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Letter to the Editor
Response to 'Islam, Israel and the United States' by Sheikh Ali Gomaa
RE: Wall Street Journal, Oct 7, 2009, Islam, Israel and the United States by Sheikh Ali Gomaa (Egypt's Grand Mufti)
To the Editor:
By pointing to Islam's respect for law, peaceful co-existence and human rights, Dr. Gomaa elegantly answers the West's preoccupation with the question "Where are the [Islamic] moderates?" A number of questions loom, however. First and foremost: has this important statement been published widely in Arabic?
I doubt it, and I wonder if the sheik's current status - and perhaps even his personal safety - explain why. If so, therein lies an essential problem: the West is hungry for accommodation, while the Arab world excoriates those who deviate from the fundamentalist interpretations of Islam that dominate the regions' religion-political landscape.
Furthermore, he reasonably seeks an end to the "occupation" of Palestine and the withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the sheik ignores the potentially tragic consequences of those propositions - namely, rule by the same radical fundamentalists he so eloquently opposes.
Imagine if a Muslim of Dr. Gomaa's stature came out boldly and spoke the following so-far-forbidden yet simple words: 'Israel has an irrevocable right to exist as a Jewish country in peace and safety, while Iraq and Afghanistan's successful independence requires the exclusion of radical elements like the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Iran from their political, legal, and military arenas.' Imagine further that the sheik declared all of this in Arabic. That would truly be a gift to rapprochement; that we could truly take to the bank.
Sincerely,
Leslie Sacks
Los Angeles, CA
Please click here to read the original Wall Street Journal article
Tags: Islam's respect for law,Dr. Gomaa's stature,Sheikh Ali Gomaa
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