 |
|
|
| | Email this article • Print this article | Focus on what Muslims,
Jews share, say speakers
by Jaclyn Schiff
Special to WJW
Muslim-Jewish daycare, interfaith soccer leagues and thoughtful conversation were some of the relationship-building ideas raised last week at a discussion sponsored by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America at the Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C.
The discussion, titled, "Sarah and Hagar Face the Twenty-First Century: A Dialogue on Change in Judaism and Islam," which attracted nearly 300 people, featured Asra Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and the author of Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam, and Rabbi Burton Visotzky, a professor of Midrash and interreligious studies at JTS.
The speakers at the event on Wednesday of last week looked at women's roles in their respective communities, with Visotzky describing Conservative Judaism's path to ordaining women rabbis. Although Islam bars women from holding religious leadership positions, Visotzky said imams in the United States "have been considering ordaining women for at least a decade." But in Iran and Qatar, women do hold imam positions, he said.
For the most part, Nomani, who acknowledges that there are "progressive Muslim communities," believes that Islam's treatment of women needs to evolve. As a Muslim growing up in the United States, Nomani told the audience that she enjoyed her religion during childhood. "I loved my faith, loved the rituals ... then I hit puberty and I literally ran into a wall," she said as she described how women are walled off from many parts of a mosque.
She determined that Islam could not be the religion for her, since it gave her no room of her own to practice.
With that realization, Nomani disassociated herself from Islam during her 20s and 30s. Even as her work at the Wall Street Journal necessitated covering a variety of subjects and beats, she avoided Islam, though she noticed extremists infiltrating some of the more moderate sects.
During her time at the Journal, Nomani became "dear friends" with fellow reporter Daniel Pearl, a Jew who was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists from the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty in Karachi, Pakistan. "His death changed my life," Nomani said of Pearl, who was recently memorialized in the 2007 film, A Mighty Heart.
Nomani left Islamabad, where she had stayed throughout the investigation of Pearl's abduction until the discovery of the tape of Pearl's murder released by his killers. She went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and realized that Islam must return to a purer time. She thought of Hagar, the "symbolic mother of Islam" and the "best of Islam."
To Nomani, Hagar's story demonstrates how Islam can become more tolerant only after women's rights gain more recognition. "We have to fight for religion in this world, for the way it is expressed," she said.
Before fielding questions, Visotzky and Nomani talked about ways to improve Jewish-Muslim relations and whether the two communities can realistically overcome their different historical narratives. "I feel I have more differences with some Muslims than I do with a rabbi," Nomani said, emphasizing that she thinks Muslims and Jews share much common ground.
Pointing to the emphasis on charity in both religions, Visotzky suggested that synagogues and mosques join together to do "good works."
But despite the speakers' enthusiasm for interfaith dialogue, the audience was heavily Jewish. Interviewed prior to the lecture, Visotzky said that he would be "thrilled" if members of the Muslim community attended "both for the sake of the dialogue, as well as for the sake of furthering relations between the two faiths by offering hospitality to D.C. area Muslims in the synagogue."
He said that "mixed audiences are excellent venues for interfaith dialogues," but added that it is important to get out the interfaith message to both communities "together or separately."
That sentiment was not lost on Adas member Gilda Snyder. The dialogue was "interesting and important," according to Snyder, 75, who added, "It was a wonderful opportunity to hear these two speakers share the same podium."
|
Article Comment Submission Form
|
|
|
|
