Muslim Scholar Condemns Islamic Extremists: Islamic Threat Has Become A Reality

American Jewish Committee
Thursday, 6 May 1999

"The existence or the emergence of an Islamic threat has become a reality in Muslim and non-Muslim states. We Muslims cannot continue to be in denial: Islamic Jihad has been used and abused in international affairs. Neither I nor any tolerant Muslim could remain silent when so-called Islamist groups are striving to accomplish what Muslims have been accused of having done centuries ago, with the only difference today that suicide bombing has replace the sword."

Abdelwahab Hiba Hechiche, Professor of International Studies at the University of South Florida, made these remarks today before leaders of the American Jewish Committee, gathered in Washington for the agency's 93rd Annual Meeting. Martin S. Kaplan, chair of AJC's Interreligious Affairs Commission, and Rabbi A. James Rudin, AJC Interreligious Affairs Director, responded.

Professor Hechiche is collaborating with Dr. Reuven Firestone of Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles on a major dual research book project on perceptions and realities in the Jewish-Muslim relationship for AJC's Harriet and Robert Heilbrunn Institute on International Interreligious Relations. He offered his perceptions on the obstacles and opportunities in Jewish - Muslim relations historically and today.

"In conducting our research, Dr. Firestone and I will have the challenge and the burden of searching for the truth with the ambition of finding good enough reasons to believe that there is hope for a peaceful future in Jewish - Muslim relations," he said. "This Heilbrunn Institute book project is all the more necessary as we witness and hear more about 'the clash of civilizations,' a clash in which religion seems to become the primordial factor."

This "clash," he adds, whether real or imagined, is happening when international human rights issues and international law have taken center stage, "so much so that the traditional concept of sovereignty has eroded under the effect of interdependence and globalism." He spoke specifically of the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which he noted "has been diluted by various pretexts, the most important of which being the cultural specificity of nations and religious considerations that maintain discrimination between genders and between a religious majority and religious minorities within the same state.

"What is more worrisome, more troubling," he added, "is the fact that despite our vivid memory of the devastation of World War II, and in particular, the horrors of the Holocaust, we are still witnessing in the 1990's cases of ethnic cleansing and racial and religious assassinations. I am equally troubled and saddened when such killings happen in a Muslim state between Muslims or in a non-Muslim state against Muslims, Christians and Jews."

Prof. Hechiche, who was born in Tunis in 1936 and was politically active as a young high school student and as a graduate student in Paris, highlighted his upbringing and education there as the foundation for his beliefs today.

"I am committed to Arab-Israeli peace. I am not only for peace between governments, but for the preservation of Judeo-Arab fraternity. I believed in that all my life in Tunisia through my parents' teaching and my teachers' education. Is still hold that conviction with all my Islamic faith and my faith in humanity."

He admitted, however, that that faith has been tested in recent years, citing the massacres at Maalot, Hebron and elsewhere; massacres committed by zealots of both communities. At the same time, he pointed to shared experiences -- such as the expulsion of Jews and Muslims in 1492 -- and examples of cooperation between Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians, most recently in rescue and relief efforts to aid Kosovar refugees in Macedonia and Albania, which can serve to bring the two communities closer.

Turning to explore law and faith in Islam and where, if anywhere, there is a role for political violence, Prof. Hechiche stressed that "the true spirit of Islam is mercy and magnanimity, not greed and vengeance. Unfortunately, today the world hears and sees things very un-Islamic proclaimed by people who have the audacity to replace God in judging and condemning people.

"Muslims of good will will have a harder time trying to convince Jews and Christians that the image of an Islam conquering new lands and imposing Islam with the sword does not reflect the truth, certainly not the whole truth. That negative image may simply be rooted in a collective psychology that goes back to the times of the Crusades. If indeed, tolerant and peace-loving Muslims were to be tolerated in a new global multi-confessional society, one that would be consciously based on a truly Judeo-Christian-Muslim community, then, Muslim belief, culture and past should be well received and promoted. Christian and Jewish scholars have recognized the power of Islam through its simplicity and its universality, just like the other two monotheistic religions, Judaism and Christianity."

In the last two decades, he continued, social scientists have been attracted to and then "hooked on" Islam. And it remains undeniable that extremist, violent and terrorist Islamic movements have been more outspoken, more visible, and more talked about than the vast majority of peace-loving Muslim societies who remain fundamentally attached to the basic tenets of Islam in particular with regard to tolerance toward the People of the Book, Jews and Christians. Fortunately, there are also Muslim voices and writings that give us hope and reasons not to despair. For my humble and modest part, I have chosen the path not only of tolerance, but of fraternal love, respect and total acceptance."

In conclusion, Prof. Hechiche told the AJC group: "My 'jihad' will be against those who want to impose on all Muslims their own interpretation of a noble concept that the Prophet Mohammed underlined as a particular struggle against oneself, against one's desires, ego, passions. Today, ideology is distorting the truth, even biblical truth. May all the Jews and Muslims, Jews and Arabs, who died through violent or natural causes dreaming of peace in the Middle East and in other lands be a source for our own perseverance on the path of reconciliation."

Responding to Prof. Hechiche's remarks, Rabbi Rudin noted that "Muslim-Jewish relations represent the 'new frontier' in interreligious affairs. Dr. Hechiche's strong words condemning Islamist extremists and terrorists are an important first step in the vital effort to build mutual respect and understanding between our communities. For its part, the American Jewish Committee seeks to work with other like-minded Muslims as this new encounter unfolds."

Mr. Kaplan, echoed Rabbi Rudin's sentiments regarding AJC's commitment to the development of meaningful Islamic-Jewish dialogue.

"The AJC has played a significant role in the success of Christian-Jewish dialogue which has helped to overcome hundreds of years of antagonism and fear," he said. "We believe it is now time for Islamic and Jewish communities, both in the United States and throughout the world, to reach beyond areas of conflict to rediscover, reassert and strengthen the Islamic-Jewish dialogue that existed in the past.

"Our two faith communities, sharing the Abrahamic tradition, have both commonalities and differences, deserving of study and dialogue," Mr. Kaplan concluded. "With the significant support of Robert and Harriet Heilbrunn's creation of the Heilbrunn Institute, the AJC will do everything in its power to reach out to Islamic scholars and leaders throughout the world to develop a dialogue based on mutual respect and dedicated to mutual understanding."

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org