Posted by
Steve on Tuesday, October 07, 2008 1:33:03 PM
On the way to work, I heard something extraordinary taking place, a Jew and a Muslim holding a civil conversation about religion. Normally when a Jew and a Muslim get together to talk about religion, there is a lot of talk about death. This time the conversation was focused on how to improve the image of Islam in the world today.
The Muslim in the conversation was from Phoenix, AZ. His name, I believe, was Dr. Jassar. I could easily have missed the name or gotten the spelling wrong. The Jew was Dennis Prager. Dr. Jassar started a group to promote change within Islam itself. Currently, many in Islam believe that to believe in Islam, you also must have Sharia law wherever you live. Dr. Jassar says that we have the best system with a separation of church and state. So, he started a group to promote a change within the Muslims in America that they not work to establish Sharia law in the US.
His group started in 2003 and tried to hold a rally against terrorism. They invited the Imams in the Phoenix area to participate. They all dropped out when the purpose of the event would not be changed. The purpose was to rally against Islamic terrorism. The Imams wanted to accuse America of terrorism and other countries of terrorism to justify the Islamic use of terrorism as a weapon. Dr. Jassar’s group declined to make those changes.
The group has been growing slowly over the years. You would think that Muslims in America would flock to a group that would promote American values, sadly that is not the case. The big obstacle to participation is the lack of help by the Imams in the Mosques. They refuse to help promote American values over Sharia law. One reason could be that Sharia law would give them unfettered power over everyone within the area that they would control. American values only give them the power that the Muslim community gives to them. The difference in power is staggering.
If Muslims in America would endorse the values promoted by Dr. Jassar’s group, they would be better accepted within the American community. Right now, Muslims are not completely trusted as you do not know if they are trying to establish Sharia law or not.
So far, the Imams in America have not issued a fatwa for Dr. Jassar. They must not perceive his group as a threat to their authority just yet. If they should perceive his group as a threat, they would most likely try to stop it using their usual diplomacy, a fatwa. But, hearing a Jew and a Muslim discuss this subject was most heartening. We should have more dialogue like this between Christians and Muslims as well.