The Bridge with Islam 

                                                                                                By Rabbi Haim Ovadia

I am a Jew of Islam.

Not an Arab Jew, mind you, since that term makes as much sense as Slavic or Baltic or Arian Jew, but a Jew of Islam.

It is not only because in my family's veins runs the blood of people who lived in Iraq, Syria, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey, nor because among 

mycongregants there are natives of Bahrain and Indonesia.

It is true that my I-pod is packed with Abdul Wahab, Sabah Fakhri and Farid Al Atrache and the Shabbat songs and liturgy borrows freely 

fromgenerations of Islamic, Sufi and secular Arabic music, but the connection runs much deeper.

I am a Jew of Islam because Judaism under the rule of the crescent took a different course than that under the rule of the cross. The Jews of 

Islam, although decreed by the Pact of Omar as dhimmis, or second class citizens, never experienced the same level of hatred, anti-Semitism 

and persecution which were their daily bread in Christendom. They were not demonized as god killers and did not have to defend their religion 

in public disputations. They were not expelled en-masse on religious grounds from a Muslim country as they were from England, France and 

Catholic Spain.

As a rule, Islam used to be much less fanatic then Christianity. The number of wars waged and the amount of lives lost by the followers of the 

man who said: "Love your enemies; bless those who curse you… Resist no evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him 

the other also", is mind boggling.  And that violence was not directed only against other Monotheistic heathens such as Muslims and Jews but 

also against Christians who deviated from the norm. 

The Crusades, Saint Bartholomew's day massacre and the Inquisition are just an example. The latter, founded by the disciples of St. Francis 

of Asissi, a gentle soul who preached to the birds: "...my little sisters, study always to give praise unto god", targeted not Jews but Christian 

heretics and new converts. It did it with such atrocity and cruelty, in the Old and the New World that the Abu Ghraib tortures pale in comparison.

The so-called Western civilization has just emerged from a long history of religious intolerance. The much celebrated Nostra Aetate 

declaration was only issued in 1965, mere minutes ago in historic perspective. Furthermore, although it graciously "acquits" most Jews 

from the sin of killing Jesus and calls for peace and religious tolerance, it stresses that the Lord Christ is the only true god and that we foster 

friendship in order to bring all humanity to believe in him. It recognizes that in the past there were "some quarrels" between the Church and 

the Moslems, but urges people to forget the past and start anew. His Holiness was probably not aware of Santayana's words: "Those who 

cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".

Much greater tolerance is conveyed in the 1805 Chief Sagoyewatha's address to Christian missionaries:

Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so

much about it? Why do not all agree, as you can all read the book? Brother, we do not wish to destroy your religion or take it from you. We

only want to enjoy our own.

Looking back, we should ask ourselves, what happened to moderate and enlightened Islam?

Why, as Harold Bloom writes in his foreword to Menocal's Ornament of the World, there are no Muslim Andalusians visible anywhere in the 

world today?

Part of the answer is that when West met East in modern times it was an encounter infused with arrogance, religious zeal and greed. The 

colonialist and imperialist forces looked down at and did not bother to understand the "natives", missionaries tried to "save" lost souls, a 

goal that justified all means, and the spoils of the Oriental and African world were divided among the culturally "superior" conquerors.

Is there any wonder that nationalist and religious forces eventually sprang to action in order to counteract that hostile takeover?

When we speak about religion, the problem of the world today is not Islam but rather religious fanatics. As of today most of them are Muslims 

but to a certain extent it is the same brand of religious zeal that in our country, a country that heralds the separation of church and state, is

holding back stem cell research, fights pro choice supporters and discriminates against gays and lesbians.

The remedy for fanaticism is to support and promote proponents of moderate Islam, to bring back the glory of Andalusia, Cordoba and 

Granada and to prepare a cadre of Imams and Quran scholars who are willing to accommodate to changing times, simultaneously teaching 

Westerners about Islam. It is time to open up a dialogue of acceptance, not one that teaches our ways to others, but rather one that searches 

to solve conflicts and violence by drawing upon each one's own culture. It is a long and difficult way, but history has a long breath and memory 

and it will wait. Meanwhile, we don't have to build a bridge with Islam, just open for traffic the ancient one.

Haim Ovadia is the rabbi of Kahal Joseph Congregation in Los Angeles, California.

The article will be published in next week's Jewish Journal of Los Angeles.

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