Jews and Hindus unite against Islamic Terror

from FactsOfIsrael.com News, Comments and Links

[First published in 2002, this post and article contain points still valid today]

Forward magazine (http://factsofisrael.com/blog/archives/www.forward.com) has published an article that shows how Jews and Hindus are becoming partners in the war against Islamic terrorism:

Mirroring close ties between India and Israel, Jewish organizations have begun assisting Indian-American groups in their efforts to become a potent force in both domestic and foreign policy.
Leaders from the two communities have been coming together in recent months to discuss hate-crimes legislation and political activism. A major catalyst for the cooperation, however, is the perception that both communities face a common enemy in Muslim extremism. [...]

"We're fighting the same extremist enemy," said the capital region director of the American Jewish Congress, Charles Brooks, referring to Jews and Indian Americans. "We want to help them become more effective in communicating their political will."

Brooks is working closely with the Indian American Political Action Committee, or INAPAC, a new organization that has just been formed, primarily by Indian Americans from New Jersey. Brooks is helping the new organization develop relations with the U.S. Congress and other political leaders.


I [David Melle] copy the full article below.

Pro-Israel Activists Seeking Allies Among Immigrants From India



AIPAC, Others Stress Threat of Muslim Extremism in Outreach Bid to America's 1.6 Million South Asian Hindus



By LARRY RAMER - FORWARD CORRESPONDENT http://www.forward.com/issues/2002/02.10.11/news9.html


EAST WINDSOR, N.J. — Mirroring close ties between India and Israel, Jewish organizations have begun assisting Indian-American groups in their efforts to become a potent force in both domestic and foreign policy.


Leaders from the two communities have been coming together in recent months to discuss hate-crimes legislation and political activism. A major catalyst for the cooperation, however, is the perception that both communities face a common enemy in Muslim extremism.


Early this year, with Israel in its second year of fighting the Palestinian uprising and India in a tense military standoff with Pakistan over Muslim separatists in Kashmir, the two countries agreed to increase military cooperation. India and Israel have built a close economic and strategic relationship in recent years, with bilateral trade reaching $2 billion annually.

At the same time, India has moved closer to the United States, especially in the areas of counter-terrorism and defense cooperation.

"We're fighting the same extremist enemy," said the capital region director of the American Jewish Congress, Charles Brooks, referring to Jews and Indian Americans. "We want to help them become more effective in communicating their political will."


Brooks is working closely with the Indian American Political Action Committee, or INAPAC, a new organization that has just been formed, primarily by Indian Americans from New Jersey. Brooks is helping the new organization develop relations with the U.S. Congress and other political leaders.


The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the American Jewish Committee are also drawing on their considerable lobbying experience in helping Indian groups, representing a community of some 1.6 million, to learn how to flex their political muscle.


Last July, AJCommittee held a seminar on political activism in Washington for the Indian American Center for Political Awareness, an important Washington D.C.-based advocacy group.
"We shared with them the Jewish approach to political activism," said Ann Schaffer, the director of the AJCommittee's Belfer Center for American Pluralism. "We want to give them the tools to further their political agenda."


AJCommittee is planning a similar seminar on October 29 in New York City; 50-100 Indian-American activists are expected to attend. Several Indian Americans traveled to Israel last June as guests of the AJCommittee, meeting with a wide variety of Israeli government and military representatives.

AJCommittee's executive director, David Harris, will address the National Federation of Indian American Associations' biannual conference next month, where he will speak on global terrorism and the relationship between India, Israel and the United States.

"India is building a close relationship with Israel and America, which we certainly want to encourage and support, because it's good for Israel and it's good for America," Schaffer said.

AIPAC representatives have offered advice to Indian groups, at conferences and informally. The pro-Israel lobbying group has shared its knowledge on how to lobby members of Congress and raise money, according to Jeffrey Colman, the organization's senior lobbyist.

In addition, India's ambassador to the United States, Lalit Mansingh, attended a luncheon AIPAC hosted for 120 of its donors last April. "We can build a partnership, learn from each other, and both advance each other's agenda," Colman said.

"When India, Israel and the U.S. are under attack by extremists, there's a great deal of common ground and common interest in opposing them," Colman added. Although AIPAC is not currently working with Indian groups on advocating specific legislation, there could be such opportunities in the future, Colman added. "The Jewish community needs broad support for its issues and coalition-building is important to us," he said.

There is also room for cooperation on domestic issues, according to the representatives of the Indian and Jewish groups. Local AJCommittee chapters have worked with Indian groups on hate-crime and immigration issues. Jesal Amin, the chairman of the board of trustees of INAPAC, said he has worked with Jewish groups in combating hate crimes for over a decade.

Paul Goldenberg, president of The National Public Safety Learning Center, which consults with Jewish organizations on security matters, is now advising INAPAC on developing a hate-crimes policy and criteria for assessing political candidates' positions on the issue.

Goldenberg, the former head of the New Jersey state attorney general's bias-crime unit, said he is also helping INAPAC encourage American law enforcement officials to work with their Indian counterparts in the war against terrorism. "People don't realize that India is at the forefront of the war against terrorism," Goldenberg said, referring to the country's problems with separatist Muslim militants in the disputed province of Kashmir.

Activists from both communities also see cultural affinities between them, including a heavy push for higher education and the professions. "We have made the American dream come true. Many Indians are professionals," Amin said. "One of the reasons for working together with the Jewish community is that we are so similar in terms of education, and from an economic point of view." Like Jewish Americans, Indian Americans are concentrated in several parts of the country, residing primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas and California, Amin added, with most Indians arriving in America in the last decade.


All of the major New Jersey Indian-American cultural and business associations, as well as several such associations in New York, are backing INAPAC, Amin said. He added that the organization expected to raise some $90,000 at its first fund-raiser in two weeks. Sreenath Sreenivasan, a co-founder of the South Asian Journalists Association, said an organization with widespread support in New Jersey will have substantial clout within the Indian community.

INAPAC and the Indian American Center for Political Awareness, however, appear to differ on how closely they will cooperate with Jewish groups on international issues. Amin said that the terrorists who target Israel are interconnected with the Muslim terrorist groups operating elsewhere in the Middle East and South Asia, and indicated that his organization would work with Jewish organizations in backing anti-terrorism legislation and pro-Israel and pro-Indian candidates.

By contrast, Kapil Sharma, a consultant for the Indian American Center on Political Awareness, sees the situations in Israel and South Asia largely as separate issues. "We should be educated about each other's issues, so we can talk about Kashmir and Palestine, and challenge misconceptions about them when they arise, but we won't pick up each other's agendas, we won't be actively fighting for Israel," he said.


Colman, the AIPAC senior lobbyist who has worked with Sharma, said he wasn't bothered by Sharma's position, because "we're looking to work with them on common interests in a general way and we're not asking for their backing on specific legislation."


Posted by David Melle

http://factsofisrael.com/blog/archives/000420.html