The Obama administration has said that it is concerned about the proposed burning of the Koran by a US church group.

On Tuesday, the White House said that it supported recent comments from General David Patraeus, the chief commander of US and Nato troops in Afghanistan, that the torching could put US troops in the country at risk.

“It puts our troops in harm’s way, any type of activity like  that that puts our troops in harm’s way would be a concern to this administration,” Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said.

A Church group in Florida is planning to burn copies of the Islamic holy book on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Patraeus criticism

Earlier on Tuesday Patraeus had said that the plan was disrespectful and could endanger Western troops fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Patraeus said that the move could hurt attempts by Barack Obama, the president, to reach out to Muslims around the world and lead to retaliation attacks against US troops in Afghanistan.

via US criticises Koran burning plan – Americas – Al Jazeera English.

The best way to resist hatred is with love, humiliation with respect, ignorance with knowledge, alienation with friendship.

Reading from the books that some would burnBy Rabbi Arthur Waskow | 8/31/2010 Devoting Jewish Holidays to Peace Interreligious Relations Rosh HaShanah Yom KippurClick here to see a listing of all recent blog postsIn New York, speaking out for freedom and diversity might mean joining a vigil at 7:15 pm Friday evening September 10 at 51 Park Place [near the Park Place stop of the #2 or #3 subway], the location of the Muslim-rooted community/ cultural center that has been the object of both attack and warm support. That date/time has been chosen by the support group New York Neighbors for American Values. See their website here. Some religious folk have urged that gatherings in synagogues, churches, and/ or public places on September 11 or 12 read together from the Quran, Torah and Talmud, the Christian Gospels, and other sacred texts.Since many American Jewish and Christian households may not have a Quran at hand, we have selected just three passages that lend themselves to the message of peace, dialogue, and compassion.”There shall be no coercion in matters of faith.” 2:257 [Asad]“Behold, we have created you all from a single male and female, and have made you into nations and tribes so that you might come to deeply know one another [not to hate and despise each other]. Truly, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of God. Behold, God is all-knowing, all aware.” 49:13 [Asad]“True piety does not consist in turning your faces towards the east or the west — but truly pious is he who believes in God, and the Last Day; and the angels, and revelation, and the prophets; and spends his substance — however much he himself may cherish — it — upon his near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and the beggars, and for the freeing of human beings from bondage; and is constant in prayer, and renders the purifying dues; and [truly pious are] they who keep their promises whenever they promise, and are patient in misfortune and hardship and in time of peril: it is they that have proved themselves true, and it is they, they who are conscious of God.” 2:177 [Asad]These translations come from Muhammad Asads The Message of the Quran: The Full Account of the Revealed Arabic Text Accompanied by Parallel Transliteration publ by The Book Foundation, England, 2003. This edition includes many many notes citing authoritative Muslim scholars explaining the texts.Some texts that seem much more violent also appear in the Quran. So do such texts in the Torah, the Gospels, the Upanishads, etc. But the great teachers of all our traditions have insisted that “all their paths are peace.” All teach that some version of “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the central wisdom.

via Reading from the books that some would burn | The Shalom Center.

I understand this logic of politics, but I hope no one confuses it with sane or rational foreign policy.

Defense officials back US bid to send envoy to SyriaBy YAAKOV KATZ 09/05/2010 01:46Top IDF officers say an American ambassador, US aid money may help convince Syria to sit down at the negotiating table, break ties with Iran and Hizbullah. In February, President Barack Obama announced the appointment of career diplomat Robert Ford as the new US ambassador to Damascus, as part of a new strategy of rapprochement with Syria.While six months has passed since then, Ford’s appointment has yet to be confirmed by the Senate. Some reports have indicated that Israel is behind the delays due to opposition to the US decision to restore full diplomatic ties with Syria.RELATED:Barak heads to Russia in bid to halt Iran, Syria arms dealArab World: Syria’s comeback gameSyria reportedly signs pact with HizbullahWhile this may have been the case in the past, based on conversations with top IDF officers and Defense Ministry officials this week, the defense establishment actually appears to support Obama’s decision to appoint a new ambassador to Syria.Defense Minister Ehud Barak, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.- Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, OC Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin and OC Planning Branch Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel have all voiced support in meetings with the political echelon for Israel to negotiate peace with Syria.

via Defense officials back US bid to send envoy to Syria.

Perhaps one of the barriers to global citizenship education has been a fear that one must necessarily choose between two identities—being either a citizen of one’ s country or a citizen of the world.  In light of the increasingly nationalist and xenophobic dynamic observable in many countries over the past decade, challenging this false choice is urgent. Peace educators and global citizenship educators must make the argument that one can be both a citizen of one’s country and a citizen of the world.
I would even go further to argue that in today’s increasingly interconnected and increasingly armed world, the U.S. needs global citizens more than ever.  What is a global citizen and why does her country need her?
A global citizen has a secure and multifaceted identity.  What this means is that no one particular aspect of his identity (race, class, religion, gender) dominates the others.  Research on identity suggests that this is a kind of “inoculation” against extremism.   When someone has a monolithic identity, they are much easier to mobilize to violent conflict.  Ervin Staub’s chapter in Ashmore’s volume on social identity and conflict (2001) makes this point powerfully through examples from Rwanda.
A global citizen is cross-culturally competent.  She has developed an awareness of her own cultural blind-spots and biases and can apply this to avoiding (or at least resolving) misunderstandings that can often occur in intercultural contexts.   A global citizen would be aware of the inherent social violence seen in video games in which players shoot at Mosques and minarets in Austria, and would feel a responsibility to speak up.
A global citizen understands, I would argue, the rapid and increasingly interdependent reality of the 21st century.  Flowing from this, he understands that the most pressing challenges humanity faces today (environmental destruction, global terror, authoritarianism, poverty, the Great Recession) are inherently cross-border challenges.  They simply cannot be solved by one country alone.
This is not a comment on the strength or weakness of any particular nation.  Rather it is a comment on the qualitative nature of the problems the global community faces.  Attempts to address these problems unilaterally will be partial and therefore will ultimately fail.
This brings me to a final quality of the global citizen which benefits the “home country”.  A global citizen not only has the values and perspective which nations so urgently need right now, she has the skills to actually begin addressing these challenges.  She can resolve conflict, build relationships and problem solve in diverse contexts.  She can think in ways that are flexible, innovative and holistic, seeing how systems operate at a global systems level—without losing sight of local impacts and contexts.  (And she is probably multi-lingual.)
The more of these sorts of citizens a nation in the 21st century has, the stronger, the more agile and the more able to meet current challenges that nation will be.  Those who suggest that we must choose between one or the other—being a citizen of the U.S. (or any other nation) or a global citizen—are giving a false choice.  They are putting forward a framework that limits our human potential.

via Clinton Opens New Round of Mideast Peace Talks

WASHINGTON – Marc Gopin from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University joined us with more.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton formally opened the first direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in nearly two years on Thursday, imploring the parties to ignore the long history of failed negotiations and make needed compromises to forge an agreement.

At a ceremony in the State Department’s ornate Benjamin Franklin room, Clinton said the Obama administration was committed to forging a settlement in a year’s time. But, she stressed that the heavy lifting must be done by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

“We will be an active and sustained partner,” she said. “But we cannot and we will not impose a solution. Only you can make the decisions necessary to reach an agreement and secure a peaceful future for the Israeli and Palestinian people.”

Netanyahu and Abbas pledged their seriousness to securing an agreement and overcoming decades of mutual hostility and suspicion.

“This will not be easy,” Netanyahu said. “True peace, a lasting peace, will be achieved only with mutual and painful concessions from both sides.”

“We do know how hard are the hurdles and obstacles we face during these negotiations — negotiations that within a year should result in an agreement that will bring peace,” Abbas said.

Abbas called on Israel to end Jewish settlements in the West Bank and other areas that the Palestinians want to be part off their own state. Netanyahu insisted that any agreement must assure Israel’s security.

Thursday’s negotiations are the first since the last effort broke down in December 2008 and are fraught with complications, including recent violence in the West Bank and Israeli settlement activity. Expectations are low and U.S. officials have said success may be only an agreement to hold a second round of negotiations.

Officials say they are hoping to arrange that meeting for Sept. 15 in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik and top aides to the leaders are expected to meet later Thursday to iron out final details of the next step.

Sitting at the top of a U-shaped table between Netanyahu and Abbas, Clinton congratulated the two for agreeing to resume negotiations but warned of difficult days to come in the effort to create an independent Palestinian state.

“I know the decision to sit at this table was not easy,” Clinton added. “We understand the suspicion and skepticism that so many feel borne out of years of conflict and frustrated hopes.”

She noted two recent attacks on Israelis in the West Bank claimed by the militant Hamas movement underscored the difficulties facing the two leaders.

“But, by being here today, you each have taken an important set toward freeing your peoples from the shackles of a history we cannot change and moving toward a future of peace and dignity that only you can create.”

Hamas gunmen killed four Israeli residents of a West Bank settlement on Tuesday as Netanyahu, Abbas and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan convened in Washington. And on Wednesday, hours before the leaders ate dinner at the White House, Hamas gunmen wounded two Israelis as they drove in their car in another part of the West Bank.

The talks will face their first test within weeks, at the end of September, when the Israeli government’s declared slowdown in settlement construction is slated to end.

Palestinians have said that a renewal of settlement construction will torpedo the talks. The Israeli government is divided over the future of the slowdown, and a decision to extend it could split Netanyahu’s hawkish coalition. Netanyahu has given no indication so far that it will continue beyond the deadline.

Direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations broke off nearly two years ago, in December 2008, and the Obama administration spent its first 20 months in office coaxing the two sides back to the bargaining table. Despite the success in launching the talks, gaps between the sides are wide, distrust remains after years of violence and deadlock, and expectations are low.

After listening to the Mideast leaders he convened Wednesday night, Obama pronounced himself carefully optimistic. “I am hopeful, cautiously hopeful, but hopeful,” he said.

Last week, a drunk man barged into the Al-Iman masjid in Astoria, Queens, and urinated on the prayer rugs. I tweeted about it, horrified at this display of Islamophobia (and also just plain atrocious behavior.) On Thursday, @stumark suggested that we raise money to replace the prayer rugs at the Al-Iman mosque in Queens. On Friday, I posted to this blog and to twitter asking for donations toward reimbursing the mosque for the costs of steam-cleaning their prayer rugs. My hope was to raise a few hundred bucks as a gesture of interfaith good will, a way of showing this one Muslim community that the actions of that drunk man do not represent the beliefs of most Americans.

Over the course of two days, more than a thousand US dollars poured in to my bank account. I decided to stop the fundraising when we passed the $1000 threshold, and posted to twitter saying that we’d reached our goal and could stop now; a few more donations rolled in while I was announcing that we’d raised enough, so our total is $1,150.

One thousand, one hundred and fifty dollars were donated by sixty-three people from across the United States; those who identified their locations mentioned places as far apart as Oregon, New York, and Oklahoma, and I myself live in a small town in western Massachusetts. We are people of many traditions; although Stu Mark and I are Jewish, and I know that at least two of the donors are rabbis (and many donors self-identified themselves as Jews), others self-identified as Christian (Catholic, Protestant, evangelical), Pagan, and Muslim.

The first handful of donors were people I know personally, either offline or through sustained online interaction, but within an hour of making the initial announcement I started getting donations from people whose names I had never seen before. Many who donated included notes saying things like “thank you for giving me something I can do” and “please tell the mosque that that man does not represent me.”

As donations and notes of good will poured in, and as I listened to radio coverage of the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I remembered sitting in my living room with friends five years ago as the scope of that disaster began to emerge. And I remembered the Katrina People Finder project, and the amazing outpouring of volunteer labor at that awful moment in time. What we learned then, and what I’ve been reminded of now, is that most people want to make things better; what we need is an opportunity to join together. And thanks to the internet, joining together to make the world a better place has never been easier than it is today.

I’m working on figuring out to whose attention I should send the letter and check, and will put them in the mail tomorrow. For now, I’m sitting back and marveling at the awesome things we can accomplish when we pull together. We raised $1,150 over the course of 48 hours, mostly in $5, $10, $18 and $20 increments. A few people mentioned being low-income; many people said they wished they could give more. But small donations add up, and there’s something incredibly moving for me in the fact that we raised over a thousand dollars in one weekend in this way. I hope we’ve been able to show our Muslim friends and neighbors (offline and online) that despite the recent rise in Islamophobia, those who are preaching fear and hatred do not represent all of us.

To all who donated, and all who spread the word via emails, twitter, blogs, facebook, livejournal: thank you so much. To all who are finding this post now and wish you’d had a chance to donate, please take five minutes and make a donation to another cause which matters to you. (If you’re looking for suggestions, you might consider relief efforts in Pakistan, or New Ground: a Jewish-Muslim partnership for change, or the National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for peace in the Middle East.)

Wishing everyone blessings as this lunar month — Elul on the Jewish calendar, Ramadan on the Muslim calendar — draws toward its close. (And now it’s time for me to return to planning for High Holiday services!)

via Velveteen Rabbi: A gesture of repair.

Of course, this entire way of thinking is very misguided. It never pays to think this selfishly, it always comes back on your head. Better to think in terms of justice and liberty for all, the true American way.

Editor’s note: Robert Knight is a senior writer for the evangelical Coral Ridge Ministries and a senior fellow for the conservative American Civil Rights Union. He helped draft the “Defense of Marriage Act,” the 1996 law in which the federal government defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman, and is the author of “Fighting for America’s Soul: How Sweeping Change Threatens Our Nation and What We Must Do.”

(CNN) –

John Jay, the first chief justice of the Supreme Court, wrote in a letter to a friend, “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”

via U.S. was born a Christian nation – CNN.com.

This joins a global pattern of indigenous re-discovery of uniqueness in a post-colonial and post-Cold War Age. But not all that is indigenous is good, and in fact much is awful. In fact the entire reason that otherwise patriotic Europeans of all nationalities came up with transnational, or universal values, is because they were disgusted by just how low and racist societies can become if all they ever think about, if their only arbiter of value is ‘what is ours and no one else’s’.

Welcome to the thirty nine lashes, a tradition so Jewish that there is a full volume of the Talmud on it, a volume that has been dutifully and enthusiastically studied for thousands of years, along with all the other volumes. I myself spent an entire summer on it in my youth.

So Jews, and everyone else, have to make decisions about all their indigenous peculiarities, all their ethno-national weirdeness, all their religious ‘treasures’. What stays and what goes? And what is to stop all of their treasures to emerge as dominant if the liberal, secular, shares state is not the sole form of governance in all states of the world.

That is why I am convinced we are living on ‘borrowed Enlightenment time’. We are launching headlong into ethno-national and religious revivals that are chipping away at the universal model of social contract and shared society offered by the Enlightenment. We had better get our act together as global citizens and citizens of our respective states, unless of course we want to look forward to being tortured righteously with blessings for singing in front of men and women.

Let me just state for the record that I am very proud of Jewish rabbinic tradition, for its countless bits of wisdom, for its amazing insights into human nature, for its bold and highly advanced engagement with social justice for the poor which, if followed, may be preventing much of the violence and degradation of the globe today.

So why share dirty laundry? Why cast aspersions on a whole tractate of Talmud, which after all, is also filled with much wisdom? A. Because Jewish life in Israel is truly in danger. This malignant hatred of universal values, all things goyish, by some segments of the population–and not just religious Jews–will bring sorrow not only on Palestinians but on Jews themselves. They will split apart into a thousand pieces just like what happened the last time they tried to govern 2000 years ago. Universal values are essential to any and every social contract. B. because I want to provide a model of penetrating self-examination. How can we dare critique other cultures and religions without facing our own.

Sinner’ singer given 39 lashes by rabbis

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

08/27/2010 02:45

Punishment for performance in front of “mixed audience.”

Talkbacks (95)

A singer who performed in front of a “mixed audience” of men and women was lashed 39 times to make him “repent,” after a ruling by a self-described rabbinic court on Wednesday.

Rabbi Amnon Yitzhak, founder of the Shofar organization aimed at bringing Jews “back to religion” (hazara betshuva), has made it his recent mission to fight against musical performances for both men and women.

His “judicial panel,” with Rabbi Ben Zion Mutsafi and another member, sentenced Erez Yechiel to 39 lashes in order to “rid him of his sins.”

In a video clip of the court posted on the Shofar Web site, Ben Zion said that those who make others sin (mahtiei rabim), such as artists who make men and women attend performances or dance together, have no place in the world to come.

He displayed a leather strip he said was made by his father from ass and bull skin, with which Yechiel was to have been whipped.

Yechiel, who said, “I accept upon myself the lashing for my sins,” was ordered to stand by a wooden poll with his head facing north (“from whence the evil inclination comes”), his hands tied with a azure-colored rope (“a symbol of mercy”), and served his “sentence.”

via ‘Sinner’ singer given 39 lashes by rabbis.

I would also add that the tens of thousands on the Mall were all white, the smears of President Obama are all about him being black. The anti-mosque rallies, also financed by the same people, are also against people of color.

We have entered yet another cycle of American white racism. This time, post-1960′s, it is necessarily less direct. After all, at least for now, the ugliest expressions of white racism are all officially illegal. And so we march on with American cycles of libertarian hatreds that occasionally well up.

We have entered the age of Ku Klux Klan-lite.

Op-Ed Columnist – The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party – NYTimes.com.

Translation of my weekly column  at Alquds Newspaper (Arabic)

By: Aziz Abu Sarah
Tuesday 24th of October

Last week I was surprised when pro-Israel and well-known Jewish politician, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, expressed his support for the construction of the Islamic Center near the wreckage of the World Trade Center’s twin towers. The news of the center continues to draw the negative attention of media outlets, many of which have questioned whether Muslims have the right to build Islamic institutions in the United States.

Moreover, media coverage of the Cordoba Initiative’s plans to build an Islamic community center in Manhattan has been largely inaccurate. Many of the facts have been changed or misreported: the center has been described as a mosque, when in fact it is a community center with a mosque, and the location has been described as Ground Zero, when in reality the center is two blocks away and shares the neighborhood with a strip club and gambling parlor. In addition, the community center intends to open its doors to non-Muslims, and will contain a number of social and recreational activities. The center will have a swimming pool, a gym, a theater, a restaurant, a library, an art gallery and studios, and a memorial to the victims of September 11th. However, misleading reports have created widespread and popular opposition against building the center.

Nor is Bloomberg alone in his support for building the center. Many other Jewish rabbis and leaders across the United States have lent their support to the project. In fact, the support among the Jewish community has been so vociferous that when Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) spoke out against the center, thousands of American Jews responded by signing a petition supporting the Cordoba Initiative’s plans.

The problem is the United States is less than three months away from midterm elections, and many politicians are using the center as a campaign issue. Politicians have used the construction of an Islamic community center near Ground Zero to play on voter fears about Islamic influence in American society, and in doing so have encouraged the spread of false information.
Fortunately, the Cordoba Initiative and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf have handled the subject positively. Despite the political circumstances and approaching elections, they have succeeded in communicating effectively with many American leaders and individuals. The Cordoba Initiative has also mobilized significant support for the center and managed to overcome legal obstacles, which will allow construction to begin soon. Although some are still trying to convince the project managers to change the location of the center, they have been unsuccessful thus far.
It has not been easy for the Cordoba Initiative to attract support for its center from Jewish and Christian leaders. For the past several years, Arab community leaders and Muslim scholars led by men like Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, have been reaching out to the American public through interfaith projects. In addition, they have sponsored joint programs to serve local communities. These efforts have fostered new friendships across the religious divide.

One example is the Adams Mosque near Washington, DC. Last Ramadan, the Adams Mosque was over capacity with worshipers for late-night prayers. Needing extra space, the Imam of the mosque, Majid, approached a local synagogue, who agreed to let the Muslim worshippers use their space. Such experiences are positive examples of how Jewish and Muslim communities have been redefining their relationship.
Many assumed that the Jewish-American community would be the first to cry foul over the Islamic community center in lower Manhattan. There is a tendency to view Muslims and Jews as traditional enemies, given the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Increasing dialogue and cooperation, however, is turning these stereotypes on their head. Some Muslims and Jews are even finding common ground for joint projects by building a consensus on sensitive issues like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, agreeing on the need for a two-state solution as well as the importance of security and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
After 9/11, the American Muslim community was forced to reevaluate its relationship with the American public. The Muslim community suddenly found its loyalty to America questioned, and was accused of being a breeding ground for terrorism. However, many Muslims in the United States refused to play the role of passive victim. They began to search for ways to reach out to American society and challenge stereotypes and misconceptions about Muslims. Though this process has been difficult and is still in infancy, these efforts have met with some success.

The Muslim community has also made a special effort to reach beyond the majority, seeking avenues of communication with other minority groups across the U.S. This is important, as the limitation of freedom for any reason is never isolated to one minority, but often impacts other groups and liberties as well.

Despite facing many challenges in recent years, Muslim communities in the United States have been able to remain part of American society without compromising their Arab or Muslim identity. Ultimately, this experience may provide an important model for Muslim minorities in other Western countries. In addition, their example provides hope that in the future, Muslim Americans can be the bridge between the West and the Muslim world.