Building bridges over religious gulf

Muslims, Jews share hopes, seek common ground

Wearing scarves out of respect for Muslim tradition, Jewish college students attended a mosque service in Los Angeles. (wally skalij/los angeles times)

LOS ANGELES - Rabbinical student Jessica Koss paused in front of the mosque and wrapped a scarf around her head so that her hair was covered.

She tied the loose ends behind her neck before entering the Masjid Omar Ibn al-Khattab for Friday prayer service.

With her were two other student members of Hillel Jewish Center taking part in recent "getting-to-know-the-other" events between Muslim and Jewish students at the University of Southern California.

The daylong events, which began at the mosque and ended hours later for Shabbat dinner at Hillel, were part of a national "twinning campaign" to establish synagogue-mosque partnerships to combat anti-Islamism and anti-Semitism.

"I think it's really a good opportunity to talk openly with each other," said Koss, who is in her second year at the American Jewish University. "As someone who's going to be a rabbi, I look at it as an opportunity to understand a background that I don't know anything about."

Inside the mosque, the three students were greeted by Hebah Farrag, an assistant director at USC's Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement, who gave the two other women scarves before they entered the prayer room. At the front of the room, Ahmed Gablawi delivered a sermon urging Muslims to focus on similarities, rather than differences, with other faiths.

"Argue not with the people of the Book except with that which is best," Gablawi said, meaning discussions with Christians and Jews should be civil.

Koss took notes during the sermon. Beside her, Nina Gordon-Kirsch, a USC environmental studies sophomore, wrote down questions as the Muslim congregation prayed in Arabic - bending, prostrating, and rising at the direction of the imam. She wondered what each movement meant and what was being said.

"I had a lot of questions; I don't know so much," she said.

The idea for the twinning campaign grew out of an interfaith meeting in November 2007 in New York, where Jewish and Muslim leaders gathered in the hope of building stronger ties.

They had hoped to attract 50 congregations - 25 Jewish, 25 Muslim - but wound up with double the number in cities throughout the United States and Canada, including Boston.

To promote their campaign, 13 rabbis and imams appeared in a full-page advertisement in The New York Times this November; several also have been featured in a public service announcement on CNN, denouncing religious hatred and calling for peace.

A rabbi and imam who kicked off the national campaign Nov. 17 at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills reiterated that message before an audience of 200.

"Jews and Muslims, as the children of Abraham, not only do we share a common faith, but we share a common fate," said Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.

His organization has coordinated the interfaith effort with help from the Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the World Jewish Congress.

Muzammil Siddiqi told the temple audience that the two faiths have coexisted largely in peace since Islam's birth 1,400 years ago. Siddiqi, director of the Islamic Society of Orange County, pointed out the many similarities between Muslims and Jews. Both, he said, revere the same biblical patriarchs and prophets, including Moses, whose name appears 134 times in the Koran.

"We have to change ourselves, then we can change others," said Siddiqi. "Muslims and Jews of America can . . . show this is possible to work together. This is the message of the Torah. This is the message of the Koran. This is the message of the Gospel."