Statement co-authored by Rabbi Kline and Imam Bagby

Below is the statement, sent to me by Rabbi Marc Kline, which he and Dr. Ihsan Bagby (former imam of Masjid Bilal Ibn Rabah in Lexington) co-authored in 2006. Comments are welcome.

September 28, 2006

During this blessed season of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Ramadan, we, as prominent members of the Lexington Jewish and Muslim communities, call upon the members of our respective religious communities to engage one another in dialogue and cooperative work so that we might be an example to the peoples of the Middle East that Jews and Muslims can live together with respect and understanding.

We should start by affirming the many similarities between Judaism and Islam. We start with what should be obvious. There is one God. Allah is not a Muslim term, it is an Arabic one. Adonai is not a Jewish term, it is a Hebrew one. And while these respective words and languages are deeply connected to their respective religions and cultures, we know this to be true: Allah, Adonai, and God are three different linguistic ways of referring to the same entity. What ever the language or culture, we are all the children of Adam and Eve, and we share the home which God as made for all of us – this earth.

Our two communities live under the dark shadow of the daily suffering that takes place in Israel and Palestine. We believe that the difficulty in achieving a just settlement between Israelis and Arabs stems in part from the grossly unjust inability of the parties to see each other as human beings. This is a transgression against God that violates both the Jewish and Islamic religious faiths. The time has come for our people to recognize each other’s inalienable rights to dignity, life and self determination—the very core values that have kept both Judaism and Islam vibrant and faithful religions. While we cannot change the history of estrangement and violence, but if we hope to effect change on the current struggles and create a future of hope, we must begin to change the way in which we move forward, and we must use our respective faiths to help us see more clearly than our brothers and sisters have in the past. Until these parties recognize each other as human beings, each imbued with God’s dignity, the news from this region will ever be difficult. They must accept that each has a right to be, and to that end, come to terms with each others reality and human dignity. They must begin with the commitment that Israel has a right to exist with security for its citizens, and that Palestinians have a right to a viable, independent, and secure state for its citizens.

The Lexington Muslim and Jewish communities must live up to the ideals of their faith and do our part to help solve the problem in the Middle East by demonstrating how Muslims and Jews can talk and work together with respect, affirming one another’s dignity as well as acknowledging each other’s pain.

Each of us has shared in building bridges in this community and on national and international levels of dialogue and work. We know in our hearts that this peace is real and is attainable where our hearts would turn to one another and not to the alluring voices of power that cause people to disregard the dignity of their brothers and sisters. Our hope is that our two communities will come together to engage in a series of candid and productive conversations and organize some projects that will allow the two communities to work together for a common good. Presbyterian Reverend Steve Pace of has agreed to join us in serving as a moderator for the dialogue. May God help us build a world that makes sense for all people.

Imam Ihsan A. Bagby, PhD

Lexington, Kentucky

Rabbi Marc A. Kline, JD

Lexington, Kentucky