Jews Protest Washington Mayor’s Praise of Nation of Islam Leader

Representatives of Jewish groups met with Washington Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly to protest a proclamation she issued July 11 in honor of a national spokesman for the Nation of Islam.

One of the representatives present said Kelly made it clear she meant only to praise Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammed for his local work fighting AIDS and drug abuse and not to legitimate or encourage the anti-Semitic views he has trumpeted.

But the Jewish leaders conveyed to the mayor that it was “impossible to disconnect the good works of (Muhammed) from the darker aspects of his program and the Nation of Islam’s program, which preach vilification of the Jews,” said Jeffrey Weintraub, director of the Washington chapter of the American Jewish Committee.

Kelly issued the proclamation with little fanfare only days after it had been rejected by the City Council.

A subsequent editorial in the Washington Post called it “one of the most profoundly disappointing acts of her administration” that sent the wrong message to the city about prejudice and anti-Semitism.

The editorial included some of Muhammed’s virulently anti-Jewish remarks.

But Kelly demonstrated at the Monday meeting that she “seems to put racial and intergroup harmony near the top of her agenda,” said Weintraub.

He said the mayor pledged to “keep the doors open” to the Jewish groups and work more closely with them in the future.

Teri Gross, associate director of the regional office of the Anti-Defamation League, who was also present at the meeting, said the groups felt satisfied that there had been “a very candid and frank discussion.”

She said the mayor pledged to devise a “mechanism” to redress the hurt caused by the proclamation and that this mechanism will be the most important test of the mayor’s intentions.

Representatives of the American Jewish Congress and the area’s Jewish Community Relations Council also attended the meeting.