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Muslim-Jewish Interfaith Group To Resume Suspended Dialogue
WASHINGTON, June 21 (IslamOnline) - Jewish and Muslim leaders of a Los Angeles area interfaith group agreed this week to resume dialogue suspended last month when Muslim members of the group requested a freeze in discussions in the light of escalating tensions in the Middle East.
The interfaith dialogue group was formed in 1998, intended to serve as a trend-setter for similar groups throughout the nation. But it lost many members from both sides in recent months after continued Mideast violence sparked growing frustration and suspicions on both sides towards one another.
Muslims complained they felt they were being pushed to condemn Palestinian violence without Jews doing the same for Israeli atrocities. Jews were upset that the Muslim members were not self-critical enough in acknowledging blame on the Palestinians for some of the problems.
Maher Hathout, from the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), had, in a May 25th letter to the group, called for a temporary freeze of the dialogue because of the "shock, anger and despair" among Muslims after Israel's recent use of American-made F-16 bombers against Palestinians.
But this week, Muslim and Jewish members announced they were going to jumpstart the talks in September. They have also agreed to speak more frankly and openly on sensitive issues.
Salam Al Marayati, executive director of MPAC, announcing the resumption of dialogue, said, "We underscored the importance of how we all cherish the dialogue."
The group's facilitator, Rabbi Allen I. Freehling, who had earlier said that he felt "abandoned" by the Muslim call to freeze dialogue, said, "I think we'll encourage one another to be much more candid about those things that please us and pain us. We've been dancing around the Mideast [issue], rather than being forthright."
Aslam Abdullah, editor-in-chief of Minaret magazine, and one of the primary participants from the Muslim side in the group, told IslamOnline, "It is good that the two sides agreed to resume. We had put a freeze to the dialogue to review our own position and to register our protest at the F-16 bombing The Jewish side understood our concerns and regretted the way some of their members had said things about us."
"We feel that the air is clear now to resume the dialogue," he said.
Lately, representatives from MPAC, namely Maher Hathout, Salam Al Mararayati and Aslam Abdullah, have been the only ones attending the dialogue from the Muslim side. The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) dropped out after the interfaith group's failure to condemn Ariel Sharon's visit to Haram Al Sharif, the Muslim holy site that contains al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, Islam's third holiest site.
In an unrelated, but significant, development Saleh al-Sheikh, Saudi minister of Islamic affairs, endowments, propagation and guidance, announced that The King Fahd Qur'an Printing Complex in Madinah is planning to publish a Hebrew translation of The Holy Qur'an.
Al-Sheikh said the complex's higher council decided to bring out the new translation after media reports that Israel was printing and distributing distorted translations of the holy book.
While welcoming dialogue with other cultural entities and coexistence with other communities, al-Sheikh told the Saudi Press Agency, "This does not mean that we accept dilution in our commitments."
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