Fighting against hate

CYNTHIA RAMSAY

Dr. Judea Pearl has a mission: to fight the ideology of hatred. And his talk in Vancouver next week – Carving a Dialogue between Muslims and Jews – is part of that mission.

Pearl's son, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, was murdered by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002. To carry on what the Pearl family and Daniel's friends call "Danny's mission and to address the root causes of this tragedy, in the spirit, style and principles that shaped Danny's work and character," the Daniel Pearl Foundation was established. The foundation undertakes several projects to promote tolerance and respect, including musical concerts, lectures and journalism internships.

Dr. Pearl, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, tours frequently in his capacity as Daniel's father and president of the foundation's board of directors. His two main topics concern being Jewish in a post-9/11 world and Jewish-Muslim dialogue, usually with his Muslim colleague, Dr. Akbar Ahmed.

Pearl's willingness to participate in dialogue doesn't mean that he has moved beyond his anger over his son's death.

"I haven't moved," said Pearl. "I'm very angry. I'm very angry at the ideology of hatred and I'm committed to fight it the rest of my life with vengeance and tenacity.... But I'm an engineer, which means that I have to be effective. I have to fight this ideology and the only way to fight ideology is to assure people whom you want to partner with that they have a place under the sun, and we're talking about moderate Muslims."

When in Vancouver, Pearl said he will discuss some of the lessons that he has learned on his dialogue journey, which consists of Ahmed and Pearl going from town to town, where they "sit on the stage and speak our minds honestly and respectfully." Pearl presents the Jewish perspective and Ahmed presents the sentiments of the Muslim community.

"We're trying to reach common ground and air grievances," Pearl explained. "So, we sit on the bare stage and present ourselves as two grandfathers concerned with the fate of their grandchildren's generation. That is our message and, normally, we have a mixed crowd, about 30 per cent Muslims, 50 per cent Jewish, the rest Christians and Buddhists. We have a crowd varying from 600 to 1,200 people, depending on the energy of the host.

"People flock to us because we do really faithfully represent their sentiments," he continued. "We have two rules. One is no issue is a taboo and the second one is respect at all times, and this combination you don't often see on television," he said, laughing, then adding, "nor in interfaith dinners."

Pearl told the Independent that one thing he has learned from these dialogues is that "theology is not enough. It's not enough to bestow reverence on prophetic figures, such as Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, but the crux of the crux of the matter lies in respecting living people, in our own day and age.

"In other words, educators and religious leaders must teach that modern followers of the biblical tradition, regardless of their rituals and beliefs, are legitimate heirs to – and equal carriers of – the teachings of those revered biblical figures."

Another lesson, he said, is that history must be an integral part of discussions. "Muslims and Jews are angry at each other, not so much for theological contentions, but more so for historical contentions. Muslims are angry at Jews because they support a state that, in their perception, is an outpost of European colonialism. And Jews are angry at Muslims precisely for that same reason – they have not brought themselves to understand that Jews are equally indigenous to the land of the Bible, equally to the Palestinians."

Pearl believes that discussion of Palestinian and Jewish history side by side is the way to bridge the gap. "You don't have to agree to the narrative of the other side," he said, "but you have to see both of them as two sides of the same page."

He feels that organizations such as the Council on American Islamic Relations and its Canadian counterpart (CCAIR) have let down the Muslim community. Recently, CCAIR responded to the first court appearance of two Canadian-born Muslims accused of anti-Semitic attacks with a statement saying that most Muslims wouldn't do such a thing – they did not condemn the attacks, however. Of this reaction, Pearl said, "It's typical. I think they have failed the community, the Muslim community. They represent failed leadership. They have not convinced the general public that Muslims fight terrorism with the same ferocity that they should.... Most Muslims do not condone terrorism, but these organizations have failed to convince the public that they don't, because of their rush to justify."

And from where comes the rush to justify?

"My partner [Ahmed] explains it on the basis of the Muslim culture," said Pearl. "You don't criticize another Muslim in front of a non-Muslim because that puts you in a position of being not a good Muslim. A good Muslim never criticizes another Muslim in front of a non-Muslim because it might be interpreted to be a criticism of Islam itself.

"We Jews have the same inclination," he added. "We're trying to overcome it by adjusting, sort of, to make it compatible with our universal understanding that criticism is a good thing, self-criticism and introspection is a good thing. We have sort of managed flexibly to deal with two opposing forces, but Muslims have not yet gotten to that stage."

The post-9/11 world

War correspondents and journalists in many countries face the danger of being jailed, tortured or slain in the course of their work. Annual World Press Freedom Day, which took place May 3, honors journalists such as Daniel Pearl, who risk their lives in pursuit of truth. Yet Judea Pearl described his son as being a cautious person.

"Two things should be mentioned here," said Pearl of his son. "One is that he was very cautious. He didn't want to go to a war zone. He wrote the safety manual for the Wall Street Journal. His recommendation included training for abduction, behavior under abduction. It wasn't implemented. So, he wasn't an adventurous, cowboy guy. That's number one. Number two, he believed that he was protected by the aura of a journalist, that there is some protection there."

Daniel Pearl believed that terrorists "wouldn't touch a journalist because they will be penalized indirectly and they understand it," said his father. "What happened in Lebanon, when they abducted a few journalists in the 1970s, they were hurt, by journalists not going to Lebanon for decades, sort of boycotting Lebanon. He asssumed that the same forces, the same thoughts, would protect him. Apparently, they didn't."

Asked to proffer advice to aspiring journalists, Judea Pearl simply said, "What can I tell you? As my wife [Ruth] said, 'I could have been more a Jewish mother, more Jewish [protective] than I was, but then he wouldn't be the same Danny.' So it's a tradeoff."

In this regard, the story of the binding of Isaac has particular relevance for Judea Pearl.

"We educate our children to be what they are," he said, "with certain principles, following certain ideals, and there are risks in being a principled person in this world. There are risks ... but, as God told Abraham and Isaac, I'm going to make you into a big nation. Your reward is not going to be in this generation. Your reward is going to be in generations to come. Civilization will prevail."

And so, Pearl carries on. And what does being Jewish in a post-9/11 world mean to him?

"It means for me to transmit to young Jewish kids the message that Danny left them, which is you have something to offer to the rest of the world and the world expects you to deliver it, and you will."

Dr. Judea Pearl speaks at the Canadian Jewish Congress Pacific Region Triennial Meeting Wednesday, May, 7:30 p.m., in the Wosk Auditorium, Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. RSVP to [email protected] or 604-622-4240.

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