Muslim-Jewish Forum in London Provides a Different Model

July 27, 2005

Source: The Jerusalem Post

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1122448676856

On July 27, 2005 The Jerusalem Post reported, "'The typical view,' said Ismail Amaan, 'is that Muslims and Jews can't get along. We've proven that wrong.' Amaan and fellow Muslim Jewish Forum cofounder Rabbi Herschel Gluck have spent the past five years disproving 'the typical view' by bringing together devout Muslims and Orthodox Jews in London's Stamford Hill neighborhood, where the two communities live side-by-side. The two men, with beards and head coverings and both strictly observant, may not seem like the most natural of partners. They were brought together, they told The Jerusalem Post, by common political interests. Describing the forum's work in Stamford Hill, they recounted their successes in lobbying together to preserve legal rights to kosher and halal slaughtering practices and burial procedures, as well as the status of religious education, and to win various housing and social benefits. There is also the day-to-day issue of maintaining good neighborly ties, for which both Amaan and Gluck credit a shared sense of trust and decency."