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March 1, 2002/Adar 17, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 24
L.A. Jews, Muslims come together
TOM TUGEND
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
LOS ANGELES - It's a distance of about 15 miles between Congregation Valley Beth Shalom in Encino and the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, but the two places are worlds apart.
Feb. 22, some 45 members of the L.A-area Conservative synagogue traveled to the mosque in search of interfaith understanding and respect.
Both sides came to the meeting with some sensitive baggage.
Hours earlier, the world had learned that Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl had been brutally murdered by Muslim extremists in Pakistan. One month earlier, two leaders of the Jewish Defense League were indicted for allegedly planning to blow up the mosque.
Yet any reservations seemed to be allayed by the warmth of the reception by the hosts and the obvious eagerness of the guests to learn more about Islam and to admire the architectural beauty of the mosque.
Completed in 1998 and funded with $8 million from the Saudi Arabian royal family, the King Fahd Mosque gleams in white marble and Arabesque tile, topped by a 72-foot minaret.
"There are no two religions as close as Islam and Judaism," said Nazir Khaja, chairman of the Islamic Information Service, who welcomed the guests and expressed his profound sorrow for the Pearl murder.
A few visitors were quick to notice some of the similarities, from the separation of men and women during services to the absence of statues and other "graven images," and even, one remarked jokingly, the collection boxes.
The visit had been timed for one of the most important celebrations in the Islamic calendar, the beginning of the three-day Eid al-Adha festival of sacrifice, marking Abraham's obedience to God in his willingness to sacrifice his son.
At the noon service, one of five daily prayer sessions for observant Muslims, the women in the group, their heads appropriately covered with scarves, were led to the upstairs balcony, where they engaged in lively dialogue with their Muslim neighbors.
The men observed the service in the main downstairs sanctuary, where some 500 worshipers sat and prostrated themselves on elaborate prayer rugs.
Imam Tajuddin Shuaib, a native of West Africa, stressed the common Jewish and Muslim links to Abraham. "Five times a day, we invoke the blessings of God on the progeny of Abraham," he said.
In an informal response after the service, Rabbi Harold Schulweis of Valley Beth Shalom noted that, "This has been a celebration of the common humanity underlying different theologies.
The initiative for the visit came from Schulweis, who had invited Muslim leader Khaja to speak on Islam during a lecture on world religions.
The talk attracted an audience of 2,200 people, the largest in the series, confirming Khaja's assertion that since Sept. 11 there has been a huge upswing of interest in Islam among Jews and Christians.
According to Khaja, the King Fahd Mosque is the largest among 70 mosques in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and serves some 5,000 West Los Angeles families.
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