Underneath unity and good wishes, Jewish-Muslim tensions simmering

In the days immediately following the recent shootings at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, there was much talk of interfaith unity.

Local Muslim leaders condemned the acts of a man who barged into the federation offices and, according to witnesses, announced himself as a Muslim American angry at Israel before shooting six people, killing one. Local Jewish leaders spoke of the sympathy they received from Muslim friends. Jews, Muslims and Christians attended the funeral of Pamela Waechter, the woman killed.

But some of those same leaders acknowledge that the gulf between the local Jewish and Muslim communities remains as wide as ever.

And recent events — from the federation shootings, to the conflict in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, to the foiled terrorist plot in London, to Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic comments during a drunken-driving arrest — have heightened sensitivities on both sides.

Rick Harkavy, a local Jewish leader, and Jeff Siddiqui, a local Muslim leader, have both been involved in interfaith talks. But such efforts involve only a small number of people.

"Both communities keep their distance from each other," Harkavy said. "But once you do that, you start relying on half-truths, stereotypes. That's the problem."

"In general, relations between local Jews and Muslims are 'live and let live,' " Siddiqui said. "And we disagree around the big gorilla [of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict]."

Jewish perspectives

The federation shootings were committed by an apparently mentally unstable man with no known ties to any Muslim organization.

But Harkavy, regional director of the American Jewish Congress, which works to protect Jewish communities, notes that "... there were factors that drove this person to spend hours searching for a Jewish organization," he said.

One such factor, he believes, is the use of "really vicious language [at rallies or in media] accusing Jews of being racists, mass murderers, accusing Israel of being a terrorist state. That's hateful language."

To criticize the actions or policies of Israel is one thing. To condemn an entire country or people, he says, is bigoted.

"When society keeps repeating over and over again that a group is evil, immoral, despicable, then society should not be surprised when some individuals take the law into their own hands and take action against that group."

Anson Laytner, executive director of the Greater Seattle Chapter of the American Jewish Committee, says recent events have heightened local Jews' sense of vulnerability.

"Everybody I talk with is still talking about the [federation] shootings, how it's made them afraid," he said.

These days, when the doorbell rings at Laytner's office, he always checks the video screen first. "If it's not someone I know, I think: 'Who is he, what does he want?' ... It's a terrible way to start to live."

For Jews, a sense of vulnerability dates back millennia, with a history of persecutions, expulsions and forced conversions.

That plays a large part in Jewish support of Israel, which is viewed by Jews not only as the homeland, but in more pragmatic terms, as a state where they can organize to protect themselves and no longer be "vulnerable as a persecuted minority," said Rabbi Dov Gartenberg of Panim Hadashot, which reaches out to Jews unaffiliated with synagogues.

For that reason, the recent war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah has drawn an unusual degree of unity among local Jews, says Gartenberg, who believes it's a fight over the very existence of the Jewish state. Local Jews regret the loss of civilian lives, he said, but "at this moment in time, there is probably greater support for Israel than there has been in a long time."

Rainer Waldman Adkins doesn't necessarily agree. Adkins, chairman of the Greater Seattle Chapter of Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, which supports a negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, says local Jews differ about the tactics Israel has used.

In the war with Hezbollah, he believes, Israel has a right to defend itself but went overboard.

"The destruction caused to Lebanese society is going to be bad for Israel," he said. "It's given more excuses to extremists."

Adkins objects to stereotypes that all Jews are of one mind about Israeli actions, but also says his own community has not been entirely welcoming of different viewpoints.

That is changing, some say, thanks to local leaders who value diverse views and political changes in Israel that allowed for more open debates over the disputed territories.

Muslim perspectives

Local Muslims, too, feel beleaguered.

Aziz Junejo, a local leader and a columnist for The Seattle Times Faith & Values page, said his daughters, who wear headscarves, received mean glances during a recent vacation.

"Muslims are very tired," Junejo said. "We are tired of seeing what's going on in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Palestine — the death toll keeps mounting. You want to go out and demonstrate, contact your congressman, but the feeling is it's almost useless."

They are also tired of what they see as U.S. government actions that target Muslims, and the use of language that they feel denigrates them.

When President Bush said recently that the U.S. was at war with Islamic fascists, Muslims were deeply angered, Junejo said. "When you say something like 'Islamic fascism,' you are grouping a whole religion with a repugnant political system."

He considers that term anti-Islamic and wonders why it is acceptable to use at the same time that criticism of Israel is often labeled anti-Semitic, and condemned accordingly.

Israel was taken from Arab lands, he said, meaning that the majority of people residing in the area were Arab at the time of the formation of the state of Israel. (At the time, the area was administered as a mandate by Great Britain, and before that, the Ottoman Empire ruled the area.) Junejo added that "... there is no way Muslims would feel comfortable with the state of Israel until East Jerusalem, which Muslims consider holy, is given back to Muslims. Muslims would probably be ready to accept the state of Israel if Palestinians could have back their 1967 borders and East Jerusalem were free."

Recent events, he believes, have exacerbated feelings on both sides. For instance, people here did not support Hezbollah in the past. "Now they've come out to be heroes. For me, that's frightening."

Ann El-Moslimany, a leader at the Islamic School of Seattle, says "when there's a terrorist action, we all get painted with the same brush."

But she says Muslims can do the same thing. "People will say 'the Jews' like all things come from one homogenous group."

Indeed, Siddiqui, a real-estate broker in Lynnwood, says many local Muslims regard Jews with "a mixture of suspicious resignation. They are resigned to the fact that almost every Jew will always blindly support Israel, right or wrong. The degree of support may vary, but that doesn't change anything."

Many local Muslims feel that "what happened to the Palestinians is similar to what the Jews feel about what happened to Jews in World War II," Siddiqui said. "Palestinians lost their homes, their homeland, their livelihoods."

Ignoring such politics is what soured Siddiqui on interfaith dialogue, which he no longer regularly participates in.

"There's this 900-pound gorilla that's always sitting on top of the table — that is Israel-Palestine. We try to dance around it and smile. But whenever an issue comes to the fore, like the invasion of Lebanon, it always shows its ugly face."

Junejo, on the other hand, continues to work on some interfaith efforts. He acknowledges there is tiptoeing around contentious issues, but remains hopeful that such talks can be productive, especially since Muslim participation is fairly new.

"Through this common ground, I guess we try to inch closer and try to convince each other of our point of view in a very respectful manner," he said. "I hope we haven't fooled each other when we walk out."

Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published August 23, was corrected September 18. An earlier version of this story included a paraphrased statement from a local Muslim community leader who said Israel was taken from Arab lands. He meant that the majority of people residing in the area were Arab at the time of the formation of the state of Israel. However, at the time, the area was administered as a mandate by Great Britain, not Arabs. Before that, the Ottoman Empire ruled the area.