Muslim Leadership Initiative
The Muslim Leadership Initiative, or MLI, is an educational program of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. The program invites North American Muslim leaders to explore how Jews understand Judaism, Israel and North American Jewish identity through a thirteen-month fellowship.
The MLI program consists of academic study, site visits in Israel and the Palestinian territories, ongoing learning opportunities in the United States, and public-facing programs in the United States and Canada. However, while the MLI program concentrates on the Jewish experience in and through Israel, participants also engage Palestinian leaders, communities and institutions from Israel and the West Bank, with the ultimate aim of the program the improvement of relationships between North American Jewish and Muslim communities.
Unlike many traditional interfaith programs, MLI does not issue expectations beyond a shared learning experience and commitment to rethinking Muslim-Jewish dialogue and relationships. The program is educational in focus, and makes no political claims.
Origins and Objectives
MLI is overseen by the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, and co-directed by Imam Abdullah Antepli,[1] Chief Representative of Muslim Affairs at Duke University, and Yossi Klein Halevi, a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. The two conceived of the MLI program over several years, and deliberately modeled the program,[2] including class structure and academic themes, on existing Rabbinic and Christian leadership models already in place at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Their stated objective in designing the MLI program was to reach those large segments of mainstream North American Muslim and Jewish communities between which there are few, if any, substantive relationships; their objectives for the program furthermore indicated the hope that the MLI program would educate North American Muslims about Judaism, Zionism and Israel, but that an outcome of the program would be reciprocal. While the MLI program itself is a one-directional educational experience, public-facing programs have presented various opportunities for North American Jews to learn about North American Muslim communities and Islam.
Participants and Public Programs
Alumni of the MLI program include Wajahat Ali, playwright, frequent television commentator and contributing op-ed columnist for The New York Times, Rabia Chaudry, attorney and author of the New York Times bestseller, “Adnan’s Story,” and Haroon Moghul, the Fellow in Jewish-Muslim Relations at the Shalom Hartman Institute. Other participants have written about their experience in a special series[3] for Tablet magazine, or have been otherwise published [4] at Tablet.
The program has graduated over fifty participants, with another fifty currently in their thirteen-month fellowships. Participants are selected for their commitment to mainstream Muslim communities, as well as their reflection of the ethnic and racial, professional, religious and geographic diversity of North American Islam.
As the program has grown, it has translated its aim of improving relationships between North American Jewish and Muslim communities by addressing the issues that often divide these faith communities. Public-facing programs thus far include a public event[5] at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum and a day-long conference [6] hosted by the Shalom Hartman Institute in New York, focused on building bridges between Jewish and Muslim communities.
Criticism and Support
The MLI program has been criticized for various reasons.
Some critics have objected strongly to Muslim participation in a program run by the Shalom Hartman Institute, which receives funding from groups in the United States that have been accused of otherwise supporting Islamophobic activities.[7] Other critics of the program, such as Palestinian activist Ali Abunimah, argue that the MLI program directly conflicts with the objectives of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and thereby undermines solidarity with Palestine.
Further, some critics have argued that the program “faithwashes”[8] the occupation of Palestine, transforming what is primarily a political dispute into a distracting interfaith exercise.
In response, participants in the program note that MLI incorporates site visits to the West Bank, invites Palestinian leaders to address participants to further dialogue, is itself intended to challenge Islamophobia (and anti-Semitism) and does not demand advocacy[9] of any political position, nor repudiation of any.
The MLI program has also been supported and praised.
David Horovitz of The Times of Israel called MLI[10] a "high-risk, taboo-shattering initiative — a vital step, they hope, toward Muslim-Jewish healing in America and beyond." Gary Rosenblatt of The Jewish Week described MLI as "a model exercise in expressing honest, often painful, views with more than just civility. The MLI members and the handful of Hartman faculty were able to convey empathy and personal affection for each other without standing down an inch from their fervent beliefs."