Lebanon, Canada, and In-between: Ali Cheaib discussing the Flotilla incident on The View with Christine Williams

Lebanon, Canada, and In-between: Ali Cheaib discussing the Flotilla incident on The View with Christine Williams

Ali Cheaib discussing the Flotilla incident on The View with Christine Williams

http://www.ctstv.com/ontario/player.php?ctsvidID=17746&show=On%20The%20Line

Ali H. Cheaib appearing On The Line with Christine Williams

May 26, 2010

Ali Cheaib appears On the Line with Christine Williams debating different topics.

Lebanon, Canada, and In-between: On The Line with Christine Williams

November 16, 2009

Lebanon, Canada, and In-between: Ali H. Cheaib appearing On The Line with Christine Williams

جنان العشق

Janan 'el Ishk

Her flower has finally bloomed
with hope, love, and desire
her love is coming loud in my face
like a strong wind
traveling the oceans
looking for a whisper
and finally landing on her lips

The eyes are the genesis
of all creatures that have made love
from now till eternity

A tear
broken tear
sleeps in her eyes
endless falls building in her cheeks

for that split second
when my lips touch her eyes
and explode like a volcano
full of flowers and tears

Ali Cheaib

رداً على فايز الصايغ

"النهار"

الخميس 20 تشرين الأول 2005


رداً على فايز الصايغ

أعزائي الاخوة السوريين، تحية خاصة من شاب لبناني قرأ بتمعن تعليقاتكم "الحماسية" عبر الموقع الالكتروني لصحيفة "الثورة" السورية والمشيدة بالاطروحة الهشة والهزيلة، للسيد الصايغ في حق لبنان في شكل عام، وأولاد الرئيس الشهيد رفيق الحريري رحمه الله على وجه الخصوص.

لا أخفيكم أمرا انني كنت من أكثر الفرحين والمهللين برحيل القوات السورية من لبنان عقب اغتيال الرئيس الطيب الذكر كما أني، بالطبع، لن أخفي عن أحد أني بكيت بسرور عند مشاهدتي آخر شاحنة عسكرية سورية تعبر الحدود من دون رجعة الى الداخل السوري، حيث يجب ان تكون في الاصل منذ توقيع اتفاق الطائف عام 1990.

لكن ما يدمي قلبي اليوم هو بالتحديد ما آلت اليه العلاقات اللبنانية السورية على صعيد الشعبين الشقيقين جراء تلك التفاعلات. ما لا أفهمه، وأحب أن تطلعوني عليه، هو سر تعلق عدد لا بأس به من أصدقائي السوريين في الوطن والمهجر بمقولة ان لبنان هو جزء من الجغرافية السورية التابعة للنظام السوري، وكأن ذلك يعني بالضرورة ان يلحق النظام اللبناني والحياة السياسية اللبنانية بركب النظام السوري أيا يكن ذلك النظام، هذا العقل "الاستلحاقي" السوري هو في رأيي ما يجلب وسيظل الويلات على وطنينا السوري واللبناني.

أحب أن أعطي مثلا على ذلك ما حدث بعد أسابيع عدة على جريمة اغتيال الرئيس الشهيد رفيق الحريري وما حدث خلال استقبال كانت جاليتنا العربية في أونتاريو كندا قد أعدته لرئيس وزراء مقاطعة أونتاريو "دالتون ماغنيتي". فكما تجري العادة هنا، يقوم عدد قليل من قيادات الجالية بالانفراد بالضيوف الكبار قبل موعد ظهورهم في الحفل بقليل، حيث يتجاذبون أطراف الاحاديث الاجتماعية والسياسية في محاولة للتأثير في قراراتهم السياسية والاجرائية التي قد تكون لها ردة فعل على جالياتنا او حتى الاوطان التي ننتمي اليها. فمن الطبيعي ان يكون من ضمننا اللبناني والسوري والفلسطيني والمصري والعراقي والبعض من البلدان العربية الاخرى. في تلك الليلة، وخلال المحادثات، لاحظت ان احد الاصدقاء السوريين يختلي جانبا مع المسؤول الكندي الكبير الذي كان يعرف من قبل جنسية الاخ السوري ليسأله عن الوضع في لبنان والدور السوري فيه. فما كان من الصديق السوري الطيب الصيت هذا إلا ان رد على المسؤول الكندي بالقول: "عزيزي دالتون، ليس هناك من شيء اسمه لبنان".

لا أنكر ان ما قاله صاحبي هذا نزل على رأسي كالصاعقة وأدمى قلبي ان يكون شخص مثله وعلى قدر دماثة أخلاقه ورجاحة عقله وعلمه ليتفوه بكلام "ألغائي" خطير كهذا، كأني به يلغي وجودي عبر الغاء وطني الذي أعبد. أحسست حينها بان وجودي كلبناني هو فعلا في خطر، اذا كان البعض في "الانتلجنسيا" السورية على هذا النحو من التفكير الالغائي.

ان اللبنانيين في غالبيتهم لا يستسيغون الالغاء او "الاستلحاق" السياسي بنظام لا زال يعاني من الستالينية والفساد الاداري، وظلم البشر وحشرهم في أقبية السجون فقط لذنب انهم عصوا الفكر السياسي لبلدهم. كما اننا لا نقبل البتة ان يقبع مواطنونا اللبنانيون في السجون السورية العفنة بسبب فكرهم السياسي.

علي حيدر شعيب

(أستاذ في هندسة المعلوماتية – أونتاريو كندا)

أخبرتني أمي عن مكر الصبايا

أليك بعثت الشعر عنقوداً مُدَلا
فهاك قصتي يا طيبة الثنايا
عندما
أخبرتني أمي عن مكر الصبايا
وعن لون البحر وصوت القمر
ودكاكين الشعر القديم في يافا
وعن ياسمين دمشق المعتق في زهر الليمون
وعن الحب والعسل الأحمر
والنهد الأسمر المفتون
وحبات المطر والشوق ووجع السبايا

أخبرتني أمي عن مكر الصبايا
وعن فاتن وعبلا وفاطمة وسلمى
وعن شاب كان يلبس الشعر لبسا
يعتمره يناجيه يبكيه ويسكنه سكنا
شاب شاب عنه العمر في أزقة العمر القصير
فراح يرقص كالمجنون خلف الحكايا

أخبرتني أمي عن مكر الصبايا
وعن الفاتنة والشاعر المجنون في يافا
وعن أمي وأبي وأنا
والقفل العتيق
والسمك والبحر
وقصب السكر والحليب
نعم... أخبرتني أمي عن مكر الصبايا

أخبرتني أمي
عن شعريَ المسكون وجعاً وأرقاً ووردا
عن قافلة فقدت في الأمس شهيد
وعرس طفلة وصرخة شبل رضيع
كلهم كانوا هنا - كانوا معنا في يافا

حيث الشعر يلتهب في فم القمر
وتصبحي أنت أمي وأصبح أنا السمر
والشاعر المجنون أنا وأنت السبية
فكم مكرك جميل يا أحلى صبية

نعم... أخبرتني أمي عن مكر الصبايا
عنك يا حلوتي
وعن أمي وأبي وأنا
والقفل العتيق
والسمك والبحر
وقصب السكر والحليب

علي

Faith, hope and hard work

Ali Cheaib and Lorne Finkelstein have forged a friendship that may help bridge centuries of animosity

Jeff Mahoney
The Hamilton Spectator

(Jun 2, 2007)

Picture by Michael Nikas Dismatsek

If it is going to happen at all, perhaps this is how it has to start. Haltingly. One textured friendship at a time. Small increments, a beachhead here, a beachhead there, one hope back, two hopes forward. Ali Cheaib and Lorne Finkelstein share such a friendship and it has put ripples on the waters, starting here, but with the momentum possibly to push beyond.

Cheaib and Finkelstein are not going to solve the problems of the Middle East in a restaurant booth in Hamilton, obviously. But they may have already blazed the beginnings of a path to peace for local Muslims (as well as non-Muslim Arabs, Lebanese and Palestinians) and Jews. In the fall of 2005 they began something called the Committee for Hamilton Arab, Muslim and Jewish Dialogue. How those communities, often divided even among themselves, choose to follow that path remains to be seen, but there are encouragements.

Recently McMaster University approached the Dialogue Committee (see inset box on D9 for current membership) to provide leadership in dealing with conflict on campus and in bringing together Muslim and Jewish student groups, as well as others.

The invitation came after vandals defaced the McMaster office door of Muriel Walker with an anti-Muslim obscenity. Walker is the French professor who organized the Wear A Hijab Day in Hamilton to help sensitize people about Islam. That was April.

There is a meeting scheduled for June with a student council executive and members of various campus groups, and on May 14 the Dialogue Committee met with McMaster University president Peter George.

"We feel honoured to be consulted," says Finkelstein.

Even more recently the Dialogue Committee was contacted by Muslim and Jewish leaders in Quebec for their advice on how to address the publication by a satirical magazine in that province of cartoons playing on the crudest stereotypes of Jews, Muslims and other groups.

Clearly, the committee is a player.

Last November, Finkelstein, Cheaib, and the committee brought to Hamilton the famous Muslim-Jewish dialogue tour featuring Judea Pearl, father of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was captured and beheaded in Pakistan, and Akbar Ahmed, a Muslim scholar. That was no small achievement. The video of the event was carried on Yahoo.com internationally.

On the subject of encouragements, it's an encouragement of no small magnitude that their friendship itself survived its first year, let alone got started in the first place. Regardless of the considerable external pressures on it (more on that soon), the two men in and of themselves are so different.

Cheaib and Finkelstein do not walk with the linked arms of political solidarity. They may not even be kindred spirits. They come from very separate worlds.

Cheaib, a Lebanese who came to Canada in his mid-20s, is outspokenly critical of Israeli policy and practice in the troubled region, to the point of sympathizing, if not with the methods of the Palestinian insurgency then with some of their goals and grievances. The things he says sometimes make Finkelstein shake his head.

Cheaib is a big man, 41, solidly built, charismatic, affable, with a ready laughter. He grew up in Beirut, his formative years coinciding with the monstrously violent civil war that tore the city asunder.

"After a while, in the midst of a civil war, somehow you get used to bombs," says Cheaib. Born the son of a Lebanese colonel and into the Shiite Muslim faith, his parents sent him to Catholic schools in Beirut and later to study at the American University of Athens when he was 18. He teaches computer science at Mohawk College.

He is missing most of three fingers, shot off when he was caught in the crossfire of two factions as he sat in a car waiting for a friend.

Finkelstein is a cardiologist at St. Joseph's Hospital, average height, trim build, charismatic, but in a different way from Cheaib, a bit more guarded, with a wryer since of humour. He grew up in Westdale, son of a physician, in what he calls a "sheltered background."

He says he experienced little overt anti-Semitism.

He never thought a great deal about the state of Israel until he studied at the University of Western Ontario at the time of the 1967 war.

"That's when I first developed a passion for Israel," says Finkelstein. "There were so many small-town kids at the university who had never met a Jew. And I found there was a lot of ignorance about what was happening."

He calls himself a pro-Israeli centrist, but one who speaks bluntly about his disgust with violence and terrorism, especially as practised by Muslim extremists. He puts the blame for last summer's conflict involving Hezbolla and Lebanon on what he describes as Hezbollah's deliberate provocations. Finkelstein feels Israel had no choice but to strike. The things he says sometimes make Cheaib shake his head.

But while they can hardly resist hashing out the latest current events when they meet privately, the Arab-Israeli conflict and its rhetoric are out-of-bounds when it comes to formal meetings of the Dialogue Committee.

There the focus is not on the insolubles of far-off places but what can be done, here and now, to smooth relations between people in Hamilton, whose views and emotions are unavoidably affected by the larger geo-politic.

For all they have differences, Finkelstein and Cheaib share some common traits. They both describe themselves as secular. They are both committed to peace and mutual respect -- and they love the vigorous art of verbal sparring, even though there's little hope either will change the other's mind.

They are both very well-read, and, yes, at least a little opinionated.

They also relish each other's company, even though they can be testy and indignant with each other at times, with Cheaib sometimes growing challenging and Finkelstein sometimes adopting a kind of lecturing tone. But they hold it together. They have to -- passionate but respectful debate is the fulcrum of their vision of an exit out of perpetual hatred between peoples.

As is so often the way with these things, their friendship arose from what was perhaps a low point in relations between Hamilton's Muslim and Arab communities and its Jewish community.

THE LOW POINT

In September 2005, the Hamilton Police Services Board called an open forum to help air citizens' views on police Chief Brian Mullan's controversial trip to Israel to learn anti-terror techniques from Israeli police.

The meeting was disastrous, with yelling, name-calling, confrontation and obstruction. The conflict centred on the Arab-Israeli question.

At the meeting, Cheaib and Finkelstein witnessed the breakdown of civility with disgust. They were both shaking their heads. And it was at this point that they caught each other's eyes.

They knew each other a little through their membership in the Strengthening Hamilton Communities Initiative, a committee formed by the mayor after a Hindu temple was burned shortly after 9/11 to draw the city's various ethnic, religious and identity groups into conversations of understanding and outreach.

Cheaib was part of SHCI as president of Hamilton Council of Canadian Arabs.

Finkelstein represented the Hamilton Jewish Federation.

That look that passed between them became the seed of a whole new initiative.

"Lorne called me and the next day we met at his office (along with several other community leaders)," says Cheaib.

That meeting laid the groundwork for the Dialogue Committee.

"The rules are -- no intimidation, no rhetoric from either side," says Finkelstein. "It's about sharing perspectives, not yelling at each other. It's OK to have different views and still be friends."

Says Cheaib, "The beauty is that we can disagree on almost all that relates to the Middle East but there is respect, and that is the basis of our work."

Aside from their meetings with the Dialogue Committee, Finkelstein and Cheaib took to having regular breakfasts together on Sundays, during which their common interest in the committee developed into something stronger. Friendship.

Now they take other meals together, other opportunities for fellowship and talk about everything from their families to their personal lives.

A NEW HIGH?

You might think that this was the beginning of a happy ending, but it's not that simple.

Right from the start, there were those who viewed the work of the committee, the very idea of it, with suspicion, in some cases, with outright antipathy. Prejudices die hard and can survive on the flimsiest diets of unfounded paranoia, complacency and willed ignorance.

Both Finkelstein and Cheaib faced -- still do -- opposition from within their own communities. But mostly there has been support or at least a wait-and-see attitude.

And so the committee pressed ahead patiently, bearing down on its work, the positives, the practical things it could do to further its cause.

And the shape this took over the course of the first year was the organization of what promised to be a milestone event for the young committee, bringing to the city the Pearl-Ahmed Muslim-Jewish dialogue tour.

As a musical garnish, the committee also arranged for the formation of an inter-faith children's choir, mostly young Hamilton Muslims, Arabs, Christians and Jews, under the direction of Laura Wolfson, to sing at the Pearl-Ahmed event.

Then, as the machinery of the event began to mesh, something happened that profoundly threatened not only the cohesion of the committee but the very survival of the Cheaib- Finkelstein's friendship -- last summer's conflict between Hezbolla and Israel, resulting in the bombardment of Beirut.

Bad enough a strain in and of itself. But as it happened Cheaib was visiting Beirut at the time, and was caught in the thick of it. He divided his days between runs, for his very life, to underground shelters and organizing relief and outside communication, including constant attempts to e-mail people in Canada. Among those who were feverishly e-mailing back was Lorne Finkelstein, worried for his friend.

When Cheaib returned safely to Canada, he was consumed with anger and outrage over what had happened in Lebanon over the summer. Finkelstein was also concerned that Cheaib might be filled with hate, and that events in the outside world, over which they had no control, would once again undo the progress that Jews, Muslims and Arabs had achieved locally.

But Cheaib channelled his anger into forward motion, working on relief for the Lebanese and also reaffirming, redoubling his commitment to dialogue locally -- and to friendship.

Finally, on Nov. 12, 2006, after an enormous amount of work, Finkelstein, Cheaib and the dialogue committee welcomed Pearl and Ahmed to Hamilton, where they were the centrepiece of a gala event at Hamilton Place, devoted to breaking through the impasse of hatred and historical fatalism that too often characterizes our perception of Muslim-Jewish relations.

Pearl and Ahmed exchanged views on a number of issues pertaining to those relations and the Arab-Israeli conflict, and then invited questions from the audience. There were about 800 people in attendance, which represented a huge success for the planners, and a large media presence. But still, and it's beginning to look like a pattern, perhaps a necessary one designed to keep them always sharply turned away from complacency, the night was not a smooth one for Cheaib and Finkelstein, not totally.

Cheaib says now that he and many Muslims and Arabs in the audience were shocked and insulted by what Cheaib describes as the pro-Israeli rhetoric that found its way into Pearl's comments at the event. Cheaib calls some of his remarks "near propaganda" and feels they were not in keeping with the spirit of the dialogue.

Finkelstein acknowledges that Pearl is avowedly pro-Israel but argues that his views were consistent with the goal of respectful yet still open expression of opinions, even ones that may be polarizing.

But Finkelstein says he was disappointed that the "dialogue" between Pearl and Ahmed seemed scripted, somewhat too rehearsed. They seemed to speak almost with the same voice, not really sparring or disagreeing. And the question and answer period was flat, with the answers going on too long and not enough people getting to the mics.

Still, Cheaib graciously thanked Pearl, which was his assignment to do. He says he felt conflicted. "This man (Pearl) is like a god of forgiveness to me. But politically I could not be more opposed to what he said."

In the lobby after the event, Cheaib was confronted by eight people from his community. They were extremely upset and let Cheaib know. They felt blindsided by Pearl's remarks. And these, says Cheaib, were moderates.

Later Finkelstein himself addressed the angry eight. He stood as Cheaib had earlier, surrounded by them in a circle. He listened to them and asked why they were talking with such anger at him and they told him that was how they express their passion in their culture.

"Yes," Finkelstein says he told them, "but now you are in Canada, and I ask you -- I have listened to all of you, but which of you has asked my opinion?" And then they listened.

By the time the dust had cleared, a detente had been reached. The eight men, Finkelstein and Cheaib were talking calmly among themselves.

Cheaib says now, "I'm not quite sure how Lorne did it. It was masterful." Finkelstein came to the aid of a friend. And Cheaib, once again stung, after a horrible summer, is putting the best face on things, redoubling yet again his commitment to the dialogue and friendship. That too is what friends do.

What everyone agreed on was -- the choir sounded magnificent and it was inspirational to see the children -- Jews, Muslims,Christians, Arabs alike -- singing as one, separated at least for that moment and one hopes in a more permanent and profound way from the pain and the bitterness of their parents' conflicts.

Cheaib and Finkelstein continue their sparring, their friendly though sometimes heated goading of each other. In Finkelstein's office, Finkelstein asks where the moderate, self-correcting voices are in the international Muslim community. Cheaib says that the post 9/11 backlash against Muslims and Arabs in the west -- stories of women being spat on for wearing hijabs -- has discouraged moderate voices and left them caught in the middle, between extremism in their own community and prejudice outside it.

Cheaib asks where the moderate voices in Israel are, with a succession of recent right wing governments. Finkelstein parries that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and Israelis are their own harshest critics. They talk about cultures of violence, tribalism, the lingering effects of colonialism, books they've read.

The dialogue committee effort seems to have bounced back from the feeling that the Pearl-Ahmed evening may have left with the Muslim/Arab community in Hamilton. No one can predict these things, but no one, it seems, would doubt the sincerity and good intentions behind the committee and events like the Pearl-Ahmed visit.

And really, where else is there to go? What other path? The ones of violence and anger have been tried. They are worn thin. A new one beckons. Lorne Finkelstein and Ali Cheaib, friends, are standing at the mouth of it, waiting to greet others.

The membership of the Committee for Hamilton Arab, Muslim and Jewish Dialogue (Dialogue Committee)

Lorne Finkelstein -- representative of Hamilton Jewish Federation

Ali Cheaib -- president of the Hamilton Council of Canadian Arabs

Javid Mirza -- past-president, Muslim Association of Hamilton

Hussein Hamdani -- vice-chair, North American Spiritual Revival

Harold Pomerantz -- board member and Public Affairs Committee chair, Hamilton Jewish Federation

Morteza Jafarpour -- executive director, SISO (Settlement and Integration Services Organization)

Bridging a faith divide

By Tom Carter
THE WASHINGTON TIMES -- COVER PAGE
Published December 24, 2006

HAMILTON, Ontario
Ali Cheaib, a Lebanese Canadian who spent his summer vacation taking refuge from Israeli warplanes in a Lebanese bomb shelter, calls Judea Pearl, the father of Daniel Pearl, the reporter for the Wall Street Journal who was beheaded by radical Muslims, a hero and a mentor.

Mr. Pearl is a Jew and Mr. Cheaib is a Muslim. Both teach computer science -- Mr. Cheaib (pronounced "Shibe") at Hamilton's Mohawk College, Mr. Pearl at Stanford University in California, where he is renowned as a specialist on artificial intelligence.

They disagree on almost every point of Middle East politics, and both have suffered bitter losses at the hands of their enemies but are nevertheless trying to get beyond personal tragedy to build bridges with people of the other faith.

Asks Mr. Cheaib, in an interview: "Judea Pearl is a phenomenal example, like a phoenix, of coming out of the ashes of loss and tragedy and saying, 'We are going to turn this into something worthwhile.' He has done this. Why can't I?

"What I was living [in Lebanon during the war] was the alternative to dialogue. Dialogue must continue."

He said this minutes before Mr. Pearl took the platform at the Hamilton Place community center in Ontario for an unusual public airing of the differences between the Islamic world and the West.

Mr. Pearl and Muslim scholar Akbar Ahmed of American University in Washington have been traveling around North America talking to one another before audiences like this about Daniel Pearl's death in Pakistan four years ago, and about Palestinian-Israeli relations and other issues.

Nearly 1,000 Jews, Muslims and Christians crowded into Hamilton Place last month to listen to the two men talk, much like old friends, about some of the world's most provocative issues. On stage, they parry and thrust as if continuing a long-running conversation in someone's living room.

Does Israel have the right to exist? Was it created out of the Holocaust? Why shouldn't Iran have nuclear weapons? Are terrorists authentic Muslims? If the United States champions democracy, why won't it recognize Hamas? Why do Muslims think they are under siege by the West? Why won't Muslim nations recognize Israel's right to exist? What, if anything, can be done about the state of the world today?

"Our mission is not to embrace each other with understanding, but mainly to listen to each other, to hear two narratives side by side," Mr. Pearl says in an interview before his presentation. "To acknowledge each other's narrative. I am a soldier fighting hatred, fighting ignorance.

"I have not forgiven [what they did to my son]. I am not going to forgive. I am dialoguing as a soldier. Dialogue is my weapon. ... I am fighting the hatred that took Danny's life. We don't have armies, but we have the good will of millions, the coalition of the decent."

Community journey
The narratives related by the two men hold that Jews and Muslims both follow in the tradition of Abraham, and that both have suffered from the Holocaust, the Crusades, dictatorial governments, insults and religious discrimination. That suffering, they say, must be acknowledged and appreciated by both sides.

Mr. Ahmed, who is regarded in most mosques as a scholar and devout Muslim, says his religion has been hijacked by extremists. He is working to see the vision of moderate Muslims carry the day. "It is [the 13th-century Sufi poet] Rumi's vision of Islam, versus Osama bin Laden's," Mr. Ahmed says.

To the two men the speaking tour is a way of combating the religious hatred that both see threatening the world. For the audience in Hamilton Place, it was the culmination of a five-year effort marked by tension, flared tempers and growth. It was opposed by some Jews and Muslims who say talking with the others is not only a waste of time, but a betrayal.

Sponsors of the event, including Mr. Cheaib, say they want what has happened in Hamilton to be a model for other conflicted communities where Christians, Muslims and Jews are searching for reconciliation.

They understand their experience will not be easily replicated. Any group of people can talk, but reconciliation can take place only if recognized community leaders are willing to endure hours of tense and often emotional meetings, and are committed to building long-term and respectful relationships that will become genuine friendships. They liken their conversations to a rocky marriage that works only because both sides are committed to it.

"We are getting calls from other towns, asking for help in setting up their own dialogue groups, but I don't know that we have anything yet that can be duplicated," Mr. Cheaib says. Mr. Pearl says interfaith outreach efforts generally take place among rabbis, imams and academics, rather than between families and individuals.

"We demonstrated a tone of respectful discussion that can be duplicated anywhere, on a community level," he says, if there is genuine curiosity and a willingness to listen.

'Madness by fools'
Hamilton, a run-down industrial city of steel mills, smokestacks and factories at the western tip of Lake Ontario, made international headlines when the city's largest Hindu temple was firebombed just after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, perhaps by vandals who mistook it for a mosque.

"The Hindu temple was torched out of madness by fools," says Larry DiIanni, who was mayor at the time of the Pearl event. "People were fearful. You could cut the tension in the city with a knife." Hamilton, a city of half a million, includes 15,000 Muslims, about 5,000 Jews and a number of Hindus.

In an effort to dampen emotions, city officials arranged meetings of ethnic and religious leaders, which over time grew into the Strengthening Hamilton's Community Initiative (SHCI). The goals were simple -- to prevent the destruction of property and to deal with racism and religious and ethnic tensions.

By the summer of 2004, Javid Mirza, a member of the initiative who was then president of the Hamilton Muslim Association, had a strained relationship with Lorne Finkelstein, a prominent cardiologist and one of the Hamilton Jewish Federation's representatives on the initiative.

Mr. Mirza, a Pakistani-Canadian who imports sporting goods for Wal-Mart, was trying to raise money to bring a 9-year-old Afghan child to Canada for urgent heart surgery.

Dr. Finkelstein read about the boy in the Hamilton newspaper, called Mr. Mirza and volunteered his medical and media contacts from an earlier campaign on Canadian health care issues. Together, the two men worked through the bureaucratic obstacles and got the child to Canada, where the life-saving surgery was performed.

"The national headlines were about Jews and Muslims of Hamilton working together," Dr. Finkelstein recalls. "This brought a tremendous amount of appreciation to the Jewish community, and it was the first real breakthrough in Hamilton Jewish-Muslim relations. This was the beginning ... of Javid's and my relationship."

But more obstacles lay ahead. In the summer of 2005, Hamilton's police chief and 30 other Canadian police officials went to Israel to attend a summit on terrorism and security, infuriating the city's Muslims, who said the summit was the occasion of anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian propaganda.

City leaders called a conference to air the issue, but the meeting quickly degenerated into a shouting match, with local Muslims spouting anti-Semitic invective and offended Jews responding angrily.

"Ali Cheaib, who I knew from the anti-racism committee, and I looked across the room at each other, and we just shook our heads," Dr. Finkelstein says. "It was ugly. We both knew this should never be allowed to happen again."

'All Canadians'
Dr. Finkelstein called a meeting at his office the next day, inviting Mr. Cheaib, Gerry Fisher of the Hamilton Jewish Federation, Mr. Mirza and Hussein Hamdani, a charismatic Muslim youth leader. Over the course of several months, the men formed the Hamilton Arab, Muslim and Jewish Dialogue Committee, which sponsored the Hamilton Place event last month.

They agreed that they would not try to change one another's opinions on Middle East politics, but would focus on local issues, and that no matter what the topic the discussion would be respectful and civil.

"The Middle East has nothing to do with what we are doing here," Dr. Finkelstein says. "We are all Canadians. We may have different opinions of what is going on in Israel, Gaza or Lebanon or Iraq. But we are not trying to change anyone's mind on the Middle East. We all left somewhere else to come here, and we should not bring the old hatreds and resentments to Hamilton. We have to make sure that what happens over there does not filter back to our community here."

Particularly disturbing, at the police forum, was the sight of the loudest, most extreme participants mugging for the cameras and reporters.

"It was embarrassing," Dr. Finkelstein says. "These people, some of whom did not even come from Hamilton, did not represent our communities. The media was being used."

Afterward, they tried to identify community spokesmen they regarded as responsible, and gave the names to local reporters. Most agree that this has softened the tone and reduced the volume of the rhetoric.

"I'd say we have become more thoughtful and sophisticated in understanding how international stories will play out in our community," says Dana Robbins, editor in chief of the Hamilton Spectator, which co-sponsored the Hamilton Place debate and donated thousands of dollars in advertising to promote it.

"But let me turn this around. The respective communities have spent a huge amount of energy in putting up leadership [to serve as spokesmen]. They decided that they couldn't let our community be defined by people holding onto old habits and prejudices."

Silencing the fringe
Even so, it seems that every month produces an overseas event that threatens to percolate into a local crisis, forcing the community dialogue group to deal with resentment over the Danish cartoons ridiculing the prophet Mohammed and the subsequent attempt to silence the newspapers, or Pope Benedict XVI's reference to historical assertions that Islam was propagated by the sword.

When two Muslim students at Hamilton's McMaster University were among 17 Canadians arrested for plotting to blow up Canadian government buildings last June, the local Muslim community was stunned by the revelations of the plot and disappointed that Muslims were called on to defend their religion.

Says Mr. Mirza: "If someone commits a crime, then arrest them. But why call them Muslims, as if all Muslims are terrorists? No one calls Timothy McVeigh the Christian Oklahoma City bomber, as if Christianity is a religion of terrorism."

In August, Hamilton's Muslim community held a rally to protest Israel's border war with Lebanon. Some of the dialogue members saw that the list of speakers included extremists and asked editors and reporters to avoid the event. As a result, it went uncovered, in effect silencing the fringe at the risk of giving life to rumors.

"What happens if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it?" asks Dr. Finkelstein. "When the event was not covered, it denied the hatemongers the attention they wanted."

Because Daniel Pearl was an accomplished violinist, the Pearl Foundation established by his father uses music to create bridges. At the Hamilton Place event, a choir of Muslim, Jewish and Christian children sang songs of peace, at times a little off-key.

Mr. Cheaib says the choir was the best thing to come from the event. Not only did the children get to know each other, but their parents -- Jews in yarmulkes and Muslim women wearing the hijab -- waited together through the practices. The parents started talking, not about Middle East politics, but their children's school grades, soccer, ice hockey and their hopes for their children.

"There were Muslims who had never spoken to a Jew before, and Jews who had never spoken to a Muslim," says Mr. Cheaib, who encouraged Muslim parents to allow their children to participate.

"The parents have been quite eager," says Laura Wolfson, the choir director. "The choir was created for this event, but many of the parents have asked me to continue. They see it as a good thing. As a social group, it is very diverse."

Breaking the fast
Not everyone has been won over, and many declined to attend the Hamilton Place event. Some Muslims stayed away because days before, Israeli artillery had missed its target and killed 17 persons, most of them women and children in the Gaza Strip. Some Jews petitioned the Hamilton Jewish Federation to end the dialogue, arguing that some local Muslim leaders support calls for the eradication of Israel.

"I believe in dialogue, but this is a monologue, a one-way street," says Lawrence Hart, a doctor who sits on the Hamilton Jewish Federation board. "It is time to rethink what we are doing and maybe find new partners."

But the dialogue is likely to continue. A few months ago, the five members of the Hamilton Dialogue each invited half a dozen executive members from their respective organizations to an informal dinner, for the purpose of establishing another dialogue group -- this time made up of the most senior community directors.

It is still in the early stages, but it was the first time several of them had met, and the first time some of the Jews and some of the Muslims had met a person of the other faith.

In early November, at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Jewish and Muslim students at McMaster University broke the fast together at an Eid dinner and Jewish community leaders were guests of honor at the Hamilton mosque.

"This will go on," Dr. Finkelstein says. "There is no alternative. As Yitzhak Rabin said when he shook hands with Yassar Arafat, you make peace with your enemies, not your friends. Through this, I've become friends with Ali, Javid, Hussein.

"We don't agree on many things. We don't try. There will be issues. But at least now we know who to call when something happens. That is better than five years ago."

"The challenges are still there," agrees Mr. DiIanni, "but now we have a vehicle with which to deal with them."

• Amy Baskerville and John Haydon contributed to this report.