Interfaith Pray-In at the Airport

Remember the six American imams pulled off the plane in handcuffs last month? In response, an interfaith group of religious leaders, including one rabbi, staged a pray-in at Washington National Airport. Quoting from Rabbi Debora Gordon's blog:

"That’s Rabbi Waskow on the right, linking arms with (right to left) Mahdi Bray, Director of the Muslim American Society; Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy, with the National Black Leadership Roundtable; Ibrahim Ramey, Director of Civil and Human Rights with the Muslim American Society (just behind the linked four); and Imam Omar Shahin. They are at Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport, Monday, Nov. 27, 2006."

The charges were moving their seats, asking for a sealtbelt extender, praying in public, and making a passenger uncomfortable by being dark-skinned and Islamic. Oh yes, and the passenger claims they were criticizing the American government. (note to those unfamiliar with the US constitution - the First Amendment guarantees the right to criticize the American government, even in a commercial airplane) The imams forfeited their tickets and were delayed hours as well as being insulted. In response, a group of religious leaders, including Rabbi Arthur Waskow, led a protest at Washington Reagan National Airport.

You must read Rabbi Waskow's account here, but I'll quote something that my Lebanese cousins (figurative and literal) need to read:

"Muslims" is a category only as a religious descriptor, and even that is pretty complicated. To be frightened or hateful toward all Muslims, or any subset, because of who they are – not what specific people do – is the same thing we call anti-Semitism or racism. It stigmatizes a whole community on account of the behavior of a few.

The worthy answer to such fear and hatred is something like: "I know you are frightened, but we can't behave that way. We can and should protect ourselves by regulating physically dangerous actions, by rules that apply to everyone -- and then we honor the uniqueness of each community and each individual."

I love this protest, I love the accounts of it (and I haven't even googled to find what the Muslim leaders involved have published - more later). Note in Rabbi Gordon's blog the photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. linking arms with Rabbi Abraham Heschel at a 1960s civil rights protest. This is my America at work, and it's not dead yet.

Oh and by the way, for all you American and Israeli Muslim-bashers out there, I have just received from Rabbi Michael Lerner a statement from one of the pictured Muslims, Ibrahim Ramey, condemning those who deny the Holocaust. He specifically condemns the Iranian conference full of white supremacists and Ku Klux Klansmen. I'll put up Mr. Ramey's statement as a separate post later.

I have a Hanukkah party to attend tonight for which I'm roasting six chickens, so I must leave the computer. The Hanukkah story is not that conducive to Arab-Jewish amity, but my Jewish friends in America like to celebrate with candles, games, and delicious fried potato pancakes, so my family and I always join in, in the spirit of lighting up the darkness.

Comments

[Rachel]

Isn't that a marvelous photo? (And what a marvelous thing for those leaders to do.) I only recently discovered Rabbi Gordon's blog, but we're very nearly neighbors (her congregation is about an hour away from me) and I'm glad to see this post of hers, in particular, spreading around the 'net.

Six chickens? Wow! Have a wonderful time at the Chanukah party -- may the evening be festive and filled with light (both figurative and metaphorical) for you and everyone present.

[Rabbi Debora Gordon]

I'm tickled -- this is the first post that another blogger has quoted and linked back to, other than some web crawlers that I don't quite understand (nor need to).

I followed the link to your blog -- enjoyed, want to try the chicken recipe, and BTW I write about chickens too {grin} -- and for some reason got tripped up on my gender assumptions: was quite delighted to discover that the blogger is (you are) a woman. Just as I still think "male" reflexively for some professions, I somehow assumed. Used to be that that was my experience when I heard "Rabbi" -- I wonder if this is still true, 10 years after my ordination? I'd had a lot of female doctors, but few female rabbis, when I went off to rabbinical school.

BTW, please spell my name correctly ... My mother explained to me years ago that while one needs the silent "hey" at the end of "Devorah" in Hebrew, one doesn't need the silent "h" at the end of "Deborah" in English, and so my parents didn't use it... I suspect the spelling rule may hold true in Arabic too... Anyway, the result is that my name is always misspelled, but it *is* right there at the top of the the blog...! Todah rabbah/thank you very much.

[Leila]

Welcome to Dove's Eye View, Rabbi Debora, and sorry for misspelling your name. I wasn't checking your blog as I typed. I'll fix momentarily.

And when was it that you thought I was male? Curious, since my photo is up on the blog, and the subtitle is "an Arab-American woman sees signs of hope."

Anyway, you are most welcome, and thank you for your account.

[Leila]

Oh and Rachel, thank you too for your kind comment.

See my personal blog http://bedouina.typepad.com/personal for the run-down on the six chickens. The technique is not a success - but my original spiced chicken recipe is still a winner.

[Rabbi Debora Gordon]

Leila -- I'm not quite that dense! (grin) Before I got directly to your blog, I was directed to http://israelpalestineblogs.com/, some kind of aggregation of blogs, and there are no pictures of subtitles there. So it was a pleasant surprise to come to your blog and see your picture.

Interesting, though -- I never noticed the subtitle until you referenced it in one of your posts, I think. I've very visual, "grabbed" the photo and overlooked the small lettering.

Boy, I hope you're right about the signs of hope. I tend to be an optimist, but a cautious one. I think that means that I expect that things will work themselves out eventually, but I don't doubt that there will be much suffering along the way.

Of course, "eventually" just means taking a snapshot at a particular point in history -- might be a long-lasting "point," might be a short-lived situation. Then history moves on again. So perhaps my hope comes from the micro view: finding the good and joy among the suffering.

Or maybe I go back and forth between both views in order not to despair. Hm.

[Leila]

Going back and forth between hope and despair... sounds like me. This blog's purpose is to print and archive the half of me that finds hope. I save my despair for other venues.

No matter what horrors are perpetrated in our names, by our neighbors or our kinsmen or our leaders, we can always insist on what we know is the real truth: you cannot kill to gain peace and security. You cannot exterminate your enemies and hope to prevail. We are all connected - to the fish in the sea as well as to our enemies. This world will burn if we don't turn our attention to healing it.

The stakes are civilization itself. Humanity might survive the coming fires, but most of what we hold precious will not.

Those of us who believe that we must kill, kill, kill in order to find peace, are simply deluded and living in a lower form of cognitive and spiritual development that has been proven to fail. America is learning this lesson in Iraq right now. I foresee more destruction before we really get it. I am sorry about that. But in the meantime I have to be like a German of conscience in the 1930s, or a Russian dissident of the 1970s, just keep holding on to the truth as I see it, no matter what insanity boils around me.