Muslims and Jews in America: Commonalities, Contentions, and Complexities.

Ghauri, Laila Khalid

Muslims and Jews in America: Commonalities, Contentions, and Complexities. Edited by Reza Aslan and Aaron J. Hahn Tapper. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Pp. 214. $30.00, paper.

While the rest of the world is focused on conflict between Jews and Muslims in America and highlights the futility of interreligious dialogue, this anthology urges readers to consider concerns and commonalities between the two seemingly incompatible communities to stimulate discourse and understanding. Aslan is an Iranian American Muslim, an associate professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside; Tapper is a Jewish American, an assistant professor of theology and religious studies at the University of San Francisco, and the founding director of the university's Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice. Each contributor to the anthology is highly accomplished in promoting understanding and discourse on pluralism.

The book opens with a foreword from Muslim Congressperson Keith Ellison, who appeals to Jews and Muslims in the United States, stressing that both religions are deeply rooted in the heritage of religious tolerance, and setting the stage for the essays to follow. Aslan writes the introduction, in which he appeals to both Jews and Muslims to "reframe the perception that American Jews and American Muslims have of each other" for a "more honest conversation about the issues of faith and identity that has for too long pitted these two communities against each other" (p. 5). The essays in the book address the social environment of Islam and Judaism in America, from the late-twentieth to the current twenty- first century. All the authors desire to elucidate stereotypes and problematic status quo's that have often characterized and stunted interreligious dialogue between the two groups. These essays are honest, unapologetic discussions of difficult subject matter, navigating the real and perceived apprehensions on both sides of the conversation.

Among the essays in Part I, "Case Examples: Lessons Learned?" the reader begins to understand the misunderstandings on both sides. Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, named as one of America's fifty most influential rabbis in Newsweek, encourages both communities to overcome the fears and protectionisms and to approach dialogue about "truth" to raise awareness and accomplish peace, respect, and understanding between these two communities. Similarly, Omid Safi, a progressive Muslim professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, emphasizes that hateful activity between these communities is poisoning the cultural discourse and hopes for a pluralistic American society.

Tapper's essay in Part II, "Identity Formation: Muslims, Jews, and the American Experience," is about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on American university campuses. He argues that perceptions of both American communities, based on international politics, plays a major role in how they interact on American soil. The best way to move forward, he explains, is to transform the intercommunal conflict into a learning experience that can deepen understanding for each community of themselves and of the "other" (p. 83).

Ingrid Mattson, a professor of Islamic studies who was elected president of the Islamic Society of North America in 2006, presents an essay in the form of her speech for the Union for Reform Judaism, in Part III, "Challenges and the Opportunities in Reaching across the Divide." Matterson talks about the necessity of the transformation of American Muslims to accept diversity within their own community and extend it to other religious communities. "If religion is about anything," she writes, "it should be about the ability to extend empathy beyond our family or tribe or community to humanity at large" (p. 131).

Peter A Geffen, an American Jew and founder of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School and KIVUN1M, writes in the Afterword, "This volume offers challenge and opportunity" (p. 201). He leaves us with several questions, the most important of which asks, "Can we inspire future generations of these communities with optimism?" (p. 202). As a reader, one can hope so.

Laila Khalid Ghauri, Notre Dame of Maryland University, Baltimore, MD