Murder of Israelis sparks local reaction

(Page 2 of 3)
The murders, and the violence they have provoked in the region, have sparked a wide range of emotions in the Jewish community. “We took the loss of the three young boys very personally,” said Rabbi Simcha Zamir, who lived in Israel for 12 years and has led Temple Sholom, in Westbury, for 11 years. “It’s as if each and every one of us lost a family member.” He added that extremists on both sides must be held accountable.

“Terrorism must be stopped,” Androphy said. “It’s going to take tremendous will and tremendous effort and tremendous realism on everyone’s part. It has to be rooted out of society.”

Muslim community reacts


Habeeb Ahmed, a vice president of the Islamic Center of Long Island, in Westbury, said the Muslim community was deeply saddened by the deaths of the Israelis. “As the Quran states in Chapter five and verse 32,” he said, “If you kill an innocent life, it is as if you killed the whole of humanity.”

Faroque Khan, a founding member of the Islamic Center, said such incidents would only harm people’s view of the Palestinian-controlled West Bank and Gaza Strip. He last visited the region in 2006, when he accompanied a youth group of different faiths, and described the obstacles of traveling from place to place. “It’s a daily humiliation,” said Khan. “If you’re in East Meadow and you have to come meet me in Jericho, you’d have to go through three or four checkpoints, have to show I.D., and you may have to travel on a different road if you’re one religion, another road if you’re another religion.”

He added that the media coverage in the U.S. has exposed a double standard, and that the murder and abduction of Palestinians in the past has gone largely unnoticed. “Now, where is the justice in this?” he said. “That is the question in my mind and many others who are familiar with that area.

“One needs to pull down a few layers and look at the root cause of this,” Khan added. “Unless that root cause is addressed, we’re going to see more and more of it.”
Page 2 / 3