Relationship Status for American Jews and Muslims: It's Complicated

This week, Reform Grand Rebbe Eric Yoffie spoke at the convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). In his speech, Yoffie deplored the "profound ignorance" of Islam in the US, and its demonization by "opportunists." Yet at the same time, Yoffie challenged American Muslims to combat the anti-Semitism that is rampant in the Muslim world.

The Reform movement determined that ISNA was a genuine partner for interfaith dialogue after it shifted its position from terrorism is bad (except when it is against Israel) to terrorism is bad (even when it kills Jews.) ISNA's efforts to allay Jewish concerns were met with skepticism elsewhere in Jewish Alphabet soup.

Yoffie's overture drew criticism from David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee.

"Here is another discredited group eager for mainstream recognition," Harris wrote in a blog on the Web site of The Jerusalem Post. "Inadvertently, in the name of inter-religious dialogue, [Yoffie] gave it."

Fortunately for ISNA, while the URJ represents 1.5 million congregants, a plurality of affiliated American Jews, while the AJC represents...the AJC (although to be fair, it performs its role as the Jewish Brookings Institution quite ably).

The skepticism towards ISNA and other American Muslims organizations has a genuine basis. As an initial mater, it is unclear how representative any of the American Muslim organizations really are. Wahhabis and other external groups are spending millions in an effort to strangle a tolerant, indigenous American Islam in its cradle. (Indeed, Jewcy contributor Stephen Suleymain Schwartz has in the past identified ISNA as playing a central role in that campaign.) Leaders of American Muslim organizations have been disingenuous about ties to Islamism, utilizing double-speak to dupe well-intentioned dialogue partners. Finally, even genuinely moderate and tolerant American Muslim leaders have been prone to have an irrational blind spot when it comes to Israel. (It should be noted that the leading critics of American Muslim organizations are often considered quite controversial themselves.)

However, it is critical that American Jews engage in meaningful dialogue with American Muslims, and that dialogue cannot be limited to groups on the guest list at the American Enterprise Institute. There is tremendous ignorance of Judaism in the American Muslim community, and only through engagement can we combat the pernicious leakage of Antisemitism from the wider Muslim world.

Moreover, given the season, it is time that American Jews take a hard look at our own behavior. Far too many of us have let real concerns regarding terror and Israel be used as cover for rank racism and wholesale defamation of a sister faith. Group libels that we would never allow pass against any other group are laughed off. Absurd questions of whether American Muslims are capable of fully participating in American democracy are entertained. The entire Koran is judged by its most problematic passages. The first elected American Muslim congressman is subjected to invective by prominent Jewish pundits and unfair scrutiny by the Jewish defense organizations. We of all people - who have a history of being deemed foreign and impossible to assimilate - should know better than to contribute to a 21st century Know-Nothing movement.

It is too soon to tell whether ISNA's reformation is genuine or whether its invitation to Yoffie will result in genuine, sustained dialogue between our communities. However, for our sake and theirs, we can only hope that a true corner has been turned.

Cross-posted at Jewcy.