Last week, the Jewish campus organisation Hillel put on an event at Rutgers, the prestigious university in New Jersey, which brought together a Jewish human rights layer, Dr Brooke Goldstein, and a Muslim physician, Dr Qanta Ahme, to discuss the abuse of women and children in Muslim countries. This is what happened. According to Andrew Getraer, Executive Director of Rutgers Hillel: “The presenters were exceptional: reasoned, articulate, compassionate – but no tip toeing around the issues. It was a powerful and moving experience, before a standing-room-only crowd of students, about half Jews and half Muslim. The speakers clearly and sensitively differentiated between the term Islamist and Islam/Muslim. They testified to their own experiences living, working, and researching in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Palestinian territories, under the rule of Muslim religious extremists. The litany of child abuse and oppression of women and minorities was tragic and chilling. For over 2 hours, students sat in rapt attention, and it was conducted with civility. “Then came the Q&A, filled with shouting, anger, and discord. Not a single student addressed the litany of tragedy and human rights violations which had been described to them in detail for two hours. The lack of any concern for the serious human rights issues presented was notable and disappointing. “Instead, many Muslim students focused entirely on attacking the speakers personally. Hillels student Israel Chair had been facilitating the event, but eventually I had to step in and restore order. I had the police remove one student who began shouting anti-Zionist epithets. Both Dr. Ahmed and Ms. Goldstein, shocked and insulted, got up and left unceremoniously. “Following the formal program, however, several Muslim students stayed at Hillel and continued discussions with a group of Jewish students for an hour. These students expressed their feelings that the overall experience was extremely positive.” Dr Ahme was said to be distraught by the students’ behaviour. “I am very disappointed at this discourse between us as Muslims. I will not engage in this delegitimization attempt. It’s very disrespectful to our hosts and other people here.” Dr Goldstein told the audience that an atmosphere of “Islamophobia mania” had taken hold. She said individuals and the media were afraid because “every time you speak about these human rights violations you get slandered as racist and anti-Muslim.” The real motive of such criticism “is to stifle public interest,” she said. Indeed, before the meeting took place Andrew Gertraer says he was bombarded with messages calling him a racist, white supremacist, Islamophobe and so on, while dozens of Facebook posts demanded that the event be cancelled. Here is surely the problem in a nutshell. When courageous Muslims and Jews find common ground on which jointly to protest the shocking human rights abuses perpetrated by Muslims on other Muslims, they run a gauntlet of intimidation and hostility by yet other Muslims designed to suppress any such discussion. The paranoia induced by the western obsession with “Islamophobia” prevents many Muslims from hearing what is needed to protect their own people from harm. This spurious and sinister western-invented hate crime, supposedly designed to protect Muslims, actually colludes with their brutal oppression. Many feel they have to shut down any such discussion because they cannot bring themselves to believe that Muslims can ever harm other Muslims. To believe that is to acknowledge there is something wrong with Islamic beliefs. And since Islam is said to represent perfection, they believe that would destroy it. It’s therefore a perfectly closed thought system. That’s why what happened at Rutgers Hillel is a microcosm of what is happening around the world. That’s why any negotiation with Islamic fundamentalists, from al Qaeda to Hamas to Boko Haram to Islamic State to Iran, is an impossibility. That’s why Muslim reformers are in such a threatened minority. Thats why reform is so difficult. Those like Qanta Ahme who have the courage and intellectual honesty to break free of this terrible trap are unusual, but they do exist – and in the Islamic world, a crucial debate is going on under the radar. That’s why, not in spite of but because of what happened at Rutgers Hillel, we must have more such meetings and force that common ground into the open. What is the essence of that common ground? It’s called telling the truth. njjewishnews/article/24764/hillel-takes-heat-for-program-on-islamism#.VDLXoymSy1A dailytargum/article/2014/09/experts-discuss-radical-islam-among-protests
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 19:09:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015