AJC Letter in NYTimes

This AJC letter responded to the three-part series on Brooklyn Imam Reda Shata and the Islamic Society of Bay Ridget that appeared on March 5, 6 and 7. A Brooklyn Imam March 12, 2006 To the Editor: Sheik Reda Shata's quotes glorifying terrorism, and the involvement of some of his congregants in terrorist activity, belie the portrait of a moderate religious leader presented in the three-part series about him and the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge. Not mentioned is the fact that the mosque has been linked to the March 1994 terrorist attack and murder of a rabbinical student, Ari Halberstam, on the Brooklyn Bridge. At the trial of Rashid Baz, convicted of the attack, the anti-Semitic sermon of a previous imam at the mosque was cited as his motivation. The imam was quoted as saying: "This takes the mask off of the Jews. It shows them to be racist and fascist as bad as the Nazis. Palestinians are suffering from the occupation and it's time to end it." As you mentioned, Mr. Shata praised a Palestinian female suicide bomber as a "martyr." You also noted that in a March 2004 memorial service in Brooklyn for the Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, Mr. Shata praised the terrorist leader. How can Mr. Shata be depicted as a moderate when he defends terrorism? Glossing over statements praising terrorism by those who present themselves as moderates does irreparable harm to the true voices of moderation in the Muslim community, and emboldens those who support terrorism at our own peril. Yehudit Barsky New York, March 9, 2006 The writer is director of the division on Middle East and international terrorism, American Jewish Committee.

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