1 min read

News

Arab Diplomats, Muslim And Other Interfaith Leaders Gather To Help Launch AskMusa.org

ARAB DIPLOMATS, MUSLIM AND OTHER INTERFAITH LEADERS GATHER TO HELP LAUNCH ASKMUSA.ORG

Revolutionary Website Goes Live on Eve of 6th Anniversary of 9/11, The Jewish New Year andRamaddan

New York, NY (September 11, 2007) – AskMusa.org officially launched on Monday, September 10th at The New York Tolerance Center with anevent highlighted by the gathering of Arab diplomats, Muslim and other interfaith leaders. Oman’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Fuad Al-Hinai, was among the many esteemed guestswho were treated to a visual website tour and speeches by representatives of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the LibForAll Foundation, among others. Leaders from the Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities gathered in support of the revolutionarywebsite, which offers scholarly and timely essays on aspects of Judaism by prominent Jewish scholars and authors, as well as answers questions about Judaism posted by site visitors infive languages: English, Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Bahasa.

The concept of www.AskMusa.org is brainchild of Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon WiesenthalCenter. His meetings with Imams and other Muslims in Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Indonesia and India led him to discover that many among the most highly educated Muslims generally knowvery little about the most basic tenets of Judaism. Mohammed Kahn, a Muslim-American interfaith activist who traveled with Rabbi Cooper to Sudan and Israel, and one of the event’sfeatured speakers, stated, “Many religious Muslims are simply unaware of how much our Faiths have in common. My hope is that www.AskMusa.org will create a bridge of knowledge and understanding between Muslims andJews.”

The launch opens a new front in the digital era in the fight to combat antisemitism and erase the myths about Judaismand the Holocaust currently being propagated on the Internet by Muslim extremists and antisemitic regimes. Provocative, stimulating essays are expected to solicit honest, authenticresponses and questions from Muslim readers. While scholars from The Simon Wiesenthal Center will answer each question as it is submitted, when necessary, the anonymity of thoseasking will be protected from the prying eyes of oppressive regimes and internet hackers. In addition to the essays and live responses, www.AskMusa.org will break digital ground by offering a video ofHolocaust survivor Sol Teichman speaking about his experience at this year’s Religious Summit Bali Conference in Arabic, something previously unavailable to Muslims.

For more information, contact the Center's Public Relations department, 310-553-9036.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.

1 min read

SWC Expresses Grief and Outrage Over Sri Lanka Bombings

The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed outrage and deep grief over the terrorist mass murder and maiming of over 700 innocentson Easter Sunday in...

Read More

2 min read

Listen to Rabbi Hier's NPR Interview: The Last Of Nazi War Convictions Will Not End Fight Against Anti-Semitism

One of the last of the trials of Nazi guards has begun inGermany. NPR's Linda Wertheimer talks to Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon...

Read More