Holocaust denial meeting beneath Islam.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Maurice Harris For The Register-Guard

The recent Iranian conference promoting Holocaust denial has caused enormous pain among members of the local Jewish community. As a congregational rabbi, I have struggled to find adequate words of comfort for congregants who have shared the fear, shock, confusion and pain they have felt.

`The number tattooed on my father's arm is no myth,' one middle aged man told me after Friday night services.

The Holocaust is not some distant event for Eugene's Jews. Living in our own community are people who lost whole sections of their families, people who were sent away from Europe as child refugees, and adult children of survivors - many of whom face enormous difficulties making sense of chaotic or painful childhoods, the result of having had severely traumatized parents. The terror that people feel in response to Holocaust denial is real, and it's unbelievably painful.

Before I trained to become a rabbi, I worked for 18 months at an organization that videotaped the testimonies of Holocaust survivors. I feel sad beyond words about the Iranian conference's cruelty - not only to Jews, but to the other groups that lost huge numbers to Nazi industrialized killing - the Roma people (`Gypsies'), Communists, Poles, gays and lesbians, Jehovah's Witnesses, people with disabilities, and others. The Iranian conference is not only an attempt to deny that 6 million Jews perished, but that an additional 6 million non-Jews died in the Holocaust as well.

But there is another sad dimension to this conference - one that may get little mention but that is worth some attention. Sponsored by a theocratic government that claims to represent Islam, it was an event that is beneath the dignity of Islam as I have experienced it.

I am no expert on Islam, but I have caught many glimpses of its beauty, of its spiritual depth, of its intellectual genius, and of its poetry. The Islam I have experienced is characterized by the quiet, devotional faith of my friend Yousri, an imam from South Africa. The Islam I've witnessed is the generosity and unsurpassed hospitality that I've received visiting Muslim families in the West Bank, Israel, Morocco and here in Eugene. My mother's side of my family are Moroccan Jews. Much of their culture and incredible warmth and kindness comes from the influence of Islamic culture.

The Islam I experienced during my rabbinic studies was the intellect of the great medieval Islamic philosophers, whose progressive interpretations of religion sought to reconcile the wisdom of sacred texts with the science of the times. The remarkable Jewish medieval philosopher, Maimonides, drew on these ideas. The Judaism I practice today would not be what it is without the influence of Islam.

The Islam I've experienced includes learning this past summer from Yahya Hendi, a Palestinian-born imam based in Washington, D.C. Hendi was among the first to issue a fatwa that suicide bombing is contrary to Islam.

Furthermore, the Islam I've been told of by my family includes the heroic stand taken during World War II by King Mohammed V of Morocco. While the Nazis and Vichy French occupied his country, my mother's family found itself vulnerable to the same fate that awaited Europe's Jews. King Mohammed V refused to cooperate with orders he received to require Morocco's 200,000 Jews to wear yellow stars. The Nazis were never able to make their death machine run in Morocco.

In short, when I've encountered Islam personally, I've seen depth, heart, humility and art. I don't have to be Muslim to see that the Holocaust denial conference is beneath the dignity of this tradition. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should apologize to Muslims and Jews. Let's not let the Ahmadinejads of any religion get away with defining their traditions. May all of us, whatever our religion, work to create the same kind of high-profile exposure for peace-seeking, loving religion that extremists such as Ahmadinejad like to create for their own distorted purposes. And may all who are in pain as a result of the Iranian conference find comfort, strength, and support from all who have promised to continue to bear witness to the Holocaust.

Maurice Harris serves as one of two rabbis at Temple Beth Israel in Eugene.