My faith in how Ahmed engages with reality

Fast forward 12 weeks and over four days last week, he took part in a public conversation with JN columnist Josh Glancy at JW3, met Sir Tony Blair to talk about Gaza’s day after, held discussions with parliamentarians, foreign office officials and public intellectuals like Simon Sebag-Montefiore and answered questions from senior imams, bishops and rabbis at Westminster Abbey in what was one of the most high-level gatherings of clergy in the UK since 7 October. The event was organised with help from the interfaith adviser Liz Harris-Sawczenko.

The almost unbearable strains placed on inter-community relations over the last 14 months meant that such a gathering was far from inevitable. But the level of interest in further engagement even among those who wouldn’t see themselves as strong Israel allies would alone have made the trip worthwhile.

As I said in introductory remarks at the Abbey (not a sentence many Jewish journalists have ever uttered, I imagine!), British Jews and followers of other faiths will be living alongside each other in the UK long after this war – just as Israelis and Palestinians will be – and it would be a dereliction of leadership to refuse to engage with this reality just because it feels so difficult. As Ahmed reminded each of those he met, this isn’t about “Kumbaya”. It is however about moving out of the bubbles we all live in, hearing other perspectives and ending dangerous vacuums of contact. It doesn’t mean we all have to agree: we simply won’t. 

Not everyone at the Abbey was on the same page as Ahmed. Indeed participants weren’t necessarily even on the same page as other leaders from their own faith. But it was a respectful conversation during which several senior figures heard a nuanced viewpoint they hadn’t before and some plan to do more in their own communities. Surely that’s a good thing.

In truth, only when such conversations can take place in public or be reported in full by newspapers will we be able to say that we have really succeeded.

On the penultimate day of the trip, during a visit to Leeds, we were reminded how far away we are from that and at the same time why we must not give up.

“They should get on,” the observant Muslim taxi driver who collected us from the station replied when asked if there are historically positive relations between his community and Jews in the city. Unaware that I was Jewish or that Ahmed was from Gaza, he went on: “Israel is a reality today. They (Hamas) shouldn’t have started a war.” If I didn’t know better I’d have thought he was a plant to ensure the smoothest of arrivals.

Once at Makkah Mosque, Ahmed offered to the 20 or so assembled congregants the same take as he had to politicians and members of the Jewish community alike: that it is possible to hold two thoughts in one’s head at the same time. That the present moment requires just that.

That it is possible to be stinging in criticism of Israel while being utterly damning about Hamas and its treatment of the Palestinians. That strongly questioning why 32 members of his family were lost in Israeli strikes in this war does not preclude him from being scathing about elements of the “aid industry”, or doubting how pro-Palestine those who take to the streets calling for an intifada actually are.

This encounter was even less likely than the one at the Abbey two days earlier and Imam Qari Asim deserves huge credit for taking a risk and showing leadership. As elsewhere, tensions have been running extremely high in Leeds and some Jews have faced ostracisation or worse. Did I ever imagine that a proudly Jewish newspaper such as the Jewish News would bring a prominent Palestinian critic of Hamas into a conservative mosque in the heart of Leeds to discuss Israel-Gaza during a war? Not remotely. But it happened, no one walked out and the world carried on.

Those in attendance at the historic talk were not hand-picked for having “sanitised” views but chose to attend alongside Jewish neighbours after a flier was circulated among congregants. They were largely men in middle age or older and a few younger women. There was no strong sense of attachment to Hamas in the question and answer session, but Ahmed was pressed hard including on the question of what the Palestinian Authority in the Wast Bank had achieved through its approach. Overall, there was a palpable sense of a lack of hope in the future for Palestinians.

While I was profoundly moved that the event took place and felt the conversation could have continued far longer, I can’t say I left with the impression that the gap between Jewish and majority Muslim opinion is any narrower at this moment than the chasm many fear. Equally I left more determined than ever to pursue serious dialogue including on the most thorny issues, for the sake of the future of the Jewish community as much as for others. It may not be as fruitful as we’d hope, especially in moments like this, but at least it means we are engaging with reality. Am I naive? Perhaps – but can anyone point to the alternative, one that leaves British Jews feeling safer, more content?

It was the honour of my year to host Ahmed in the UK. With each meeting, it became clearer that Ahmed – with his no-nonsense, honest approach combined with his personal experience and global platform – has the potential to be a key player in inter-community and intra-community dialogue.

Justin Cohen is the news editor of the Jewish News