THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XII, Issue # 250, November 14, 2010
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
JEWISH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY HOSTS
ISLAMIC TRIUMPHALISTS
By Alan Jacobs
ISLAM IN AMERICA & THE CONFERENCE OF OCTOBER 25, 2010: THE PROSPECT OF DIALOGUE BETWEEN MAINSTREAM
MUSLIM ORGANIZATIONS IN THE U.S.A. & THEIR JEWISH & CHRISTIAN COUNTERPARTS -- FAILURE OF THE CONFERENCE
PANEL SPEAKERS TO ADDRESS SUBSTANTIVE & VERY RELEVANT ISSUES SUCH AS (1) UBIQUITOUS ANTI-AMERICANISM &
ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE MUSLIM WORLD, (2) THE RISING POPULARITY JIHADI IDEOLOGIES AMONG MUSLIMS, & (3)
RADICALISM & EXTREMISM SPREADING THROUGH THE RANKS OF EVEN AMERICAN MUSLIMS -- WAS THIS CONFERENCE
THE BEGINNING OF TRUE INTERFAITH DIALOGUE BETWEEN "MODERATE" MUSLIMS & MEMBERS OF OTHER ABRAHAMIC
FAITHS, OR WAS IT YET ANOTHER DUPLICITOUS & SUBVERSIVE MOMENT IN THE LIVES OF ISLAMIST PROFESSORS DISLOYAL
TO THE U.S.A.?
FULL STORY:
Audience members in the packed Jewish Theological Seminary auditorium just down the block from Columbia University
might have been gratified to see hijabs and yarmulkes adorning the heads of Muslims and Jews coming together for
interfaith dialogue on the evening of Monday, October 25, 2010. The title of the event, "Islam in America: Assimilation
and Authenticity," drew a large, mixed crowd, perhaps three hundred strong, eager for interreligious conversation. The
anticipation of imams and rabbis in reserved front seats, or students filling other rows to the brim, was understandable --
isn't this, after all, the conversation Muslims and members of other faiths need to start having?
This optimism at the prospect of dialogue between mainstream Muslim organizations and their Jewish and Christian
counterparts resurfaces often, and rarely for good reason. Monday night was no exception.
The event, a joint project of the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Islamic Society of North America, featured several
high-profile speakers, including JTS Chancellor Arnie Eisen; the Reverend Dr. Serene Jones, President of the Union
Theological Seminary across the street from JTS; and two familiar faces from ISNA's side: Ingrid Mattson, the immediate
past President of ISNA, who moderated the panel and said little, and Sherman Jackson, a professor of Arabic and Islamic
Studies at the University of Michigan and a convert to Islam who specializes in Islamic law and the black
Muslim-American experience.
ISNA, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror trial, has a history of doublespeak, when it comes
to religious dialogue. The panel's moderator, Mattson, also has a troubling history. She presided over a number of
embarrassing ISNA gaffes, including her own claim that Fort Hood murderer Major Nidal Hasan was "not the
responsibility of the Muslim community," and an anti-Semitic imam's rant given at an annual ISNA conference. Mattson
also once claimed rather ludicrously on CNN that Saudi Arabia's fundamentalist Wahhabism is a "reformist
ideology, like the Protestant Reformation." She even teaches students at Hartford Seminary the radical writings of Sayyid
Qutb, an inspiration to radical jihadists across the globe, as an example of "how the Qur'an functions as sacred
scripture in Muslim history and contemporary life." Jackson, for his part, has expressed extreme views, sometimes toning
them down for particular audiences, sometimes not bothering.
The JTS audience was treated to friendly faces speaking friendly words, a tactic that made Jackson's subversive approach
easy to miss. For example, following Chancellor Eisen's call for religious pluralism grounded in authentic faith, Jackson
ostensibly agreed, citing a Qur'anic source. His example was perhaps reassuring to those unfamiliar with the
Qur'an:
"The Prophet Muhammad ... when he was forced out
of Mecca to Medina, there was a standing Jewish
community in Medina. And the Prophet himself was
responsible for promulgating and putting together a
document called the Constitution of Medina. The
document said the following: 'We Muslims, and we
Jews, and even we pagans here in Medina, will enter
into a pact to protect the sanctity of Medina as the
home of us all.'"
A nice story, evoking good old constitutional democracy and religious pluralism. Yet Jackson skipped the part of the story
where Jews are ethnically cleansed from Medina, and one of their tribes, the Banu Qurayza, are beheaded en masse.
Jackson called his story a "precedent" for interreligious cooperation. The Jews of Medina and Khaybar probably would
not agree.
Jackson's other comments echo earlier statements he has made to the effect that assimilation of Muslims into American
society is neither possible nor desirable; rather, they should be "indigenized." This is academia's way of saying that the
only way Muslims will comfortably join American society is if the latter morphs to accommodate Islam. He believes that
black Muslims and immigrant Muslims view any "assimilation" as "capitulation," behavior befitting an "Uncle Tom."
When pressed by an audience member during a question-and-answer session on whether, like the Christian panelist
Jones, he ever feels his religion has been "hijacked," Jackson lapsed into predictable apologetics. Yes, he admits, some
Muslims have committed atrocities, but Islam has been "mediatized." We don't hear, he said, about all the progress of the
Muslim world. He asserted, rather absurdly, that most of the Gama'at Islamiya, a group he claimed was responsible for
assassinating Anwar Sadat (this remains unclear, with Egyptian Islamic Jihad usually assigned responsibility), have
repented of their actions and committed themselves to fighting terrorism theologically. While some terrorists have indeed
been released from Egyptian prisons for good behavior, Aymen al-Zawahiri, al-Qa'ida's second in command, seems pretty
convinced that a renewed alliance with the Gama'at Islamiya is alive and well.
The entire panel avoided discussion of the most substantive issues in need of address: ubiquitous anti-Americanism and
anti-Semitism in the Muslim world, the rising popularity of jihadi ideologies, and radicalism spreading through the ranks
of even American Muslims (no surprise, when Muslim Brotherhood affiliates like the Muslim Student Association and
ISNA are the "moderates" engaging in "dialogue"). Instead, the audience was treated to evasions and honey-tipped
words from disturbing figures with troubling histories.
Was this the beginning of true interfaith dialogue between moderate Muslims and members of other Abrahamic faiths?
Or was it yet another duplicitous moment in the lives of radical Muslim professors? In the final analysis, it seems that on
Monday night, "authenticity" was absent.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Jews & Anti-Semitism
The Islamist Fifth Column -- America's Internal Enemies:
Disloyalty, Subversion, Sedition, & Treason
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Jacobs is a student of Middle Eastern Studies in New York. This essay was written for Campus Watch, a project
of the Middle East Forum.
The foregoing article by Alan Jacobs was originally published in the American Thinker, November 14, 2010, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/2781/jewish- theological-seminary-islamic-triumphalists)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
November 14, 2010
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