The day after President-elect Donald Trump appointed a man accused of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia as his chief strategist, two of the nation’s largest Jewish and Muslim advocacy groups formed an unprecedented partnership to fight bigotry.

The American Jewish Committee and the Islamic Society of North America Monday (Nov. 14) launched the new national group: The Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council. Though Jewish and Muslim groups have cooperated before, the size and influence of these two particular groups — and the prominence of the people who have joined the council — marks a milestone in Jewish-Muslim relations.

“Our council is coming at the right time,” said Eftakhar Alam, senior coordinator at ISNA’s Office of Interfaith and Community Alliances. “We have to show the administration that as American Muslims and Jews — people of the faiths of Abraham — we are uniting to help the administration navigate in the proper constitutional manner, to uphold freedom of religion and constitutional rights for all American citizens.”

The idea for the council was hatched months before last week’s election, when pollsters and much of the country were convinced that Trump would lose. But even had Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won, said Alam and others, the vitriol of the election calls for such a coming together of Muslims and Jews. Separately, Jewish and Muslim groups have expressed outrage over Trump’s appointment Sunday of Stephen K. Bannon as his chief strategist and senior counselor. Bannon edited Breitbart News, a right-wing website popular among those who embrace alt-right views, and who fan hostility toward Muslims, Jews, immigrants and other minorities.

Continue reading at: Religious News Service (RNS)