US Interfaith Group to Honor Muslim Leader despite Jewish Opposition
“In our efforts to be responsive to one set of leaders, we inadvertently participated in efforts to silence a faith leader and close partner expressing moral critique of an ongoing human rights crisis in Palestine,” said the group People Acting in Community Together, or PACT, based in Santa Clara.
PACT said it would honor Zahra Billoo, Bay Area regional director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, at a luncheon in October as originally scheduled. It also said it would work to include “more voices, including Muslim voices,” in its membership and leadership.
“People wanted to silence my advocacy for Palestine, and it backfired,” Billoo said Monday from San Diego, where she was taking part in a protest of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. She said she was grateful for the multifaith protest against the cancellation of her award.
Billoo has been a fierce critic of Israel's government, denounced the recent killings by Israeli soldiers of more than 130 protesters in Gaza, and has described Zionism as racist. She has also condemned the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights organization that supports the Israeli government, and has advised Muslims not to work with the league.
PACT, an affiliate of an international organization called Faith in Action, describes itself as a “multifaith, grassroots organization that provides leadership training and experience to community members of many different ethnic, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.”
The group announced its planned award in March. Billoo said PACT contacted her last month and told her its Jewish members were angry about the award and that some were threatening to leave the organization or withdraw their funding.
She said leaders had suggested several alternatives, such as redirecting the honor to another staff member or to her group as a whole, and had dropped plans for the award when she rejected those proposals.
In its announcement this week, PACT apologized for its previous decision and said it has been in “intense conversation with many faith leaders,” including “black clergy (and) members of the Muslim, Jewish and Palestinian communities who felt targeted and silenced.”
Source: The San Francisco Chronicle
