by Vanessa Gatsch

Reacting, privately and publicly, with hatred and anger to a national trauma like September 11th was easy for many Americans. It's not something a person should be faulted for, as it's a normal human response to a terrible event.

However, some people have used this tragedy to work together towards Peace. Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb of Nahalot Shalom, and Abdul Rauf Campos-Marquetti of the Islamic Center of New Mexico (both of Albuquerque, New Mexico) are two such people. As a collaborative effort they founded the Jewish-Muslim PeaceWalk, an interfaith organization committed to compassionate dialog and a just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In recognition of September 11th, Rabbi Lynn and Abdul-Rauf journeyed to New York City to participate in the international event, the annual Walk of Peace. This tribute has achieved worldwide acclaim due to the devotion of the participants toward their goal of a peaceful resolution to the 50+ years of violence. I recently had the opportunity to sit with the two and explore their visions for the future.

How did you start working together?
Abdul-Rauf [AR]: Well, Lynn, that's your story, why don't you tell it?

Rabbi Lynn Gottleib [LG]: After September 11th, people began to reach out to the Islamic Center, wanting someone to come to their school, their church, to their institutions to explain Islam. And that propelled Brother Abdul-Rauf to the task of dawa, or teaching about Islam upon request, which is how I ended up calling him in particular.

In March the Hiroshima Flame pilgrimage came to New Mexico. They arrived in Los Alamos, where I met them. They had called and asked if they could stay at the synagogue. I gladly said yes, so they walked down to the synagogue. A lot of us walked with them and it kind of inspired my congregation to think about pilgrimage. We got the idea to walk from the synagogue to the mosque after events in March... an Israeli incursion called Defensive Shield took place, and resulted in a lot of death and violence.

We planned this walk in just five days. I remember we met on Sunday, and decided, "let's organize a region-wide walk to the mosque." I got the number for the president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico (ICNM), as well as Brother Abdul-Rauf's number. The president's line was busy, so I hung up the phone and called this fine Brother, who is notoriously difficult to get on the phone (laughs). He was there! It was a miracle!

He said "Hello, Salaam Alaikum" and I said "Hi, I'm Lynn and I'm with the synagogue and we want to walk to the mosque, a Peace Walk." He said "Sure, that sounds like a pretty good idea." And that's how it started.

What do you hope to achieve?
AR: In my vision, I see the Muslim and Jewish communities, in conjunction with all communities, being able to come together and talk about the beliefs and interests we have in common. World events are demanding an immediate dialogue about conflicts that are affecting our communities, and in particular, this senseless Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

But it's also a different means of bringing people together. The Peace Walks are not protests; they're not marches. It's an approach that's steeped in religious tradition. Pilgrimages are a very important part of Muslim history. The pilgrimage of the hajj is a walk of peace, yet in ancient times, the path to the hajj itself represented a common challenge. Before we had airplanes and things like that, people would literally walk thousands of miles just to get to the hajj.

What we're trying to do is bring a different set of rules to solving conflicts, a different dialogue, one based on peace, reconciliation and mutual knowledge of one another.

LG: I just want to add that pilgrimage is also a part of Jewish tradition. Our whole story is a journey from slavery to freedom. It's also a physical journey, you know... people walking, and it's also a spiritual journey of the heart. So we share that same concept.

Do you find that people generally want to come together?
LG: There are many people who that are looking for a way to come together. But we live in a very polarized world in a very polarized time, and there are many people actually who are polarizing elements. So, in any community you have all kinds of politics that one has to cope with. And hopefully the Peace Walk can give people a vehicle in which to overcome some of that. That is what we hope and that is what we're finding.

AR: Ditto! (laughs) I think it's one of those things where "if you build it, they will come." But also it's a difficult thing. You're asking people to confront issues that have separated our communities for a long time. You want them to really face those issues within themselves as individuals and also to challenge their community to that. What I've found, and I think that Lynn's community is much more progressive, but I've found is that there are portions of my community that are looking for this. They are looking for a way to speak for peace in with non-violent means. And I think the non-violent part is extremely important. Right now violence seems to be a viable alternative to certain parts of our communitiesŠ

LG: To both our communities,

AR: Right, and it's not.

LG: So, we're trying to build a national movement of Muslims and Jews that are coming together in compassion and "peace action." It's not just about peace without justice. There has to be justice involved with it. So, compassion and peace action, both. Violence is part of both cultures. It appears in all of our cultures, in the culture of the United States, everywhere. We have to unite with people who are also committed to non-violence.

So non-violence is more of a tool, a means to an end, would you say?
AR: It's a path. But clearly, you can see this today in the events that are unfolding, that there cannot be peace without justice. They're linked, and you can't have one without the other. The Peace Walk is more than just a religious outcry, it's also an outcry for justice alongside peace.

You mentioned that the cultures have violence in them. What happens to a people when they are surrounded by violence every day? Is their culture destroyed? Do they adapt? What is lost?
AR: That's a pretty heavy-duty question. For the Palestinian people, very clearly the violence, the stealing of land, the killing of men, women, and children, checkpoints, roadblocks, home demolitions...

LG: Torture, arrests,

AR: Suicide bombings, unsanitary living conditions,

LG: Hunger,

AR: The complete destruction of the infrastructure,

LG: No water,

AR: These things are debilitating not only on the individual level, but you're destroying a nation. The affect on Israel is the same. You have suicide bombings that are killing innocent people, but also the actions of the government of Israel, and the Israeli Defense Forces. It's destroying the moral fiber of a society.

LG: And it's welcoming more violent elements. The more that they respond with violence, the more the elements that are violent are going to rise to the surface.

AR: One of the illusions that I want to dispel, and maybe Lynn can correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I saw 90 percent of the population of the Palestinian people are conducting non-violent resistance to the occupation every single day. It's not something based on violence, it's getting up in the morning and living your life. Resisting curfews, resisting roadblocks,

LG: Getting water,

AR: Being able to get water, being able to get food, spending time with your children, these are the forms of non-violent resistance that we never hear about.

LG: Medical service, because that whole thing is fallen.

Are there a lot of misconceptions?
AR: Absolutely. On both sides. But I think it's all centered on the occupation. Without the occupation you wouldn't have the horrible violence that's for the most part occurring today.

LG: What's so heartbreaking is that people will have to find a way to endure violence as we move towards peace. On both sides. Because people who are trying to create the bridges where they can, it's very hard for them. You can boost people out of power through elections. But on a civil society level, people who are trying to resist the occupation, provide services, be in solidarity with the Palestinian people, those folks are always targeted as collaborators, as enemies, as traitors. It's a very violent system. That system occurs here too. Here it tends to be more verbal. People's character is assassinated, not their lives.

AR: And there is a peace movement, on both Palestinian and Israeli sides, which you really never hear about. But there are peace movements, and they're really sandwiched between armed resistance, between the IDF, the government and the suicide bombers.

There's a broad spectrum.
AR: Well, not only is there a broad spectrum but both populations are being held hostage by the violence. The suicide bombers are holding the Israeli people hostage and the IDF are holding the Palestinian people hostage.

And meanwhile the regular people suffer.
AR: They're the ones who suffer.

LG: But it's not balanced. The Israelis do have a huge force. People will disagree with this I'm sure, but Palestinians understand their lives as being cycles of trauma. They have descended and descended, since 1948 when 750,000 people were made refugees (there's now 3 1Ž2 million Palestinian refugees) and their situation has never been addressed. In all of the surrounding countries, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, and in Gaza, their living conditions are really, really bad.

This is a whole Third World issue about globalization as well, because the poorest of the poor are being made poorer. Seventy percent of those who struggle with this are women. I just want to throw that in, that the impact on women's lives is unbelievable.

Why the United States is arming Israel, It's very, very complex. What people on a citizens level can do, the civilian society, is to continue to nurture the links that are going to be the bedrock of progress once the military issues are resolved. And even while they're not resolved, it is those civilian organizations that provide a modicum of support.

On the cultural level.
LG: What we can do over here as people is to create a movement of Muslims and Jews who are saying "An end to the occupation." We want to confront violence in our cultures, and to acknowledge the history of both our peoples. For Jewish people that's acknowledging how well we have historically done under Islam. As a minority people, we have thrived under Islam. And to sort of plant a seed where the next generation can sort of take off.

It's always struck me that the two cultures were more alike that different.
AR: There's no doubt about that. One of the things that we've been doing is studying together. We've been studying Koran and Torah, studying Abraham. Also, studying the commonalties that we have in our traditions. Very obviously there has been an historic link between Muslims and Jews for centuries.

LG: We're both global religions. We exist everywhere.

AR: The father of all our religions is Abraham, peace be upon him.

What do people there think of Americans and American culture?
LG: Give me your jeans! (laughs)

AR: There's a very clear distinction between the American government and the people. This is a phenomenon all over the world right now. People love American culture. But that's a double-edged sword too, because there are many precious parts of non-American cultures that are lost to the material parts of our culture. And at the same time there's a conscious difference that people see between the American government and the American people. But being one of those American people, we have a responsibility as Americans to want for our fellow man what we want for ourselves. There has to be a balance. If we speak about democracy, then let's really talk about true democracy. Is there a democracy in Palestine? Is there a democracy in Iraq? I would say no.

LG: Is there a democracy in the United States? (laughs)

AR: Yeah, right (smiles). But the whole Road Map is really a joke. There is absolutely no nation building occurring or planned for in Palestine. There's been a complete destruction of infrastructure, which includes roads, electricity, and gas. There's closing of borders, no freedom of movement, and no open trade, all the things that are essential for building a nation are truly missing. The building of the wall of separation between Palestine and Israel is just another example. You can't build a wall around a nation.

LG: They're putting it right through a university, for example. Right smack through Jerusalem, cutting off the Tomb of Abraham from the Palestinian population.

AR: And it's not a fence. You hear the term fence, but it's a 20-foot tall concrete two-meter thick wall with sniper towers. It's not a fence.

You mentioned earlier that your congregation had made attempts to reach out to Muslims. Have there been any attempts from Christians to reach out to either of your communities in a similar manner?
LG: Oh yeah. There's been a long history, since World War II, with Vatican II, and the Pope, there's been a re-definition of the Catholic relationship to the Jews. There are a lot of different interfaith efforts, including in the evangelical community. Even though you have these fringes or centers of, umŠ

AR: Lunacy (laughs)

LG: Yeah, lunacy, as in Jerry Falwell, and so forth.

AR: Particularly in Albuquerque, there's been an outreach from the Christian community. But I think the media plays a large role in creating this picture of 1.5 billion Muslim people being this monster. Since September 11th the medial has made few attempts to shine the light on how the rest of the 99.9999 percent of the Muslim population live, how we comport ourselves, who we are. But the other powerful thing about the Peace Walk is that it's not just a Muslim-Jewish Peace Walk, it's an interfaith Peace Walk. The people who come are Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Native Americans, Quakers, Bahai, Mennonites,

LG: Old Hippies (laughs),

AR: The power of the Peace Walk is that it really draws people of faith together, towards a common goal of peace. Which is something that's attractive to all peoples.

LG: It's a matter of survival.

AR: I do believe the Christian communities in this country have to take a huge responsibility in understanding what is going on in Palestine and Israel, and in educating themselves about Islam. Most people don't really know what's going on over there. Without that knowledge, the government is going to continue what it is doing in the whole Middle Eastern region. And in other parts of the world.

What are you guys doing for September 11th this year? I know you're going to be traveling to New York, can you tell me a little bit more about that?
LG: Eek! I finally found someone to watch my poor doggies!

June Yesuda, who is of the Myohoji Buddhists order in Japan, has been on amazing Peace Walks. She followed the route of the Middle Passage, for instance. She is going to be on this walk as well. She's walking from Ground Zero to her peace pagoda in Grafton starting at 8 am. So, when the Fellowship of Reconciliation staff was so excited by this concept of Peace Walk, they said, "Well, you should do one in Nyack. You should do one in Nyack on September 11th. No, you should do one in New York City on September 11th!" (laughs)

We scrambled to find a synagogue and a mosque, so I called June-San for help. We had a meeting with the Muslim Peace Fellowship and the Jewish Peace Fellowship, and they both agreed to co-sponsor it. All of a sudden it became something.

This is a process. Being a pilgrim is opening your heart to the unknown. You need a really good pair of sneakers, a little sleeping mat and a lot of patience for whatever might come on your way.

September 11th is huge. It's a moment where you're standing in from of this huge emptiness where something was and it isn't anymore. It's almost a Zen like experience. You have the highest hopes for humanity and the wanton destruction of lives, all coming together.

I think I'm going to have the same feeling I had when I was in Hiroshima-Nagasaki on the 50th commemoration of the dropping of the bomb. You're surrounded by families and survivors of people who perished, and it's tremendous grief. There's a desire to give witness, a desire not to seek revenge, at least on the part of the folks we're walking with, a group called Peaceful Tomorrows. You have to be prepared for a lot of emotion.

After a tragedy as great as September 11th, there's always the potential for goodness. Have we succeeded in using that potential?
LG: No. I think that on the level of our government we haven't. We've squandered that goodwill by killing a lot of people in Afghanistan, and the Taliban are back, Osama bin Laden is still loose, and then by going into Iraq, all of these things. On the other hand there are definitely organizations out there, who try and be a positive direction in the face of all this.

What do you guys hope for in the future?
AR: To have us as American people become more aware of the injustices that are promoted by our government. I pray that our government will seek a different path than violence. This is the most powerful country in the world. We can take all our scientists and all our brainy people and put somebody on the moon, so why can't we make a similar effort to try and make the world a better place? In terms of education, in terms of medicine, nation building, in terms of peace. That's going to take special leadership, which we definitely don't have in America today. It really has to be a grass roots thing that comes from the people themselves. And also as religious people, we want for our brothers what we want for ourselves.

LG: And sisters (laughs).

AR: And sisters. We encourage everyone to start a peace walk in his or her communities. You'll be surprised at the response that you'll get. This is something that everyone can participate in.