Fear 'Pride' Event In Jerusalem Will Spark World Islamic Furor,Julie Stahl

Jerusalem - If a controversial international gathering is held in Jerusalem as planned this summer, it could spark a worldwide Islamic furor worse than that generated by cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, say Jewish and Muslim religious leaders.

InterPride, an international gay rights association, chose Jerusalem - a city sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims - as the venue for a week long international "pride" event, which is scheduled to take place in August.

Included in the week's activities are a multi-faith clergy conference, a youth day and a march through the streets of Jerusalem.

But Jewish and Muslim religious leaders say that they will do everything they can to prevent the event - especially the march - from taking place. And although they are calling for nonviolent protests, some say things could get bloody.

"We're not coming here to suggest violence. But we are here to suggest peace, shalom," said Rabbi Yehuda Levin, founder of the U.S.-based Jews for Morality.

Levin, who said he represents the views of more than 1,000 American Orthodox rabbis and hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world, is pressing the Israeli government to prevent the event from happening.

Levin called on Christian leaders in the U.S. and Muslim leaders in the Middle East to raise their voices against the event and said if it goes ahead, Jews will defend Jerusalem "with our bodies and with our souls."

"I want to make an appeal, a desperate appeal to the entire Muslim community," said Levin. "We are faced with the prospect of six days of promiscuity and debauchery unparalleled in the Middle East," he told reporters at a press conference organized for the benefit of the Arabic media on Monday.

Despite the many political differences between devout Jews and devout Muslims, particularly when it comes to political issues regarding Israel, Levin said he believes the two groups can find common ground on this issue for the sake of the holiness of Jerusalem.

While religious leaders are advocating peaceful protest against the large-scale gathering of gays, lesbians and transgender individuals, Levin said he fears there will be violence.

Rabbi Menachem Froman predicted even worse.

The shocking things that the world witnessed as a result of the publication of the caricatures of Mohammed in European newspapers would be nothing in comparison to the Muslim outrage that would be sparked if a homosexual parade takes place in the streets of Jerusalem, said Froman, the rabbi of the Jerusalem-area settlement of Tekoa who has been involved in Jewish-Arab contacts for years.

Israeli Knesset Member Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsur, of the Islamic Movement, said he backed the statements of Levin calling for peaceful protest but he agreed that holding the event in Jerusalem could bring a backlash worse than that sparked by the cartoons.

"Not only in Jerusalem, not only in Israel, [but] in the whole world [it] is the beginning of a catastrophe for the whole human community. I think every sane individual must oppose such a phenomenon," Sarsur said.

Hagai El-Ad, executive director of the Jerusalem Open House, the main organizer of the WorldPride eent, said efforts to halt it would fail.

A Jerusalem district court fined Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski and the municipality separately last year for trying to stop the local "pride" parade.

Levin said by telephone on Tuesday that he wants the Arab masses to "rise up in indignation" now, so the Israeli security establishment will see the homosexual event as a security risk and put a stop to it.

Julie Stahl is CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief.

Read Comments (1)

Jerusalem Capital of Judaism
Date 04:06, 06-27, 06

Dear Jews,

I am an Israeli and of course Jerusalem is my capital and I do not want it treated with disrespect. But Jerusalem is also the Capital of Judaism, of every Jew all over the world.
If acts of antisemitism are being committed anywhere in the world all Jews react, protest, try their best to come to the rescue of their fellow Jews. And when an act of antisemitism is committed in Jerusalem a Jew should stay silent?
I would like every Jew, every human being believing in the God of Israel and the Nation of Israel to protest against a parade that has no place in a City where "humble" is a value and where "Pride" does not belong.
I wish everybody the very best but believe that we can never have the very best when we openly go against the rules God gave us to live by.