Rabbi George Stern, Jewish Social Policy Action Network:
The amount of misinformation about Islam and therefore about Muslims is distressing and for Muslims it has got to be frightening. Because there is an atmosphere right now of, it seems to me of anger and fear that pervading the airwaves and I think that what Hizmet Movement has done and continuously do is to try to help abroad, in places like United States, it tries to help people understand what Islam is and what it means to be Muslim. And I think that is a really significant contribution that it makes.
As an American, I have learned to be very skeptical when government accuses people of things that really seem like all they are is disagreements in one level or another with the government. And especially when this happens during a time when there have been a lot of accusations against government about corruption, it really, these kinds of allegations of terrorism, you know, smack of a desire to make it very difficult if not impossible for people to question what the government does.
I really think that the work you have been doing there and in other countries is important, significant, wonderful. I think that it, ultimately, can benefit if allowed continue properly, it’ll benefit Turkey a lot and as I was saying earlier benefit us in the United States in terms of our ability to understand your country and religion and the way people want to work as part of the universal human system. So as difficult as it may be I hope that you’ll be able to continue to do this work.
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