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June 15, 2007

Tolerance in Indonesia

Karen and I are outraged, and saddened that this story has not received more play in the mainstream media. This is signifigant and timely, and it is a measure of the MSM's addiction to jihadist propaganda that they willfully ignore news of truly moderate Muslims. We should also add that Mr. Sol Teichman, the Holocaust survivor in this story is a close friend of the Avrech family and one of the finest people we have the honor of knowing. Mr. Teichman is a unbelievably generous Baa'l Chesed, a charitable man, and dedicates a good portion of his valuable time to educating people about the Shoah.

BALI, Indonesia (AP) - A Jewish Holocaust survivor made a plea for tolerance Tuesday at a conference in the world's most populous Muslim nation that also brought together religious leaders and victims of attacks by Islamic extremists.

One of the goals of the meeting was to counter a December conference hosted by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that tried to cast doubt on the killing of an estimated 6 million Jews during World War II.

"I hope people will learn from the past," said Sol Teichman, 79, who was a teenager living in Czechoslovakia when his city was occupied first by the Hungarian army and then the Germans. "We should try to improve life instead of destroying it."

The daylong gathering on Bali island was attended by high-profile moderate Indonesian Muslim leaders, including former President Abdurraham Wahid, and Hindu spiritual head Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, as well as Buddhist teachers, a Jesuit priest and rabbis — a rarity in a country that does not recognize Israel or the Jewish faith.

"All too often, hatred and violence replace peace as religion is manipulated for political purposes," the conference wrote in a final statement.

It said religious leaders have a special obligation to reject such manipulation and to "mobilize their communities to not only respect, but also defend the rights of others to live and worship differently."

Indonesia earlier this week refused to sign a U.N. Security Council agreement condemning Iran's president for making statements that encouraged the destruction of Israel. But that did not stop Wahid, who was president from 1999 to 2001, from offering his own objections to claims the Holocaust was a myth.

"Although I'm a good friend of Ahmadinejad, I have to say that he is wrong," he said. "I visited Auschwitz's Museum of Holocaust and I saw many shoes of dead people. Because of this, I believe the Holocaust happened."

His daughter, Yenny Wahid, who is a prominent supporter of liberal Islam, said it was up to Muslims "to bring religion back to its original intention ... to underline the importance of finding shared values."

"We have to find ways to promote tolerance and understanding for mankind," she said. Also participating in the conference were victims of a terrorist attack in Israel and of suicide bombings by Muslim militants on Bali in 2005. More than 220 people have died from two attacks in Bali. "It has been difficult for me to excuse in my heart those who committed this act," said Tumini, a Balinese woman who was severely burned when al-Qaida-linked militants targeted two nightclubs in 2002. She said she still has not recovered emotionally, physically or financially.

Bali is a mostly Hindu enclave in Indonesia, which has some 190 million Muslims, more than any other nation in the world. Its government is secular and most people are moderate, although a vocal militant fringe has grown louder in recent years.

The conference was sponsored by the Libforall Foundation, a U.S. based non-governmental organization that seeks to counter Muslim extremism in the Islamic world by supporting religious moderates, and the Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance.

Teichman said he lost 70 family members to the Nazis, including his sister, brothers and grandparents, and was taken to Auschwitz, Warsaw, Dachau, Kaufering and Landsberg concentration camps before allied forces liberated them in 1945.

He said Ahmadinejad's decision to host a conference in December questioning whether the Holocaust took place made him want to "push a little harder to meet Muslim leaders."

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at June 15, 2007 09:01 AM

Comments

Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.

1. No profanity.

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Posted by: ralphie at June 15, 2007 12:08 PM

Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at June 15, 2007 12:28 PM

Posted by: Albert at June 15, 2007 01:21 PM

Posted by: Kent at June 15, 2007 03:10 PM

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