2nd Open Letter to Boulder City Council on Upcoming Muslim Declaration

Dear Mayor and City Council members. 

Reading the Declaration (below, Ed.) left me aghast and with the sick feeling that this Council simply doesn’t want to ‘get it’ about the agenda, intentions, political motivations and more that underpin this Declaration brought by Council member Adams. Whether it’s ceasefire, investment policy or what should be a straightforward condemnation of Islamophobia, it’s always much more about something else. Nothing could be more revealing of that than the 5th Whereas clause. Have any of you questioned what that’s about? Do you think it’s about Boulder taking the lead in rebranding Antisemitism because the word is a misappropriation? (Adams is now moving you from the non-serious world where antiZionism is not antisemitism, to the cartoonish world where “antisemitism” is not antisemitism.)  Why does so much of this Declaration play off the Jewish experience? And can you even imagine that your Declaration against Antisemitism would have included statements about the Muslim experience and Judaism without consultation with knowledgeable people in the Jewish community? Instead, the Council is being asked to sign-off on a misappropriation of another kind. 

Islamophobia is born of ignorance and hatred. It must be combated in Boulder and in all places. It’s a tragedy that what could and should have been a valuable and universally supportable Declaration is allowed by the Mayor and this Council to be so much subverted by member Adams. I am immensely grateful to Rachel Amaru and Elise Mordos for so quickly, accurately and eloquently lifting up the problems with this fraught Declaration. It was not a simple thing to fit heartbreak into a case. 

Bruce Shaffer
Boulder, Colorado
-and-
Jerusalem, Israel

(See also Rachel Amaru’s letter here.)