Editor's Letter
An Extraordinary
Family Event to
Help Children
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and Their Families
A Call To Awareness
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In a visit to the Detroit Jewish News offices on April 5, •
Darwish, who lives in Los Angeles, said she was aghast at
what she sees on college campuses as she pitches themes of
Middle East peace and an end to terrorism.
While the majority of Muslim students who she encounters
brand her a Zionist sympathizer, she says, most Jewish stu-
dents are too ignorant or apathetic about Israel to confidently
speak up for the Jewish state.
She says only 20 percent of those Muslim students under-
stand or accept that she's not condemning Islam, the religion.
"Most of the Muslim student organizations don't want peace
with Israel," she told me. "They're advocating taking back all
of Israel, the whole state, and creating a one-state solution
— a new Palestinian state!'
Jewish students typically tiptoe, she says. "They're trying
to do everything they can to really reach out:' she says. "I feel
they're not getting in return what they are looking for, whiCh
is more connection, more understanding, more dialogue with
the Muslim student organizations."
Here's a 57-year-old Muslim woman courageously call-
ing for tolerance and moderation in the Islamic world, yet
she's haunted by taunts from inside her culture and by fright
among Jews hesitant to rally around her message. Her deter-
mination to stand tall for Israel puts many Jews to shame.
When confronted by unconvinced Muslim students, she
won't be intimidated. "These people should not be treated
with respect," she says. "I don't mean be bad to them: Be
assertive and they-become very timid."
I wonder how many Jews, let alone Jewish students, have
the heart to do that? We'll rally for Israel but seldom venture
into confrontation with Jew-baiting Arabs or Muslims."In fact,
we've stood with them in the name of multicultural bridge
building:
To confrontational students who share her Islamic roots,
Darwish says, "I am not your enemy. I am your friend. I want
you to join me in returning to Islam the good name that it
used to have."
She hinges her argument on terrorism as hurting her
"beautiful Arab culture" as well as Israel and the West, putting
all three on equal footing. "Terrorism is destroying the moral
fabric of the Arab society;' she says.
And she's right.
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What Harkens
StandWithUs-Michigan, an L.A.-based Israel education
and advocacy coalition, brought Darwish to the JN offices.
She had just come from Brooklyn College and was headed
to Wayne State University in Detroit and the University of
Michigan in Ann. Arbor. Still, she didn't miss a beat about
America's naivete, which has helped allow radical Islam to
spread in America.
In the Jewish community, parents tend to be just as meek
as their college students in decrying campus activism against
Zionism and Jews in general. Has this anti-Jewish assault
emotionally drained us? It's as if we
hope the hate just dissipates; then
we wouldn't have to clash with our
foes.
The same week I met with .
Darwish, the U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights urged campus leaders
to step up protection of Jewish stu- •
dents from classroom harassment.
The urging arose amictrampant
anti-Israel bias on U.S. campuses.
When Nonie Darwish arrived
Nonie Darwish
in America more than 20 years
ago, she brought her baggage of
indoctrination: She had been taught that Jews were monsters.
Soon, she discovered the big lie; Jews became her friends.
"Now," she says, "I have fear that is arising from concerns I
have about my own people. We've opened our society here in
America without any precautions. Isn't that amazing?"
The lesson is crystal clear: We Jews cannot let down our
guard. We can't possibly know for sure where danger lurks.
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CARNIVAL AND
ARCADE GAMES
BASKETBALL
LASER TAG
ROPES COURSE
GIANT SLIDE
FACE PAINTING
IN-LINE SKATING
ENTERTAINMENT
D. BROWN OF
ST *R TRAX
❑
To order a DVD of Nonie Darwish's Holocaust Memorial Center
speech in Farmington Hills, call (248) 508-8545 or e-mail
swumichigan@standwithus.com . The $18 cost includes a CD of her
WJR radio interview on the "Mitch Albom Show." -
POIN TS TO PONDE R..
N
onie Darwish travels the world exposing how the
Arab culture of hate undermineS any prospects
for peace with Israel, how radicals have hijacked
Islam from the Muslim masses and how Arab dictators have
embraced the "Palestinian plight" to divert attention from the
squalor and corruption rampant in their countries. •
Darwish is the founder of Arabs
for Israel and she derides use of ter-
ror. While she grew up in Cairo and
Gaza in the 1950s, her father headed
the Egyptian military intelligence
in Gaza and the Sinai. He led raids
of Palestinian "armed resisters" into
Israel; they murdered 400 Israelis and
wounded 900 more.
Israeli soldiers killed Darwish's
father when she was 8: Egyptian
President Gamal Abdul-Nasser direct-
ed her to avenge her father's death by
murdering Jews. Instead, she questioned her upbringing and
later earned a degree at the American University in Cairo.
Now she denounces Muslim indoctrination — equal parts
hate, vengeance and retaliation. She pleads with Middle East
Arabs and Muslims to preach jobs, peace and growth — not
"martyrdom for Allah" by murdering Jews. .
Slowly, the number 'of Arabs or Muslims willing to discredit
the terrorists who now control Islam in the Middle East is
growing. It's not only Muslim against Jew but also Muslim
against Muslim through brazen acts like oppressing, mutilat-
ing or murdering women.
Campus Breakdown
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How does anti-Zionism on U.S. campuses
affect American Jewry?
What can we Jews do to counter
propagandistic, or radical, Islam?
E-mail: Ietters@thejewishnews.com.
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April 13 • 2006 5