Shibly should look inside his own house

Dear editor:

There is no doubt that Sandi Solomon went overboard in her condemnation of the entire Muslim religion [Heritage Florida Jewish News, April 12, 2013]. Her interpretations of Quranic text (e.g. “Muslims can lie to non-Muslims…”) seems somewhat reminiscent of hundreds of years of Talmud distortions and libel by anti-Jewish haters of every stripe.

However, her denunciation [Heritage Florida Jewish News, April 26, 2013] by Hassan Shibly of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is somewhat disingenuous and brings to mind the Sufi Muslim parable about the man who loses a valuable ring inside his house. When his wife sees the man crawling around outside the house and asks why he’s looking outside when the ring was lost inside, the man replies, “You fool, the light is much better out here!”

Shibly’s charges of “misinformation, intolerance and prejudice” would gain some traction and credibility if he looked inside his own house and leveled them against the extremist wing of his coreligionists. If he and other CAIR leaders could sustain a visible, continuing disapprobation of the hatred and unspeakable violence perpetrated by radical Islam, they’d find enthusiastic partners in the Jewish people and among Christians whose Bible teaches, “Physician heal thyself.”

Steve Levine

Boynton Beach