as irrational or bigoted.
How dare Foxman use the Holocaust to justify prejudice. He does blasphemy to the memory of Jews and other oppressed minorities whose lives were sacrificed on the altar of bigotry. Zakaria responds: Does Foxman believe that bigotry is OK if people think theyre victims? Does the anguish of Palestinians, then, entitle them to be anti-Semitic?
The last word was recently written by Daniel Luban, a doctoral student at the University of Chicago, in Tablet Magazine: While activists like Pam Geller have led the anti-mosque campaign and the broader demonisation of Muslims that has accompanied it, leaders like Abe Foxman have acquiesced in it. In doing so they risk providing an ugly and ironic illustration of the extent of Jewish assimilation in 21st-century America. We know that Jews can grow up to be senators and Supreme Court justices. Lets not also discover that they can grow up to incite a pogrom.
Rabbi Warshal is the publisher emeritus of the Jewish Journal and the author of Provocative Columns: A Liberal Rabbi Reflects on Beliefs, Israel & American Politics. Full version of this article can be found at floridajewishjournal.com.
Contributed by The News, Thursday Sep 09 2010
