Muslims, Jews praise arrest of bomb suspects

Christian Century, Jan 2, 2002

Leaders of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and of Jewish groups have applauded the arrest of two members of the Jewish Defense League on charges of conspiracy in a foiled plot to bomb a Los Angeles--area mosque and an Arab-American congressman's office. "We will not be deterred in any way," said Mahdi Bray, the council's national political affairs director. "We are determined to continue to speak out."

Authorities arrested Irv Rubin, 56-year-old chairman of the small but militant Jewish Defense League, and league member Earl Krugel, 59, on December 11 and charged them with conspiracy to destroy a building by means of an explosive and with possession of a destructive device related to a crime of violence, according to the Associated Press. The two men had secretly met in October to talk about bombing King Fahd Mosque in Culver City and the office of Republican Congressman Darrell Issa in San Clemente.

Bray said he was "shocked but not totally surprised" because of the "hate speech" on the group's Web site. "Terrorism has no religion, no ethnic group," he said. "We have seen it happen by members of the Jewish faith, by people who claim allegiance to the Muslim faith, and by members of Christianity." Bray said he hoped the incident would convince the State Department to include the Jewish Defense League on a recently issued list of 39 terrorist organizations.

The Jewish Defense League "has long been a pariah organization in American Jewish life," said Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, in a statement applauding the FBI's investigation into the alleged bombing plot. "That the perpetrators claim to engage in such reprehensible activities under a `Jewish' banner is an added concern to us," he said. "Let us be clear: Hate crimes are anathema to Jewish values and the Jewish tradition."

The Los Angeles office of the Anti-Defamation League noted that Rubin "has a long track record of intimidation and bullying tactics." If the allegations against him and Krugel are true, the ADL "abhors and condemns this potential terrorist plot to attack members of the Los Angeles community," the group said. "This incidence is one more example of how organizations expressing hatred often turn to violence."

--RNS