Dialogue with Radical Muslims is Dangerous for American Jews

by Jerry Gordon (January 2012)
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Introduction
Jewish interfaith dialogue with Muslims has moved beyond mere episodes to one of joint services and soon, joint sanctuaries. It is an insidious form of Da’wah (call to Islam) that some Jewish communal groups are dangerously courting, an act of self destruction undermining the future of the Jewish community in America. 
This dramatic shift is a reflection of a miscast liberal Jewish interpretation of Tikkun Olam - repairing the world. Miscast, because traditional Judaism views Tikkun Olam as the perfection of an exemplary life in the fulfillment the 613 mitzvoth, or good deeds. Interfaith dialogue began in earnest following World War Two in the aftermath of the Holocaust. It was reflected in joint Thanksgiving services with mainstream liberal Protestant churches. The liberal Jewish view of dialogue was institutionalized with the creation of Jewish Community Relations Councils (JCRCs) by Jewish Federations that were mandated to engage in outreach to the non-Jewish community. The JCRCs were also a reflection of Jewish activism in the civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s, and the anti-War movement during the Vietnam era. 
The major Jewish denominations through the leadership at the respective seminaries for the Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist movements, and less so the traditional Orthodox seminaries, have institutionalized interfaith dialogue in training of new members of the rabbinate. 
Thus we find JCRCs, Jewish denominational seminary leaders showing up to break hallal bread with Muslim community leaders who are for the most part representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood. These Jewish community and religious leaders think nothing of attending annual meetings of MB groups like the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), CAIR, and urging their children to make common cause with Muslim Student Association (MSA) chapters in opposing counter-Jihad advocates on college and university campuses. We have found Hillel chapters supporting MSA college chapters, the later endeavoring to deny free speech to those critical of doctrinal Islam and its treatment of women, gays, apostates and unbelievers. There is ready acceptance of anti-Zionist and anti-Israel Jewish advocacy groups on local JCRC’s and even Jewish Federation Israel Action committees. Groups like Brit Tzedek v Shalom, the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, which is now integrated with J Street’s local chapters. As a result, Jewish communal organizations harbor Jewish advocates of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions in the self destructive attempt to force recognition of a Palestinian state. A Palestinian state seeking to occupy “the space between the river and the sea” - Israel.
In this article we will demonstrate how aberrant and dangerous is the contemporary Jewish predilection to dialogue with its ancient Muslim enemies.....



Omaha’s Tri-Faith Project is Not Kosher
There’s a new twist to the mega mosque controversy in America: a tri-faith complex built on what was a Jewish Country Club in Omaha where billionaire investor Warren Buffet was once a member. It is called the Tri-Faith Initiative and it looks like the latest in inter-religious dialogue.
Rabbi Jonathan Hausman commented:

Let's see if I understand this situation. Reform synagogue teams up with Mainline Protestant church with dwindling attendance to provide cover for the inevitable zoning issues and protests that will ensue regarding construction of a mosque. Just perfect.

In late August, 2011, Omaha World Herald had a puff piece by columnist Michael Kelly boosting the project: “Kelly: Three-faith site planners persevere.” Kelly took a gratuitous swipe at the controversy surrounding the expansion of the Islamic Center in Murfreesboro while suggesting the project in Omaha hasn’t drawn any opposition from reform Jews and Episcopalians.

Leaders of Omaha's unique plan to build homes for three faiths at one location are proceeding with optimism, confident they will overcome a few whispers of unease.
In a world of turmoil and political-religious animosity, it is remarkable that the plan has advanced this far without public controversy. Nowhere else is a community doing what Omaha has set out to do: Build a synagogue, a mosque and a church next alongside one another, along with a fourth interfaith structure.
Quiet fears that have been expressed range from the possibility of diluting the respective religions, to worries about intermarriage or even the chance that extremists could view the site as a target.
Nonetheless, a feeling of good will prevails, even as leaders acknowledge that support is not unanimous.

But no protests or ugly incidents have occurred such as happened last year in Murfreesboro, Tenn., where a longtime mosque was planning to expand.

Kelly cites liberal national Jewish newspaper, The Forward, as believing the Omaha Tri-faith project marks a first:

In a metro area with a population of 850,000, the number of people directly affected by the tri-faith effort is relatively small — about 4,500 Episcopalians, 5,500 Jews and nearly that many Muslims.

Even though the tri-faith groups represent about 2 percent of the metro population, the Omaha effort is being watched elsewhere.
The national Jewish publication The Forward said this month that if the Omaha experiment works, it "will become a beacon of cooperation in a world of interreligious strife."

The Tri-Faith project has the usual spin from Muslim radio commentators and local Omaha Muslim leaders.

Dr. David Liepert, an author who bills himself as "The Optimistic Muslim," asked on his Internet radio show whether "Omaha, Neb., of all places, is the interfaith capital of the world."
For the mosque, Muslim leaders have hired a fundraiser who is Jewish and an architect who is Christian.
[. . .]
The often-unstated fear, given the world history of Muslims and Jews, is that disputes and protests someday could spill over into violence in Omaha or that the tri-faith site could be a target.

But according to Kelly all is not sweetness and light about the Tri-Faith project. Witness the objections to the project, an outgrowth of a new sanctuary for a Reform Temple and adjacent residential- commercial development in Omaha:

The houses of worship — the church is Episcopal — are planned for a 37-acre corner of the former Ironwood Golf Course. It was originally the Highland Country Club, built long ago by Jews when they were not allowed to join existing country clubs.

The tri-faith site, east of 132nd Street between Pacific Street and West Center Road, would be part of a much larger residential-commercial development called Sterling Ridge. When the Omaha City Council held a hearing, neighbors objected to parts of the overall development, but no one opposed the tri-faith plan.
Nine years ago, well before such a plan was discussed, Temple Israel began studying what to do with its synagogue at 7023 Cass St., its location since 1954. This past May 15th, the congregation announced it had voted "overwhelmingly" to build a new synagogue at Sterling Ridge.
"It's very important for each religious community to decide on its own," said Rabbi Aryeh Azriel of Temple Israel. "We hear excitement about building a new synagogue. That is the goal of this congregation."
One who has raised objections is businessman and longtime Temple congregant Gary Javitch. He contends that some members did not understand at the time of the vote that the plan to build a synagogue was "deeply intertwined" with the plan for a tri-faith campus.
He even asked Temple leaders that a revote be taken with "an opportunity to choose another location as an option."
Javitch said he wants to know whether future next-door neighbors, who would attend the mosque, wish ill on Israel.
"In and of itself, I like the idea of talking with Muslims," Javitch said. "But before committing to a multimillion-dollar project, I want to know what we're getting into."
Muslims, Episcopalians and Jews involved in the tri-faith effort all want to know who their next-door neighbors are. Leaders say they have spent the past five years getting to know each other through joint gatherings, including a stirring event in March 2009 attended by more than 1,100 people — called "Dinner in Abraham's Tent: Conversations in Peace."

Notwithstanding sources of funding for the new Reform Temple and Episcopal Church, where are the funds going to come from to build the Mosque? An indication of that possibility can be found in this post on the ACT! Omaha Chapter website about recent renovations to the existing Islamic Center of Omaha (ICO):

The ICO has been busy remodeling and the project includes the building of a new minaret. The question of whether or not this minaret will be sounded 5 times every day (starting as early as 5 or 6 am) is yet to be seen or rather, heard.
The ICO is deeded to the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT).
NAIT represents at least two things:
· Saudi Arabian funding and Saudi Arabia’s extreme form of Islam, Wahhabism; and,
· NAIT is a Muslim Brotherhood (MB) front group.

Then there is the past radical leadership of the ICO, Imam Ahmed Alzaree, who left Omaha in 2007 and resigned in controversy before he could take a new post at a Cleveland, Ohio Mosque.
Not enough due diligence has been done by the benighted Jewish and Episcopalian participants in the Omaha Tri-Faith Initiative on their ICO Mosque partners. Rabbi Hausman commented on what the non-Muslim Tri-Faith partners should address:

Who will sit on the mosque's board, who will serve as officers, what links do/did/will these individuals have? What organizations have such people supported in the past (e.g. American Task Force for Palestine, ISNA, CAIR and other proven MB front groups)?

Noted theologian Dr. Richard L. Rubenstein commented:

I am appalled but not surprised at this tale out of Omaha. I wonder how much the mosque and the Episcopal Church paid for their land on the “defunct” Jewish country club and how much Jewish money would be put into this project.

Then, there is Mr. Freeman, Chairman of the Tri-Faith Initiative who was quoted in the Kelly article as saying:

“We’ve always known that the Middle East conflict will go on and on,” he said. “We are not going to bring peace to the Middle East or to the world. Are we supposed to wait for some kind of sign before we act decently to one another?”

As Rick Greenfield, publisher of The Connecticut Jewish Ledger commented: “when I see the word Tri Faith...I think of Traif (not Kosher)”......