by Adeena Schlussel on behalf of Daniel Lubetzky The furor over the inaccurately dubbed "Ground Zero Mosque" has done nothing but reinforce al Qaeda propaganda. This, Nawaz says, is because many commentators confuse traditionalist Muslims with Islamists. But Islamism is not Islam. Islam is a faith, which, like all other faiths, has a spectrum of [...]
I received the following email forward from a friend who is skeptical about my work to build bridges between the West and Islam. I find the point persuasive that even if extremists are a minority, they can cause enormous devastation when they rule and the moderate majority is silent and hostage. But it seems to [...]
Bradley Burston wrote a column that is quite on-target regarding the problem with boycotts of Israel. He highlights how the progressive Olympia Food Co-op decided not to support a boycott against Israeli goods as it realized it was riddled with anti-Semitic statements and propaganda. Most of the international boycotts that claim to be against settlement [...]
I have written repeatedly to defend Muslims from being discriminated against, including most recently with the establishment of a mosque in downtown Manhattan (see here, here, and here). This video I just got raises serious valid concerns about extremists using religion to further illegal activities, and of them subverting Islam to their purposes. To my [...]
By Adeena Schlussel on behalf of Daniel Lubetzky Tom Friedman discusses an appropriately complex documentary, “Precious Life” in this article and then compares its meaning to the appropriately complex reality of the Mideast conflict. Friedman’s point is not to condone Israel’s behavior unilaterally, rather to encourage her opponents to give constructive criticism, which comes from [...]
by Adeena Schlussel on behalf of Daniel Lubetzky This great article in ReadWriteStart features a story about Startup Weekend, a Seattle based team of developers, marketers, and managers looking to facilitate startup launches, who recently partnered with the Peres Center for Peace (PC4P). The goal? To enable Palestinians and Israelis to collaborate on projects that [...]
Further to this post by Adeena regarding the rising attacks against the Mosque being erected in downtown NYC, let me provide some more background to the thousands of people that are attacking this project without taking the time to do a little bit of research about it. I received this video post by Pat Condell [...]
by Adeena Schlussel on behalf of Daniel Lubetzky Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, a OneVoice board member has become the subject of accusation in a fierce debate about constructing a proposed mosque nearby to Ground Zero that he is actively spearheading. Opponents feel that building a mosque in close proximity to the location of the 9/11 [...]
by Adeena Schlussel on behalf of Daniel Lubetzky The International Trade Union Confederation called for peace in the Middle East. In the process, the ITUC rejected BDS and encouraged action by Histadrut, Israel, PGFTU and Palestine to revisit negotiations to achieve a resolution to the conflict. The ultimate goal is for both parties to accept [...]
A lot of Israeli and Jewish friends often ask me about Palestinian textbooks and whether they teach about peace and co-existence. During the early part of the Abbas-Olmert administrations, I recall that Prime Minister Olmert mentioned to me that the Abbas Administration had done a remarkable job on this front, in contrast to many prior [...]