DETROIT, May 15 (AP): As turmoil spreads through the Middle East, American Jews and Muslims have been forming alliances to build trust and seek solidarity in more ambitious ways than in the past, a sharp contrast to the violence engulfing their homelands this week.
Muslims and Jews have dispatched members into mosques and synagogues to learn about each other's faiths, made a joint trip to tour civil rights sites in the South and formed partnerships involving CEOs of major corporations. Leaders of the groups said the challenging world events have provided impetus for the outreach efforts, including violence in Gaza, the Trump administration's moving of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the travel ban from mostly Muslim countries and deepening concern about hate crimes.
"If there's ever a time to talk, it's now," said the executive director for the Los Angeles-based group NewGround, Aziza Hasan.
Perhaps most high-powered of the outreach initiatives is the Muslim Jewish Advisory Council, which started out two years ago working to expand hate-crime legislation. Now, the council - an unprecedented interfaith team of business, political and religious leaders - is launching an initiative sending Jewish members into mosques and Muslims into synagogues to speak and listen in ways that break down walls between them.
Muqtedar Khan, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Delaware, believes social and political conditions are conducive to greater solidarity between the two faiths.
Politically, he expects both communities will play increasingly vital roles in the Democratic Party while viewing the Trump-led Republican Party as hostile to minorities. Socially, he sees the younger generation of American Jews and Muslims as more likely than their elders to be allies.
One example: IfNotNow, a group of youthful Jewish activists opposed to Israel's treatment of Palestinians, has been coordinating some of its protest activity with American Muslims for Palestine.
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