Once again, this unusually pernicious piece was sent to me by someone who took it very much to heart. Please examine the email and consider our response.
Of course, the response is merely a drop in the bucket, but we act with the hope that heaven is not blind to our efforts and intentions. As Rav Kook (the chief Rabbi of Jerusalem in the mandate period) said so beautifully,
"If we recognize that any time we enlighten our own souls, that we are benefiting not just ourselves but all of existence, then we can bestow perfection and life to all things.Through us, the tzaddikim (righteous) are granted greater power in their service of God. The evil of the wicked becomes moderated and mitigated to some extent. Thoughts of penitence come to them. Even the animals are ennobled, in accordance with their level. Through the beautiful holiness that is added by one soul that truly cares about all of existence, even those creatures that tend to attack and damage are refined. And certainly great light is added to the sublime splendor of the souls, and in all levels of the spiritual worlds, boundless in their beauty and sanctity."
with prayers for peace and God's mercy and blessing upon all,
Timothy
PROPAGANDA EXHIBIT BEGINS BELOW THE LINE
____________________________________________
ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez and published in a Spanish newspaper on 5-22-07. It doesn't take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe - and possibly to the rest of the world.
REMEMBER AS YOU READ -- IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 14:30:20 -0500
ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez(*)
I walked down the street in Barcelona , and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz . We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.
The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.
And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.
They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.
Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.
And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition
We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for hoping for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.
What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe .
***********************************
A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.
Absolutely No Profiling! Pause a moment, reflect back,
These events are actual events from history. They really happened! Do you remember?
1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by A Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40
2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens , and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
No, I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret service agents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males between the ages 17 and 40 alone lest they be guilty of profiling.
Let's send this to as many people as we can so that the Gloria Aldreds and other dunder-headed attorneys along with Federal Justices that want to thwart common sense, feel ashamed of themselves -- if they have any such sense .
As the writer of the award winning story 'Forrest Gump ' so aptly put it, 'Stupid is as stupid does.'
Come on people wake up!!! Keep this going.
____________________________________________
END OF PROPAGANDA EXHIBIT
OUR RESPONSE:
From: Timothy Gianotti
Date: Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 3:58 PM
Subject: Extreme Concern (Re: Pass it on)
Dear ______ :
I send warm regards and prayers for God's blessing upon you and your
loved ones. I also send extreme concern about the emails that you
keep endorsing and promoting by forwarding them on to your contact
list. These emails, such as the one below, are hateful and
hate-inspiring and would be illegal if they were targeting any other
group. More, they maliciously misrepresent the very diverse Muslim
communities in the west as a monolithic community of evil drones who
love death, live in filth, lack education, seek to live off the labor
of others (when they are not stealing), and hate freedom. Why do you
not see that this is the very kind of propaganda that helped prepare
the post WWI German population to support, or at least go along with,
the holocaust? The only difference is that, now, the pernicious myth
of the "Jewish conspiracy" is giving way to the equally pernicious and
dangerous and baseless myth of 'the secret islamic agenda."
Hate speech leads to hate crimes, ______, and already we are seeing
the swift rise of anti-Muslim violence right here in north America.
In such dire economic and difficult political times, people are
looking for a scapegoat, and Muslims are it. People are now being
attacked for no reason other than they identify as Muslims ( see
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/nyregion/26cabby.html); mosques are
being vandalized and defaced (see below). What is next? Where is all
this leading?
Man Shouting Anti-Muslim Slurs Desecrates NY Mosque
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/drunk_desecration_at_mosque_fA7FZKYh59hx3Bjika6UGN
Vandalism at Madera mosque called hate crime
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/25/2053382/vandalism-at-madera-islamic-center.html
Propaganda that plays upon people's ignorance and fear and promotes
the mass incrimination of any particular group, be it racial or
religious, paves the way toward genocide. I cannot believe that you,
just being who you are, would wish this upon any group. What moral
power or meaning does "never again" have when you are actively
promoting discrimination against and the eventual persecution of
another people?
Please, _______, be more thoughtful and more responsible for the kind
of emails you endorse and promote; please, ______, for the love of
humanity, for the sake of our children, who deserve a future free from
prejudice and the violence it engenders. Standing by such a malicious
and dangerous and discriminatory email is only a hair away from
standing by as they take me, my wife and children, and other innocent
Muslims off to internment camps and then to God knows what. Our enemy
is not the religion of Islam; nor is it the Muslims; our most
dangerous enemy is ignorance, and the quickest way to dominate the
ignorant is through fear. That is what these emails seek to do.
Please ask yourself, for what end? when people are ignorant and
afraid and fed lies, they are capable of anything, ______, anything.
The Holocaust has shown us that. Rwanda has shown us that. Bosnia
has shown us that. The "Killing Fields" of Cambodia have shown us
that. Have we learned nothing from the atrocities of the 20th
century? Or do we, like so many before us, think that "it can never
happen here"?
respectfully,
Timothy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Timothy J. Gianotti, Ph.D. (Toronto)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2008-2011 York-Noor Fellow in Arabic & Islamic Studies
2007-2008 York-Noor Chair of Islamic Studies
THE SENDER'S REBUTTAL
Hiding one's head in the sand is the way JEWS were prior to the HOLOCAUST! Today we understand that history can and does repeat itself. I don't offer up
hateful agendas I show pictures and a Presdential canditdate that tells it like it is.
I will stop passing on the truths to you, that are sent to me, as you can not fathom
them. I would appreciate you not siding with the muslims that prefer to rid the planet
of Jewsh People all because we don't LIVE to KILL! The Muslims I refer to do just that.
I sent similar emails at the time when South Africa was having holocaust mentalities with their
bretheren. It's pretty awful when an entire planet does NOT learn from the mistakes of the
Nazis. Included in my emailings were the atrocities in Rwanda, Bosnia, and The "Killing Fields" of Cambodia.
The Muslims have learned nothing from the atrocities of the 20th century?
What the world is slowly learning is that a good percentage of MUSLIMS do not have respect
for LIFE and Family, Not even their own ! There was never a JEWISH CONSPIRACY however ENGLAND and the United States are now realizing that there just might be a SECRET ISLAMIC AGENDA!!!
It's Odd that the muslims that I have met, that ran away from their MID EAST HOMES, confirm
their fears and happen to agree with the communities that they love living in now.
Please do not preach to me... I have lost most of my family in the so called MYTH of the HOLOCAUST! As have most of my friend's families.
Teach and preach to your MUSLIM families the right to life and living life with out fear.
I will not email you again nor do I expect emails from you.
Stay well, Look after your family,
Happy New Year (THE JEWISH ONE)
____________________________
OUR FINAL WORD
From: Timothy Gianotti
Date: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 9:44 AM
Subject: Thank you + follow up
To: __________________
Good morning, Dear _______:
As ever, I send sincere prayers for peace and God's blessings upon you
and your loved ones, and i send sincere thanks for getting back to me,
even though your response saddens me.
Please understand that I have never denied the holocaust and hold
nothing but sorrow and compassion for the victims of Nazi atrocities
and for the victims of the countless pogroms your community has
suffered. In this, I am in agreement with you and always have been.
Please understand that I do not subscribe to the "Jewish Conspiracy"
myth and never have. This is clearly one of the ways in which
anti-semitic groups within the majority Christian west have tried to
implicate and incriminate all Jews and so make persecuting the Jews
more acceptable. Insofar as this idea has leaked into the Muslim
community, I have fought it and continue to stand against it and all
other forms of antisemitism. Again, in this, we are in agreement.
Your choice of presidential candidate is your own, and I have nothing
to say about this. In fact, I am puzzled that you even mentioned it,
for this has never been a subject of our correspondence.
In reference to your recommendation that I "teach and preach to your
MUSLIM families the right to life and living life without fear," I
remind you that this is what I do as my full-time work, both in my
capacity as a professor of Islamic Studies and in my capacity as a
religious educator and imam. I do not deny that we have serious and
even dangerous problems within the Muslim community, but I do strongly
object to your assertion that "a good percentage of Muslims" live to
kill, have no respect for life (even their own), and are part of a
secret Islamic agenda. These generalizations are, in my experience
(which spans the globe), unfair and extremely dangerous, as I have so
often pointed out to you.
I am grieved that you see a need to sever your communication with me,
but I also understand that it is difficult when someone questions the
"truths" that you believe so zealously and and to which you cling so
vehemently.
If indeed this is my last note to you, please allow me to close with a
much-beloved quotation from one of my greatest sources of inspiration:
Rav Kook, the chief Rabbi of Jerusalem in the mandate period (perhaps
you know of him).
"We have the power to increase the light in our souls at all times
through Torah, wisdom, mitzvot, prayer, and character refinement. If
we recognize that any time we enlighten our own souls, that we are
benefiting not just ourselves but all of existence, then we can bestow
perfection and life to all things.
Through us, the tzaddikim (righteous) are granted greater power in
their service of God. The evil of the wicked becomes moderated and
mitigated to some extent. Thoughts of penitence come to them. Even the
animals are ennobled, in accordance with their level. Through the
beautiful holiness that is added by one soul that truly cares about
all of existence, even those creatures that tend to attack and damage
are refined. And certainly great light is added to the sublime
splendor of the souls, and in all levels of the spiritual worlds,
boundless in their beauty and sanctity."
I wish you and your loved ones well, _______, and, on this eve of
shabbat, I wish you a blessed and peaceful shabbat. Shabbat shalom.
with prayers for peace and God's mercy and blessings upon all,
Timothy
Of course, the response is merely a drop in the bucket, but we act with the hope that heaven is not blind to our efforts and intentions. As Rav Kook (the chief Rabbi of Jerusalem in the mandate period) said so beautifully,
"If we recognize that any time we enlighten our own souls, that we are benefiting not just ourselves but all of existence, then we can bestow perfection and life to all things.Through us, the tzaddikim (righteous) are granted greater power in their service of God. The evil of the wicked becomes moderated and mitigated to some extent. Thoughts of penitence come to them. Even the animals are ennobled, in accordance with their level. Through the beautiful holiness that is added by one soul that truly cares about all of existence, even those creatures that tend to attack and damage are refined. And certainly great light is added to the sublime splendor of the souls, and in all levels of the spiritual worlds, boundless in their beauty and sanctity."
with prayers for peace and God's mercy and blessing upon all,
Timothy
PROPAGANDA EXHIBIT BEGINS BELOW THE LINE
____________________________________________
ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez and published in a Spanish newspaper on 5-22-07. It doesn't take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe - and possibly to the rest of the world.
REMEMBER AS YOU READ -- IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 14:30:20 -0500
ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez(*)
I walked down the street in Barcelona , and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz . We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.
The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.
And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.
They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.
Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.
And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition
We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for hoping for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.
What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe .
***********************************
A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.
Absolutely No Profiling! Pause a moment, reflect back,
These events are actual events from history. They really happened! Do you remember?
1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by A Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40
2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens , and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
No, I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret service agents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males between the ages 17 and 40 alone lest they be guilty of profiling.
Let's send this to as many people as we can so that the Gloria Aldreds and other dunder-headed attorneys along with Federal Justices that want to thwart common sense, feel ashamed of themselves -- if they have any such sense .
As the writer of the award winning story 'Forrest Gump ' so aptly put it, 'Stupid is as stupid does.'
Come on people wake up!!! Keep this going.
____________________________________________
END OF PROPAGANDA EXHIBIT
OUR RESPONSE:
From: Timothy Gianotti
Date: Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 3:58 PM
Subject: Extreme Concern (Re: Pass it on)
Dear ______ :
I send warm regards and prayers for God's blessing upon you and your
loved ones. I also send extreme concern about the emails that you
keep endorsing and promoting by forwarding them on to your contact
list. These emails, such as the one below, are hateful and
hate-inspiring and would be illegal if they were targeting any other
group. More, they maliciously misrepresent the very diverse Muslim
communities in the west as a monolithic community of evil drones who
love death, live in filth, lack education, seek to live off the labor
of others (when they are not stealing), and hate freedom. Why do you
not see that this is the very kind of propaganda that helped prepare
the post WWI German population to support, or at least go along with,
the holocaust? The only difference is that, now, the pernicious myth
of the "Jewish conspiracy" is giving way to the equally pernicious and
dangerous and baseless myth of 'the secret islamic agenda."
Hate speech leads to hate crimes, ______, and already we are seeing
the swift rise of anti-Muslim violence right here in north America.
In such dire economic and difficult political times, people are
looking for a scapegoat, and Muslims are it. People are now being
attacked for no reason other than they identify as Muslims ( see
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/nyregion/26cabby.html); mosques are
being vandalized and defaced (see below). What is next? Where is all
this leading?
Man Shouting Anti-Muslim Slurs Desecrates NY Mosque
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/drunk_desecration_at_mosque_fA7FZKYh59hx3Bjika6UGN
Vandalism at Madera mosque called hate crime
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/25/2053382/vandalism-at-madera-islamic-center.html
Propaganda that plays upon people's ignorance and fear and promotes
the mass incrimination of any particular group, be it racial or
religious, paves the way toward genocide. I cannot believe that you,
just being who you are, would wish this upon any group. What moral
power or meaning does "never again" have when you are actively
promoting discrimination against and the eventual persecution of
another people?
Please, _______, be more thoughtful and more responsible for the kind
of emails you endorse and promote; please, ______, for the love of
humanity, for the sake of our children, who deserve a future free from
prejudice and the violence it engenders. Standing by such a malicious
and dangerous and discriminatory email is only a hair away from
standing by as they take me, my wife and children, and other innocent
Muslims off to internment camps and then to God knows what. Our enemy
is not the religion of Islam; nor is it the Muslims; our most
dangerous enemy is ignorance, and the quickest way to dominate the
ignorant is through fear. That is what these emails seek to do.
Please ask yourself, for what end? when people are ignorant and
afraid and fed lies, they are capable of anything, ______, anything.
The Holocaust has shown us that. Rwanda has shown us that. Bosnia
has shown us that. The "Killing Fields" of Cambodia have shown us
that. Have we learned nothing from the atrocities of the 20th
century? Or do we, like so many before us, think that "it can never
happen here"?
respectfully,
Timothy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Timothy J. Gianotti, Ph.D. (Toronto)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2008-2011 York-Noor Fellow in Arabic & Islamic Studies
2007-2008 York-Noor Chair of Islamic Studies
Hiding one's head in the sand is the way JEWS were prior to the HOLOCAUST! Today we understand that history can and does repeat itself. I don't offer up
hateful agendas I show pictures and a Presdential canditdate that tells it like it is.
I will stop passing on the truths to you, that are sent to me, as you can not fathom
them. I would appreciate you not siding with the muslims that prefer to rid the planet
of Jewsh People all because we don't LIVE to KILL! The Muslims I refer to do just that.
I sent similar emails at the time when South Africa was having holocaust mentalities with their
bretheren. It's pretty awful when an entire planet does NOT learn from the mistakes of the
Nazis. Included in my emailings were the atrocities in Rwanda, Bosnia, and The "Killing Fields" of Cambodia.
The Muslims have learned nothing from the atrocities of the 20th century?
What the world is slowly learning is that a good percentage of MUSLIMS do not have respect
for LIFE and Family, Not even their own ! There was never a JEWISH CONSPIRACY however ENGLAND and the United States are now realizing that there just might be a SECRET ISLAMIC AGENDA!!!
It's Odd that the muslims that I have met, that ran away from their MID EAST HOMES, confirm
their fears and happen to agree with the communities that they love living in now.
Please do not preach to me... I have lost most of my family in the so called MYTH of the HOLOCAUST! As have most of my friend's families.
Teach and preach to your MUSLIM families the right to life and living life with out fear.
I will not email you again nor do I expect emails from you.
Stay well, Look after your family,
Happy New Year (THE JEWISH ONE)
____________________________
From: Timothy Gianotti
Date: Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 9:44 AM
Subject: Thank you + follow up
To: __________________
Good morning, Dear _______:
As ever, I send sincere prayers for peace and God's blessings upon you
and your loved ones, and i send sincere thanks for getting back to me,
even though your response saddens me.
Please understand that I have never denied the holocaust and hold
nothing but sorrow and compassion for the victims of Nazi atrocities
and for the victims of the countless pogroms your community has
suffered. In this, I am in agreement with you and always have been.
Please understand that I do not subscribe to the "Jewish Conspiracy"
myth and never have. This is clearly one of the ways in which
anti-semitic groups within the majority Christian west have tried to
implicate and incriminate all Jews and so make persecuting the Jews
more acceptable. Insofar as this idea has leaked into the Muslim
community, I have fought it and continue to stand against it and all
other forms of antisemitism. Again, in this, we are in agreement.
Your choice of presidential candidate is your own, and I have nothing
to say about this. In fact, I am puzzled that you even mentioned it,
for this has never been a subject of our correspondence.
In reference to your recommendation that I "teach and preach to your
MUSLIM families the right to life and living life without fear," I
remind you that this is what I do as my full-time work, both in my
capacity as a professor of Islamic Studies and in my capacity as a
religious educator and imam. I do not deny that we have serious and
even dangerous problems within the Muslim community, but I do strongly
object to your assertion that "a good percentage of Muslims" live to
kill, have no respect for life (even their own), and are part of a
secret Islamic agenda. These generalizations are, in my experience
(which spans the globe), unfair and extremely dangerous, as I have so
often pointed out to you.
I am grieved that you see a need to sever your communication with me,
but I also understand that it is difficult when someone questions the
"truths" that you believe so zealously and and to which you cling so
vehemently.
If indeed this is my last note to you, please allow me to close with a
much-beloved quotation from one of my greatest sources of inspiration:
Rav Kook, the chief Rabbi of Jerusalem in the mandate period (perhaps
you know of him).
"We have the power to increase the light in our souls at all times
through Torah, wisdom, mitzvot, prayer, and character refinement. If
we recognize that any time we enlighten our own souls, that we are
benefiting not just ourselves but all of existence, then we can bestow
perfection and life to all things.
Through us, the tzaddikim (righteous) are granted greater power in
their service of God. The evil of the wicked becomes moderated and
mitigated to some extent. Thoughts of penitence come to them. Even the
animals are ennobled, in accordance with their level. Through the
beautiful holiness that is added by one soul that truly cares about
all of existence, even those creatures that tend to attack and damage
are refined. And certainly great light is added to the sublime
splendor of the souls, and in all levels of the spiritual worlds,
boundless in their beauty and sanctity."
I wish you and your loved ones well, _______, and, on this eve of
shabbat, I wish you a blessed and peaceful shabbat. Shabbat shalom.
with prayers for peace and God's mercy and blessings upon all,
Timothy
