Syrian Elector

The Bridge with Islam

By: Rabbi Haim Ovadia

I am a Jew of Islam

Not an Arab Jew, mind you, since that term makes as much sense as Slavic or Baltic or Arian Jew, but a Jew of Islam.

It is not only because in my family's veins runs the blood of people who lived in Iraq, Syria, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey, nor because among my congregants there are natives of Bahrain and Indonesia.

It is true that my I-pod is packed with Abdul Wahab, Sabah Fakhri and Farid Al Atrache and the Shabbat songs and liturgy borrows freely from generations of Islamic, Sufi and secular Arabic music, but the connection runs much deeper.

I am a Jew of Islam because Judaism under the rule of the crescent took a different course than that under the rule of the cross. The Jews of Islam, although decreed by the Pact of Omar as dhimmis, or second class citizens, never experienced the same level of hatred, anti-Semitism and persecution which were their daily bread in Christendom. They were not demonized as god killers and did not have to defend their religion in public disputations. They were not expelled en-masse on religious grounds from a Muslim country as they were from England, France and Catholic Spain.

As a rule, Islam used to be much less fanatic then Christianity. The number of wars waged and the amount of lives lost by the followers of the man who said: "Love your enemies; bless those who curse you… Resist no evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also", is mind boggling.   And that violence was not directed only against other Monotheistic heathens such as Muslims and Jews but also against Christians who deviated from the norm.

The Crusades, Saint Bartholomew's day massacre and the Inquisition are just an example. The latter, founded by the disciples of St. Francis of Asissi, a gentle soul who preached to the birds: "...my little sisters, study always to give praise unto god", targeted not Jews but Christian heretics and new converts. It did it with such atrocity and cruelty, in the Old and the New World that the Abu Ghraib tortures pale in comparison.

Syria denies Assad pledged to set dissidents free

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - The Syrian government denied on Tuesday that President Bashar al-Assad had promised to release seven dissidents who were jailed after trying to re-organize a democratic movement targeted by security. 

Two U.S. lawmakers said Assad made the pledge at a meeting with them last week during which they urged Assad to halt a campaign against political activists and contemplate democratic reform to the no-opposition creed of the ruling Baath Party.

The official news agency said human rights were not even discussed during the meeting with Representative Patrick Kennedy and Senator Arlen Specter in the Syrian capital.

"No one is allowed to interfere in Syrian internal affairs. A senior information official has denied that the issue of some prisoners was talked about," the agency said.

The seven dissidents were arrested last month after attending a meeting at the house of leading opposition figure Riad Seif to revive the Damascus Declaration.

Signed by liberal parties in 2005, the declaration demanded democracy, the lifting of restrictions on public freedoms and abolition of emergency law, which has governed Syria since 1963, when the Baath Party took power in a coup.

Kennedy told journalists after meeting Assad that human rights were a universal issue.

He touted Seif as an example of courage and said he will nominate him for a prestigious prize named after his uncle Robert F. Kennedy, the former senator and attorney general who was assassinated in 1968.

The forceful mention of human rights and the public praise Kennedy heaped on Seif was virtually unheard of in tightly controlled Syria.

(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis; Editing by Stephen Weeks)