Booklet on Muslim Holocaust heroes can mislead

Bataween
Point of No Return
07 July '10

The launch today of a new booklet by the UK-based interfaith organisation Faith Matters highlighting the role of 'Muslim heroes' who saved Jews during the Holocaust is a welcome attempt to engage Arabs and Muslims with what was not an exclusively a European story. The booklet itself was inspired by Robert Satloff's groundbreaking book Among the Righteous.

However, Satloff himself might be disquieted at the unbalanced focus on Muslim heroes. In Tunisia, for every Khaled Abdelwahhab, who sheltered Jews in his farmhouse, there was a Hassen Ferjani, who sent Gilbert Scemla and his two sons to their deaths. Cherry-picking positive stories, while downplaying the negative, only misleads by creating a false history. Is this the way to build meaningful interfaith dialogue?

The booklet, entitled The role of Righteous Muslim Persons, reveals individual acts of heroism towards Jews, The Jerusalem Post reports:

"Guided by their Muslim faith and personal desire to do what was right, they protected and saved the lives of many potential victims. The publication also aims to counter the narrative that no Muslims played a part in the defense of Jewish communities during the War.

"The work focuses on people deemed ”Righteous Gentiles” by Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem and highlights the role played by individuals, families and communities in countries such as Albania, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

(Read full article)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.