Well, well, well. - things are changing in the Middle East
Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa has denounced
the Arab boycott of Israel and said his subjects are free to visit the Jewish
state. The statement by the head of the Persian Gulf country, which does not
have diplomatic relations with Israel, was revealed at a multi-national event
last week in Los Angeles, hosted by the city's Simon Wiesenthal Center.
At the event, Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, who head the Wiesenthal Center, revealed the king's pronouncements made to them during their visit to Manama, Bahrain's capital city, in early 2017.
A walk through the city, at that time was an
eye-opener, Cooper said. There was a church, with a huge cross, next to a Hindu
temple, and 90 meters on an impressive mosque. Even a small synagogue, the only
one in the Persian Gulf region, still stands in an older part of the city.
When
Hier and Cooper met with King Hamad, they also
discussed the ruler’s plan to establish a Museum of Religious Tolerance in the
capital city by the end of this year.
At the Los Angeles event last week, delegations of Buddhists in saffron robes,
Sikhs in turbans, and Muslims with keffiyehs and hijabs [Muslim head-covers for
men and veils for women], mingled with Jews with kippot [skullcaps] and
Christians in business suits.
Some 400 members of these diverse groups witnessed the declaration to support
full freedom of religious choice, government protection of minorities and to
ensure that religious faith “serves as a blessing to all mankind and as the
foundation of peace in the world.”
The evening’s guests included officials from such predominantly Muslim nations
as Kuwait, Egypt, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan, Cooper noted.
Like all others present, the Arab officials stood in respect as the colorful
Bahrain National Orchestra played “Hatikva”
preceded by the Bahraini and US national anthems, sung by Sumaya Meer and
Cantor Arik Wolheim.
The key speaker was Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad al Khalifa, son of the king and a
formidable endurance athlete, who led the Bahraini delegations, toured the
Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance and met with Jewish students.
As the evening’s climax, a group of distinguished “dais guests” formally signed
the Bahrain Declaration. Among them were the speakers, visiting Arab officials,
clergymen of various faiths, television personality Mary Hart, the
evening’s master of ceremonies UCLA Prof. Judea Pearl and Betsy Bennett
Mathieson, president of This Is Bahrain.
The latter government-supported booster organization presented each guest with
a lapel pin featuring symbols of the country’s seven religions, with a Jewish
menorah adjoining a Christian cross and a Muslim crescent.
Bahrain has some 1,423,000 inhabitants and large parts of the Jewish population
left the country following riots in 1947 and 1967, but Jewish, Muslim and
British sources agree that the riots were triggered by pro-Palestinian
outsiders and that resident Arabs went out of their way to protect their Jewish
neighbors.
But with the ascendancy of King Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa to the throne in 2002,
domestic and foreign observers see an almost utopian state of relationships
among Bahrain’s religious groups.
The monarch, who has an impressive collection of Frank Sinatra records, has
enshrined religious tolerance both in the country’s law and by personal
example. For instance, since 2015, he has celebrated Hanukka with both Jews and
Muslims in attendance.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, a reporter asked Cooper whether the
evening’s upbeat tone and hopeful notes were warranted in the light of the
Middle East’s apparently endless conflicts.
Cooper responded that Bahrain, like Israel, “Lives in a tough neighborhood. But
if there is to be any hope for the future, it will have to be realized by
voices of religious moderation.”
