Candidates Exploit Muslim-Jewish Divide

The presidential candidates are ignoring—even insulting—American Muslims in the hope of grabbing the Jewish vote, write Salam Al-Marayati and Steven B. Jacobs in the Los Angles Times. McCain and Obama have on several occasions snubbed Muslims, who seem to be the victims of modern McCarthyism—just substitute terrorism for communism. It's a "disturbing trend" that must stop, write the co-members of an interfaith peace group.

“To be sure, the politicians aren't inventing a division between Muslims and Jews,” they write. “We acknowledge the tension between our communities created by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And yet it is also clear that Jews and Muslims should be natural allies in countering xenophobia and hysteria. We both suffer from scapegoating as fear works against common sense in our political culture.” (More Islam stories.)