Bay Ridge Unity Task Force revives its peace mission
In the wake of a series of attacks on Muslim Americans in southwest Brooklyn neighborhoods in recent months, the Bay Ridge Unity Task Force held a special breakfast meeting in a mosque Tuesday morning to begin planning a strategy on how to address hate crimes and promote peaceful co-existence between neighbors.
The task force, made up of religious leaders from the Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities, as well as Bay Ridge civic and business leaders, said that acts of hate should not be tolerated. At the breakfast, which took place at the Beit Elmaqdis Islamic Center, at 6206 Sixth Ave., task force members vowed to work as a group and as individuals to stamp out hate and mistrust by promoting the importance of unity and working together for the betterment of the neighborhood.
“Things are happening in our community and back home. Tension is high,” said Dr. Ahmad Jaber, president of the Arab-American Association of New York. “There is a verse in the Koran, ‘If you believe, pray or enter into peace.’ The true teaching of Islam is peace,” he said.