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Farmington Hills • 573 - 8050
18
FRIDAY, JULY 13, 1990
population is concentrated
in New York, California and
Illinois.
Both Jewish- and Islamic-
Americans are relatively
minor sub- groups in the
overall U.S. population of
250 million, which is nomi-
nally 97 percent Christian.
And while exact figures
are not available, a growing
part of the country's Islamic
population is believed to be
African- American, mostly
Christian-born blacks con-
verted to Islam.
Most of these are believed
to be adherents of the
Chicago- based Black
Muslim faith headed by the
Imam W. Deen Muhammad,
and of its much smaller off-
shoot, the Nation of Islam
headed by Louis Farrakhan.
Both sects are variants of
Shi'ite Islam, a minority
within Islam worldwide.
Some Jewish leaders fear
that the Islamic influence in
black America will reinforce
what they see as growing
anti-Semitic feelings in the
general African-American
community, and they worry
that American Jews will
become increasingly
vulnerable to this influence.
According to the 1989
American Jewish Year Book,
the U.S. Jewish populatiod
is 5.7 million, a figure that
has changed little over the
last 20 years.
In addition to the impen-
ding demographic balance,
the increasing prominence of
a Moslem community in a
Judeo-Christian- Islamic
nation will change the land-
scape of interfaith relations
and possibly introduce prob-
lems that Jewish communal
leaders are not prepared to
address, experts say.
This has already occurred
in Western Europe, where
most countries have larger
Moslem than Jewish popula-
tions, and direct Jewish-
Moslem ties are said to be
rare. Angry confrontations
have been reported in
England, mostly against the
background of the Middle
East conflict. Elsewhere,
there have been occasional
clashes, as well as occasional
cooperation on issues such as
religious slaughtering.
Some officials of U.S. Jew-
ish organizations said the,
Jewish community has fail-
ed to develop a dialogue with
Islam like that with Chris-
tianity.
"Part of the problem is
that Jews know very little
about Islam and the Islamic
world," added Rabbi Marc
Tanenbaum, international
relations consultant of the
American Jewish Com-
mittee. He formerly served
as the AJCommittee inter-
religious affairs director.
"The vast majority of
American Jews, including
Jewish professionals, have
little knowledge about the
growth" of the Islamic
population, Tanenbaum
said, adding that national
Jewish organizations, unlike
Christian groups, have es-
tablished few contacts with
their Islamic counterparts
and developed little under-
standing of Islamic prac-
tices.
Chowdry
suggested that
Americans' fear of
Islam stems in
large part from the
"extremist"
actions of Shi'ite
militants.
"It's very difficult to add
another issue to the Jewish
agenda," Tanenbaum said.
The growth of Islamic
America has "become a
challenge, potentially a very
significant problem for the
Jewish community," he said.
"It can become a source of
major intergroup conflict in
the United States."
By and large, Moslem
America lacks the wealth,
media and political
sophistication, or organiza-
tional structure of American
Jewry, Tanenbaum said, but
the gap is narrowing. In fact,
the American Jewish expe-
rience serves as a conscious
acculturation model for
Moslems. "They have
studied what American Jews
have done in this country at
every level," he said, "and
they follow the Jewish pat-
tern."
For many American Jews,
the greatest challenge of ris-
ing Islam seems to be a fear
that numerical equality will
bring attempts at conversion
— or worse, physical attacks
by militant Moslems Most
knowledgeable Jewish
leaders seem to dismiss this
fear, as do mainstream
Islamic spokesmen.
"That is the wrong idea,"
said Ibrahim Chowdry, pres-
ident of the Islamic Council
of America.
Chowdry suggested that
Americans' fear of Islam
stems in large part from the
"extremist" actions of
Shi'ite militants, followers
of the late Iranian leader
Ayatollah Ruhollah Kho-
meini. "There are Jewish
extremists, there are Chris-
tian extremists," Chowdry
said.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency