A unity that transcends faith and rejects the ignorance at the root of religious bias may be the best antidote to violence directed at people for their beliefs, a panel of local Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders said in Elmont, N.Y., recently.
"Complacency is sometimes equivalent to complicity," said Afaf Nasher, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of New York, one of a panel of eight leaders representing the three Abrahamic faiths, at an event to discuss anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other forms of religious hatred and violence. The discussion lasted about two hours.
"What I would like to suggest is that we stop being complicit ... . We need to hold people accountable; that means media, politicians ... . We need to speak to our youth at the dinner table to let them know that it is never OK to utter a racist comment as a joke or otherwise. There needs to be a zero tolerance among us," Nasher said.
