We dig into scriptures and religious stories (including those fromsecular humanism) to shape a narrative of faith as a bridge of cooperation rather than as a barrier of division or a bomb of destruction.
Many secular Israelis object to the exemptions from army service given to students at religious seminaries or yeshivas and the large state subsidies that their institutions receive.
But, whereas many of Abou El Fadl's contemporaries responded to such police-state tactics by embracing militant Islamism, the abuse only magnified his desire to find a community where he could speak his mind without fear of retribution from either secular or religious authorities.