e The best gifts last a lifetime and beyond. A 'Baby Step' from page 13 t-g4 die, \ captured on DVD z-lo,tday'seaso so.mtone you Stirpri"sillg!y affordable. tirnetess; AJC board members (from right) Brenda Rosenberg, Sheldon Toll, Rabbi Herbert Yoskowitz and Rabbi Daniel Nevins aterutewd Capturing the Real You! Creative video biographies & interviews for personal and professional use. 725 S. Adams, Suite 166, Birmingham, MI 48009 248.593.1400 • www.reelinterviews.com Skyline & The Back Street Horns The Jerry Ross Band •Rumplestiltskin •LUSA •Nightline 'Persuasion •Cassens Murphy Band •Simone Vitale Band •Intrigue •Sun Messengers •Radio City Visit our web site www. loriorossicom Newsmaker Hoi Ice Joyride 11 0 R OSf STEALING INTEATIIIHMINT Call for free video consultation 248-398-9711 14 December 21 . 2006 Since 1972 1 t 200 we would like to see a truce of this [Palestinian-Israeli] conflict" Najah Bazzy, a Dearborn Oakwood Hospital nurse who worked for many years at Sinai Hospital of Detroit with Jewish physicians and patients, is a Muslim community leader affiliated with the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn. She spoke of the Jewish community's responsibility. Muslims beliefs, because of the prophets Moses and Jesus, have a great responsibility to stretch the hand, she said. "If you are the chosen people at the time, then you are the chosen people for all the time. You have a huge responsibility to extend your hand, too." Victor Begg, chairman of the Council of Islamic Organizations of America and co-founder of the Unity Center, a Bloomfield Hills mosque, said the Muslim community is not a monolith, "but there is consen- sus on one issue: the treatment of Palestinians and their human rights." He said Muslims are disappointed when they see blind support for all Israeli actions. "That is what our corn- munity thinks," he said. "There is an enormous amount of pressure from the Jewish community to apologize or condemn every single act of terrorism or extremism that happens around the world. These acts have no relationship with our Islamic faith," he said. "We agree that there are those who say they follow Islamic faith who need to change their behavior, but the col- lective calls by non-Muslims to reform Islam is not acceptable or practical. Promoting individuals who you think should represent Muslims is a waste of your time and is counter-produc- tive. There should be no litmus test for dialogue." A First Step Rabbi Daniel Nevins of Adat Shalom thanked the crowd for coming. "We come from different perspec- tives:' he said. "Our hearts hurt over different issues. And we came to hear one another." Ezra Drissman of Farmington Hills disliked the event's closed format and took offense with Khan, "who basically summed up Darfur as a tribal situa- tion where you have two people living in close proximity, so therefore, obvi- ously, you're going to kill each other. "Well, maybe, but not by raping and slaughtering," he said. "That is the most negligent, the most gross com- parison I've ever heard." Phyllis Loewenstein of Farmington Hills also disliked the format. "I haven't learned one thing:' she said. "They skirted the issues." Andrew Doctoroff, AJC chapter president, called the event a positive first step. "A lot of people will disagree with a lot that was said tonight:' said Doctoroff of Huntington Woods. "But at the same time, in order to create a real dialogue, you have to listen to people who have different perspec- tives." Sharona Shapiro, AJC Michigan area director, said it was a positive "baby step," allowing the Jewish community to hear from local Muslim leaders and a proper format to help bring dialogue. A "Jewish Voices in Detroit: Message to the Muslim Community" program is in the works, she said. "For the very first encounter, we did not want to have a situation that we would not be able to respectfully con- tain through our audience participa- tion," Shapiro said. "Sometimes, it's important for the Jewish community to listen. It doesn't mean that we won't urge the NIuslims to participate in future programs that will include open forums and allow the audience members to express their personal beliefs, to ask questions and to offer exchanges of thinking:'