A glimmer in the darkness - The Jewish Standard

There I was, at the ophthalmologist’s, clutching my New York Times, which I could not read anyway because my eyes were dilated. Taking it away from me, he tossed it on a chair, saying, “Why would you want to read that? All the news is bad.”

I wish I could have answered, “Not in The Jewish Standard,” but our cover story was about the Mumbai massacre.

True, there were more positive stories in the paper – two, in particular, about women and Orthodoxy. But the tone of the paper was dark, as dark as the black hats, in profusion on the front page, worn by mourners at the funeral in Jerusalem of the six Jews murdered at Nariman House.

Meanwhile, here is a somewhat heartening article about the heart-breaking events at Mumbai, an interview with Indian-American Muslim Eboo Patel, the author of “Acts of Faith”: http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/dec/04mumterror-absolute-perversion-of-islam.htm.

Patel, a sociologist, is the founder of Interfaith Youth Core, which, according to Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, “is active on some 50 American campuses.” (He spoke at Temple Sholom in River Edge in 2007.)

We have been waiting – for years, now – for Muslims to speak out against radical Islam. Let’s hope the Muslim world listens to this young, articulate, impassioned man.

RKB

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