Later this month Imam Abdullah Antepli, A Muslim Chaplain, Duke University/Adjunct Faculty of Islamic Studies will be dialoguing with Rabbi Or Rose--They are going to be speaking about Antisemitism and Anti-Islamophobia and about the need to combat these.
I don't know what the Imam's views are with regard to recognizing the existence of the State of Israel, but I am think it would be interesting to find out. Jewish organizations supporting the event are UJPO, and the Independent Jewish Voices.
The Iman visited concentration camps in Germany and wrote, A Day of Deep Sorrow: An Imam's Reflections on Yom Hashoah about his experience and referred to himself as a "recovering anti-semite"
Readers may find it of interest:
http://www.islamophobiatoday.com/2011/05/01/imam-abdullah-antepli-a-day-of-deep-sorrow-an-imams-reflections-on-yom-hashoah/
"This is the first Holocaust remembrance day (Yom Hashoah) since I, together with seven other Muslim American leaders, visited various Nazi concentration camps in Germany and Poland last summer. The trip came in response to my years of prayers. As someone who is a recovering anti-Semite pained by the current Jewish-Muslim relations here in the U.S. and globally, and as someone for years who has been trying hard to improve these relationships, I was convinced that there is a real communication problem between Jews and Muslims today," he writes. [to read more, click the link above].
The Imam wrote an article with Rabbi Michael Goldman, also a Duke University chaplain,about having coffee with one another, entitled " A Modest Peace Plan', published in the Washington Post in 2011.They wrote:
Jews: want to fight anti-Semitism? Muslims: want to challenge islamophobia? There's an easy way to do it: have coffee with one another.
Last week, the two of us, the rabbi and imam of Duke University, did just that. Not that meeting at a café is such a rare occurrence; we work together, we like each other and our children play together. But last week, amidst the tension between Muslims and Jews caused by the violence off the coast of Israel and Gaza, our coffee date felt like a political act. The fiasco aboard the Mavi Marmara hit close to home for our imam who, like several of those killed in that raid, is Turkish.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/06/a_modest_peace_plan_that_is_working.html
The New JerseyJewish News did an interview with the Imam, which you can access here at http://njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/042309/njSeriousDialogue.html.
Here's a bit of it:
NJJN: How do you discuss Israel and Gaza and related issues with Jewish groups? What are the challenges? How do you overcome them?
Antepli: Gaza is a very difficult issue. Gaza is not good news whatsoever. It just provides another level of pain. Thank God, Baruch Hashem, my relationship [with the Jewish community at Duke] was very strong and already ongoing when the war began.
But there are clear differences in the way we see Gaza. Having a strong relationship enables us to have painful conversations despite our significant disagreements.… This is the basic entry point for any serious dialogue. The Muslim community openly expresses its criticism and its anger and frustration toward the State of Israel’s policy on Gaza, but deliberately not toward Israel or Israelis in general. We have been able to criticize the way the situation was handled and the tragic situation in which innocent civilians were injured.
[The war in Gaza] was counterproductive. It was done in the name of security, but it was a disservice to Israeli security. I do not think Israel is safer now.
In any event, I don't have all the details about the program on the 25th. Maybe I will know more next week.
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