Another important Muslim institution has refused to recognize Israel's right to exist. In response, Jews are accusing Muslims of widening the already large gap between the two groups. And where is this conflict taking place? On the mean streets of Jerusalem?
No. The particular dispute I described is playing out over the somewhat less mean streets of Phoenix, Ariz. That's right, the brutal Arab-Israeli conflict has crossed a sea, an ocean and a few thousand miles of American soil to take hold in our seemingly immune hamlet in the desert.
Marwan Ahmad is a Valley Muslim who, until two years ago, published a phone book called the Muslim Yellow Pages. No issue here, because plenty of religious groups create their own similar publications. However, the problems began when Ahmad decided to convert his Muslim Yellow Pages to the Multicultural Yellow Pages, incorporating listings for African-Americans, Asians, Native Americans and Hispanics.
Looking at this list, I immediately wondered where I could find listings for cool white guys like myself. Apparently some Valley Jews had a similar response. They felt snubbed by the Muslim community's apparent attempt to exclude them from this publication.
The insult became larger because a map of the Middle East published in the Multicultural Yellow Pages called a small piece of land "Palestine" that most maps label "Israel."
(Perhaps the Bush administration could take a cue from Ahmad and change "Iraq" on our maps to "The Country We Can Invade Whenever We Want To." It might be hard to fit on a globe, but imagine the possibilities.)
Ahmad claims he made the name switch so as not to offend members of his own community, who "call that part of the world Palestine." He defends his more general decision not to include Jewish listings because he regards the Jewish community as a religious, not a cultural group.
"Religion is not part of the book," said Ahmad, quoted in Monday's edition of The Arizona Republic. "We are not here to promote Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism or anything else."
I'm fairly certain that the term "Muslim" refers to a person who belongs to the religion of Islam as opposed to a member of any particular cultural group, if Ahmad really wants to make that distinction.
And indeed, one wonders whether such a distinction holds water, given that many members of many different religions (including a great many Jews) see their religious community as having distinct cultural importance. Presumably.
But the conflict mindset between Jews and Muslims in Arizona seems to be more learned behavior than any sort of specific response to what's going on in the Middle East today.
If any of these people paid any real attention to what was going on there, they would realize the importance of setting aside every ridiculous cultural dispute that perpetuates violence in that region. They would also celebrate the fact that we Americans are lucky enough to live in a substantially more tolerant culture that gives us all time to engage in petty arguments. Most of all, they would wonder why anyone would ever want to import an iota of cultural hatred.
Still, there does seem to be hope for reconciliation between the two groups, at least in the context of the Multicultural Yellow Pages. Ahmad has said that he will consider adding Jewish organizations to the next edition, although he has no concessions to offer on the geographic level.
"Can I work with the Jewish community on a personal and business level? Yes. But don't impose Israel on us," Ahmad said.
Not a solution, but maybe a start.
Benjamin Thelen is a philosophy and political science senior. Reach him at benjamin.thelen@asu.edu.
