The Good News: Consensus finally reached between Jews, Christians & Muslims in Jerusalem
Unfortunately the bad news is that the consensus that leaders of the three major Western religions were able to reach is negative: They don’t like the upcoming ten-day long gay pride festival, Jerusalem WorldPride 2005.
Laurie Goodstein and Greg Myre write in today’s edition of the New York Times that major leaders of Judaism, Christianity and Islam have joined forces to try to stop the annual parade.
Shlomo Amar, Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi was quoted as saying “They are creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable, It hurts all of the religions. We are all against it.”
Abdel Aziz Bukhari, a Sufi sheik, and head of the Uzbeke community was also quoted as saying: “We can’t permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty. This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem.”
Finally Rabbi Yehuda Levin, of the Rabbinical Alliance of America - which says it represents more than 1,000 American Orthodox rabbis - added “This is not the homo land, this is the Holy Land.”
However, on a more positive note the Times article reports that:
75 non-Orthodox rabbis had signed a statement of support for the event, and that Christian and Muslim leaders as well as Israeli politicians were expected to announce their support soon.
The festival is planned for August 18th through the 28th and is expected to draw thousands of visitors from dozens of countries.
