Muslim Leaders Choose the Long Walk: Dialogue, Not Distance
Giorgia Valente takes readers inside an unusual day in Israel: a Sharaka-organized visit by Muslim faith leaders who chose handshakes and hard conversations over hashtags. In her reporting, Valente follows the delegation as it listens to survivors, walks memorial grounds, and makes the case that interfaith work belongs in person, not just online. The trip also carried a pointed message. Sheikh Musa Drammeh, a New York community leader, says the idea crystallized after Zohran Mamdani refused to commit to visiting Israel if elected. To Drammeh, letting that pass would normalize hostility to Israel; he and his wife answered with an “Unbreakable Bond” journey meant to show public solidarity instead of silence.
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From Dallas, Imam Nuriddin Shakir Mustafaa brings decades of interfaith practice—and a marriage across faiths—as living proof that coexistence is more than a slogan. In the Bronx, educator Shireena Drammeh teaches students to reject zero-sum thinking; in Israel, her message is the same: choose dignity, peace, and responsibility. On the Israeli side, Sharaka’s Alyssa Annis describes a rare feeling since October 7—hope—rooted in the belief that the loudest anti-normalization voices are not the only ones.
The visit ends on a human beat: Nova survivor Niv Reuveni recounts how a Bedouin Muslim, Yusuf Ziadna, hid and protected him and his friends at great personal risk. It’s a story that cuts against the “Muslims versus Jews” narrative and lands with quiet force. The program, Valente notes, was conducted with assistance from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. For the full reporting—and more voices from the road—read Valente’s article and view the video report.
