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KLMNO ON FAITH washingtonpost.com/onfaith


Throughout the week, go to On Faith for updates, discussions, commentary and news about faith and religion. On Faith, led by Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham, is one of the online world’s most popular news and religion features, offering informative, interesting and insightful commentary every day on religion’s impact on Washington, national and international events. On Faith’s panel and contributors include distinguished theologians, scholars and thinkers on the subject of faith for believers and nonbelievers, as well as an award-winning blog, Under God.


I D Catholic America Anthony Stevens-Arroyo says


that Ground Zero shouldn’t be turned into a monument to intolerance. Go to newsweek.washingtonpost.com/ onfaith/catholicamerica.


Guest Voices New Yorker Abed Z. Bhuyan


says that Muslims have been left out of the mosque debate. Go to newsweek.washingtonpost.com/ onfaith/guestvoices.


“The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is very complicated.


Let’s leave anti-Semitism out of it.” — Imam Yasir Qadhi


Religious freedom vs. wisdom


washingtonpost.com/ onfaith


Excerpts from the On Faith panel at


Below is an excerpt from “On Faith,” a daily online religion section sponsored by The Washington Post and Newsweek. Each week, Jon Meacham and Sally Quinn engage figures from the world of faith in a conversation about an aspect of religion.


According to a Fox News poll, 61 percent of Americans believe that Cordoba House has a constitutional right to build a mosque near Ground Zero, and 64 percent believe it is inappropriate to do so. What’s behind public opposition to the site? Can you believe in religious freedom but believe the mosque is inappropriate?


Ethical fiction: The position that a majority of Americans are taking — we respect their constitutional right to build a mosque, but they should respect our sensibilities not to have anything Muslim at our sacred places — is fascinating. It allows prejudice to prevail while


simultaneously alleviating guilt. Muqtedar Khan,


director of Islamic studies, University of Delaware


The Spirited Athiest Susan Jacoby writes about bedbugs and the theodicy problem. Go to newsweek.washingtonpost. com/onfaith/spirited_atheist.


6 RNS PHOTO/AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU STATE MUSEUM VIA STAR-LEDGER


Norbert Wagner, Yasir Qadhi, Gabriela Wagner and tour guide Sayyid Syeed were among the prominent American Muslim leaders and others who visited the Auschwitz concentration camp. “The experience was overwhelming,” Qadhi said.


‘Here it feels part of us were killed’ Muslim leaders visit concentration camps as part of effort to combat Holocaust denial


Jeff Diamant


The Faith Divide Eboo Patel explains why we need George W. Bush. Go to newsweek. washingtonpost.com/onfaith/ eboo_patel.


Guest Voices Bil Cornelius writes about personal responsibility in an age of instant gratification. Go to newsweek. washingtonpost.com/onfaith/ guestvoices.


Religion event


 Thursday, 6 p.m.: A free community forum on women’s health sponsored by the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice will be held at Covenant Baptist Church, 3845 South Capitol St. SW. 202-628-7700 or www.rcrc.org.


Send items to Religion Events, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071; fax to 202-334-5417; or e-mail rpevents@ washpost.com.


T


he scenario might have seemed unlikely: prom- inent Muslims and Jews from the United States, crossing the At- lantic in mournful, spiritual soli- darity to visit two Nazi concentra- tion camps. Together. The trip to Dachau and Ausch- witz was meant to combat the rise in Holocaust denial that has popped up in various Muslim and non-Muslim circles around the world — and online — in recent years. “The best way to convince someone about the truth of some- thing is to let them see it for themselves and experience it for themselves,” said Rabbi Jack Bemporad of the Center for Inter- religious Understanding in Carl- stadt, N.J., who organized the trip. “I feel that it was important to take Muslim leaders who have a really significant following in the American Muslim communi- ty.”


Some of the eight imams on the week-long trip, which ended Aug. 12, had worked with Jewish groups in interreligious dialogue. Only one of the eight, Yasir Qadhi


of New Haven, Conn., academic dean for the AlMaghrib Institute, had been quoted in 2001 doubt- ing the extent of the Holocaust, but he recanted long before the trip, saying his past views were based on misinformation. On their return, the imams re- leased a statement citing the deaths of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, among 12 million Holocaust deaths overall. It add- ed, “We condemn any attempts to deny this historical reality and declare such denials or any justi- fication of this tragedy as against the Islamic code of ethics.” In in- terviews, the imams said the trip affected them deeply. “The experience was over- whelming,” Qadhi said. “It was a very moving experience for all of us imams, in particular myself. I had never seen anything like this. I was just overwhelmed through- out the entire trip. I was just overwhelmed at the sheer in- humanity of it. I could not com- prehend how such evil could be unleashed.” Like other imams, he said the historical truth of the Holocaust should not be distorted by the past 60 years of tension in the Middle East. “Politics should not play a role


in historical facts,” Qadhi said. “Whatever happened post-Holo- caust should not diminish the evil that was the Holocaust. . . . The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is very complicated. Let’s leave anti- Semitism out of it.” Some said the trip’s most emo- tional part was seeing collections of victims’ hair, suitcases and be- longings. “Almost everybody was in


tears,” said Muzammil Siddiqi of the Islamic Society of Orange County, Calif. “I laid a wreath of flowers there


at the wall and recited the words from the Koran, which says kill- ing one person is like killing all of humanity and saving one life is like saving all of humanity. I said, ‘Here it feels part of us were killed. It’s part of our human brothers and sisters.’ ” The imams said they also were moved by meetings with Holo- caust survivors, and by seeing their tattooed numbers.


During the trip, which was sponsored by the Konrad Ade- nauer Foundation and the Center for Interreligious Understanding, the imams also met with the Ro- man Catholic cardinal of Krakow and the chief rabbi of Poland, who held a dinner for them on


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Blogging on religion, government and politics


Environmental apocalypse Russia is on fire, and Pakistan


is underwater. Scientific studies have not persuaded the climate change deniers to act to save the planet. Perhaps an imaginative game change is what is called for. “Global weirding” is one such imaginative breakthrough, but let’s not rule out the fire and flood imagery of Armageddon, especially as apocalyptic imagery can well symbolize the mounting security threat nations face because of the social, political and economic chaos of accelerating climate change. . . . Global weirding hits a


conservative nerve in a way that


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“global warming” never has and never will. Every time the weather is not sweltering, the climate change denier will find it easy to connect with people’s personal experience of the weather. Even so, while 2010 is on track to be the hottest on record, according to climate scientists, this has not produced the change of heart and mind needed to persuade conservatives to act to avert more global environmental catastrophes. And these fires and floods are evidence of a global environmental catastrophe. — Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, professor, Chicago Theological Seminary


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Site of proposed mosque.


READER COMMENTS


PAIGEN: As a Christian and a conservative this is about more than a “can’t we all just get along” issue. There should be no religious buildings within a two-mile radius of Ground Zero.


FARNAZ_MANSOURI 2: Let us all give it a rest and move on. For the umpteenth time, they are acting in accordance with local laws, and their right to build is constitutionally protected.


To read the complete essays and more “On Faith” commentary, go to washingtonpost.com/onfaith.


A complete list of PostPoints Spots can be found at washingtonpost.com/postpoints.


the first night of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Some participants, including


Hannah Rosenthal, the State De- partment’s special envoy to mon- itor and help combat anti-Semi- tism, said they thought the trip was historically important. “I know of no other time that a group of imams experienced the camps, and prayed at the camps, and came out with a strong state- ment that condemns Holocaust denial, Holocaust justification, Holocaust comparison and anti- Semitism,” Rosenthal said. “I know of no other time that’s hap- pened in history.” The sight of Muslims praying at Dachau stopped other passersby in their tracks, she said. History aside, the trip — like all pilgrimages to concentration camps — was emotionally devas- tating, said Bemporad, the rabbi. “It was painful,” he said. “One of the most painful things was to see these imams, all pretty in- telligent and sophisticated, abso- lutely bawling like children. They couldn’t get over it, especially when they saw these children’s clothes and children’s shoes by the tonful. It was really poign- ant.”


— Religion News Service


Building mosque can be redemptive act: More than a stone monument in honor of those who died, this initiative, perfectly located near Ground Zero, can be a living memorial for human beings from many faith traditions who gather to do the hard work of deep engagement, appreciating difference, finding common ground and acting upon shared goals.


Katharine Henderson, president, Auburn Theological Seminary


Rights, restraint and timing: There is a difference between rights, which must be protected under the law, and courtesies, the mutual respect and common decency that neighbors owe to one another.


Nathan Diament,


director of public policy, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America


An issue of religious freedom, period: To oppose this project because Islam is involved and Muslims are sponsors of it is a violation of the religious freedom guaranteed and protected by the First Amendment of the


Constitution — period. Welton Gaddy,


leader, Interfaith Alliance


Wisdom lacking on all sides of debate: It’s pretty clear that no one is thinking with a level head when it comes to the proposed mosque-cum-cultural center two blocks from Ground Zero. That includes the Muslims who planned the project without seeking a great deal of community input [and] the religious fanatics who want everyone to follow their brand of Christianity . . . .


Pamela K. Taylor, co-founder, Muslims for Progressive Values


SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 2010


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