DebateGate

This has got to be, hands down, the dumbest thing I've ever seen, and I've seen it several times on the news here already (including slow-motion replays). For a minute, I thought a liberal Hoot was over there.

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Angry Iraqi throws shoes at Bush in Baghdad

    * Story Highlights
    * Shoe-thrower dragged away; Bush makes light of incident
    * Bush makes unannounced visit to Iraq, will address troops
    * Visit meant to mark the conclusion of the security pact with Iraq
    * Among Muslims, throwing shoes at someone is an insult

(CNN) -- President Bush made a farewell visit Sunday to Baghdad, Iraq, where he met with Iraqi leaders and was targeted by an angry Iraqi man, who jumped up and threw shoes at Bush during a news conference.

Among Muslims, throwing shoes at someone, or sitting so that the bottom of a shoe faces another person, is considered an insult.

The man was dragged out screaming after throwing the shoes. Bush ducked, and the shoes, thrown one at a time, sailed past his head during the news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in his palace in the heavily fortified Green Zone.

As the man continued to scream from another room, Bush said: "That was a size 10 shoe he threw at me, you may want to know."

Bush had been lauding the conclusion of the security pact with Iraq as journalists looked on.

Bush landed at Baghdad International Airport on Sunday and traveled by helicopter to meet with President Jalal Talabani and his two vice presidents at Talabani's palace outside the Green Zone.

It marked the first time he has been outside the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad without being on a military base.

The visit was Bush's fourth since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Afterward, Talabani praised his U.S. counterpart as a "great friend for the Iraqi people" and the man "who helped us to liberate our country and to reach this day, which we have democracy, human rights, and prosperity gradually in our country." VideoWatch President Bush and Iraq's president walk the red carpet ?

Talabani said he and Bush, who is slated to leave office next month, had spoken "very frankly and friendly" and expressed the hope that the two would remain friends even "back in Texas."

For his part, Bush said he had come to admire Talabani and his vice presidents "for their courage and for their determination to succeed."

As the U.S. and Iraqi national anthems played and Iraqi troops looked on, he and the Iraqi president walked along a red carpet.

Bush's trip was to celebrate the conclusion of the security pact with Iraq, called the Strategic Framework Agreement and the Status of Forces Agreement, the White House said.

Bush called the passage of the pact "a way forward to help the Iraqi people realize the blessings of a free society."

Bush said the work "hasn't been easy, but it has been necessary for American security, Iraqi hope, and world peace."

In remarks to reporters, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, who traveled with Bush, described the situation in Iraq as "in a transition."

"For the first time in Iraq's history and really the first time in the region, you have Sunni, Shia and Kurds working together in a democratic framework to chart a way forward for their country," he said.

President Bush briefed President-elect Obama on the state of the nation this week.

I don't want to say things look bad, but Obama's new slogan is "Maybe We Can."

-- Jay Leno

Interesting - and irritating all at once. I'm posting it because I could easily be the mentioned American on the streets of Amman the way people are coming up to me these past days (although it's not me in the article, of course). And while Jordanians I know have always treated me very well and never with any type of prejudice, taxi drivers are another story - I have been in too many damn taxis with a driver yelling at me, "F*ck Bush!" It was bad to the point that I bought a car and am braving the treacherous traffic of Amman on my own (give me New York, Boston or L.A. any day over the mess on these streets!) So is it worldwide that taxi drivers consider themselves ambassadors of obscenity?

And yet irritating, because I hate so much of it. It's like America's dirty laundry is hanging out for the world to see and comment on; and on the other hand, America put it out there - thus the responses.


Is it Cool to be an American Abroad?
By WILLIAM J. KOLE, AP
posted: 4 HOURS 32 MINUTES AGO

VIENNA, Austria (Nov. 6) - She was a stranger, and she kissed me. Just for being an American.
It happened on the bus on my way to work Wednesday morning, a few hours after compatriots clamoring for change swept Barack Obama to his historic victory. I was on the phone, and the 20-something Austrian woman seated in front of me overheard me speaking English.
Without a word, she turned, pecked me on the cheek and stepped off at the next stop.
Nothing was said, but the message was clear: Today, we are all Americans.
For longtime U.S. expatriates like me ? someone far more accustomed to being targeted over unpopular policies, for having my very Americanness publicly assailed ? it feels like an extraordinary turnabout.
Like a long journey over a very bumpy road has abruptly come to an end.
And it's not just me.
An American colleague in Egypt says several people came up to her on the streets of Cairo and said: "America, hooray!" Others, including strangers, expressed congratulations with a smile and a hand over their hearts.
Another colleague, in Amman, says Jordanians stopped her on the street and that several women described how they wept with joy.
When you're an American abroad, you can quickly become a whipping post. Regardless of your political affiliation, if you happen to be living and working overseas at a time when the United States has antagonized much of the world, you get a lot of grief.
You can find yourself pressed to be some kind of apologist for Washington. And you can wind up feeling ashamed and alone.
I'll never forget a ride in a taxi in Vienna when the world was waking up to the abuses wrought by U.S. troops at the detention center for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
My driver, a Muslim, was indignant. "You are American, yes?" he asked in that accusatory tone so familiar to many expats.
"Uh, no, Canadian," I said.
And it wasn't the first time I fudged where I was from. I speak three foreign languages, so I have a bit of flexibility when it comes to faking. At various times, I've been a German in Serbia, a Frenchman in Turkey, a Dutchman in Austria.
I'm not proud of it. But when you're far from home, and you're feeling cornered, you develop what you come to believe are survival skills.
Last spring, after the Bush administration recognized Kosovo's independence, a Serb who overheard my American-accented English lobbed a beer can at me in central Vienna. He missed, but spat out an unflattering "Amerikanac" and told me where to go.
On another occasion, an Austrian who heard my teenage daughter chatting with a friend pursued her, screaming, "Go Home!"
Physical attacks on Americans overseas are rare. Yet some of us felt vaguely at risk.
Maybe it was just the hostility we'd encounter even in friendly venues such as cocktail parties, when our foreign hosts would surround us and demand to know why U.S. troops were roughing up inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Or refusing to sign the U.N. Convention Against Torture. Or rejecting the Kyoto accord on climate change.
Maybe it was the State Department, which issues regular travel advisories urging Americans to keep a low profile even in tranquil Austria.
Often, of course, I've pushed back ? reminding critics that most Americans are decent and generous souls, quick to respond with money and manpower whenever and wherever in the world catastrophe may strike.
My children came of age in Europe, and in a hostile post-9/11 world we had to teach them to avoid being too conspicuously American. Don't speak English loudly on the subway. Don't wear baseball caps and tennis shoes. Don't single yourselves out, guys, and even worldly wise Americans can unwittingly become targets.
We didn't overdo it, but there's always been that tension. That difficult-to-describe sense of vulnerability. That nagging instinct that maybe we'd better watch it, because our government is intensely unpopular and we're not entirely welcome.
I know Americans who at times have felt that way even in laid-back Vienna, where the greatest danger is probably eating a bad pastry.
That's what made Wednesday's unsolicited kiss so remarkable.
I don't want to read too much into an innocent smooch, but it didn't feel particularly pro-Obama, even though the new U.S. president-elect enjoys broad support here. No, it seemed to impart two sentiments I haven't felt for a long time: friendship and admiration.
Obama captured it in his acceptance speech ? this sense that despite holding America's feet to the fire, the rest of the world is rooting for it and wants it to lead and succeed.
"Our destiny is shared," he said, "and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand."
Overnight, Americans did something their harshest critics in Europe have yet to do: elect a person of color as head of state and commander in chief. That gives U.S. citizens some bragging rights, even if a lot of us would just as soon eschew hubris and embrace humility.
I'm a marathon runner, and I have a red, white and blue singlet that I've seldom dared to wear on the Continent. Marathons are difficult enough without enduring catcalls and jeers from spectators.
But my best friend and training partner ? who is French ? just gave me his stamp of approval.
"Will you wear your Stars and Stripes shirt now? You're allowed!" he told me.

William J. Kole, AP's Vienna bureau chief, has covered European affairs since 1995.

China announces plastic bag ban
The Chinese government says it is banning shops from handing out free plastic bags from June this year, in a bid to curb pollution.
Production of ultra-thin plastic bags will also be banned, the State Council said in a statement.

Instead, people will be encouraged to use baskets or reusable cloth bags for their shopping, the council said.

The move comes amid growing concern about pollution and environmental degradation in China.

China was using huge quantities of plastic bags each year, the State Council, China's cabinet, said in its directive, posted on the main government website.

"Plastic shopping bags, due to reasons such as excessive use and inefficient recycling, have caused serious energy and resources waste and environment pollution," it said.

Easily discarded

Of particular concern were cheap, flimsy bags that many shopkeepers routinely handed out to customers.

"The super-thin bags have especially become a main source of plastic pollution as they are easy to break and thus disposed of carelessly," the statement said.

Shops that violated the new rules could be fined or have their goods confiscated, it said.

The council also called for greater recycling efforts from rubbish collectors, and suggested financial authorities should consider higher taxes on the production and sale of plastic bags.

In recent years, China's rapid development has triggered concerns over pollution and use of resources.

But correspondents say that there is a growing awareness that more needs to be done to protect the environment.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7178287.stm

Published: 2008/01/09 07:38:14 GMT

Anyone want to buy a sauna?

I only ask because I noticed the newest member is "buysauna.net"

LOL.

It is nice to be celebrating Thanksgiving in Michigan with my family. Next year, I surely won't be in the States at all - possibly in Jordan with my family there. Possibly in Dubai as I'm working on a deal with my current employer to work with an affiliate there. Possibly even in Saudi Arabia as my husband has some job interests there.

Last Thanksgiving was my first away from my home and family and brought me to realize that holidays are in your heart. How strange it is to wake up on a day that you have known to be a holiday your entire life and find that the rest of the population has... gone to work.

But I couldn't just let Thanksgiving pass, and so I invited some 45 family members over for a Thanksgiving dinner, with turkey and all the trimmings. Most of these people had never had turkey in their lives - it just isn't that popular in Jordan. Finding the turkey was another problem, and I did finally find one at a shop frequented by diplomats and their families... a frozen Butterball to the tune of $75. No, wait - 45 people? Make that 3 Butterballs at $225. Yikes!

The next problem was that I had never made a Thanksgiving dinner by myself - I always made it with my mother and sisters. So I spent a great deal of the days preceding the holiday on the phone with my mother double-checking recipes.

So the big day finally arrived and I was up at 4:30 AM cleaning and getting things started. Now, in the Middle East, families with means tend to live in large family "compounds." In our case, my in-laws built a large house - about 10,000 sq. They live on the main floor, we live in the lower apartment, and there is yet another sizable apartment, plus 2 studio apartments for guests. Lucky for me, because who can fit 3 turkeys in an oven? The better part of my day was spent running up and down, up and down, up and down, checking on the turkeys.

Dinner time finally arrived. I have to mention here that I was a bit lazy about peeling that many potatoes, so I prepared the mashed potatoes in a fashion that turned out to be uniquely American - I scrubbed them and left the peels on. At one point I walked into the kitchen to find my mother-in-law diligently picking the peels out of the mashed potatoes, saying, "Anne, you forgot to peel your potatoes!" (I laughed so hard my side almost split.)

Now, I couldn't just give a Thanksgiving dinner without explaining what Thanksgiving IS in the American tradition. So I alternated my son between Pilgrim and Indian costumes and told the story of Thanksgiving. They seemed to enjoy it, but then again, they might have been humoring me just to get to the large dinner.

As it turns out, I found a lot of people picking out peels during their dinner, giving me strange looks. (That crazy American forgot to peel the potatoes!) Everyone brought a dish to contribute as well, which made for a unique Thanksgiving dinner with the additions of hummus, fried kibbe, baba ganoush, etc. Cranberries were another part I had to explain. I couldn't find any fresh cranberries, but I did find the canned variety in the diplomat market. You know the can shape... a lot of people wondering what the heck THAT was.

In the end it went well. One relative said very kindly to me afterwards, "Any time you want to give Thanks again, please be sure to let us know - we will be here!"

Yes, holidays are definitely in the heart.

Twins Gain Fame By Inventing Bully-Proof Underwear

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Eight-year-old twins said they have the solution for wedgies, those dreaded and time-honored yanks on a school kid's underwear by playground bullies.

Jared and Justin Serovich came up with the "Rip Away 1000," rigged shorts that got them to the finals of a central Ohio invention competition earlier this year, as well as an invitation to appear on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show."

The third-graders from Gables Elementary took apart some old underwear and reassembled them with Velcro holding together the seams.

"When the person tries to grab you - like the bully or the person tries to give you a wedgie - they just rip away," Justin explained Thursday by phone from Los Angeles, where the "Ellen" installment was taped Wednesday. It was to air Friday.

The kids began brainstorming one day after they were horsing around, giving each other the treatment, and their mother's partner sarcastically said someone ought to invent wedgie-proof underwear, the family said.

Judeo-Christo-Fascism Awareness Week Comes to American Campuses!

by Rabbi Arthur Waskow


Did that title make the hair on the back of your neck bristle? Did it feel like a bigoted attack on Christianity and Judaism? 

When the feature film sent out for use in this Week?which focused on the disgusting Christian-led war that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and the disgusting Jewish-led killing of Muslim children by airplane bombng raids on Gaza -? also included interviews with a few peacenik Quakers, Methodists, and left-wing Jews, criticizing that war and those bombings, did you relax, feeling it was a balanced presentation of Judaism and Christianity?

NO??!! ?Your guts, your kishkes, felt that practically all Christians and Jews were being set up as potential ? indeed probable? bad guys?  Could-be terrorists who ? often manipulated by governments that Christians or Jews controlled?-- hated other religious communities but had not yet got around to buying the plastique for their bombs? 

And since Christians are a huge majority in America but Jews are a small minority with a past of being persecuted, did you especially fear for the impact of Judeo-Christo-Fascism Awareness on Jews and Judaism?  That this Week might incite anti-Semitism?

Did you urge universities to condemn this ?travesty? and institute instead a real Judeo-Christian Awareness Week that looked at the wonderful achievements of Christian and Jewish prayer, charity, and social justice; the history of their persecution; AND the history of their violence against others? That did look closely at the murders of Muslims by Baruch/Aror Goldstein ? but as an aberration?  And looked at the support of Nazism by the leading respectable Lutheran theologians of Germany as terrible ? a mistake? That discussed the genocidal passages of Torah as a long-ago transcended worldview in the light of Hillel?s teaching, ?Do not do to your neighbor what would be hateful if your neighbor did it to you??

Wow. Now THERE?S a concept!? Do not do to your neighbor what would be hateful if your neighbor did it to you!

So what are you doing about the fact that there is NO such week about to appear on US campuses, but on many campuses this coming week, there WILL appear a whole industrial machine called ?Islamofascism Awareness Week?? 

If you think it would be hateful toward you to have somebody produce Judeo-Christo-Fascism Awareness Week, what do you owe your Muslim neighbors?  Or is Hillel?s teaching (and of course Jesus? parallel interpretation of ?Love your neighbor as yourself") a mere utopian joke aimed at na?ve children? 

Are there some Muslims who claim the authority of God to kill and destroy? Yes. Are there some Jews who claim this? Yes. And Christians? Yes. What do we do about this?

There are two valid responses, aimed at loving connection-making rather than at demonization. One is to learn about what drives SOME of the members of EVERY religious community ? even polytheistic Hindus and compassionist Buddhists ?to using aggressive violence SOME of the time. 

How do we brighten the threads of peace and justice and healing in ALL our traditions, while bleaching toward calm and caring the fiery blood-red threads of violence in all of them?  Truly, what tugs us toward compassion, what toward war? Scarcities or plenitudes of water, of oil, of safety, of health care, of honor and respect?

The other path is to learn from and with each other rather than preserving our ghettos of fear and alienation.

On Labor Day weekend, I had the honor and the pleasure of being one of three rabbis who spoke at the national convention of the Islamic Society of North America ?an immense gathering of more than 35,000 American Muslims, held in hotels near Chicago.  ISNA is the umbrella group for American Muslims. 

The other rabbis were Rabbi Eric Yoffie, head of the Reform movement, and Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus, vice-president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (the Reform rabbis), who is slated to be the next president of the CCAR.  Both of them were eloquent, and both were welcomed with excitement and long applause. I will come back to them.

My own experience was joyful.  I shared a panel on interfaith relations with, among others, Shanta Premawardanha, associate general secretary of the National Council of Churches.  We both spoke about plans for the October 8 Interfaith Fast, and its meaning.  Dr. Sayyid Muhammad Syeed, executive director of ISNA, chaired the session and added his own excitement that Jews and Christians were ready to take part in one day of the Ramadan fast, and his hope that mosques everywhere would welcome others to their prayers.

And then I went wandering the ISNA bazaar. Books bound in silver. Flimsy pamphlets on how to observe the New Moon. Arabic calligraphy. Jewelled crescent moons. Head scarves. Robes in white, in black, in purple. Meditation beads. Travel agents for trips to Mecca, Karachi, Fez, Istanbul, Nairobi.

And the people:

Every shade of skin, every twirl of hair. Jeans. Head scarves. Business suits. Long robes. Full-body covers, leaving only the eyes open to the world ? and such eyes!  From one ear, I heard ?Asalaamu aleikum.? From another ear, ?Wossup, bro?? Palestinian-Americans. African-Americans. Kuwaiti-Americans. Indonesian-Americans. Pakistani-Americans. Anglo-Saxon Americans.

One thing I did not hear, or see: Speeches or conversations or pamphlets that were anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli, anti-Christian. Maybe there were some in Arabic, or other languages. But the lingua franca of the conference was English.

Oh yes. ISNA, like CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) was named by the US Department of Justice (under Attorney-General Gonzales) an unindicted co-conspirator in a case alleging a Muslim-American charity was funneling aid to Hamas.

AND ? the FBI placed a full-page ad in ISNA?s program.

What is going on here?

Best-case scenario:  Is the present government of the United States just crazy, does not know its right hand from its left?  Worst-case scenario: is this good-cop/ bad-cop tactics?  The government intimidates Muslims to cooperate with any intrusions the FBI cares to make, by smearing their name until they submit?

This ?unindicted co-conspirator? label is both clever and vile. The government does not even have to persuade a grand jury ? almost always ready to do what any prosecutor wants ? that there is enough evidence even to begin trial. And once it puts the"co-conspirator" label on someone, there is no way to get acquitted ? because you are not standing trial. 

So they stuck this label on ISNA and also on CAIR ? the Council on American-Islamic Relations. I have worked with both in efforts to end the Iraq war and to condemn terrorism. 

While ISNA is a broad Islamic umbrella, CAIR is more analogous to the American Jewish Congress when Rabbi Joachim Prinz and later, Rabbi Henry Siegman were its directors and the AJCongress was still vigorously committed to protecting the human rights and civil liberties of Jews as well as of others.

In that vein, the feisty CAIR has condemned the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, while in the name of God and Islam it has also condemned terrorist attacks upon Israelis. It has built strong American constituencies in local areas where there are sizeable Muslim communities. 

Result: It is often condemned by those official Jewish organizations that brook no criticism of Israeli governmental policy and actions. It is accused of supporting terrorism although its website is full of condemnations of attacks by Palestinians on Israelis and of Al Qaeda on America. Thank God (and I do mean thank God), centrist American officials have rejected these attacks and have honored CAIR?s presence in the fabric of American life ? as Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and former Admiral, now Congressman, Joe Sestak ? did when they spoke at the annual CAIR dinner in Philadelphia.

I have gotten to know the staff of two local CAIR chapters?Philadelphia and Florida ? as co-members of the Tent of Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah. Since the Tent (Jews, Christians, and Muslims) meets for extended retreats, sharing our spiritual journeys, our social-change work, and our prayer lives ?I have gotten to know them in depth. I have been deeply impressed by them.

Back to Rabbis Yoffie and Dreyfus at the ISNA convention. Rabbi Dreyfus said, in part:

And finally Micah [the Prophet] tells us to walk modestly with our God.  Of course this phrase, like so many others, is open to interpretation.  I read it now to say that God has the power and the answers, and we need to be modest as we walk with God.  In this context I would respectfully suggest that each of our faiths interprets God?s will and God?s expectations of us differently.  We are only human, and cannot know everything.  By walking modestly with our God, we recognize that we do not have all the truth and all the answers.  I believe in religious pluralism. Pluralism recognizes that others hold truths that I do not share, but even while fundamentally disagreeing on what we hold sacred, we can respect others and their beliefs. This is, of course, very difficult and challenging, since we believe what we believe with great passion and sincerity.  But it is the key to authentic interreligious relationships.  ?

As we listen to each other, as we weave together the strands of our Abrahamic faiths, we have the potential to face our common challenges, to serve God and humanity. May we continue the conversation as we journey forward together.

She was greeted with long and vigorous applause. For her full text, see ?http://www.shalomctr.org/node/1303

And Rabbi Yoffie, speaking to a plenary session, said:

There exists in this country among all Americans ? whether Jews, Christians, or non-believers ? a huge and profound ignorance about Islam. It is not that stories about Islam are missing from our media; there is no shortage of voices prepared to tell us that fanaticism and intolerance are fundamental to Islamic religion, and that violence and even suicide bombing have deep Koranic roots. There is no lack of so-called experts who are eager to seize on any troubling statement by any Muslim thinker and pin it on Islam as a whole. Thus, it has been far too easy to spread the image of Islam as enemy, as terrorist, as the frightening unknown.

How did this happen?

How did it happen that Christian fundamentalists, such as Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham, make vicious and public attacks against your religious tradition?

How did it happen that when a Muslim congressman takes his oath of office while holding the Koran, Dennis Prager suggests that the congressman is more dangerous to America than the terrorists of 9/11?

How did it happen that a member of Congress, Tom Tancredo, now running for President, calls for the bombing of Mecca and Medina?

Even more important, how did it happen that law-abiding Muslims in this country can find themselves condemned for dual-loyalty and blamed for the crimes of terrorists they abhor?

And how did it happen that in the name of security, Muslim detainees and inmates are exposed to abusive and discriminatory treatment that violates the most fundamental principles of our constitution?

One reason that all of this happens is the profound ignorance to which I referred. We know nothing of Islam ? nothing. That is why we must educate our members, and we need your help. And we hope in doing so we will set an example for all Americans.

Because the time has come put aside what the media says is wrong with Islam and to hear from Muslims themselves what is right with Islam.

The time has come to listen to our Muslim neighbors speak, from their heart and in their own words, about the spiritual power of Islam and their love for their religion.

The time has come for Americans to learn how far removed Islam is from the perverse distortions of the terrorists who too often dominate the media, subverting Islam?s image by professing to speak in its name.

The time has come to stand up to the opportunists in our midst ? the media figures, religious leaders, and politicians who demonize Muslims and bash Islam, exploiting the fears of their fellow citizens for their own purposes. ?

We hope to accomplish all this and more with our dialogue program. This dialogue will not be easy. ? Because God is God and we are not God, we can recognize that other religions have much to teach us.

The dialogue will not be one way, of course. You will teach us about Islam and we will teach you about Judaism. We will help you to overcome stereotyping of Muslims, and you will help us to overcome stereotyping of Jews.

We are especially worried now about anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. Anti-Semitism is not native to Islamic tradition, but a virulent form of it is found today in a number of Islamic societies, and we urgently require your assistance in mobilizing Muslims here and abroad to delegitimize and combat it.

A measure of our success will be our ability, each of us, to discuss and confront extremism in our midst. As a Jew I know that our sacred texts, including the Hebrew Bible, are filled with contradictory propositions, and these include passages that appear to promote violence and thus offend our ethical sensibilities. Such texts are to be found in all religions, including Christianity and Islam.

The overwhelming majority of Jews reject violence by interpreting these texts in a constructive way, but a tiny, extremist minority chooses destructive interpretations instead, finding in the sacred words a vengeful, hateful God. Especially disturbing is the fact that the moderate majority, at least some of the time, decides to cower in the face of the fanatic minority ? perhaps because they seem more authentic, or appear to have greater faith and greater commitment. When this happens, my task as a rabbi is to rally that reasonable, often-silent majority and encourage them to assert the moderate principles that define their beliefs and Judaism?s highest ideals.

My Christian and Muslim friends tell me that precisely the same dynamic operates in their traditions, and from what I can see, that is manifestly so. Surely, as we know from the headlines, you have what I know must be for you as well as for us an alarming number of extremists of your own ? those who kill in the name of God and hijack Islam in the process.

It is therefore our collective task to strengthen and inspire one another as we fight the fanatics and work to promote the values of justice and love that are common to both our faiths.

Rabbi Yoffie?s address brought a standing ovation from thousands of Muslims. Even if he had not been representing more than a million American Jews, what he said would have been, IS, profoundly important. For his full text, see ? http://www.shalomctr.org/node/1302

Any honest and Godly assessment of Islam must, in this moment of extreme danger and high promise in our complex histories, include just such words as these. Any program, like the impending ?Islamofascism Awareness Week,? that does not, is a slap in the face of the Living God we claim to celebrate.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, co-author, The Tent of Abraham; director, The Shalom Center http://www.shalomctr.org, which voices a new prophetic agenda in Jewish, multireligious, and American life. To receive the weekly on-line Shalom Report, click on?http://www.shalomctr.org/subscribe