It begins with:
SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE: Irrational intolerance is a frightening reality
By MARK S. MILLER
I taught at UC Irvine for 22 years. I am glad to have left a campus that has become fertile ground for hate speech and take pride in joining Chapman University, where discourse is passionate but civil.
Last year, I was invited back to UCI to speak about Israel to several hundred political science students. The ad hominem attacks launched by the Muslim class members, the insults they flung at me, the rage that contorted their faces, indicated an irrationality never to be imagined in a university classroom. Later, the professor confessed his fear that physical violence would explode and that he had considered calling security to protect me as I left.
Muslim students recently sponsored programs geared to whip up a frenzy against Israel. The only democracy in a sea of tyrannical and primitive regimes was likened to Nazi Germany and apartheid in South Africa. It is a crime punishable by imprisonment for a Christian to wear a Cross in Saudi Arabia, and yet this is the culture that attacks Israel for its alleged intolerance.
Islam, a faith profoundly inimical to Western values, divides the world into realms of dar al Islam, believers, and dar al harb, unbelievers. The Koran of Medina commands: "Then your Lord spoke to His angels and said, 'I will be with you. Give strength to the believers. I will send terror into the unbelievers' hearts, cut off their heads and even the tips of their fingers!' " We of the West, who affirm, "Love your neighbor as yourself," recoil at the global jihad that daily implements this homicidal Koranic message.
We must condemn speech that descends into vilification. As Lebanese-born Arab reformer Brigitte Gabriel recently said to my congregation, "What is at stake on campuses is our future; the students of today will become tomorrow's leaders."I tremble.
Mr. Miller is the rabbi at Temple Bat Yahm in Newport Beach.
The imam's response:
Respect, peace must be spiritual priorities
By SAYED MOUSTAFA AL-QAZWINI
The reality of today's world is that we are living in a very precarious and unstable time. In every part of the world, there is some form of human conflict. As spiritual leaders it is our mission to try to comfort, assure and give hope to people. Our duty is to build within each soul the human qualities of love, respect and acceptance of others.
I believe that America has the potential to pollinate the fields of religious diversity within its land and carry it worldwide.
American religious leaders have already begun to cultivate relations by holding interfaith dialogue, visiting each other's places of worship, building joint academic and community ventures, and supporting one another through mutual reverence. Truly, many spiritual leaders are manifesting the theme of their divine book — the Koran, Torah and Bible — "love your neighbors as yourself."
It is not befitting of any spiritual leader, let alone a scholar, to manipulate a passage from the Koran to support a claim that Islam is "inimical" to Western values ("Irrational intolerance is a frightening reality," Spiritual Guidance, May 19).
For the sake of argument, one could easily apply the same elementary tactic to the Old Testament and New Testament. Would it be worthy of me, to extract out of context, selected cruel and inhumane passages from the Torah or Bible to validate that Jews and Christians also preach violence? How would that benefit me or the world that I live in? What sort of preaching or accuracy would I be promoting? We must stop spewing rhetoric that slanders a faith that is shared by more than a billion peaceful people.
Instead of finger-pointing, we must work together to find common grounds to develop solutions for the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Spiritual leaders must not mirror the rage, animosity or prejudice seen in others but rather reflect the rays of ethical justice, compassion, understanding, forgiveness. And, most important, they must labor for a peaceful outcome. We must be able to provide a forum to genuinely listen to one another respectfully without insult or accusation.Students of today must have the right leaders to model in order to ensure that they become rightful leaders of tomorrow.
It is our duty, as representatives of faith, to continue to reach out to others, to find amicable solutions through dialogue and to heal and strengthen the common bond of man.
IMAM SAYED MOUSTAFA AL-QAZWINI leads the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County.
The Rabbi fires back:
MAILBAG:Foundations of Islam are at odds with what the West values
Imam Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini objects to my claim (in "Irrational intolerance is a frightening reality," Spiritual Guidance, May 19) that Islam is inimical to Western values ("Respect, peace must be spiritual priorities," Community Commentary, May 25).
The foundational value of Western society is democracy. Where is the tradition of democracy or its presence today in Islamic lands? A Western value is freedom of religion. How is it that in Islamic lands the wearing of a Cross or possession of a New Testament is an "insult to Islam" and a punishable offense? The West upholds the value of equality. The Sharia police ensure the subordination of women in Islamic lands, which extends to their even being seen. The value of peace is enshrined in Western thought. I hope the imam will forthrightly and consistently condemn the thousands of Muslim leaders who spew the most vile anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism to millions of adoring worshippers and who call for a global jihad against the U.S. and Israel.
Before the imam deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he should look to his own house. As Professor Salim Mansur writes: "More Muslims have been killed by Muslims, more Muslims continue to be victimized by Muslims, and more Muslims are in danger of dying at the hands of Muslims than non-Muslims." The number of casualties inflicted by Israel in wars forced upon the Jewish state is paltry compared with the millions of Muslims murdered by fellow worshippers of Allah.
And let him also confront the fact that the gravest threat to life and civilization in all of history emanates from Iran, a Shiite theocracy.
MARK S. MILLER
Mr. Miller is the rabbi at Temple Bat Yahm in Newport Beach.
I wonder if there will be more in this exchange...
Pertinent Links:
1) SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE:Irrational intolerance is a frightening reality
2) COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:Respect, peace must be spiritual priorities
3) MAILBAG:Foundations of Islam are at odds with what the West values
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