Austrolabe: Seeing Jews beyond our own shortcomings

Austrolabe: "[W]e must make genuine connections with religious Jews, away from the spotlight, and work together on the many issues of common concern in a world that is increasingly hostile to both Semitic traditions. Vitriolic anti-Jewish rhetoric is not a triumph of our interests but rather marks a defeat of them. Our fates in the modern world are inextricably linked to the Jews and we must work sincerely with those who have similar qualities within their community [...]  Muslims do not realise what battles Jews fought for pluralism in the Western democracies that were previously very hostile to them. Without Jewish activism there would be no Islamic schools, no Halal meat and no male circumcision and perhaps not even any mosques (remember that the first Ottoman diplomats had to be baptised before they were allowed on British soil at Portsmouth during the reign of Victoria)."