My Palestinian sister friend, Sana (Salaams Sana!), sent the below to me.
Another example of Jewish presence in the Middle East, and an example of how Arabs, Muslims, Jews, etc., can live together and all work toward a productive and peaceful society. Not sure of the source of this article.
BAHRAIN NAMES JEWISH AMBASSADOR
Bahrain's king has appointed a Jewish woman as the country's envoy to the United States.
Houda Nonoo said she was proud to serve her country "first of all as a Bahraini" and that she was not chosen for the post because of her religion.
She is believed to be the Arab world's first Jewish ambassador.
Ms Nonoo, 43, has served as a legislator in Bahrain's 40-member Shura Council for three years and is head of the Bahrain Human Rights Watch.
"It is a great honour to have been appointed as the first female ambassador to the United States of America and I am looking forward to meeting this new challenge," Ms Nonoo told the Associated Press news agency.
Her family is originally from Iraq, having moved to Bahrain over a century ago.
Bahrain has one of the world's oldest and smallest Jewish communities. It was, at one time, home to as many as 1,500 Jews. Today the community has a synagogue and numbers around 50 people.
Bahrain is a close US ally but has no diplomatic relations with Israel.
It has a Shia Muslim majority, roughly 65% of the population, but the ruling elite is Sunni.
Ms Nonoo is a businesswoman with homes in Bahrain and London.
8 comments:
Jews and Muslims will live in peace only when Muslims reject the doctrine of dhimmitude which demands that the People of the Book "feel themselves subdued", in the words of the Qur'an. Muslims can tolerate Jews but only when they are weak and inferiour Muslims. That's why they hate Israel so much-- a free, strong and independent Infidel Jewish state in the heart of the Islamic world.
Indeed this is good news.
as for comment above - summum bokmun yumyun...
And on the other flip side of Bahraini 'progressiveness', there's this news.
Assalam-alaikam Sis Safiyyah,
Although many Muslims will disagre with me, I think this is probably good news. You can't expect fairness and engagement if you don't display it first
"if you don't display it first"...
And that's why Israel has Arab MKs and "Israeli"-Arabs have more political rights than their brothers in Arab countries.
Before 1948, close to a million Jews lived in Arab lands, having settled there is Talmudic times. They were mostly expelled and lost billions of dollars in property and goods.
"display it first", my ass...
Wow, that is really good news :)
Inshallah, the move is going well :)
Ya Haqq!
Asaalamu Alaikum,
Ran across your blog while looking at other sisters sites. I subscribed! :)
Masaalam
It's indeed very good news. If you research the Babylonian Jews, they lived peacefully in the GCC countries in days gone by.
They were merchants, and lived peacefully amongst the locals.
Kuwait plans to build a city that will have representation of all religions. King Abdullah met with Hindus and Buddhists, as well as Christians and Jews.
It's 2008. The Arab/Muslim countries must begin to reciprocate, or meet with hostility with those in the West.
Excellent move Bahrain.
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