As religious leaders in San Diego and Imperial counties, we have witnessed the beauty and depth of the Jewish and Muslim communities and the faith that sustains them. In our Christian faith, we profess the unity of the human family created by God, equal in dignity. We are grateful for the many years of peaceful interfaith cooperation that leaders of all faiths have worked hard to foster in the San Diego area. Now, however, conflict in the Holy Land threatens that deep understanding among people of faith here at home. Islamophobia and anti-Semitism are completely incompatible with what it means to be a follower of Christ or what it means to be an American.
We recognize and share the profound sadness of the Jewish and Muslim people at the escalating cycle of violence that is consuming the Holy Land. Indeed, we believe that God weeps with us and with all who are suffering. Hamas’s massacre of more than 1,300 Israelis on October 7 shocks our most fundamental sense of humanity and moral entitlement. Israel’s escalating war on Gaza has cost more than 10,000 lives, and there is no sign of the destruction ceasing. We fear that a new generation of hatred is being born that will paralyze any path toward a just and lasting peace.
The hatreds of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, so deeply rooted in our history and so cruel in their virulence and venom, have once again been awakened in our land. A six-year-old Muslim boy was murdered in Chicago for his faith. An elderly Jewish man was killed at a protest in Thousand Oaks. Jewish students are harassed and threatened on campuses, and every Jewish family knows firsthand a deep fear of discrimination and violence that echoes the horrors of the past. Increasingly, Muslims on campuses and in society at large are indiscriminately labeled as terrorists within American society. Even here in San Diego County, these hatreds are present and growing with hateful actions against Jewish and Muslim places of worship and anti-Semitic and Islamophobic actions in schools. Children who see such acts of hate may grow up without a sense of the religious and American commitment to human dignity and respect due to all people.
Here in the San Diego area, we call upon all people of faith to join us and our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters in standing against hate, comforting those who are suffering, protecting and supporting the innocent, listening to each other’s experiences, praying for an end to violence in the Middle East, and working for a just and lasting peace in the land that all three of our faith traditions hold so dear.
In Faith,
Most Reverend Susan Brown Snook, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego
Robert Cardinal McElroy, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of San Diego
Bishop David Nagler, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America