by Isabel Kershner
The Jerusalem Report

As the Danish cartoon controversy gathered pace around the Islamic world, enraging Muslims and claiming dozens of lives in violent protests, the message from Jerusalem, the third holiest city in Islam after Mecca and Medina, was somewhat garbled. At least that's how Mahdi Abdul Hadi, the director of the East Jerusalem think tank PASSIA, felt. "There was a demonstration at the Al-Aqsa mosque staged by some faceless young people," he notes, "but as a community, we did not function or articulate a clear message." In general, the Palestinian response to the late-September publication by the Danish conservative daily Jyllands-Posten of a dozen arguably insulting cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, including one of him hiding a bomb in his turban, has been confused. One evening, youths demonstrating outside a building in Ramallah housing the representative offices of various countries, including Denmark, couldn't find a Danish flag to burn, so they burned a South Korean one instead.      More Photos For this reason, Abdul Hadi organized an event at East Jerusalem's Ambassador Hotel on February 21 to discuss "The Biography of the Prophet and the Western Media." The panel consisted of Al-Quds University associated professor of philosophy and Islamic studies, Mustafa Abu Sway; Al-Aqsa mosque's red-turbaned Sheikh Muhammad Hussein; Sheikh Jamil Hamami; and the Latin Patriarchate's Father Rafiq Khouri. The audience included Muslim and Christian clergy, academics, foreign representatives, Palestinian students and assorted others. Sitting prominently in the front row were the large, black-robed Bishop Atalla Hanna of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Muhammad Abu Tir, a Hamas leader in Jerusalem and newly elected Palestinian Authority lawmaker with a distinctly orange beard. (He tells interviewers he finds dying it with henna keeps away dandruff.) The discussion opened in the air of tolerance that Abdul Hadi was obviously hoping to foster. As the title of the event gently suggested, the point was to portray the kind, forgiving nature of Islam to those misguided elements in the West who would taint it. "Maybe we failed in conveying the story of the Prophet, and what it means to be a Muslim," said Abdul Hadi as he opened the proceedings. The Al-Aqsa sheikh spoke about Muhammad's tolerance and forgiving nature, even toward his Jewish enemies who would harm him, and Islam's acceptance of all the Biblical prophets. Jesus was "also praised by God," he said, "and we find this tolerance in the Prophet Moses too, who salvaged his people from Pharaoh and parted the sea." As moderator, Abdul Hadi wondered allowed whether the sheikh's words would provoke the audience to think, and prompt Hamas to "become more forgiving." Khouri spoke of freedom of speech needing to be guided by ethics and not being the freedom to insult others. Abu Sway argued that "Islamophobia is the new anti-Semitism," and Sheikh Hamami spoke of how Muhammad changed the Arabs from "a people who'd been fighting each other in the desert for 40 years, to a people who affected civilization, with heaven's help." It was at question time that things livened up. The first man up remarked that Father Khouri hadn't mentioned the "Zionist Christian movement," which the questioner claimed is a 40- to 60-million- strong driving force in the West. Bishop Hanna stood up to answer. The Eastern Orthodox Church, he said, does not recognize the Zionist Christian movement, which he described as "a racist, terrorist movement," adding that he believes the offending Danish paper is related to these groups and was trying to create a Muslim-Christian schism. Next, Hamas's Abu Tir took the mike to respond to Abdul Hadi's thoughts of whether his victorious movement might adopt the spirit of tolerance. "I say to Dr. Mahdi that Hamas will be strong against its enemy, and tolerant and forgiving toward our brothers, our fellow citizens of the Arab-Islamic nation." He said he couldn't speak for long because it was time for evening prayers - and with that, left the hall to give an interview to a waiting TV crew. One aspect of tolerance that was probably lost on most of those present was the fact that the whole event was taking place in the shadow of the Israeli National Police and Border Police headquarters, both of which sit a couple of blocks up from the Ambassador Hotel on the seam of West Jerusalem and the eastern half of the city, which the Palestinians claim as their future capital. "Fear is dead," concluded Abdul Hadi, back in his PASSIA office a few days after the meeting. "There is nothing to be afraid of, nothing to hide." Having spent much of the past 30 years in administrative detention or serving prison sentences in Israel for his alleged involvement in the Hamas terror network, Abu Tir, 55, is clearly still under close watch. He was briefly detained by Jerusalem police in February, suspected of having called for the burning of a Danish flag at the Al-Aqsa mosque; and again in early March, reportedly for attempting to recruit employees in an East Jerusalem hospital to take part in illegal activities. In the meantime, Israel has embraced Abu Tir and his beard of fire. He appears as a regular character on Channel Two's prime-time satirical TV show Eretz Nehederet, and some children I know were planning on dressing up as him for Purim. Perhaps one day, Abu Tir will learn to poke fun at his enemy the way his enemy pokes fun at him - all in the tradition of the Prophet, of course.