‘We Refuse to Be Enemies’
Dear Friends and Participants in the Season of Twinning.
The horrendous terrorist attacks that massacred hundreds of innocent human beings in Paris and Beirut in the past 48 hours, came right in the middle of our Annual Season of Twinning, during which Muslims, Jews and other people of good will have been coming together in cities in 20 countries around the world to declare ‘We Refuse to Be Enemies.’ For details of events that have taken place so far and some that are upcoming please click links to our Season of Twinning Blog https://ffeu.wordpress.com/ and FFEU Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/FFEU.nyc/.
So far there have been inspiring ‘We Refuse to Be Enemies’ and other Season of Twinning related events in such diverse cities as Melbourne, Australia, Biarritz, France, Trenton, NJ, Washington, DC, New York, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Winnipeg, Canada, San Jose, CA and others, with a major We Refuse to Be Enemies event planned tomorrow in Manchester, UK. and many more wonderful events to come between now and the end of December.
As I write, our wonderful European coordinator Samia Hathroubi, who lives in Paris, is in Amsterdam, taking part in a March of Solidarity between a mosque and synagogue. Samia was already in Amsterdam at the time of the attacks in Paris, and last night learned to her relief that all of her loved ones at home are safe.
The juxtaposition of the savage terrorist attacks and the global expression of Muslim-Jewish friendship and solidarity that is the message of the Season of Twinning is striking. The attacks are meant not only to murder as many people as possible, but to cause people of different faiths and cultures to recoil from each other in fear and hatred. They are a strike against human freedom and a violation of the tenet, central to both Islam and Judaism, that if you take one life, it is as if you have killed all of humankind.
The Season of Twinning is about putting forward and living out the premise that Jews and Muslims can not only co-exist, but can and must build ties of communication and cooperation, friendship and trust. Over the past eight years, tens of thousands of Muslims, Jews and others have taken part in Season of Twinning events in over 30 countries on six continents. Through these events, a global network of Muslims and Jews committed to the above principles has been created. Even at a time of deepening conflict in the Middle East and the rise of the vicious ISIS terror network, we have persevered and deepened our connections. We are here for each other, care deeply about each other and will stand up for each other when either community is under attack.
What we must do now, is to resolve together that we will not allow the criminal madness manifested most recently in Paris to pull us apart. Instead, we must resolve to redouble our efforts to reach out to each other and connect on a human level. The inclination to stand down and pull back into our separate camps is understandable, but must be strongly resisted. Doing so would not only constitute a betrayal of everything we stand for and have worked for; but would end up hurting Muslims, Jews and people of good will worldwide.
So we must stand strong and assert our common humanity and our joint commitment to repairing the world (islah and tikun olam) in the face of evil. We have no choice but to loudly assert; We Will Stand Up for Each Other. We Refuse to Be Enemies.
One way that you can help us to spread the word that Muslims, Jews and others around the world are coming together is to send us brief reports on your Season of Twinning events with pictures and photo captions with videos, if possible. We will post these reports on our Blog and FFEU Facebook and share them with traditional media outlets, so as to get the word out around the world as to what happened at your Season of Twinning event. People in LA will know what happened in London; those in Tel Aviv will know what will happen in Tunis and will be better able to cooperate going forward. Sharing this material will help us to strengthen our global network and turn it into a true global movement of Muslims and Jews committed to communication, reconciliation and cooperation.
FFEU President Rabbi Marc Schneier often says that we Muslims and Jews share a common faith and a common fate. Never have those words resonated more profoundly than right now. Let us reaffirm that common faith that we can build a better world when our children and grandchildren will not be condemned to fear, hate and fight against each other, but will instead live together in peace and harmony!
Salaam and Shalom,
Walter Ruby
Muslim-Jewish Program Director
Foundation for Ethnic Understanding
