COMMENTARY: Scholars of Islam and Judaism Find Common Ground

c. 2004 Religion News Service (Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s Senior Interreligious Adviser, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.) (UNDATED) It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon in beautiful Santa Barbara, Calif. Challenging hiking trails in the nearby mountains and lovely beaches on the Pacific Ocean beckoned to the city’s residents along with […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s Senior Interreligious Adviser, is Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.)

(UNDATED) It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon in beautiful Santa Barbara, Calif. Challenging hiking trails in the nearby mountains and lovely beaches on the Pacific Ocean beckoned to the city’s residents along with lush golf courses and well-maintained tennis courts.


But despite those outdoor attractions, more than 700 people came to Campbell Hall on the University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB) campus to attend a public discussion on Judaism and Islam featuring professor Akbar Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, D.C., and myself.

The Herman P. and Sophie Taubman Foundation of Los Angeles sponsored the UCSB event. And in the interests of full disclosure, the two speakers write commentaries for Religion News Service, and both favor dark blue suits with red neckties. After the Pakistani-born academic and I finished our formal remarks, the Rev. Anne Howard of Santa Barbara’s Trinity Episcopal Church fielded the audience’s questions.

Ahmed stressed the spiritual link that Jews, Muslims and Christians share with the biblical patriarch Abraham. He noted that Abraham had two sons: Isaac, whom Jews revere as one of the three fathers of Judaism _ the third being Jacob _ and Ishmael, whom Muslims have identified with throughout history.

“If I love Abraham, I love both sons of Abraham,” Ahmed declared. He stressed the beliefs that Jews and Muslims share especially the concept of an invisible, omnipotent God. The Islamic scholar lamented the fact that the two “cousins” _ Jews and Muslims _ have so much work to do in building mutual respect and understanding. “And time is not necessarily working in our favor,” he said.

Ahmed has not always labored on a university campus. He is the former high commissioner of Pakistan to Great Britain. In 1999 he delivered a major lecture on Muslims and Jews in a London synagogue, and Ahmed has drawn praise from the United Kingdom’s chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks.

Ahmed sharply criticized the recent Egyptian TV series that used the infamous anti-Jewish document “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” as a prime historical source. He correctly pointed out that the “Protocols” are a “forgery” created by the anti-Jewish Czarist regime in Imperial Russia.

Ahmed condemned suicide and terrorist bombings that are carried out against Israelis and Americans in the name of Islam. Acts of murder and suicide are “inconsistent” with authentic Islam. Finally, Ahmed, ever the optimist, held out the vision of an Islamic society that rejects terrorism and moves toward democracy and pluralism.


I noted it was necessary for Jews and Muslims to focus on three key issues: the legitimacy and territorial integrity of the state of Israel, exploring both the theological differences and similarities in modern Judaism and Islam, and mounting a serious and systematic campaign to overcome the lack of accurate knowledge about the “other.”

I also said Jews and Muslims need to go beyond the “placards and slogans” that frequently define many “dialogues.” It was time to recognize that like all human relationships, there have been shadows and sunlight in the 1,400-year encounter between Jews and Muslims.

Three phrases are repeatedly used to highlight the positive side of Jewish-Islamic relations, but both faith communities need to dig deeper together to examine the well-worn terms of “Children of Abraham,” “The Golden Age in Spain,” and the Muslim description of Jews and Christians as “People of the Book.” What do they really mean?

I felt a touch of irony speaking in Santa Barbara, a city named for a Catholic saint, when I reminded the audience that in 1492 the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, expelled Jews and Muslims from Spain.

An audience member criticized the use of the word “Jew” by many Muslims today to describe anyone and anything that is perceived as alien or disliked within an Islamic society. I sadly noted that the obscene images of Jews stemming from Nazi Germany have been “exported” to the Islamic Middle East nearly 60 years after the end of World War II.

Ahmed concluded the conversation with a plea to the audience. “Dialogue is absolutely essential. … It’s a question of bringing the mainstream Islamic community” into the public arena and negating the Islamic extremists who do not represent Muslims like himself.


Three UCSB academic leaders who played a major role in organizing the event, Dean David Marshall and professors Leonard Wallock and Richard Hecht, thought we had moved the dialogue forward. When our Jewish-Islamic conversation ended, the glorious California sun was still shining. California dreaming? An omen perhaps? I certainly hope so.

MO/PH END RUDIN

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