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| Scene of the terrorist attack in NewZealand (Daily Beast) |
As a Jewish member of the family of man, I can
unfortunately relate to this act of terror. It is no different than what happened
in Pittsburgh a few months ago. Just as Jews in a synagogue were slaughtered there by a white supremacist only
because they were Jews, so too were Muslims slaughtered in a mosque only because they were Muslims. The grief the Jewish
community had then is now beings shared by our Muslim brothers in New Zealand.
No one should take any joy in this act. No matter how one
feels about what is happening in Israel. Sure as I’m sitting here, some of us (a very small number, I hope) might be tempted to feel a sense of
satisfaction that this time it is ‘they’ who are feeling what we have felt so
many times before. Because of what ‘they’ have done to us.
But the truth is
that ‘they’ meaning the entirety of the Muslim world has not done this to us.
Not anymore than the entirety of the Christian world has done to the Muslim
community by a fellow Christian. Muslims are not monolithic. The events of yesterday in a New Zealand mosque had nothing to do with the rockets fired at Tel
Aviv yesterday. That was done by Hamas which consists of the devout Jihadist faction
of Islam. (I have no illusions about them.) Not the devout Muslims praying in New Zealand. Just as Rabbi Meir Kahane’s
violent approach to Islam does not represent me. Nor do white
supremacists represent Christians.
I have no idea if there are any Jews - let alone rabbis in
Christchurch. It almost sounds like an oxymoron for a Jew to live in a city
with that name. But it wouldn’t surprise me if there were. If there are, I hope
that members of the Jewish community there show their solidarity with Muslims
and stand together with them at this moment of great pain This is not the time to talk about our
differences. Whatever their feelings about the Jewish state are. That is not the
issue here. They have a right to their views as we do ours.
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| Baruch Goldstein (Wikipedia) |
The common denominator here is that we were both attacked
for who we are and what we believe. Jews have
been attacked by both the Christian and Muslim extremists. Muslims were attacked by Christian and Jewish extremists.
Lest anyone say that Jews have no extremists and would in any case never do what was done here, let me remind you that a devoutly religious Jewish Kahanist by the name of Baruch Goldstein did exactly that at a
mosque in Chevron (our Ma’aras HaMachpela which they consider a mosque) filled with praying Muslims - almost to this day 24 years ago!
I think it also behooves all of us to not play politics here by blaming what happened yesterday on the political rhetoric of a politician we don't like. This is not the time for that. Politics ought to be left
out of it.
My hope is that the Muslim community will accept our heartfelt condolences
as genuine. With the sincere hope and prayer that neither community ever suffer like this
again. I believe that most Muslims will.
For one brief moment in time we can and should be united in the common purpose of grieving for lost loved ones through acts of terror. It’s just too bad that it
always takes a tragedy to do something like that.
