Fighting hatred: Window display brings Muslims & Jews together

Holiday window display

The Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Anti-Defamation League have spent much of the past decade sniping at each other, but the emergence of a hateful window display by a member of the Jewish Defense League brought the two groups together last week for a common denunciation. Of course, a stand against the JDL makes for easy common ground between the two, since the JDL is an unsympathetic organization whose leaders were jailed in Los Angeles for planning bombings of Muslim and Arab targets (including the MPAC office). The signs hung by the storeowner were particularly distasteful as well, with such thoughtful political commentary as “Palestinians are PIGS, Murderous Scum PIGS” and “Arabs are Rag Heads.” “If a hatemonger attacks any one of us, they are attacking a wall of solidarity,’ said MPAC Executive Director Salam Al-Marayati, as he stood by representatives of the ADL, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, and other groups. (The temporary truce between MPAC and the ADL puts a halt to years of mistrust, dating back to the ADL’s opposition five years ago to the appointment of Al-Marayati to a federal counterterrorism commission.) Despite the unified front in Los Angeles, the 59-year old Meyers remains unrepentant. “If there is anything to be learned from Hitler,” she said in a recent interview (referencing a surprising role model), “it is that we must stand up for what we believe in.”

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.