Elizabeth A. Leib

by Elizabeth A. Leib

This morning as MitzvahBoy is getting dressed to go to Sunday school and Mark gathers his tallit and prayer shawl for morning prayers at Kol Ami Synagogue, I’m flicking through cable channels to see what I can find. I hit pay dirt on C-Span’s Washington Journal where the Al Jazeera Washington Bureau Chief, Abderrahima Foukara is taking questions from callers on the response from the Arab world to President-Elect Obama.

I’ve been wanting to explore the Arab immigrant experience after reading Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s story, “Infidel”. But a few years ago under the Bush administration, it seemed dangerous to do so publicly. Call me chicken, but exploring ideas can have very unpleasant social consequences and in some parts of the world, can get you killed.

To list a few examples: the filmmaker Van Gogh stabbed on the streets of Denmark over his film, Submission; angry mobs threatening violence over the Danish cartoons lampooning Muhammad; death fatwas issued on Ali and Rushdie; and of course, 9/11. Muslim activists in the Netherlands have called for Dutch politician Geert Wilders to be prosecuted under the blasphemy laws for having argued that Islam was incompatible with personal freedoms and Western democracy in his 10 minute film “Fitna”.

And finally, there was the stark reminder last year each school day when I dropped off MitzvahBoy for his kindergarten class at the Hillel School of Tampa : a police car at the school entrance.

We are Jews living in a neighborhood with a growing Muslim population and where Sami Al-Arian has lived for years. And I have yet to be able to connect with our Muslim neighbors - the culture divide is deep.

Frankly, everything I’ve seen and read about the position of woman in Islamic countries is offensive to my values. I’ve read on the subject extensively, books and essays and on the blogosphere. Combined with what I observe in my day to day life, I can’t find evidence that in general terms Muslims are living in America with much interest in integrating and adapting. I’m looking for political and civic engagement - and the voices of Arab women. Why aren’t they active in the local PTA? I have what I think are reasonable fears that this particular immigrant group may be antagonistic to our democratic traditions. Having women walking the neighborhood draped in black from head to toe creeps me out and reminds me of Margret Atwoods scary novel about the suppression of women, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” So chicken I will be.

What a difference a year makes. MitzvahBoy is now at public school and has for his first grade teacher a woman who wears a head-scarf. We have an incoming president who carries Hussein as his middle name. And in my mailbox this week is an invitation from Torah University, an educational outreach of the congregation where Mark and I were married, to attend a series of classes titled, “A Muslim Perspective: To Begin to Understand the Islamic Experience that will Encourage an Open Dialogue.” The class are held at Saint Paul’s Catholic Church. I’ve made plans to attend and blog about the discussions. Stay tuned.