10/13/2006) The Congressman, The Mosque And The Temple In the fierce debate over whether the Islamic Center of Long Island harbors extremists, some of the Muslims’ most ardent defenders are Jews. Walter Ruby - Special To The Jewish Week Is the Islamic Center of Long Island (ICLI) a hotbed of Muslim extremism or an oasis of tolerance and moderation? The answer to that question likely depends on whether one is inclined to believe Rep. Peter King (R-Long Island) and supporters like terrorism expert Steven Emerson on one hand, or members of Long Island’s interfaith community — including some high-profile rabbis — on the other. King, Emerson and others have been arguing for months that ICLI, the oldest and largest mosque on Long Island, is headed by extremist leaders who spread the lie that Zionists, not Muslims, were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Supporters of ICLI counter that the mosque is a peace-loving religious community whose leaders deserve praise for promoting dialogue with Judaism and other faiths, and that King is deliberately driving a wedge between Muslims and Jews in his Long Island district for political gain. Over the past month, King, the influential chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, has sent two letters to several thousand, mainly Jewish, constituents in New York’s 3rd Congressional District. The letters condemn American Muslim leaders, including those at ICLI, for “failing to unequivocally denounce Islamic terrorism.” They also point out that leaders of ICLI, a Westbury-based mosque founded in 1985, are supporting King’s Democratic opponent in next month’s election, Nassau County Legislator David Mejias. King, who frequently asserts during media appearances that 85 percent of mosques in the U.S. are run by anti-American Islamic radicals, has specifically castigated Farouque Khan, chairman of the board of trustees of ICLI and the mosque’s leading spokesman, for failing to denounce Ghazi Khankan, the mosque’s former interfaith director, for remarks he made in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. At that time, Khankan was quoted by a Newsday reporter as asking rhetorically, “Who benefits from assuming that Muslims are behind this tragedy, and who benefits from this tragedy?” According to Emerson, Khankan asked ABC News, “What about the world Zionist network? Why are you in the media not looking at them?” King dismisses as “double talk” an official statement by the ICLI board in October 2001 denouncing the 9/11 attacks and expressing support for military action against worldwide terrorism. That statement and later ones by the mosque leadership condemning terrorism are meaningless in the absence of an explicit rebuke of Khankan, says King. King also has accused Khan of criticism of Israel that “goes beyond fair debate,” claiming Khan sent him a letter accusing Israeli soldiers of intentionally killing Palestinian civilians. On the other side of the barricades is the editorial page of Newsday, the main Long Island newspaper, which has accused King of “playing with fire” in his attacks on the mosque. Also lined up there are leaders of Long Island’s interfaith community, including the spiritual leadership of Temple Beth-El in Great Neck, a large Reform synagogue that has been engaged in ongoing interfaith dialogue with ICLI since 1991. Speaking at a press conference held at ICLI on Sunday — after about 100 members of Beth El and ICLI took part in a joint observance of Sukkot and Ramadan that included a reception inside a sukkah built specially for the occasion — Beth-El Associate Rabbi Renni Altman praised Khan as “a dear friend of our synagogue … and a very good friend of the Jewish community.” The rabbi asserted, “We condemn in the very strongest language the deplorable and false accusations made by Peter King. … Our 15-year relationship with this mosque represents the very best of dialogue and understanding … and offers the strongest testimony that the charges of Islamic militancy and extremism made against this mosque and Dr. Khan are utter nonsense.” Joining Rabbi Altman in calling upon King to end his campaign against Khan and ICLI were Rev. Thomas Goodhue, president of the Long Island Council of Churches, Rev. Mark Lukens, president of Interfaith Alliance of Long Island and Father Tom Hartman of the Catholic Archdiocese of Rockville Centre, one of the stars of the “God Squad” television program on Long Island Cable television. The imbroglio over ICLI is a high-stakes battle between those who support stepped-up monitoring of an American Muslim community they believe is infiltrated with potentially dangerous radicals, and those who advocate reaching out to American Muslims with a message of inclusiveness as the best means of stunting support for extremism. While King and Emerson see ICLI through one lens, the mosque, in an apparent sign of its respected status on Long Island, will be receiving the State University of New York at Old Westbury annual community partner award. For his part, Khan, 63, a white-haired and courtly native of India whose connections to the Jewish community go back to his days as chief of pulmonary diseases at Long Island Jewish Hospital in the 1970s, took part in a highly praised trip to Israel earlier this year together with Rabbi William Berman of the Commack Jewish Center, two priests and Muslim, Jewish and Catholic teenagers; the trip received approving coverage in The New York Times, Newsday and elsewhere. King has been at loggerheads with ICLI for several years, but the latest chapter in the battle erupted on Sept. 6, 2005 with a New York Post article by Adam Brodsky asserting that Khan and other members of ICLI were “actively working for King’s [electoral] defeat” because he had exposed their inclination to “mask their extremism through ‘benign’ interfaith and other programs.” Shortly thereafter, King sent the first of his letters to constituents about his feud with ICLI, to which he attached a copy of Brodsky’s article. Khan held a fundraiser for Mejias earlier this year, although he and other ICLI members have contributed financially to King in the past. King, who was first elected to Congress in 1992, told The Jewish Week that he initially enjoyed a cordial relationship with the leadership of ICLI, traveling to Bosnia and Kosovo to express support for imperiled Muslims there, and attending the wedding of Khan’s son, Arif, in 1995. Yet in the wake of 9/11, King said, he “lost all regard” for the mosque and its leadership after reading of the remarks by Khankan, then ICLI interfaith director and a spokesman for the Council on American Muslim Relations (CAIR). Asked why he accords so much importance to comments made five years ago by Khankan, King replied, “Khankan was allowed to stay in office for three years. Dr. Khan and the others had a moral obligation to dismiss him as quickly as possible.” King said that statements by the clergy people who appeared at ICLI in support of Khan “simply shows how misguided these people are. Interfaith dialogue is about much more than just holding hands and feeling good about each other.” For his part, Khan said King’s focus on Khankan’s September 2001 comments amounts to “hair splitting,” over statements by someone no longer connected to the mosque. Khan explained, “I was in Kashmir when 9/11 occurred and was unable to return immediately. In October, after I returned home, our board met and analyzed the situation and issued our statement condemning the attacks, which is the official position of the mosque, not whatever Ghazi may have said.” Khankan did not return calls seeking comment. Khan acknowledges having being critical of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, but calls for a political solution that would guarantee the survival of both Israel and a Palestinian state. Rabbi Berman, who accompanied Khan to Israel, said Khan “has a very balanced view of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Everything he said and did on the trip contradicted the idea that he would back violence to serve a political agenda.” Meanwhile, members of ICLI and Beth-El who have taken part in dialogue spoke of the positive impact of their ongoing communication on their own lives. Samina Wasti, a corporate contract analyst and member of ICLI, said, “Being in the dialogue group has taught me to look at others’ faiths with an open mind. We don’t agree on everything, but because we like and trust each other, we can work through differences.” Morris Yohai, a retired food industry professional and longtime Beth-El member, stated, “We’ve been meeting with the people from ICLI for 15 years, visiting each others’ homes and have come to love each other. It is a shame Peter King would choose to speak this way without any foundation in fact and without awareness about how this dialogue has enriched our lives.” n