Special Report
ON THE COVER
Long Arm Of War from page 13
Brenda Rosenberg Roger Strelow
1
A protester shows his support for
Lebanon and Hezbollah leader Hassan
Nazrallah at a Dearborn rally last year.
TV and radio news staffs, brought in
Israeli experts to meet with Hispanic com-
munity leaders and others, and is expand-
ing its speakers bureau to reach churches.
Mendel says the results have been
encouraging. "The feedback we get from
those and other efforts tells us that Israel
continues to be seen as America's best
friend and ally in the Middle East:' he says.
"Last summer's rallies impacted me
greatly," says Sharona Shapiro, director
of the Michigan office of the American
Jewish Committee (AJC) in Bloomfield
Township. She made national news
last year with her personal account of
last summer's pro-Hezbollah rallies in
Dearborn. "These days, I rarely go into
Dearborn, and I have far fewer encounters
with Arab-American leaders who either
are or who work with the leaders of the
Dearborn-based sponsoring agencies and
mosques of last summer's rallies."
Instead, Shapiro says she has greatly
increased her personal and institutional
interactions with the diverse Oakland
County Muslim-American community
and Lebanese-American Christians.
"These two communities have reached
out to the AJC leadership and have enthu-
siastically become engaged in relationship
building," she says. Separate dialogue
programs have begun with both groups,
which have shared meals and discussions
on issues of common interest. Shapiro says
the sessions with Lebanese Christians, a
direct outgrowth of last summer, has been
especially enlightening.
"The exchanges have made me more
sensitive and knowledgeable of how the
Lebanese Christian communities here and
in Lebanon are vulnerable," Shapiro says.
"The leaders warn us that the civil war
is brewing so much that they seriously
worry about the survival of the Christian
14
July 19 • 2007
Sharona Shapiro
Betsy Kellman
communities in
Lebanon." She said
most in this group
wish to remain pri-
vate because "many
feel that being identi-
fied makes either
their families or
businesses targets for
retribution:'
Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
Michigan Region Director Betsy Kellman
in Bloomfield Township says outreach
efforts with the local Arab community are
definitely on hold.
"As much as ADL would like to consider
outreach, we will not reach out to people
that sympathize or work with a terrorist
organization:' Kellman says. "We cannot
work with the Arab community that sup-
ports Hezbollah and the same goes for
sympathizers of Hamas."
Kellman says there is a frustration in
the Jewish community "fueled by the
intense fear of Islamic extremism being
played out on the world stage' She says
local Muslim groups have done little to
allay these fears.
"We need to hear moderate Muslims in
this community speak out against terror-
ism. It hasn't happened. We need to hear
them condemn the planned bombings
in Great Britain and Scotland. They have
not. We need them to be proud Americans
and support this country and condemn all
Islamic extremism. It has not happened.
Until that time, the majority of the Jewish
community will continue to be careful and
remain aloof from the Arab community."
Hard Feelings Remain
Imad Hamad, director of the Dearborn-
based Michigan Chapter of the American
Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
(ADC), says the feeling between the com-
munities is more relaxed, though they
continue to see things quite differently.
"We're not over with the challenge," says
Hamad. "We haven't reached the stage
where things are back to normal. Things
were too hot last summer, and there are
still some hard feelings."
Hamad credits both communities with
not crossing the line into advocating or
committing violence. "It's a tribute to the
maturity of both communities and the
good moral character of both," he said.
Like the Jewish community, he says the
Arab community is monitoring Mideast
developments closely and "crossing the
fingers and truly praying that there will
be no war this summer." He says that
people have changed their summer plans
to visit their families or take vacations in
Lebanon. "People are worried that, God
forbid, something would happen again."
If war does break out again, he says the
Arab community will mobilize to promote
its interests "in a very constructive politi-
cal process without fear."
"We believe as strongly, if not even more
strongly, that Hezbollah was on the right
side, and that it is not a terrorist organiza-
tion," Hamad says. "U.S. laws and regula-
tions on Hezbollah are seen as unfair.
Nothing has changed in that regard. We
feel free to talk about it in America and
not deal with taboos."
Saying that the American position on
Hezbollah is a minority position among
nations, he called for "debate in this corn-
munity as there is around the world."
Hamad agrees with Jewish leaders that
organizational relationships are cool and
will likely remain that way.
"There is less formal communication,
and there is not a real organized systemic
strategy," he says of organizational ties.
Like others, he says relations are cordial.
Strides Taken
Brenda Rosenberg, founder of the
Children of Abraham program that seeks
to create understanding between Jews,
Muslims and Christians, works closely
with Hamad — not simply in spite of
their political differences, but because of
them. Hamad calls her "an angel of peace."
"I believe so strongly in the dialogue
process," Rosenberg says. "The most
important thing is to get at the root of the
problems. It all starts with hate. It goes
from hate speech, to demonizing to dehu-
manizing," she says. "Unless Jews have
Christian and Muslim partners, we can't
stop that teaching of hate. Hate is respon-
sible for every genocide and massacre."
Rosenberg, of Bloomfield Hills, is an
active AJC member in interfaith efforts,
though she doesn't represent AJC in her
dealings with Hamad. She says the AJC
dialogues and its project to put Jewish
books in mosque libraries are very helpful.
"There are those who feel we have to do
Anna Hoffman, 11 , of Farmington Hills
at a rally last summer for kidnapped
Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
absolutely everything here to not let what
happens over there affect our relation-
ship and others who feel what we can do
here can be a model for peace over there
Rosenberg said.
"The tensions that arose during the con-
flict definitely have abated, although the
memories have not fader agrees Roger
Strelow, chairman of Interfaith Partners
of the Detroit-based Michigan Roundtable
for Diversity and Inclusion, which has
worked to bring faith communities togeth-
er and ease tensions. "But we are certainly
seeing the positive, healing effects that
arise from neighbors working and living
together in cordial relations here in the
Detroit area and cooperating in matters of
mutual interest."
Strelow, a Christian, says feelings run
high because of the personal and fam-
ily relationships that many Jews and
Muslims have with people in the Mideast,
and because of perceived injustices and
threats. But he is optimistic.
"What has been overcome, at least in
many minds, I believe, is the fallacy that
people living here, and who have family or
other roots or connections to either Israel
or Lebanon, are somehow responsible,
or to be blamed, for past conflicts ... or
potential future ones:' he says.
Strelow believes that the conflict is
political or ethnic rather than religious
because Jews, Muslims and Christians
can all work together in the United States.
Referring to the groups as "the three
Abrahamic faiths:' he believes working
together and standing up for each other
when attacked is crucial and healing.
"When we stand together like this, I
believe we all see so much more clearly
that division among faiths or people of
faith is unnatural and certainly not God's
will."