Muslims and Jews Must Speak out When Christians are Attacked

Huffington Post
By Rabbi Marc Schneier and Imam Shamsi Ali

As Christians all over the world mark one of the holiest days of their religious calendar, the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU) and the Nusantara Foundation applaud efforts toward communication, reconciliation and cooperation among all faiths.

We are deeply concerned about the wholesale violation of the rights of Christians in many parts of the world. Killings of Christians in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Nigeria and acts of vandalism against churches in Israel are a moral abomination and must be ended now.

We are unwilling to stand by silently while Christians are expelled from their homes, abducted, molested or slaughtered by barbaric murderers who claim they are acting in the name of religion. We cannot remain voiceless when Christian holy places are vandalized, burned or destroyed by zealots.

For more than eight years, the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU) and its partners, including the Nusantara Foundation, have been working to build a global movement of Muslims and Jews committed to communication, reconciliation and cooperation. Imams and rabbis, Muslim and Jewish leaders and grassroots activists have committed to standing up for each other by fighting together against anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, whenever and wherever these scourges originate – including, in some cases, from within their own communities.

In that same vein, they are equally committed to standing up against discrimination wherever it lives, and will fight against any acts of anti-Christian bigotry. Together, we condemn without reservation criminal acts against Christians.

Rabbi Marc Schneier and Imam Shamsi Ali are co-authors of Sons of Abraham: A Candid Conversation about the Issues that Divide and Unite Jews and Muslims. Rabbi Schneier is the President of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and Imam Ali is the President of Nusantara Foundation.

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