[The following is a guest posting from reader J.P. Jones:]

As is their wont, many Reform and Conservative rabbis and the liberal members of their congregations are desperate to invite Muslim interlocutors to their synagogues to engage in "interfaith dialogues." In the wake of 9/11 and the escalating Israel Palestinian conflict, these groups are not alone in their sincere desire to understand a religion and cultures that have unarguably produced mountains of dead and maimed from the Phillipines to the United States in recent years. The left wing of the Protestant establishment -- United Church of Christ, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, United Methodists and Unitarians are also engaged in this mammoth interfaith effort, but their process is indelibly stained with the mark of Jewish guilt in the person of Israel and its "oppression" of Palestinians. Eager to oblige these congregations, Islamic institutions across the United States routinely "explain" the core beliefs and history of the religion that claims nearly one and a half billion adherents. Jewish congregations are anxious to "build bridges" to Muslims in a desperate attempt to gain their acceptance.

Sadly, what we have here is yet another instance of unrequited love descending on American Jews. Careful to skirt the issue of Israel to Jewish groups, which, of course is central to the Muslim outreach to the left wing churches, Muslim spokespersons present their overview of Islam to well-meaning, accomodationist Jews as a "religion of peace."

Jewish knowledge of historical Islam, its pioneering role in the African Slave Trade, invention of the institution of dhimmitude, whereby non-Muslim Christian and Jewish populations are official objects of discrimination, shariah law, which carries out this discriminatory practice against them as well as against women, is scant -- at best. Most liberal Jews (who account for the vast majority of American Jews) view the Muslim world graphically: a third-world -- people of color -- oppressed minority -- interchangeable with African Americans and Native Americans.

The actual history and practice of Islam is virtually unknown to them. For example, as the eminent historian Andrew Bostom has chronicled, the Rhineland massacres during the First Crusade in the 11th century were preceded thirty years earlier by an even greater Muslim massacre of the Jews of Granada in 1066. Medieval European ghettos are common knowledge among Ashkenazi Jews in this country, but their counterpart in the Muslim world -- the mellahs -- remains terra incognita for those same people.

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend an introduction to Islam session at a synagogue in Newton, Massachusetts. The interlocutor was a lovely gentleman, a prominent cardio-vascular surgeon and soft spoken representative of the Islamic Council of New England, Dr. S. Asif Razvi. I'm a veteran of these interfaith meetings, so I wasn't surprised to hear all the familiar themes -- "religion of peace," "jihad as inner struggle," we're all cousins in the "Abrahamic faith," and so on and so forth. But this night was different. The rabbi's running interference for his guest notwithstanding, a perfectly understandable role, the audience actually challenged Mr. Razvi:

"Isn't there a passage in the Hadith that says, "The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him!"

And from another:

"The Grand Imam of Al Azhar University in Cairo has called all Jews 'degenerate' and says that 'the good ones convert to Islam -- the bad ones do not.' Would you comment on this?"

I was shocked. And so was the rabbi. After all, Mr. Razvi was his guest and such questions were deemed -- that dreaded silencer word -- "inappropriate." So much for the endlessly provocative and inquisitive minds two millennia of rabbinic inquiry have produced.

The few pointed questions that did make it past censorship went unanswered by Mr. Razvi. In spite of citing his most admired preacher, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi of Qatar and Al Jazeera's most popular TV cleric, seen by millions every week, and who routinely cites the Hadith of the Jew hiding behind rocks and trees, Mr. Razvi pleaded ignorance and even denied the existence of such a Hadith. I later gave him the exact book and chapter citations from the two canonical collections of al Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. Moreover, he claimed no knowledge of Sunni Islam's most authoritative leader, Sheikh Muhammed Sayyid al Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar University. To a Sunni religious leader, such a claim would be akin to a parish priest claiming no knowledge of someone called The Pope.

For our delectation and edification, we were handed copies of Islam: An Introduction in which we learn that The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is historically notable for Muhammed's miraculous ascent to heaven on the back of his winged, noble steed, al Buraq. Strange, no mention of the prior sacredness of the place as Mt. Moriah where Abraham's hand was stayed from sacrificing Isaac.

A list of notable Muslims included the 11th century Persian al Ghazali and the14th century Al Azhar historian, Ibn Khaldun renowned for their scholarship, but carefully emended to omit their commitment to military jihad.

Incidentally, the printed Islam: An Introduction is a product of the Saudi Aramco corporation.

It may be getting harder to fool Jews judging from the incisive questions that night. At this rate, the American Jewish community may figure out what's going on -- in perhaps another hundred years.