‘American Muslim’ Crushes Stereotypes (Guest Blog)

I remember leaving a high holy day service at my temple where a former Muslim was invited to speak in order to harangue and vilify the religion that she abandoned. Her words were self-serving, hateful and disgusting on a visceral level and I wondered why she had been invited to speak to this mixed conservative and liberal Jewish congregation. A lot of us were turned off, and what was meant to be an occasion of remembrance festered into another anti-Muslim hate fest. Her message castigated an entire culture into one myopic vision: Islam is bad. Muslims are bad. The religion celebrates death and their children are brought up to hate.