by Walter Ruby
Special to the NJJN

May 08, 2008

As a Pakistani-born Muslim living in largely white Bernards Township, Ali Chaudry may have seemed an unlikely candidate for mayor. Yet his tireless work on the school board and in helping build a community center for the Somerset County township not only made the trained economist a likely candidate for the five-member Township Committee in 2001, but its probable leader.

And then came Sept. 11.

“At that point, I was afraid that a lot of people would decide to vote against me in the November election because of my being a Muslim,” Chaudry recalled recently.

Yet on Election Day, Chaudry was elected to the Township Committee with 59 percent of the vote, and went on to serve two terms as mayor.

It is Chaudry’s ability to defy expectations, his advocacy for a moderate brand of Islam, and his willingness to openly criticize Islamic militants that has brought him to the attention of Jewish and Christian leaders who seek dialogue with Muslim leaders but often complain that “there is no one to talk to.”

“At a time when a small minority of extremists has hijacked the name of Islam, he is working hard to show that the majority of Muslims reject those teachings,” said Rabbi Donald Rossoff, religious leader of Temple B’nai Or in Morristown.

Chaudry has spoken at Rossoff’s synagogue more than once, and helped arrange a visit by a temple youth group to the Boonton Islamic Center.

“I consider Ali Chaudry to be my main Muslim,” said Rossoff.

Allyson Gall, New Jersey area director of the American Jewish Committee, also offered praise for Chaudry.

“The AJC is ready to work with any Muslim leader who denounces terrorism against all people — including Israelis — and acknowledges Israel’s right to exist,” said Gall. “We have come to the conclusion that Ali Chaudry, unlike some other Muslim leaders in New Jersey, clearly meets that bottom line.”

Just last month, Rabbi David Saltzman of Congregation Beth Torah of Florham Park invited Chaudry to address an interfaith Yom Hashoa gathering April 30 at the Presbyterian Church of Madison.

Saltzman said he first became aware of Chaudry after hearing him speak at an interfaith gathering in Livingston several days after Sept. 11.

“His message that night was very important for the whole community to hear, and he continues to encourage people of all faiths who believe in peace and reconciliation,” Saltzman said.

“Victims of hate”

Speaking at the Yom Hashoa event before an audience of about 40 Christians and Jews, Chaudry quoted freely from the Koran while linking the themes of Holocaust remembrance with a heartfelt embrace of tolerance and diversity and condemnation of those Muslims who deny the Holocaust and insist that their cramped version of Islam is the only true path to God.

The 66-year-old Chaudry, a dapper-looking, mushtachioed figure in a blue suit and red tie, with an American flag pin on his lapel, opened with a warm salaam aleikum and a koranic prayer.

He paid solemn tribute to “the memories of millions of innocent victims of hate” killed in the Holocaust.

“It is inconceivable that in my own community there are people who would deny the existence of such a horrible event as the Holocaust,” he said. He cited a koranic verse that calls on Muslims not to “allow your hatred of a people to move you to a position that is unjust.”

Chaudry added that it is important for all human beings to “strive with all our commitment to prevent this ever happening again to any people. We are again reminded of the horrible crimes being committed in Darfur and the senseless loss of life in Israel and Palestine.”

Another chapter in the Koran, Chaudry said, “reminds us that there are multiple paths to God, so there is no justification for hating someone simply because he believes something different than you.” Chaudry said that those Muslims “who claim they are the only ones who have the exclusive truth are not speaking according to the (true) tenets of their faith.”

Chaudry criticized the tepid response by the international community to the ongoing genocide in Darfur, “especially from Muslim countries.” He urged international bodies like the Organization of the Islamic Conference “to stand up to the Sudanese government.”

“As human beings, we have the obligation to defend the right of all peoples to exist in peace,” he concluded. “May God give us the wisdom and courage to do what is just.”

After Chaudry’s presentation, both Christians and Jews in the audience said they were moved by his remarks.

“I was amazed that the words he shared from the Koran so resembled words from the Scriptures,” said Rev. Chip Sanders, pastoral associate at the Madison Presbyterian Church. “Unfortunately, there is considerable suspicion of Islam in our community, and having the opportunity to listen to a learned Muslim spokesman helps to overcome misunderstanding.”

Beth Torah member Genie Weisz also heard an echo of her own tradition in his remarks.

“This is the first time I’d ever heard anyone read from the Koran and I was surprised how closely the words and ideas resemble the Torah,” Weisz said. “I was moved and grateful to hear a representative of Islam confirm that the Holocaust happened and to speak out against it and against injustices happening today.”

Dennis Fruchter of Florham Park, also a Beth Torah member, said that he was left wondering whether Chaudry or the fundamentalist extremists represent the real face of Islam.

“The truth is that I don’t know enough about Islam to make that judgment,” Fruchter said. “But after hearing him, I am now aware that there are other perspectives within Islam than those of the militants and that there are Muslims ready to affirm that there are other paths to God than their own.”

The truth about Islam

Born to a family of tenant farmers in 1942, Chaudry received a gold medal as the best student in his district, and, thanks to a scholarship, was able to study at University of the Punjab in Lahore, Pakistan, and later at the London School of Economics. Graduating with a degree in economics, he came to New York in 1968 and took a job with AT&T; he eventually became chief financial officer of the public relations department.

Soon after his arrival, he met his future wife, Victoria, who was born in Italy and immigrated to the United States as a child. In 1977, the couple moved to Basking Ridge, where they raised three children.

Chaudry’s years living in America have convinced him that there is no contradiction between being a Muslim and being an American.

“It is critically important to inform our fellow Americans of the truth about Islam,” said Chaudry, interviewed at the Community Soup Kitchen of Morristown, which he visits every two months with fellow members of a volunteer group known as Muslims Against Hunger.

“For example, how many non-Muslims know about the moral imperative in Islam to feed the hungry? When I was growing up in Pakistan, my grandfather would often bring home unknown guests for the evening meal. My mother had no education at all, but she knew of the injunction to feed the wayfarer and the poor.”

After becoming involved in volunteer activities at his children’s school, Chaudry ran for the Bernards Township School Board, first winning election to the body in 1990 and serving for six years. During that time, Chaudry took the side of the township’s small but growing Jewish community in its ultimately successful battle to have Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur declared official school holidays.

During the late 1990s, Chaudry helped fulfill the long-deferred dream of many in Bernards Township for a community center. He led a successful fund-raising campaign to renovate a house for that purpose, and organized people in the community to do much of the construction and rehab work on a volunteer basis. The Bernards Township Committee thanked him by agreeing to allow local Muslims to hold their Friday prayer service at the facility.

Soon after, he became the first Pakistani-born mayor in U.S. history.

“Certainly, there are people in this community who wouldn’t vote for me as a Muslim, but they are obviously a minority,” he said. “Most people supported me because I am widely seen as someone who cares deeply about and works hard on behalf of the entire community.”

Immediately after 9/11, Chaudry wrote an article in the Bernardsville News denouncing the suicide bombers and Al Qaida under the title “We Are All Under Attack.” He then convened a meeting of prominent NJ Muslim leaders to help fashion a response.

Working together with Robert Dickson Crane, a onetime U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates who converted to Islam, Chaudry set up and incorporated the Center for the Understanding of Islam. Its goal is propagating “an enlightened understanding of Islam for ourselves and others.” The center disseminates what Chaudry calls “mainstream moderate Muslim thinking” on issues like gender equity, Islam and democracy, relationships with non-Muslims, and opposition to extremism and terrorism.

After the arrest last year of several young Muslims in southern New Jersey who allegedly conspired to bomb Fort Dix, Chaudry convened groups of Muslim leaders and educators across the state “to make sure that a hateful and distorted view of Islam is not being taught to our youth. If our community embraces a moderate and balanced view of Islam, then we can share that vision with members of other faith communities.”

Over the past two years, Chaudry has been teaching a course on Islam through the Rutgers University Department of Continuing Education. His latest project is a 600-page textbook designed for a 10-week course on Islam.

There is “a moral imperative to improve Muslim-Jewish relations in New Jersey and across America,” he said. “Unfortunately the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has impacted the thinking of people in both communities. Yet regardless of strong feelings about the conflict, Muslims and Jews need to build a coalition here in America that will fight Islamophobia and anti-Semitism and work for the betterment of our entire society. If we can accomplish that, we can change mindsets in both communities and drown out those voices that seek to pit us against each other.”

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