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Ynet reports on the historic visit to Israel of Maulana Jameel Ahmed Ilyasi, the secretary-general of the All-India Association of Imams and Mosques, an organisation representing 200 million Muslims in India.

The time for violence has come to an end, and the era of peace and dialogue between Muslims and Jews has begun - that was the message delivered by Maulana Jameel Ahmed Ilyasi, secretary-general of the All-India Association of Imams and Mosques, during an interview with Ynetnews.

“My impression was initially that the Israelis are certainly dominating Muslims out here. Once I came here, that impression completely changed,” Ilaysi said. “I saw the reality on the ground, the mutual respect Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews have for each other. Constant conflict is not the reality here,” Ilaysi said, describing his visit to the Israeli-Arab village of Abu Gosh, frequented by Israeli Jews.

‘Muslims, Christians and Jews living side by side’

A visit to Jerusalem’s holy sites only served to reinforce what Ilaysi described as his “pleasant surprise.”

“I saw that Muslims, Christians and Jews lived side by side happily, not at each other’s throat,” he said.

Ilaysi’s message is simple: “The time has come to sit and resolve all problems by dialogue, and to completely abandon violent ways using guns and bombs. Islam never says you should fight with another person. This concept is wrong,” he said.

At a time when Hamas is firing hundreds of missiles into Israel from Gaza and Israel is retaliating by killing those it sees as responsible, news like this makes a very welcome change. (thanks: normblog)

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