Recently a prominent American rabbi was invited to address the topic of Islamophobia at a European conference on interreligious tolerance. In an op-ed summarizing the speech he delivered he began by asking: “[W]hat can an Orthodox Jewish leader be expected to say about how to better combat anti-Muslim hatred?” And his answer? He stood at the conference podium “as an Orthodox rabbi because of the horrendous 2 000-year history of anti-Semitism ... I feel a profound moral obligation to prevent anything like that from happening to any other people.”

Long as the odds are that I’d be asked to address a conference of this sort the likelihood I’d be invited back are even slimmer. That’s because my answer to the rabbi’s opening query would be far different from his. There are to my mind more pressing lessons to be derived from the Jewish People’s blood-drenched historical experience than the need to combat Islamophobia. This is particularly so at a time when that sad history’s latest chapter is all about the mortal threats to our people emanating from several corners of the Muslim world.

As for strategies to counter anti-Muslim sentiment here are three: First refuse to reflexively label principled opposition to things like the Ground Zero mosque as anti-Islamic in nature. Recognize instead that decent reasonable people might well feel deeply offended by the situating of a mosque at that emotionally freighted site and that surveys in the Muslim world itself have found a majority of respondents viewing the contemplated project as unwise. This way when actual offenses are indeed committed against Muslims it’s less likely they’ll be whitewashed by non-Muslims who’ve heard the cry of “Wolf!” once too often.

Next resist the oft-repeated media narrative that America is in the throes of an anti-Muslim frenzy. Concede simple truths like these: year after year FBI statistics show acts of bias against Jewish targets in this country dwarfing those directed against Muslim individuals and institutions. From President Bush’s conciliatory visit to a mosque mere days after 9/11 and onward anti-Muslim animus has been remarkably negligible contrary to what any student of history might have expected to unfold following that truly unprecedented cataclysm.

Finally it is unhelpful to say the least for those seeking to portray anti-Muslim bias as a serious problem to say as the rabbi did in his European talk that “lost in this rhetoric [of a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West]is the collective voice of the millions of Muslims in the United States and across the world who are disgusted and disturbed by the violence being inflicted in the name of their god and religious beliefs.” It’s unhelpful because that “collective voice” has indeed been lost but not because it has been drowned out by others but because it has not been forcefully or oftentimes even audibly raised in the first place. And the inquiring minds of non-Muslims who are genuinely open to interreligious tolerance provided it is reciprocal want to know what’s behind that deafening silence.