mariahussain: How I lost two Jewish friends in one week

Far too many American Jews are unwilling to engage in an honest discussion of Zionism.

How I lost two Jewish friends in one week
by Maria Hussain

Several months ago, within a few days of each other, I began email dialogues with two Jewish men, each 50 years of age. My intentions with these exchanges was to gain a clearer understanding of their thinking, and to present to them the case of Islam. With the first, an American, politics was strictly forbidden (by him) from the conversation. Admittedly, I was using him as my psychiatrist. With the second, a Russian Israeli, the conversation was strictly politics.

In the past, I discovered that Jewish friends I’d known since childhood had kept their Zionist membership secret from me all those years. I visited Dachau with one of my closest friends, completely unaware that to her, “Never again” meant “Never again, to us.” As with many Jewish friends before, questioning the legitimacy of the State of Israel led to the abrupt dissolution of the Muslim-Jewish dialogue. It happened to me repeatedly that merely asking a closet Zionist to explain to me why s/he supports Israel put them in such a hysterically defensive state that, no matter how deep the friendship or how far we go back, s/he preferred to break up with me rather than discuss politics! I am not the first person to be totally baffled, hurt, and bewildered at the Jewish hypersensitivity to discussing Israel, needing at all costs to avoid this subject of conversation.

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