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July 13, 2001/Tamuz 22, 5761, Vol. 53, No.40
Muslim faith author ends up in hiding
SHARON SAMBER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - The book designed to explain the Muslim faith to Jews was published in May, the death threat came in June, and the author is now huddled out of sight in a safe house.
Jewish and Muslim groups, meanwhile, are left to ponder what can happen next to make the situation any worse.
The irony of the situation is rich: A book conceived by the American Jewish Committee to advance Muslim-Jewish understanding may in fact end up exacerbating tension between the faiths.
A fatwa - or religious edict - was issued by a Muslim cleric to "shed the blood" of the author, professor Khalid Duran, but later was clarified as merely a call to investigate him.
Depending on the findings of the probe, though, Duran still could be declared fit for killing.
The AJC condemned the edict by Sheikh Abd-al-Mun'im Abu Zant, a leader in the militant Islamic Action Front, an opposition party in Jordan.
"In a free society, no one should tolerate the threat to kill an author," said David A. Harris, executive director of the AJC, which published Duran's book - "Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Islam for Jews" - as well as a companion volume explaining Judaism to Muslims.
The other volume in the series, "Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims," was written by Reuven Firestone, a professor and rabbi at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
Firestone's book has not attracted much media attention, and is considered an innocuous primer on Judaism.
But Duran has been under scrutiny from the start.
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