Said Rabbi Schneier: “It is reassuring to hear the voices of Muslim leaders speaking out in solidarity with the Jewish community and unequivocally condemning acts of terrorism and violence.”
Pardon me, but I would be more reassured if they were unequivocally condemning attempts to impose Sharia, whether by terrorism or other means, onto non-Muslim countries. I’d be considerably and genuinely reassured if they declared unequivocally that they believed in living with non-believers as equals in a secular society on an indefinite basis. I’d feel much better if they were unequivocally condemning Islamic antisemitism and explaining how they reject the literal understanding of the Qur’an’s curses on the Jews.
Why is all that not only too much to ask, but positively “Islamophobic” even to suggest?
“Police Detail Disruption of Terror Plot,” by Sewell Chan and Nate Schweber for the New York Times City Room Blog, May 21, Updated 11:06 a.m.:
A group of Jewish and Muslim leaders have scheduled a 1 p.m. news conference at the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, one of the city”s largest mosques, to condemn violence.
Imam Muhammad Shamsi Ali, the spiritual leader of the mosque, on East 96th Street near Third Avenue, and Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and founding rabbi of The New York Synagogue, are to attend. “We call upon Muslim leaders to stand firm against the forces of evil,” Imam Ali said.
Rabbi Schneier said in a statement: “It is reassuring to hear the voices of Muslim leaders speaking out in solidarity with the Jewish community and unequivocally condemning acts of terrorism and violence.”