US MUSLIMS, JEWS SET DIALOGUE EXAMPLE

Muslims and Jews in the US have the potentials to set the world an example of a successful interfaith cooperation and dialogue thanks to their openness and integration into society, experts said on Monday, December 24.

“[It’s] a model which I hope we could duplicate” globally, Zahid Bukhari, director of the American Muslim Studies Programme at Georgetown University, reportedly said.

Bukhari said the dialogue “is a new beginning” to bridge the gap between Muslims and Jews worldwide. Farid Senzai, director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, noted that mosques and synagogues in the US have taken the initiative for rendering the dialogue successful. They are developing joint activities and it goes down to the individual level as well, he added.

Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) on December 23 addressed the closing plenary of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) biennial in San Diego. “If religion is about anything, it should be about the ability to extend empathy beyond our own family or tribe or religious community to humanity at large,” she said.

This came four months after URJ President Rabbi Eric Yoffie became the first rabbi from a major Jewish group to address ISNA, one of the biggest Muslim organisations in the US and North America.