What we have here is a three-days weekend that starts on Friday with a “Diplomat Dinner” where the guest of honor is Qatar Ambassador to the UN, Amb. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, who last month - December 2006 - was the President of the UN Security Council. He arrived accompanied just by the First Secretary of the Embassy, to what turned out to be an intimate dinner for about 60 people.

Then on Saturday a joint activity of the Synagogue with a Harlem Church and the presence of Russell Simmons, the founder of Def-Jam Records, he made hip-hop a $10 billion industry and now is trying his hand at getting people to understand each other better - he is the Chairman of The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding. Present at the New York Synagogue were also the Galilee Gospel Ensemble from Harlem, and the in-house, internationally known, singer/cantor Dudu Fisher, who among his past activities is included Broadway stardom in Les Miserables. The interaction between the Synagogue choir and the Gospel choir made for Alliance of Cultures in-action. The true envy of the Alliance of which the UN is speaking. The Gospel Choir sang “Lift Every Voice”, then both groups sung Go Down Moses with Dudu Fisher doing some Solos, followed by a very loud joint “We Shall Overcome,” and eventually a song from the Hebrew ritual that Dudu Fisher sung to a New Orleans beat. All this was then toped by Rabbi Marc Schneier saying to the Congregation: “See you all tomorrow at the Mosque” - adding immediately - “I never thought that I will ever say this in my life.”

Sunday, 1:00 PM The New York Synagogue Congregation is returning the visit of Grand Imam Omar Abu Namous, from The Islamic Center of New York, and goes to the 96th Street Mosque - The Grand Mosque of New York City. This will be the first time ever that a Jewish Group is officially invited to the Mosque!

Does above harbor the possibility of PEACE IN OUR TIME? I doubt it still, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sang “WE SHALL OVERCOME” with Jews and Christians and his dream is slowly becoming reality - so will eventually this effort bear fruits in due time and we are obligated to believe that it will be so.

Now to further details:

Ambassador Al-Nasser made the following presentation:

The presentation was well received and the Ambassador answered quite a few questions - ranging from the status of women in Qatar, to questions about the Qatar gas industry and exports, to questions about relations with Israel of Arab States, and Qatar in particular. SustainabiliTank had the opportunity to ask the Ambassador to tell some more from his main remembrance of his experience in December as President of the UN Security Council. He said that December was the month they past most resolutions, all important, but he also said that at the beginning of the month he spoke with Ambassador Gellerman, the Israel Ambassador, and showed him the list of topics and which topics will come up with importance to Israel - so he can prepare for the upcoming discussions. Israel has a trade delegation in Qatar, but Qatar does not reciprocate. Surely there are business dealings but there will be no complete diplomatic relations before a solution of the Palestine problem - then, Qatar has no problem with Israel.

Qatar has plenty of natural gas. It is establishing now the capacity to export Liquified Natural Gas and expects to have 45% of the world market of LNG. In the audience were two business people that have special interest in this topic. Considering that NG is a step forward on topics such as replacing oil based fuels, Qatar does have a better future then pure oil exporters. NG is still a fossil fuel, but as SustainabiliTank.info argues, it is the ideal transition fuel - because it can help create infrastructure needed for biofuels - ethanol, methanol,and biogas.

Specially impressive were the comments the Ambassador made about the international diplomatic efforts being made at the UN, and outside the UN, to find solutions for the Israel-Palestine problem.

He clearly said that efforts at grassroots and community level, like those done on this weekend, are the backbone for obtaining peace between nations - peace comes only after obtaining mutual respect among the common people. Nobody thought to ask him about the education system in Qatar, and how Israel is depicted in Qatar School books. The Ambassador congratulated Rabbi Schneier for the initiative he took to establish contacts with the Moslem community.

The program at the Mosque is as follows:

On Sunday, when I arrived at the Mosque at 96th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, after depositing my shoes, I entered an immense cavernous hall - with chairs for the guests on one side and people sitting in prayer position on rugs, on the floor, on the other side - I was told that this was the noon prayer called Zuhar. All were looking to Mecca, or if you wish, at a long table where the speakers will be sitting. After a while we got the attached program - and the event started promptly at 1:00 p.m.. The event was called now by the hosts - A Conference.

In practice, there was a series of introductory presentations followed by what was the actual debate: the two moderators, now one from each side - Attorney Joel Cohen and Imam Samer AlRaey - asking questions from the two panelists - Rabbi Marc Shneier and Imam Omar Abu-Namous. This was followed by questions from the floor - all from the people sitting in the chairs, and mainly addressed to Imam Omar. After that there were three more presentations from people not on the official program. When all ended, people continued to mill around and discuss issues in small circles. By this time the people that were sitting on the rugs, and did not leave, joined now in some of the more heated discussion circles. In summary - the situation revealed the attempt at cooperation of the organizers, and the troubles with the line folks.

The Introductory presentations:

(1) Imam Samer AlRaey and then Joel Cohen about the meeting. followed by;

(2) Russell Simmons, Chairman of his Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, who said from start: “yesterday I was at the Synagogue, now I am in a Mosque, and tomorrow I will be in Church.” He was wearing a Buddhist T-shirt and said that he is here because of the spreading “Islamophobia” in the country. His great inspiration came from the Dalai Lama and he wants this dialogue to help end Islamophobia like he disagrees with all forms of hatred.

(3) Marcia Kenary, President and Founder of the Dialogue Project Inc., that according to her “brings together for the purpose of conversations - Palestinians, Israelis, Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Interested others.” She told me that she has been an observant Jew in Jerusalem, but she is no-more - since she lost an Arab friend that was killed by Jews in Jerusalem. That is when she decided to dedicate her time for dialogue. She started to work with the Giva’t Aviva kibutz in Israel, came to the US to represent them, and continued by herself this sort of work.

(4) Rabbi Dr. Israel Singer, Chairman International Jewish Committee on Inter-religious Consultations and Chairman International Jewish Congress Policy Council - welcomed this meeting.

(5) Dr. Martin Luther King III, son of MLK Junior, and President and CEO, Realizing the Dream Foundation. He saw in this meeting “a first step as we must learn about our brothers and sisters, whoever they are.”

The actual debate started with presentations by Rabbi Schneier and Imam Abu Namous.

Rabbi Schneier started by saying that “we believe in Jewish tradition that God is all good.” We are so blessed to have Martin Luther King as our friend (this sounded to me like a generic).

The 9th plague (out of the 10 plagues that were dished out to the Egyptians of old, was of darkness. The explanation is not just darkness of light, but darkness of heart. We have to seek each day - reaching out as human beings. To a question from Imam Samer AlRaey he answered: “This is America and Jews speak out on Islamophobia.” Schneier continued that the mission of the Jews was not to convert the world to Judaism, but to a moral ethical life.”

Imam Omar continued that “we believe we do not judge others because of - “if you judge others you will be judged yourself.” He does not believe in judging who is a believer and who is not a believer - “We can say only that someone is wicked - but the Lord is Lord to all. If you do all bad, but you apologize at the end, you go to paradise - not to hell,” he said. In any religion there are extremists, and we do not want to have to do with them in the Muslim Nation. But then “the Muslim Nation is disappointed that 250 resolutions of the UNGA have not been respected. This has given the momentum to the extremists. We do not believe them, but we cannot stop them,” he said.

Joel Cohen remarked here that “we have the understanding we will not be talking about the Middle East.”

Dr. Israel Singer mentioned the “Burning Bush” when God said; “Moses take of your shoes because you stand on holly ground.” Moses could have said that in the desert there are snakes and scorpions - it is wrought with danger to walk without shoes. But this was a holly place and you will not be bitten because you show faith. The same if we agree to endanger ourselves for a greater purpose - this because there is hope at the end. Rabbi Schneier added that we have hope because of the 1.3 billion Muslim people who are decent people and will repudiate violence.

The Q&A section produced a question about the rift between the Shiia and the Sunni and Imam Omar said that for 14 centuries we lived in harmony. Further, looking at Jewish history, he pointed out that the Jews lived in peace for 8 centuries under Islamic rule in Spain. The only other such peace for the Jews is in the recent centuries in America. Those are the two ages that the Jews were free.

Regarding the Islamic Center of New York - all the people working in this building are moderate people and we must stand together to weed out the extremists. To this Rabbi Schneier said that whenever there will be a problem he will address the Imam so they speak out together.

Further presentations from people not on the program;

An eloquent black Muslim woman involved in Human Rights in Harlem said that the Arab-Israeli conflict is one dialogue and the Islamic-Judaism dialogue is another topic. “We all want to build a better future for our children and be apologetic for suffering happening somewhere else. We are not perfect people - but Islam is a World Religion of Peace. We have to be consistent in creating justice, peace, and equality for all people.”

A speaker for the Elija Muhammad Muslim Group, a pupil of Minister Louis Farrakhan, himself now called Minister Kevin Muhammad ( a name change from Roth) and the New York representative for Farrakhan, mentioned a Muhammad teaching: “In birth and death we are all one - the problem is what we do in between.” He also wanted to make it clear that Farakhan, despite what was said about him, never hated Jewish people. He knows, because for 27 years he worked and studied with Farakhan.

When the official meeting ended and some of the remaining Muslims present, but that did not really participate, came towards the Jewish participants with heated questions about Palestine. One streetwise young man from the muslim community asked the Jews not to debate with them, but rather with the Imams, this because of the fact that these other simple people “were uninformed and did not know what they were saying.” This came about after a shouting match between an Egyptian-born cook and a Jewish film-maker that lives in Harlem.
On the other hand, I picked up the material given out by Marcia Kannry, of the “Dialogue Project Inc.” and was wondering what else is needed to channel this anger of felt injustice, so that there is a search for joint solutions, rather then the present feelings-based push for revenge.

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Our own summary from all of this is quite complex but simple nevertheless:

Why it is only now - for the first time - that the Jewish leadership was invited for having a conference at the New York Mosque?

We feel that besides the fact that Rabbi Marc Schneier has taken the initiative of first inviting Imam Omar to his own Synagogue, there is today also a very objective reason for the Muslim moderate elements to reach out to the Jewish Community - this is the spreading Islamophobia in the post-9/11 USA. It is the Jewish Community that stands out for the Muslims, more then any other part of American Society - this not because of love - let us face it - rather because of the understanding from a part of American Society that knows about having been hounded themselves in the past.

Furthermore, the Jews lead also on focusing attention on Darfur. There it is Arab and Arabized African Muslims harming African Blacks who are not yet completely Muslemized. Some Arabs say that the Jews take interest in Darfur because they hate the Arabs; there is nothing further from the truth than this accusation. Jews take interest in Darfur because they understand Holocaust and as Elie Wiesel, they are ready to stand up against any genocide-threatening monsters which in Darfur tend to be Arabs.

So, wise and rich people like Russell Simmons, understand above basic Jewish psyche, and found the time ripe to start with this Judeo-Muslim dialogue. And power to them - the time is late but it is never too late to start out on the right road. He was also the one to invite Minister Kevin Muhammad to the dialogue.
The Human Rights leader from Harlem, a very wise woman, saw the importance of decoupling the Jewish-American - Muslim-American dialogue from the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Also power to her. Let them start dealing with the more tractable problems first.

Interesting the talk about a Muslim Nation - probably a parallel idea to a Jewish Nation with a Jewish homeland in Israel. Now where is the homeland of this Muslim nation/ Which of the 21 Muslim States or the 53 States of the Islamic Organization? Do you know of a Christian overarching Nation? While for the Jews there is a historical basis for a link to a specific small piece of real estate - there is nothing of the same for the other two Abrahamic religions. Abraham was not a Jew, Muhammad was not a Muslim yet, and Jesus was not a Christian yet; but every Jew who fled old Israel was a Jew - and that is the basis for this special link between Jews and the particular piece of real-estate in the Middle East. As this is very hard to convey all at once - so the lady from Harlem had the very right approach that tends to help her and her people - right now - de-linked from the Middle East conflict as she said. Yes, women will lead the way and let us hope the Imams follow that path. Amen

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Furthermore, let us look at this little note from the Quran:

Then, let us see what New York daily newspapers wrote the following day about the meeting at the Mosque.

I found nothing in the New York Times, but the following in the New York Sun: