Appointing Salam Al-Marayati to an anti-terrorist panel was tantamount to putting ex-Klansman “David Duke on a commission for civil rights,” said Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America.
The director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, in turn, accused the ZOA president of using “McCarthyite” tactics.
Inviting a right-wing Jew and a liberal Muslim arguing their cases in San Francisco last week, the Jewish Community Relations Council decided to leave some breathing room between them.
Two days separation, to be exact. The two gave individual lectures last week at the Jewish Community Federation building, with Al-Marayati speaking on Tuesday, followed by Klein on Thursday.
Even though the two did not attend each other’s speeches, they had plenty to say about one another. That’s because Klein led the way in pulling the rug out from under Al-Marayati’s nomination to the National Commission on Terrorism.
When Al-Marayati was proposed for the federal post earlier this year, the New York-based ZOA and a handful of other major Jewish organizations pressured House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) to withdraw his nomination. Last month, Gephardt acceded to their demands.
Klein said Al-Marayati was a poor choice, claiming that the Muslim’s writings show that he despises Israel and defends terrorism.
“This man doesn’t like Jews and Israel in a pernicious way,” he said in his talk. “He compared Israel supporters in America to [supporters of] Hitler.”
In contrast to Klein’s emotional outbursts during his talk, Al-Marayati’s demeanor at his own presentation was calm. The Los Angeles-based Muslim didn’t seem unduly fazed by the withdrawal of his nomination.
“Are we going to allow extremists to define how we agree and disagree, or are we going to have discussions in a civilized manner?” Al-Marayati asked.
Despite the recent flap, he said he will not retract any of his statements that have incurred controversy.
Defining his stance on terrorism, Al-Marayati said that “whenever violence is targeted at civilians, we will continue to stand up.” As an example, he said he “stood in solidarity” with the Jewish community in Los Angeles after the suicide bombings in Israel in 1996.
However, in regard to Hamas, the Islamic group that claimed credit for those bombings, he said, “There’s no blanket condemnation.”
When Hamas “commits acts of terrorism, we condemn. When Hamas builds orphanages or schools, we don’t condemn. Just like I don’t condemn Israel when a group there celebrates Baruch Goldstein,” who killed 29 Arabs in a Hebron mosque in 1994.
Such comments make Klein’s jaw drop.
“If you murder innocent people, there’s nothing to talk about. You are evil,” Klein said during his speech.
Particularly appalling to Klein are equivocal statements by Al-Marayati on who is responsible for Arab terrorism.
After a 1997 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, Al-Marayati issued a press release in which he placed the blame solely on Israel.
The release, issued on behalf of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said: “We mourn the loss of innocent lives, whether they be Christian, Jewish or Muslim, as a result of a brutal Israeli military occupation in Palestine and Lebanon. The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, bears the brunt of responsibility for the loss of innocent lives.”
Klein, who distributed that release during his presentation, responded: “How dare you use that excuse. Is this a man who understands terrorism?”
The ZOA leader, who has been accused of being anti-Arab, insists that his outrage is based only on Al-Marayati’s record.
Born in 1960 in Iraq, Al-Marayati fled from persecution to America. He said his uncle was killed during Saddam Hussein’s regime and his father spent several years in jail.
Al-Marayati said it was “a mistake” that the press labeled him a supporter of Hussein. “That’s an insult to my family.”
He also said the Muslim rights group he helped found and now directs is running on a shoestring budget and that Muslims face discrimination in America. He cited his own career plight as indicative of the barriers the Muslim community faces.
“We either have a means for coexistence or confrontation,” he said. “We are not toeing the line of any government in the Middle East. We have a strong ideological stand that only looks to the Koran.”
Something good did come out of the terrorist commission affair, Al-Marayati said. If nothing else, it placed the bias against the Muslim community on the front pages of the nation’s newspapers.
“Gephardt called me last week and said people all over the world are coming together to discuss this issue. He said he’s looking to our leadership to promote dialogue. I think Gephardt is more a victim and we don’t blame him.”
Does that dialogue include conversing with conservative or right-wing Jewish groups? Al-Marayati laughed. “They’ve shown no interest in talking,” he said.
It angers Klein that Al-Marayati gains the attentive ear of politicians, despite controversial views on terrorism.
For Klein, supporting terrorists like Goldstein or Hamas for political reasons is akin to “Clinton supporting [Louis] Farrakhan to get the black vote. That’s not leadership.”
When asked whether it was appropriate for the JCRC to invite Al-Marayati, Klein smiled briefly and declined comment.
But during his speech, Klein made it clear he questioned whether Al-Marayati should be invited to a JCRC event, which he said gave Al-Marayati a platform he did not deserve.
Discussing the withdrawal of Al-Marayati’s appointment, Klein said, “The reason why we were able to get rid of him is not because we are so powerful, but because of the evidence of what he said.”
After their visits to San Francisco, Klein and Al-Marayati were scheduled to meet head on, debating on live TV in Los Angeles.