I recently took a DNA test through ancestry.com and I learned that I was not 100% Armenian but rather 36% European Jewish and 61% Turkish/Persian/Caucuses in origin. My DNA crossed three great people – the Jews, Christians and Muslims providing unique perspectives. Inspired I ordered the PBS Heritage Series, Civilization and the Jews.
What I learned in part was that with the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Arab World, Jew and Muslim came together in peace and harmony devoted to art and learning.
Nowhere was this balance greater than in southern Spain under Moorish rule. Here Muslim and Jewish peoples worked together even returning Western Civilization to European Christians then in the throes of the Dark Ages.
A focal point for this Moorish civilization of tolerance was at the Alhambra palace complex in Granada. It is at this location that I would like to suggest that Jewish and Muslim people put aside their differences and recall their tolerant heritage and come together in a summit dedicated to peace and understanding.
The beauty of this setting and its enlightened history will release the dove of peace and restore both peoples to their once peaceful existence together working again as friends for the benefit of humanity.